3 Days in the Superstitions

[kiki]

I'm planning to hike the Red Tanks Super Loop - Peralta TH, AZ this coming weekend but am concerned about the availability (or lack thereof) of water since we haven't seen decent rain since August. Has anyone been out to Dripping Springs or LaBarge Spring #2 lately? The most recent reports are from early this year... Will default to Charlebois if needed, but I was itching for something new!

[desertadapted]

@kiki
Embarrassed that I don't know the difference between LaBarge and LaBarge #2. There was a lot of good water and flow in the LaBarge cistern/trough (the one about a mile from Charlebois) two weekends ago.

[joebartels]

@desertadapted

https://hikearizona.com/map.php?QX=6702
No. 2 is not as popular

[jonathanpatt]

Why not https://hikearizona.com/dexcoder.php?PID=589258 rather than LaBarge #2? Haven't been to LaBarge #2, but Brad's Water had a huge amount of water several weeks ago.

[kiki]

@jonathanpatt
Thanks! How much bushwhacking/catclaw wrangling would you say is involved to get to the pools? It looks fairly far off trail based on the map.

[rcorfman]

This was posted yesterday (11/26) on the Grand Enchantment Trail Facebook Group:

Rogers Spring - trough dry, pipe cut. Not too much further up trail 212 there's a drainage with a scoopable puddle just below the trail (33.426453, -111.172350)
Rogers Canyon - dry
Closer Spring - dry, both at crossing and downstream.
Tortilla Creek - dry
La Barge Spring #2 - dry and a difficult discouraging bushwhack up the side stream to reach the spring location on the GPS/topo. Would not recommend.
Upper La Barge Box - actually found 2 pools. One visible from the trail when above on the North slope 0.1 or 0.2 upstream of the crossing. The other pool and much better one with drop clear water was between the two crossings of the drainage, among the large boulders with cattails and cottonwoods (reliable?) around it. It was located at 33.431838, -111.302670 about due South of the ridge with the cave.
La Barge Spring - good water flowing from the pipe
Charlebois Spring - an amazing deep clean (although not very cold) pool of water naturally dammed by the root of a mature cottonwood... Awesome! From my French girlfriend (and hiking partner) the correct pronunciation is sharluh bwah
Needle Canyon - dry
East Boulder Canyon - saw a pool with significant green water from the trail - did not take any.
West Boulder Canyon - dry
First Water Creek - dry

[kiki]

@rcorfman
This is awesome...thank you for sharing!

[jonathanpatt]

@kiki

It's fairly straightforward to get to Brad's Water. From the Red Tanks Trail, go up Brad's Canyon for about a third of a mile and head roughly northeast in the direction of a small saddle. There are game trails to the actual hole dug into the ground (it's a mine adit that presumably hit groundwater and filled up with water, so you're looking for a hand dug horizontal tunnel of sorts) that's Brad's Water, which is at N33.44059° W111.28209°. There certainly is a good bit of catclaw in the last tenth of a mile or so to it, but following the game trails you can dodge much of it.

When I was there, it was a 20 minute walk each way from the trail to Brad's Water.

[Stavman]

@rcorfman


Great Info, I figured it was dry in the Sups, ill be heading out on 12/13, Good ta get a jumpstart on the water situations