More camping than hiking....

[kylemorgan]

Alright, looking for suggestions. Just spent the last week climbing camelback and trudging up beaver creek (man that was cold). Decided to take a long weekend for my birthday and I'm looking for something with maybe a lake/river, mild hike in, maybe some day hikes from a base camp. Any suggestions?

[scorpion scus]

how about sheeps bridge. access to the matazal wilderness trails and has a nice beach right on a bend of the verde river. 2 ways to get there both require a high clearance truck.1, take 7 springs rd for 30 miles or so until you come to a t.bear right for 12 miles and your there. the rd down to the beach is 4 wheel dr for a very short distance and once on the beach the sand is deep been a couple of years since i been down there but there is a tendeancy for morons to trash the area. otherwise its a great place w/ lots of things to do [rockhounding hiking and peace and quiet ] the other way there is to go up 17 to bloody basin rd and follow it for about 30 mi. to the bridge. i prefer the first way better. this is a very remote area so go prepared.

[dreams_are_work]

In response to kylemorgan's reply:

I've been looking for the same thing. I read another post that mentioned Bluff Springs, Marsh Valley-Charlebois (spelling?) , and LaBarge Springs. All three looked interesting, not sure about water/camping combo, but the descriptions looked good enough for me to add them to my wish list.

[kylemorgan]

The long weekend passed without a hike in site. It turns out my wife got the time off too and was none too interested in sleeping out in the cold.

So I went ahead and did the next best thing. I drove up to the Salt River (North/East of Mesa) and spent Monday fishing for trout (for some reason, I've spent a combined 8 hours up to my knees in creeks and rivers over the last week. Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment.). I then spent Monday afternoon cooking/eating trout.

Thanks for the suggestions, though.