Trans-supes hike early January

[rally_toad]

Well the time is fastly approaching and I wanted to get this thread up. 4 months to work up the details, route, firm dates, and water details.
First what dates work for everyone? I will be back to school on January 20 so it would need to be before then. I will need to ask for time off work within the next month or two to get it off work since that of year time is kinda hectic.

Next What route sounds interesting? of course there is the shuttle possibility and hiking east to west, but I was also looking at the possibility of a super loop starting at Peralta going to Reavis and looping back. Also I heard talk of possible routes through canyons. Im sure there are tons of super loop possibilities.

Whats sounds good on mileage? 35-50 if on trail maybe, probably less if we were doing routes off trail?

[te_wa]

i'll have all the eastern trails done far before January so im up for some canyon trips. fish creek loop is something I looked at lately.

[hikeaz]

igallery/image.php?pic_id=3560

[rally_toad]

What is the Fish Creek Loop route? I am assuming it is not the one describe in Hiker's Guide to the Wilderness since that is a 10.1 mile day hike. Possibly the Upper Fish Creek loop Described in Hiking Arizona's Superstition and Mazatzal Country?
There were a few things that I would like to see out in the Supes that I havent yet, including Reavis Ranch, Circlestone and Roger's Canyon dwellings.
The loop route I thought might be interesting was Coffe Flat trail all the way to FS172A up to Rogers trough(possibly cache water and supplies at Rogers trough th??) and take Reavis trail to Reavis Ranch, then loop back via Frog Tanks trail to Rogers canyon and the JF Trail to Hoolie Bacon and back to Peralta from there.

[te_wa]

fish creek might be too wet for January. Cold feet dont feel good.

what about a zig-zag of sorts, starting at the Spencer Spring trailhead and go up to W. Pinto trail, then over to Paradise trail, Haunted canyon to Tony Ranch for the night- then backtrack a short distance to Bull Basin trail, over to Rock Creek trail and finish where we started. its not very long, but can be easily done as an overnight.

[rally_toad]

For the january one I would prefer something a bit longer, 2-4 nights maybe.
If that Spencer Spring route is just an overnighter why wait till January?
We could do the Coffee Flat/Reavis/Frog tanks/JF loop in January and do Spencer Spring zig zag maybe on a weekend in October or November.
Whats the mileage on Spencer Spring? Would we really have unavoidable wading in Fish Creek in January?? Seems like we could find ways to keep dry if we wanted to? But I've never been over in Fish Creek so I dont know about that for sure, guess it depends on the weather right before the trip.

[te_wa]

january has slightly high rainfall averages for winter, over a typically dry Oct and Nov.
we can watch the weather and plan accordingly. the only thing, the Fish creek loop is only a dozen or so miles. It involves parking at the 88 bridge, then back on the JF trail, with a hop into the creekbed just north of the Tortilla Ranch rd. (213 is it?)
if you look at the beartooth map you can see the creek/canyon heading NW at about 30' 50"-111' 18" 25 (or, about 1/2 way along the Tortilla rd 213) Over night would be spent at Angel Basin. It gets c-c-cold there in January (for the central Supes, that is.)

[SuperstitionGuy]

Backpacking Fish Creek from the bridge to Angel Basin can be done in January without getting your feet wet. That is of course unless there is an inordinate amount of rain. Used to take older boy scouts up Fish Creek to Angel Basin from the Tortilla ranch during Christmas breaks. We never had a problem with to much water in the canyon. In fact one winter we just walked on the ice (what little there was). Excellent campsite about a half mile east of the canyons turn to the nw with a nice big cave as well that you can spend the night in, if the weather gets really bad. I will get it's gps coordinates for you this fall so all future Fish Creek hikers/backpackers can find it.

[te_wa]

SUpeS GuY
you da man!

[rally_toad]

That fish creek loop sounds like a good one. Could we camp 2 nights at Angel Basin, then the 2nd day make a day trip to Reavis, without all our heavy stuff, I would hate to get that close to Reavis Ranch and not head over there since I havent been yet. Then 3rd day hike out on the JF trail.

[te_wa]

uh, take frog tanks to reavis and camp on night 1
it would be a longer day, then come down rogers trough to the car. add about 10 miles and 1 day to the trip.
you get to hike for 3 days, and see Reavis.
unfortunatley, reavis is not too impressive, and the apple season is in october of next year
bring a football

[JoelHazelton]

I will certainly be in for any/all of these proposed trips.

[rally_toad]

We could do all three routes by January easily especially since two of them are overnighters, we could plan to do those on two weekends, then save the longer one for a few days in early January. Im gonna find out the mileage of these routes.

[rally_toad]

For the Reavis Ranch superloop from Peralta it is around 48 miles

For the spencer spring route I estimated around 22.

Give or take a few miles on the Spencer Spring route as I was estimating. And plus/minus a mile or two on the Reavis Super loop.
I didnt bother trying to figure out the Fish creek loop mileage, because so much of it is off trail, and my map only lists on trail mileages.

[rally_toad]

Just wanted to bump this up and say that the dates I put down for this are January 8-11. That is negotiable. As is the route, but the one I am most interested in doing is the Reavis Super loop from Peralta.

Any takers?

[big_load]

Too late for me. Just before or just after Christmas would work. Or before Thanksgiving.

[azdesertfather]

I might be up for it if it's January, as long as there is someone with me that doesn't go at rally_toad's speed! (That young guy is a rabbit, not a toad!!) I'd love to do it...tortoise hiker, you in?

[wallyfrack]

It's too early for me to know for sure but it's possible. I should at least be able to do a few days.

[te_wa]

im not sure about those dates, my wife has from before xmas to Jan 5th off work, that would be best time frame. we shall see what happens!

[rally_toad]

I might be up for it if it's January, as long as there is someone with me that doesn't go at rally_toad's speed! (That young guy is a rabbit, not a toad!!) I'd love to do it...tortoise hiker, you in?

I wont be rushing on this one. I did rush when we did Humphrey's a little, due to the fact that I was a little stressed about starting school. But we're gonna be out there for 4 days so theres no point in rushing.

im not sure about those dates, my wife has from before xmas to Jan 5th off work, that would be best time frame. we shall see what happens!

How would everyone feel about starting on New Years day? going Jan 1-4? or if theres any problems with startin on New years day we could go Jan 2-5? Would more people be able to attend with those dates? What works for all you guys?