Payson area trail guide(s)

[montezumawell]

:roll: We had reason to pass through the Payson-Heber area Mon.-Wed. this week. We were caught by surprise at the lack of trails info there. We went to the USFS Payson Ranger Station and their lack of trails info was really surprising. They have a small tri-fold brochure on the Highline Trail and its derivatives. Some of the info is so out-of-date, they have had to cut up little pieces of white address labels to paste over it. They also used from 'whiteout' to cover up other areas. Real high tech. They don't have trail sheets available like virtually every other Ranger Station we have ever visited in the SW U.S. Amazing! So we went to Payson's brand new and totally awesome library. (It opened 1/15/02) and asked the reference librarian for 'The Payson Trail Guide book.' HA! She said there are no books on Payson area trails. We both find this extremely hard to believe. Like, NO WAY! Ironically, the Wednesday issue of the Payson Roundup newspaper had a nice article on trails but didn't give any phone numbers for local contacts or cite any available literature. Supposedly there about 240 miles of trails in that vicinity and the Hike Arizona crowd sure seems to know a lot about various ones of them. We looked in our 'Streamside Trails of Arizona' 1994 edition and found some information but that book is notoriously inaccurate and generally more pain in the rear than its worth. This website has info on some of the trails but it's not organized by area, just alphabet. SURELY, there has to be a Payson Hikes book or something like that. Maybe we've 'been looking for trails in all the wrong places,' to paraphrase a country western song. Hopefully, we can discuss this seemingly incredible lack of printed information here. Let's hear your thoughts.
John and Susun in Rimrock

[Snick33]

Tonto National Forest does not the most helpful group of rangers in the system. Granted funding is tight but Sitgreaves and Coconino seem to do a better job of having literature available with the limited budget they have. Arizona Hiking Trails has listed about 15 hikes in the Payson area.

http://www.arizonahikingtrails.com/Hiki ... nHikes.asp

[Nighthiker]

If you visit the ranger district office they may have a three ring binder type book called Recreation Opportunity Guides that has very basic information on outdoor activities on the forest. My last visit at the Payson and Mesa Ranger District they could not locate their copy. There is one at the front desk lobby at the Tonto forest supervisors office in Phoenix (2324 E. McDowell Road 602-225-5200). The information is not usually current.

Another publication is volume 3 (of 4) Trails of Eastern Arizona that is a publication of Arizona State Parks (602-542-4174) and is quite similar in layout to Streamside Trails.

I would also suggest in obtaining a copy of the forest service visitors map and review the area you may be interested in.

Some suggested hikes around the Payson area (Fossil Springs, west of Pine), Pine Canyon (Pine), Pieper Hatchery Springs (the hatchery is long gone, this is located near Washington Park, NNE of Payson.

You can also explore the many forest roads in the area, may not actually be a designated hiking trail but they are just as interesting.

Good Luck

[Mike]

There are quite a few guidebooks with decent coverage of the Payson area. Check any of these.

'The Hiker's Guide to Arizona' - Aitchison/Grubbs
'Hiking Northern Arizona' - Grubbs
'Hiking Arizona I' - Kiefer
'Hiking Central Arizona' - Kiefer

[joebartels]

Welp, when you think of Payson. The first thing that comes to mind is probably the rim stretching out over to Forest Lakes. As this isn't in a Wilderness you're right it isn't covered very well for hiking.

The Mazatzal Wilderness is really the closest Wilderness even though it may not seem like it. Ten miles southwest of Payson...
http://www.hikearizona.com/haz/wilderne ... php?WID=29
Not many of the hikes are covered on site cause they're long backpacking trips which isn't as popular as day hiking. There are a couple fair books on the Mazatzals. Like I said, fair, the Falcon Guide has 20 listed in their 'Superstition & Mazatzal Country'. Just be careful as some of Grubb's trips are severly underated in difficulty (routefinding!) Warren & Dollar's wilderness books have limited info at best.

Hellsgate Wilderness is a cool area but your right it isn't covered here much...
http://www.hikearizona.com/haz/wilderne ... php?WID=21
The eastern end offers more hiking options. The best reference here is as Nighthiker mentioned 'volume 3 (of 4) Trails of Eastern Arizona'. The main thing that bites about this series is you need a binder to hold the pages. However, I believe they're on-line! or at least used to be until the government pull back.

Some of the better 'forest' trails are much closer to Heber and your right again there's little in print.

I do believe there's over 20 finished trails in the Payson Region on site.
http://www.hikearizona.com/trails/HAZMAPPAYSON.php
Again you're right, they aren't pinpointed by location at all and it's a wide ol' region! I have several ideas in mind to integrate a point, click and enlarge type of map for the regions... but that's getting a bit out of my free time =) you know... someday!

Now what you're looking for is maybe a book like the Mangum's have dissected Sedona or as Carlson has dissected the Superstition Wilderness. Although you hear of mountain biking trips to Sedona on Wheel of Fortune and such... Payson is the real ticket for mountain biking. Jeffrey L Stevenson has the Payson area dissected in his 'Rim Country Mountain Biking'. I realize your not looking to mountain bike but you will get a good feel for the area and there's some good history in there too! I wouldn't recommend buying the book since the majority of trips are too long for dayhiking but definitely worth a look at the library or bookstore. Odd as it may seem, the mountain bikers around Payson tend to be more hiker friendly than Sedona.

Sum it up, the area could use a good book! I think you guys should thoroughly explore the area for five years and report back... =)

Hope I get complimentary copy of your first book!!!

[Sande J]

I agree with Joe! John and Susan, you guys would be perfect to do this book! I am still impressed with the way John whipped out his camp stove atop AB Young and made lunch that made the rest of ours look boring..the king of trail Ramen! By the way, if you need a personal trainer who also has a talent for writing, I am for hire.
I always enjoy reading how un-informed some of the sources are and how well informed we are here at HAZ..
Sande J

[montezumawell]

THANKS! for the kind comments. You are all WAY TOO kind! THANKS! especially to Snick 33, Nighthiker, Mike, Joe and Sande J. Your comments are what brings this 'list' alive!!!!

Well, however, in spite of your kind comments, we aren't the people to write a Payson Trail guide. Nope, YOU are!!!! Okie, dokie, here's how it could work. I composed this 'offline' so it's a tad bit long. Hopefully, you will read it all the way through and reply with your wonderful wisdom that Susun and I appreciate so much.
---------
Here's a Brand New Idea: A HikeArizona.Com Trails E-Guide.

It would be in Adobe PDF format--always updated & most TOTALLY current!

People who wanted it would pay a small fee online, like $3 -$5 to get it downloaded to their home computer. (Lower cost for straight text, higher for maps and pictures.) Proceeds would benefit the Payson Library AND Joe's expenses for this Most Totally Awesome hiking website.

Instead of some single 'trail guru' telling you where and 'how' to go, this trail guide would be an always-ongoing community project stemming from the Great Souls who frequent and contribute to making HikeArizona.Com the greatest such website!!! EVERYONE gets to be an author AND publisher. WAY COOL! It's basically a once-in-a-lifetime possibility/opportunity!

It would quickly and easily become 'THE' hiking guide to the Payson area. No one would DARE dream of putting out a print version because of: a) US copyright laws, b) raw capital investment, and c) respect for YOU!: the members of Hike Arizona.Com.

If you have any inkling whatsoever as to what a wonderful e-guide is capable in Adobe PDF format, you will immediately see this idea's potential. If not, we can 'help' you.

Let's put this as kindly as possible: The USDA Forest Service ain't gonna print no relevant trail guide to the Payson area any day soon. Likewise 'Trail Gods' like Bruce Grubbs, et al, ain't gonna to see the wisdom of a 'Payson Trail Guide' any day soon, either. Here is a chance for all the 'regulars' on this website to have some 'serious fun.' Think about it!!!

We are not going to go into a whole lot more detail on this idea until we have reviewed the followup comments to this 'post.'
If you think this is an idea worthy of further exploration and discussion, then let us begin some serious dialog as to how we can make it happen. This is what an 'internet community' is all about!

Happy Trails, John and Susun in Rimrock

[montezumawell]

Ok, we're hoping to generate some more discussion on this topic. It's been a week since the last post. Here's another idea. Someone could simply print out the existing hikearizona.com trail descriptions and put them in sheet protectors in a ring binder and give it to the Payson Library Reference desk. People could make copies of whatever trail interested them. Periodically, public-service-minded hikearizona.com members could 'refresh' the ring binder. We'd probably do this but we don't have a printer (no kidding) so that's out of the question. Anyway, it's pretty amazing to go to the reference desk there in Payson and come up empty-handed when asking about local trails. I doubt the USFS would house such a ring binder since it wouldn't have the 'Good Smokey Seal of Approval' but, you never know, it might be worth an inquiry. Hope this idea sparks some more posts.

J&S in RR