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Hello there! We are looking at doing a 2 night backpack trip on the Cabin loop--we have read a lot of stuff on here about the trails, etc. including gpsjoes coordinates. Any suggestions on a starting point, which trails to include, which direction to go, campsites, etc? We plan on driving up from Phoenix early on a Saturday and leaving on Monday. Thanks for any input!

West Loop, East Loop, or Outer Loop?

I'd recommend you include the Houston Bros trail, which would exclude the "Outer Loop" option.
Campsites in lots of places, especially anywhere along Houston Bros would be enjoyable.

Bugs have been bad lately, take some bug juice.

Haven't done the west loop...gotta find a weekend to get that in someday.

Note that the east loop is shorter, at a hefty 19-20 miles, vs ... 26? for the west loop.

There are nice places to camp adjacent to all the springs, as well as each of the cabins. Note that some of the cabins may have posted camping restrictions within a certain distance of the structure. There are ample camping spots elsewhere too, but I always like the spots with the water.

The Buck Springs Cabin even has a flood control structure which makes for a deep enough hole for swimming at this time of year. But its right next to a road, and the University of Montana researchers hang out there when they're in town. Don't know if that's now or not. But a little off-trail to Upper Buck Springs is one of the nicest meadows up there...

We decided to go this coming weekend and are looking at the Houston Brother, Ubar & Barbershop trails. We are going to be heading up from Phoenix. Any suggestions as to which trailhead to start at? I don't know if one is easier to get to than another. Also, is this the thing where you can go up Friday and camp at or near the Trailhead or should we just drive up Saturday morning? Thanks for any help because the Coconino National Forest/Mogollon Rim Ranger District surely wasn't.

There's plenty of dispersed camping along any of the adjacent forest roads if you'd like to car-camp Friday night. If you drive up, plan on 3 hours (no stops), though it can be done in just under 2.5 if you have optimal conditions and don't mind driving 40mph on dirt roads.

Some people prefer getting to the area via FR95 (off Hwy 87) and driving south. While this requires less travel on dirt road, I prefer taking FR300 from Hwy 87. The FR300 route is about 7 more miles of dirt, but 20 less miles of paved. In the end, it takes about the same amount of time.

For the hike, here's a GPS track that you might want to use: http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?L ... M=6&G=6954

The main roads on this map are all sedan accessible. I would pick one of the side roads if you plan on car camping.

FR 139 (Dick Hart Ridge) has a signed parking area (3 cars?) at the Barbershop trail crossing and there's possible camp spots nearby. The GPS route I linked begins at the junction of Houston Bros and U-Bar, which is at the old Pinchot Cabin. There's camping restrictions adjacent to the cabin, though up on Telephone Ridge on FR139A there are some adequate spots to camp.

I would recommend against camping near the junction of U-Bar and Barbershop because there's a huge group of researchers camping in the area around Buck Springs Cabin, and you won't find much solitude.

I always like to do my uphills first, and leave more downhill on my way out. Starting at the Pinchot cabin and taking U-Bar to Barbershop to Houston Bros will serve that purpose as Pinchot is the "low-point" on the loop. But you may have other considerations such as water sources and your Saturday night campspot.

chumley wrote:I always like to do my uphills first, and leave more downhill on my way out. Starting at the Pinchot cabin and taking U-Bar to Barbershop to Houston Bros will serve that purpose as Pinchot is the "low-point" on the loop.

This is an excellent cabin loop option and as chumley recommends, is the preferred clockwise direction to hike what is know as the 17.2 ml East Cabin Loop Hike (which does not include the 2ml round trip additional on Barbershop TR to Buck Springs Cabin from the intersection of U-Bar/Barbershop Trails and does not include the 4.4ml round trip additional on the Houston Bros TR from the intersection of Houston Bros TR/Barbershop TR).. I assume you are now very familiar with the HAZ Cabin Loop hike description page and associated maps and gpsjoe's posted and very accurate GPS Routes.. http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=797 (if you guys are into GPS, it is highly recommended you download these three gpsjoe hiking routes to closely follow as for a first time visitor, the U-Bar and Barbershop Trails are in some sections tough to stay on trail.

Driving route up from PHX and overnight camping: All of chumley's comments and recommendations are good ones. I don't want to complicate things for you with more options, but four of us from HAZ are heading up here this week (Wed-6/16 to Mon-6/21) to car camp and hike this Cabin Loop area. We will be camping at a beautiful location at 7350' in the pines which is only a short .5ml hike to access the Houston Bros TR at perennial Aspen Spring/Cabin complex.. Here is the HAZ posted driving Route to my campsite for TH access.. http://hikearizona.com/location_g.php?GPS=6971

Here is a pic set of the campsite location with pics of the hike from the campsite to access Houston Bros TR at Aspen Spring/Cabin (at this H/B trail connection, you would turn right and hike the Hou Bros TR approx 2mls to Pinchot Cabin and the connection with the U-Bar Trail.. http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=8382&start=0

Do hope you might consider joining us for Friday night before starting your East Cabin Loop hike for Sat and Sunday..

chumley wrote:FR 139 (pumpkin Hart Ridge) ...

Richard Hart Ridge?

Grasshopper--we will have to see about Friday. We also live in Scottsdale, about how long does it take to get up there. We figure from our house it is 30 minutes to the casino and another hour to Payson--these are very conservative estimates because we always get to Payson in under 1 & 1/2 hours. We are also very excited to hear about the side hikes. Hubby has the GPS coordinates and he is the route finder...I just hang back and let him do all the trail finding work Oops--I am officially busted, posting under his name.

I just re-read all the posts again on our drive back down to the Valley. We wanted to do this loop a few years ago and never got around to it. We need to see what time we can get out of work on Friday and will let you know!

@jdcollard
Without any stops and driving my route you should plan 3 hours driving time from driveway to campsite. If you guys would like to camp with us 4 and you decide to come up on Friday PM or Saturday AM, send me a HAZ-Personal Message and let me know. You guys can also park at our campsite area to leave your car for the weekend and backpack the short .5ml distance to the lush and green perennial Aspen Springs area to camp with more privacy(if no one else is already there). I will be leaving tomorrow morning early so would appreciate knowing by this Tues evening if we should expect you two.

We will do a triplog when we get the pictures done...just wanted to do an update!

We parked at the Fred Haught trail sign by the Pinchot Cabin...ok, one thing that I noticed. ALL the signs LIE! We hiked down to the U-Bar/Barbershop junction...dropped our packs and did the '1/2 mile' to Buck Springs...more like close to a mile. We ended up camping around Barbershop Spring I believe. There was a geocache right there. My GPS watch showed we logged exactly 14.00 miles for the day. We were ready to be done. Set up camp, had an awesome Mountain House dinner and talked about how life doesn't get much better than this!

On Sunday we hiked down to the Junction of the Houston Brothers trail, dropped our packs and headed the '1.5 miles' (or 2) down to the General Crook Trail/FR300. We wanted to see how far the other Cabin was--when we got to the road the sign said 4.5 miles. Now is it the 4.5 miles like the Barbershop trail (which was accurate) or the .5miles to the Buck Springs Cabin (which was closer to a mile). We attempted to follow that trail about a mile and gave up. We knew we wouldn't make it to the cabin and back plus backpack to camp. We went back, grabbed our packs and headed to Aspen Springs where we spent the night and then did the quick 1.5mile hike out in the morning.

It was an awesome trip--the ups and downs were kind of tough with our packs on but so worth it. Like my hubby said, backpacking is a love/hate thing. You hate doing it but love where you end up.

We did not get lost once with GPSJoe's coordinates...ok, there was the right turn 2 miles into the UBar trail. It's a good thing that I am a slower hiker....I noticed the cairn w/the wood sticking out, thought that looked really strange...and why is this little path to the right have all these cairns down it while hubby is continuing down the path. I stopped and asked him to look at the GPS...and I got a gold star...or a free pass for later in the day if I felt the need to complain about the weight of my pack

A great backpacking trip and so worth the effort!

jdcollard wrote:A great backpacking trip and so worth the effort!

Happy to hear you two enjoyed one of my very favorite early autumn and summer areas to camp and hike. For your first visit, you two did well not roaming off trail more often on this sometimes confusing three trail East Cabin Loop Before gpsjoe's correct and complete tracks were posted on HAZ, it took me 3 attempts just to correctly hike all of Barbershop Trail#91

Oh, you should have been along on the hike. I (the wife, the scaredy cat, the one who like everything planned out to the exact place the tent is going not just the exact camp) kept badgering the husband about the GPS...he kept say, oh the path is clear, very apparent, etc. He didn't want to waste the batteries in the GPS (even though I brought 4 sets of back-ups). I kept harping, nagging, whatever word you want to insert--that the trail is tricky, he really should have it on. Well, after I caught the 2 mile turn off, he was changing his mind