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| Hiking | 31.32 Miles |
5,113 AEG |
| | Hiking | 31.32 Miles | 12 Hrs 10 Mns | | 2.76 mph |
| 5,113 ft AEG | 50 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | If at first you don't succeed, try from the other side.
About two weeks ago I tried to get to the Club Cabin from the Barnhard TH and was not able to make it due to rough terrain and a lack of time.
With the unseasonably cools temps, I decided to try again from the Horseshoe dam.
It was almost cold when I started at 7:30am. After three miles I made it to the Sears TH. Then another 3 miles until I hit the Davenport TH/wilderness boundary.
The first 6 miles were on jeep roads. Now the fun begins. The trail gives away to a single-track trail.
After a while the grass covers the trail and route finding becomes more important. The trail gets faint in spots and occasionally disappears. After a bit, the Davenport wash will be to your lower right and the trail will follow the contour. It seems like at every wash and saddle the trail changes directions and you're spending a couple moments looking for it. At the ~13.5 mile mark, you reach the intersection with the Sheep Creek trail. Now your less than two miles from the Club Cabin.
Now you climb a saddle and drop down into a creek bed with a fence line. The trail goes into a cat's claw field and disappears. I found a path that lead to a gate in the fence.
I didn't see any cairns or trail. My map showed that the trail followed the fence line, so I did. I figured out that the trail was on the other side of the fence, so I hopped over it. Then I ran into the Deadman's trail intersection. The sign for the Deadman's trail was on the ground and so weather faded, that it couldn't be read anymore.
The cabin is really close now. Just follow the fence line, cross the creek and go by a correl. I could see the base of the mountains coming into view and there was a very green canyon with big trees coming up. This is where the Club Cabin / Club springs are.
I made it the cabin at 1:10, which was 10 minutes past my turn around point. I spent a lot of time route finding to get to this point.
There a shack that's intact, but the cabin is burnt down. The cabin has burnt down. There's still a cement foundation, foot high stone wall, stove, bed springs and a make shift hammock. See my pictures. I headed up to the spring which was a nice shady spot with lots of flowing water. This would be a perfect camping spot.
The views are just wonderful. I could see why the cabin was built here.
Getting to this spot is hard and challenging hike. This pushed my limits on energy expended on a hike. You need to have route finding skills, know how to read a map and your GPS.
I have two different GPSs with the Davenport trail loaded on them and I still had issues staying on the trail (both directions!). Both of the GPSs were only about 80% accurate with regards to Davenport trail.
The dam is at 2,000 feet and the cabin is at 4,000, but there a lot of rolling climbs in between. You gain 100 feet, lose 80; repeat numerous time. There are a lot of sections where
The trail is baseball rocks, solid rock, loose dirt, grassland and good old solid trail. It has a little of everything. With that being said, this is still one great hike.
The cabin is literally in the middle of the Mazatzal's (and in the middle of no man's land)
I got back to the Jeep by 7:40pm.
Animal sights:
-bald eagle by the dam
-deer about 10 miles in
-heard, but not seen a rattler in the bushes on the way back |
| _____________________
"Everywhere is walking distance...If you have the time"
-Stephen Wright |
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