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| | Backpack | | 2 Days | | |
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| no partners | | Durfee Crossing via Chevelon Creek/Chevelon Crossing Campground:
One of my hiking buddies, Randy, had been talking about doing a hike down Chevelon Creek to Durfee Crossing, from the Chevelon Creek Campground for some time, owing to the fact that I was afforded some time off, we made plans. I had been through this area about 6 months ago on a back road trip to Winslow on FS504, and was intrigued about stories of an abundance of crayfish in Chevelon Creek.
Randy and I arrived at Chevelon Campground at about 11:00a in the midst of moderate rain. I informed Randy “not to fear” I’ve spent 40 years in the southwest, this is typical for this time of year, it will rain for 20 minutes and then clear up and be nice until the same time tomorrow. So we donned our packs and our 0.5 mil, 1 time use only Wally World rain ponchos and headed down creek (South) from the Chevelon Crossing Campground.
For the first mile or so the trail was pretty easy to follow, actually at about 0.8 mile the canyon veers almost 90 degrees to the left (facing south) and we lost the trail and had to bushwhack for about 20 minutes before we picked it up again. In about a ½ mile there is a sheer rock wall/face and a narrow (2 foot ledge) you must tippy toe past for about 50 yards, the sheer wall is to your left and to your right is a 10 foot drop off to a long stretch of water, depth unknown due to muddiness from the rain. At the end of this ledge there is a 3 foot drop down, which was marginally manageable with a 45 lb pack, but later while setting up camp, both Randy and I wondered how we would get back up it with packs on (figuring we would have to take them off and hand them up to one another…) about ¾ mile from this ledge brings you to Durfee Crossing. This is where we made camp for the night.
In addition, along the way, we came across 2 partially submerged, mangled / holey canoes. Both of us wondering “how in the heck did someone get down this canyon through the brush, boulder hopping and bush-whacking carrying canoes”, these were big 15 footers, definitely a 2 person lift.
When we arrived at Durfee Crossing the rain had let up, even tho’ it had lasted for an hour and a half vs. my predicted 20 minutes. We were able to get out tents set up just in time before the rain started again. Boy was I glad I hauled the extra 2 lbs and brought my 3 person tent instead of my typical bivvy tent. This larger tent allowed me to put all my pack and gear inside, out of the rain, and allowed me to stretch out and doze…It proceeded to rain for another 4 hours. It was actually very relaxing, listening to the pitter/patter on my tent while drifting in and out of consciousness. What a nice relaxing afternoon! Randy had a small 8’x8’ tarp that we strung up, and I collected some dry pine needles and wood from beneath some downed trees, and we were able to keep a small but comforting fire going into the night to dry things out a bit, keep us a bit warm, and provide the traditional communal venue of “around the campfire”.
As I was collecting pine needs and what little dry wood I could find, from up on the hill side, I spied, across the canyon, what appeared to be a trail heading up the hillside on the opposite side of the river. Some exploring and reconnoitering with my Garmin GPS Topo map, showed a trail going up the canyon wall. The GPS confirmed that this trail connected with FS169 and eventually back to FS504, which would lead us back to the car. Ahh problem solved, no need to worry about ferrying packs up that 3 foot drop off and shimmying along the ledge. It also explained how the canoes got down there, as this trail was only 0.4 miles from a parking area. In the future, we will head down this short trail for more Durfee adventures. One downside to this trail was that we didn’t park at this TrailHead and our hike out proved to be almost 5 miles, but it was easy going, under overcast skies…so choose your poison I guess, bushwhacking for 2 miles or 5 miles of relatively easy trail/road hiking.
The Durfee Crossing area is very scenic. I was able to explore downstream for a couple hours the next morning. Downstream is not as scenic as the 2 miles we had just come through.
Ah yes, the crayfish…yes indeed, they are in great abundance in this area. I’ll need to get a recipe from my Louisiana Cajun buddy! Every time I stepped into the creek, it was as if the bottom of the creek bed was alive,it appeared to move like a giant organism there were so many crayfish. They varied in size from 1” – 5”.
That morning we broke camp, loaded up our packs and headed up the trail I had spied the previous day. It took about 2 ½ hrs. to get back to the car, and like clockwork, it was about 11:00a, the rain started as soon as I got to the car.
On the way back to town, we stopped at telephone ridge point, overlooking Chevelon Canyon, about 3 miles south of Chevelon Lake. This area is also very scenic, but hey isn’t all of Arizona! It appeared to be about a 1,000 foot vertical drop to the canyon floor. Later my Topo map confirmed it to be more like 800 feet. The Telephone Ridge TrailHead starts here, but we only ventured down about a ¼ mile as it was getting late.
Has anyone done a hike from Telephone Ridge Trailhead to Willow Springs Lake or Woods Canyon Lake? It looks to be about 16 miles..and very scenic. The Topo doesn’t indicate any showstopping ledges (I’m not as fully equipped for canyoneering like many of the other HikeAZers, and I’m certainly not going to haul hundreds of feet of rope and rappelling gear 16 miles down a canyon with food and tents as well, ok, I’m a liteweight…). Randy and I are thinking this might be our next adventure, if we can convince ourselves we can make it all the way without a rappel. |
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