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| Not the General Crook Connector Trail, AZ | |
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| | Not the General Crook Connector Trail, AZ | | | |
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Not the General Crook Connector Trail, AZ
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| Hiking | 34.76 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 34.76 Miles | 11 Hrs 30 Mns | | 3.48 mph |
| 1 Hour 30 Mns Break | | | |
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none
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| no partners | | Sometimes hikes don’t go as planned.
My goals were to finish off the Eastern end of the General Crook trail and then take the General Crook Connector trail to the Lewis Canyon TH and see what other trails are there.
I had called the Black Mesa ranger station to confirm the trailhead. They confirmed that the TH was on FR139 and the road was singed on SR260. But the ranger would not confirm or deny the existence/ shape of any trails
Well on the drive up my Jeep had a wardrobe malfunction. The bikini top broke strap on the bee-line and I made a McGuyer repair with a bungee cord.
The trailhead is just a turn-about off of FR139 (right off of SR260). There were no signs or plagues. I kind of figured there was be something for the end of the General Crook trail. Just a chevron in the tree. No V stump marker either.
I headed west to finish off the last 1.68 miles of the crook trail. I got to the turn that I missed last time. I moved one of fallen trail posts to shrub to make it easier to find.
Both my Forest Service map and Garmin GPS showed that the General Crook Connector trail starts right were the General Crook Trail end across FR139. Just keep following the General Crook trail and you run into the Connector trail.
Well there’s fence line on the east side of FR139. I walked up and down it. The fence starts at SR260 and heads south. I saw no trail on the other side of the fence. About a 1/4 mile from the TH was an un-numbered 4WD road with a gate. I followed the road and my GPS showed that I cross over the trail. There was no trail. The road paralleled the trail so followed the road until it hit Cottonwood wash. My GPS showed that the trail turned here. I hopped of the road and bushwhacked a looking for the trail. I found no trail. The supposed path of the trail didn’t make sense. It would have gone through some really tough and dangerous terrain with steep drops and steep climbs. I cut across back to the road. The road was on the east side of the wash and my GPS showed the trail was on the west side. Accordingly to my GPS I crossed over the trail about 8 times. I was convinced that the road was the trail. After another mile the road swung back to FR139! ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") When the forest gives you lemons you make lemonade. But what do you do if you get rotten lemons? I tried to figure out what happened. I pulled out the map and search around bit and came to the conclusion that he trail does not exist anymore.
I spent some much time on this ‘trail’ that I didn’t have time to go to the campgrounds or check out the Juniper Ridge lookout tower. So, I ditched the rotten lemons and got a new batch. I did a loop to the Deer Spring lookout tower. I noticed that signage gets bad the further east you go. I had to use the FR map and the GPSs to double check the roads. Sometime one GPS showed roads that the other didn’t.
Even though I didn’t make to the Lewis Canyon camp grounds and had to come up with an impromptu ‘Plan B”, it would up not being a bad hike. The temps were perfect and the only people I saw were campers. |
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"Everywhere is walking distance...If you have the time"
-Stephen Wright |
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