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| Hiking | 9.50 Miles |
1,905 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.50 Miles | | | |
| 1,905 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Thanks to Lee for putting this hike together - it's not easy getting 4 other hikers to agree on dates and start time. Hank and I drove to our rendezvous location at the gate to the FJ Ranch on FR172. I'm new to this area so Hank was the tour guide on the way in. We drove by a former Camp Grasshopper at the base of Byous Butte off of FR172. He pointed on Elephant Arch which I finally was able to see after stopping and scanning the hillside for 5 minutes - it had been right in front of me all the time. After getting home and looking at the picture on my PC it was easy to see the elephant's head and trunk.
We started off hiking the loop clockwise and soon came to the first of three mines we would see (there are probably more) along the route. It appears that copper was the primary mineral being mined. There was also the remains of a loading chute probably used to load ore from the several mines in this canyon into dump trucks. Lee and Jim led us to a mine on a side road they had used as a water source on a previous backpacking trip. Jim and Blanco went into the mine to check it out. The rotting timbers supporting loose rock at the entrance kept me out. No one in our group was sure of dates for the mines - best guess was 1940s.
We stopped to check out the milk delivery truck in the bottom of the wash. Some research indicates it is most likely a Divco delivery truck based on matching pictures of this truck with ones found on the internet. Divco, an acronym for Detroit Industrial Vehicles Co, was founded in 1926 to make delivery type trucks. They used the same basic body design as the one in Whetrock Canyon from 1939 until the company closed its doors in 1986. It was a very popular design for milk delivery trucks.
Update: Looks like I was wrong on the ID of this wreck. It's probably not a Divco. The body was manufactured by Herman of St Louis who made delivery van bodies to fit Chevrolet, Ford, Studebaker, Dodge and possible other truck front ends. See comments in photo set.
There was some light duty bushwhacking going down Whetrock Canyon. We stopped for lunch at the location of a rock wall ranching fence. They had used a wash coming down the canyon side as a cattle barrier filling in gaps with rock walls to keep cattle from crossing. When we reached the mouth of Whetrock Canyon at Fraser Canyon where the return route started Lee informed us that Joe wanted to take a detour down Fraser Canyon to check out the water flow at Dripping Spring where Randolf and Fraser Canyons meet. We still had lots of time and adequate energy left to add this extra 3 miles so off we went. Dripping springs was a nice oasis with tall lush green trees. There was actually more water coming from an unnamed spring about 50-100 yds up Randolf Canyon. Dripping spring had a very slow drip.
The hike up Fraser Canyon to the JF Ranch went quickly with a fairly gentle uphill grade and trail bypasses for rough patches in the bottom of the canyon. The bypass trails are well marked with rock cairns but you have to keep an eye out for them. An Angus bull in one of the corrals at the JF Ranch gave us a menacing stare from the distance as we walked by. Thankfully Blanco left him alone. The road up the hill from the ranch to our parked cars was a long grind but we were soon at the cars and the end of a great day in the Sups. |
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