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| Backpack | 42.12 Miles |
8,216 AEG |
| | Backpack | 42.12 Miles | 2 Days 2 Hrs 1 Min | | |
| 8,216 ft AEG | | | | |
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| Partners |
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| partners | | Lee took the lead on planning this one and it turned out to be a great introduction to the PBR. I was a little surprised to find that this area is much more like the rim country near Payson than the White Mountains as I was expecting. The Blue River valley is only 5500 feet, and while our route took us up to higher elevations, the landscape overall reminded me of the same Mogollon Rim 120 miles farther west.
The upper portion of Sawmill along Telephone Ridge was the highlight of day 1, with big views and a pleasant climb after the steep connector that climbs up from Largo. Bear Mountain is obscured by trees, and the old lookout tower isn't tall enough to see over them. Maybe that's why it's been decommissioned!
Bear Valley is a great spot. I could set up a base camp here and explore. The trip down Little Blue was a great suprise with running water and amazing geology. Huge spires loom above the canyon. I climbed up the ridge adjacent to the canyon to get a better view, but the afternoon sun made it tough to capture any photos. I tried to find trail 341 on the way back to Bear Valley, but I couldn't find even the slightest sign of old tread amongst the fire deadfall and new growth.
Saturday we made the quick trip over to Franz spring and set up camp near the old cabin before heading off to check out the Tige Rim. I had been excited to see this area, but found the reward not to be worth the rest of the hike. It's just a long, hot, dry slog to get to a couple of great view points. In retrospect, I'd skip the loop and just hike the south part of the loop to the views and head back from there.
We returned to camp to find a huge group of people camped right next to us. I'm guessing it was a meetup kind of thing. Apparently they don't backpack into the wilderness looking for peaceful solitude because it didn't occur to them to find a spot to camp that might be just out of view or earshot of others. I've encountered this before, and it is something I will never understand. Might as well have headed for Woods Canyon Lake! 
In the morning we headed down Lanphier back toward the trailhead. We passed numerous groups along the way. It was actually quite surprising even on a holiday weekend in the Blue. We figured that articles last year in Backpacker (Nov 15) and possibly AZH (July 15) contributed to the 21 cars  in the parking lot. (We were the only car when we started).
While Lanphier is a pleasant canyon with shade and a stream, I'm not sure I'd like to use it for the ascent. It is steep in places and I could see it really taking it's toll on somebody carrying a heavy pack.
Thanks to Lee for the intro to the PBR. Sorry we didn't make it down to Ladrone. Next time! |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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Bear Valley Cabin Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Seeps provide light trickle into good pools downstream of corral. |
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Bear Valley Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Visible seep, muddy water. Irrelevant due to good flow in adjacent creek. |
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Cashier Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Lots of seeps with ample opportunities to filter from many different pools |
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Cow Flat Spring |
Dry |
Dry |
| | | Just some wet mud. Would be nearly impossible to get anything from this, and not worth the effort. |
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Franz Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Full springbox. Plenty to filter. |
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Uee Spring |
Dry |
Dry |
| | | Couldn't find spring source. A couple of nasty muddy pools in the canyon. |
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Yam Canyon |
Dry |
Dry |
| | | Canyon is sandy and bouldery from flash flood damage presumably due to upstream fire. | | _____________________
| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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