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| | Car Camping | | 7 Days | | |
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| partners | | In my opinion, June is the best month (no rain, awesome temps, with lush flowing canyon creek drainages) to spend some extended time on our Mogollon Rim and I've been doing so now for a number of years to also include week visits the months of Monsoon July-August and Autumn late September.
This planned trip with Oregon_Hiker who was also interested in joining me became somewhat more complicated by the timing of the Mogollon Rim Ranger District's lighting strike, controlled burn ~17.5k acre "Coldwater Fire" [ Coldwater Fire - Mogollon Rim Ranger District ] which was active with driving road restrictions during Larry and my planned but different arrival dates.
Larry drove up late Sun-6/9 to hopefully avoid any road fire closures at Hwy 87 / Rim Road FR300 and I had planned to drive up early morning on Wed-6/12 which was more risky. As it turned out, we were both able to pass through this controlled intersection without a delay, but when I arrived Hwy87 / FR300 at 8AM, with my headlights on I could barely view the one Forest Service guy that was directing traffic at this location  He pulled me over and asked me where I was headed on FR300? He looked at my vehicle, viewed my tires, and noted my 70qt cooler in the passenger seat and he could not see back past my front seat..lol.., then I said "16.3 miles down FR300". His eyes opened wide with a slight hesitation, then he said "be careful". On the first 2-3 miles on FR300 there were tree stumps still on fire on the controlled burn side of the road with absolutely no one around for my entire 16.3 mile drive.. I considered myself lucky to drive through on this day!
Originally three other HAZers (Trishness, BLK, nonot) were invited to join Oregon_Hiker and me, but the "Coldwater Fire" complications, bad FR300 driving conditions, and other planned commitments allowed Larry and me extra space to enjoy this area for a week all to ourselves. On Thurs-6/13, we had an unexpected surprise visit by our HAZ- MountainMatt who had been exploring for the day within the Barbershop Canyon and surrounding areas hunting for shedder Elk Racks and he again hit the jackpot [ photo ] so I thought the least I could do after a hard day of off-trail exploring was to feed him! 
Another overall awesome week Summer escape at 7435ft from our PHX area furnace with a wonderful week of relaxation, some hiking, good weather, good food, and good memories!  |
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| (Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!") |
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