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| Upper Bear Canyon Lake Meander, AZ | |
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| | Upper Bear Canyon Lake Meander, AZ | | | |
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Upper Bear Canyon Lake Meander, AZ
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| Hiking | 4.10 Miles |
323 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.10 Miles | 4 Hrs | | 1.03 mph |
| 323 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a short day hike out of my camp off of FR208 at the south end of Bear Canyon Lake. I crossed the road from camp and headed west in to the forest where I came upon a long abandoned logging road that followed the top of the ridge above upper Bear Canyon. This old road made a great hiking trail through the forest going southwest paralleling FR208 towards the Rim Road. The elk had been using it as a highway and one of the critters ran ahead of me down the old road before disappearing into thick timber.
As the abandoned road neared the Rim Road I made a loop out of the hike by returning towards the lake along the bottom of the upper end of Bear Canyon. The bottom of the canyon had a few dead falls which required finding a bypass but elk trails led the way making it easy. At the lake I stopped to chat with an elderly couple (my generation) fishing off the point that juts out into the south end of the lake - a very scenic spot to enjoy the view while waiting for the fish to bite. The wife had caught 3 trout which she had on a stringer in the water at the edge of the lake. She had to constantly move the fish to keep them away from a large crawdad. Then a small snake came swimming along and for some odd reason decided to bite and hold on to the tail of one of the fish while the lady tried to shake him off. I had the telephoto lens on my camera so got some close up shots of the action. I could have hung out for a while with these folks to swap old fishing stories but it started to rain so we headed up the trail towards our camps near the FR208 trailhead.
When I started the hike that morning the cluster of dispersed camp sites around the end of FR208 were all vacant. I was surprised to see that a small city of tents, travel trailers and even one tepee had materialized in the 4 hours I was gone. A large group had arrived and one of the fellows gleefully told me there would be at least 20 more people joining them later in the day. They even had brought their own portable outhouse (a good thing). Back in camp I was entertained by the constant din of 3 dirt bikes brainlessly zooming back and forth on FR208 past my campsite while the powerful stereo in their camp pounded out a heavy base beat to unintelligible musical vocals. It was Thursday. I couldn't imagine what this place was going to be like by the weekend. I ended up moving to a less busy location at the north end of the lake after returning from a morning hike the next day. |
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