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| Hiking | 10.89 Miles |
2,145 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.89 Miles | 5 Hrs 21 Mns | | 2.48 mph |
| 2,145 ft AEG | 57 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I am back in Arizona and decided to get in a hike or two in the Chiricahua Mountains. It is nice to be on a hike that has some elevation change. I thought I would start out with an easy fairly level hike to get back in shape so I chose the Basin Trail. Since it is a long drive here and the last 24 miles to Portal is a winding dirt road I made a two day trip out of this. The weather was in the low 80's but in the sun it was a bit hot.
I started the hike on the north end of the Basin Trail along FR42 at the signed trail head. The trail immediately starts a climb of about 500 feet to cross over into Greenhouse Canyon. In this area it is mainly oak juniper forest. Just over the crest the trail comes across Welch Seep, about 100 yards off trail. There was no water but from the green grasses it must be damp. The trail all the way to Greenhouse Creek is in good condition. There are mediocre views from this trail of Winn Falls in Cima Creek. Greenhouse creek had spotty water. From Greenhouse Creek the trail follows FR713 for about .7 miles where it exits the road and becomes a trail again as it heads toward Ash Spring and then continues on to the Herb Martyr Trail. about 5.1 miles total. Ash Spring and Cave creek both had water. I returned along the Herb Martyr Trail to the campground and then took the Ash Spring Trail back up to the Basin Trail and returned along the Basin Trail. I am considering this trail from FR 42 to the Herb Martyr Trail as the Basin Trail #600. Seems like a logical division of the trail and the signs seem to indicate this. The forest service web site has some different break down of the Greenhouse Canyon Trail, Ash Spring Trail and the Basin Trail. What's in a name as long as you get where you want to go.
Saw lots of white tail deer and they were quite unafraid of humans. Other than birds no other wildlife. I only saw one person the whole day and they were at the Herb Martyr Campground, bird watchers I think. The air was hazy/dusty/Smokey so the views weren't spectacular as they usually are here. I was planning for tomorrow to hike up the Herb Martyr to the Snowshed Trail then up to the crest and return on the Greenhouse Trail but with heat I experienced today I decided I better put that off for another trip (darn it means I will be forced to come up here again). I stayed the night in the Portal Peak Lodge and had dinner there and planned what tomorrows hike would be. |
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