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| Splitting Sycamore Fork, AZ | |
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| | Splitting Sycamore Fork, AZ | | | |
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Splitting Sycamore Fork, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.49 Miles |
1,656 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.49 Miles | 4 Hrs 15 Mns | | 1.84 mph |
| 1,656 ft AEG | 11 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Tracey has been taking full advantage of plenty of use-it-or-lose-it PTO before the end of the year, which has put the onus on me to come up with all the hike plans. All it took was her to ask "how about checking out mines in the Cornucopia area?" and my mind was already rolling with it. While we've been in the general area a half-dozen times, with our first "Saddle Mountain Mines Tour" nearly a dozen years ago I'd say it was time to pay a visit again.
Before I came up with anything specific it came to mind the last few times we'd driven out FR #25 and/or FR #201 we had noted the remnants of an old road heading up the ridge between the East and West Forks of Sycamore Creek and each time had said something like we should check it out sometime. Ok, I guess now will be that sometime.
While 'following' the old road using the Satellite overlay then switching to the HAZ map overlay in Route Editor I noticed a half-dozen prospects part way up and just West of the ridge. Aha! With a rough destination in mind drew a tentative route following the 'road' in Satellite view as well as a few offshoots to points of interest.
Once the initial planning was complete I needed to get Tracey on board, as she isn't a fan of many of my off-trail excursions. But using the we'll just be following an old road line she said ok.
We began the hike in the open area next to FR #25 opposite of the locked gate to the long-decommissioned FR #1679, which used to travel North along the East Fork of Sycamore Creek. (More about this later) It took a moment to locate a well-used path through the vegetation to get started but shortly we were following the route I had mapped out.
Although it is definitely NOT and NEVER WAS a Forest Road, we noted fresh ATV tracks following the same route. The tracks continued 1.5 miles until it no longer was a feasible for them to continue. Later we will note tracks from a different ATV on another illegal route... but then, what do we expect?
Whatever, while we actually will follow a road of some kind for most of the hike, as we approached the first prospects I had in mind it quickly deteriorated into a mass of thick vegetation.
Silly me, thinking we would always(not quite!) be following a road there'd be no need for shears to trim any vegetation. As the route closed it wasn't long before my efforts with my hand trimmer were for nought and we decided to give up on the area of the most prospects. In the end, other than one quite interesting spot that appeared to be at the end of a separate road I seriously doubt there anything left to find. Looking down on it from above the last part of the road to that spot was clear, but without shears just to GET to that part it was nothing doing.
Ok, we haven't even hit 2 miles, so now what? Well, I guess we'll continue North as far as the road is passable for us. Surprisingly we got a half mile higher up before thing started to get thick again. We ALMOST turned back at one drainage which was thick with Junipers, but since there were no thorns, we just pushed through. Not much later, right where we encountered a large pile of bear scat (not very recent) the vegetation finally said No Farther! On the way back we noted one other route going slightly higher but I knew it didn't go far so that was out.
On the long trek back down I took a photo of a tall rock cairn some distance off to the side and for a moment I thought "hmmm, I wonder if we should check that out... but less than a split-second later my rational-mind spoke up and said No Way!
Moving on... farther down Tracey spotted a dry tank below us, which just happened to be at the end of one of the side-routes I had mapped, which based on Satellite view I though may have been an old mine. But no matter, I mapped it so let's go. What did we find? No water and possibly some damp mud. I wasn't about to get my boots muddy so I left it at that.
The last part of the ridge return we followed a different old road until we passed adjacent to the Cross F Study Plot just before re-connecting with FR #25 to head back toward the start.
The Cross F Study Plot was fenced off from cattle grazing in 1934 for a long-term test to see the difference between it and the surrounding terrain. On the sign it asks if one can see any difference between inside and outside of the fenced area. Neither of us could saw we noted ANY difference. However, I had a distinct feeling the Sunflower Fire of 2012 may have rendered the whole project moot.
Now back to the car we still had a hankering for a bit more, besides we still hadn't had lunch, mainly not having found a "smooth rock, shade & breeze" for our lunch spot. I had another route left to check out, which was following old FR #1679 for a half-mile to something... just a black square on the map. It turned out to be an old galvanized water tank being fed from a spring. While there were numerous bits of old rusted sheet metal debris laying around, we were unable to determine what they had been part of years ago.
Ok, time to get serious looking for the perfect lunch spot. We continued a few hundred yards farther up along the East Fork and sure enough, we located the perfect spot. A smooth rock for each of us to sit on, with shade and a brisk breeze.
After our quick lunch it was time to wrap it up for the day... Tracey still has yard work lined up.
Back at the car, parked across the open area we saw two older guys who, based on a big bucket full of rocks next to their car, appeared to be rock-hounds. Gold hunters from the Midwest? (Wisconsin plates) Thankfully they left and drove farther on FR #25... thankfully due to how bog-slow they drove it likely would have been 30 minutes to get back to the old AZ 87 Sunflower Highway. |
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