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| Hiking | 21.58 Miles |
1,050 AEG |
| | Hiking | 21.58 Miles | 1 Day 2 Hrs 48 Mns | | |
| 1,050 ft AEG | | 38 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | My fifth trip to Aravaipa Canyon and my friend's first. We took the east trailhead though which was a first for me, and my first backpacking trip. After a LOT of driving we met up in Pima. It's at this time I'd also like to thank the good people of Pima and their plumbing facilities as I found an open gas station in the dawn hours and relieved some backpacking anxiety. I dropped my sedan at the Latter Day Saints church parking lot for safekeeping and crossed my fingers, and we hopped in the truck.
Just before reaching the East trailhead, we were briefly blocked by a flock of about 20 turkeys. Then we also passed a few small javelina families with little babies running around. They didn't seemed phased by the vehicle at all. We parked near the Turkey Creek trailhead and set off into Aravaipa.
We were shooting for Horse Camp but were eyeing any campsite we came across along the way. Marked a few really awesome ones to use in the future. One in particular was nestled into a rocky alcove and was very photogenic.
We dropped our packs at Deer Creek/Hellhole Canyon. I had made it out here from the west side once and knew it was worth revisiting. We spent around 3.5 hours going in and back.
Not far from Vergus canyon we found a great campsite and decided not to push farther to Horse Camp. We had only seen 1 other person the entire day so the site was likely open, but it was getting late and we were tired.
I walked away from the campfire a number of times to enjoy the 12% moonlight. Down in the canyon I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. It reminded me of being in a cave.
We had dinner and I was fading in and out of sleep sitting by the fire by 8pm. One of the few times I closed my eyes for a minute and reopened them... I couldn't tell what was real anymore but there was a walking stick suddenly sitting on my knee. I prodded my friend to get a pic.
A tiny sprinkle for 5 minutes around 5am got us going, so we packed up and headed back to the trailhead. On the way back we spotted a big cave and scrambled our way up to it for some cool pictures.
Back at the trailhead, we took a quick detour and drove to the Turkey Creek ruin to explore, then headed home. |
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