|
| | | |
| |
|
| Hiking | 8.94 Miles |
1,202 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.94 Miles | 3 Hrs 11 Mns | | 2.81 mph |
| 1,202 ft AEG | | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | There is a chance that I missing something. It wouldn't be the first time that I misconstrued information about a trail. But there appears to be two different designations/hikes for the Grief Trail.
Not realizing this I took what limited information I could find and on Sunday morning drove out to FS 9603s. This was just off highway 260 just past mile marker ??? (I want to say it is about 3-4 miles from I-17) on the west side of the road. The forest road is very doable for high clearance vehicles, but I didn't feel comfortable taking chances in my Camry so ended up parking about 100 yards inside the gate. Thus most of my mileage came from the forest road and very little from the trail. It is about 2.8 miles from the gate to where the forest road, for all practical purposes ends. By this point I had gained a surprising amount of elevation (it really wasn't that much, but it was more than I anticipated) and I had decent view of Camp Verde and Cottonwoo in the eastern direction. And in front of me (if I am reading the PNF map correctly, which I had carried with me for this hike) was Grief Hill. To the right of this location there is Hull Hill and to the left Table Mountain. From this point the road becomes more of an ATV track and (heading west) drops down between Hull and Table into a wash. The track remains in the wash or hovers near as it begins to wrap around the backside of Hull Hill. Around the 3.3 mile mark it comes to the water tank as pictured by mr14ner. At this spot there is an old wooden corral and a more modern but just as dilipidated barb wired one. This is where I lost it...which is kind of ironic because this is where the trail starts.
When prereading for this hike I had glossed over and forgotten mr14ner's reference to the cairns just after the corrals. I had however, latched onto the image of stoic's picture of the Grief Hill trail sign. I kept expecting to see that image as I turned every bend in the wash. Not going to happen. I have since learned that mr14ner and stoic were describing two different hikes. Both hikes in one way or another are referred to as Grief Trail by the Prescott National Forest but they appear to be different trails and do not connect. The hike performed by stoic starts from a TH just off of Cherry Rd and has the Grief Trail sign as pictured in his write up. So PNF has physically posted a sign at this location claiming it as Grief Trail #153. However, if you go to the PNF website their description of the trail will lead you to what mr14ner did and what I tried to do. The trailhead for this online description is about a mile to the southeast of stoic's starting point. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") I have since discovered a HAZ forum discussing this exact conundrum. If you plan on doing this hike I would encourage you to read that forum to try to determine which trail is indeed #153.
Anyway, back to my hike. Having missed the cairns, that were mentioned mr14ner's write up, I continued to follow ATV track. This quickly petered out and I was left standing in wash sandwhiched between the backside of Hull Hill and Grief Hill. No trail, but I did have a map of the forest service roads and the knowledge, that according to the PNF website trail 153 was suppose to connect fs9603s and fs9603f. At this point I knew that I was not going to finish the hike, I was simply hoping that I would find some signs of a trail before my turn around time forced me to admit defeat. I popped out of the wash at the earliest opportunity and climbed part way up Grief Hill continuing west and north in the direction of fs9603f. Never came across any definitive trail, though a few times I could envision where one might have been. But it never turned into anything. On the way back I did come across a string of ribbons tied to the branches of trees. I strung three of them together, but lost it after that.
This may sound like a frustrating outing, but all in all it was a good day's hike. I got to do some cardio as I jogged fs9603s, saw some history with the abandoned corrals, got to do some off trail scrambling and made personal friendships with numerous spiderwebs in the process  and got to expand my knowledge of an area I had never been to before. I'll be that much bettered prepared on my next visit. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
