Field Canyon Trail #294 • Hike • Arizona • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

[ checklist ] Field Canyon Spring Powers Garden Spring Upper Sycamore Tank

West Divide Trail #289

Powers Garden Trail #96

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Tortilla
Started about 20 mins before sunrise and enjoyed some dreamy light over the yellow, parched landscape. There was some rain out here a few days ago, enough to collect in a few rock tanks and catchments, otherwise the land felt thirsty. Made quick time over to Mud Spring (which was prolific in water & smell), made a quick detour on Sycamore to the Horse Canyon(?) connector, then trotted the rest of the way to Powers Garden to refill at the spring. Made some deer friends here who were soothed by soft reassurances about my lack of boom sticks. Trail conditions were good.

Field Canyon
Quick climb up a catclaw-covered hill and then drop down into the canyon. Trail was quite overgrown and I opted to boulder-hop most of the way, enjoying the rock formations along the creek. Not a lick of water was found along the way until the spring, which was overflowing right next to the trail. After the spring the trail turns and zips up the rest of the way to W Divide with only minimal route-finding.

West Divide
Bracing myself for a bloodfest, I was surprised at how much easier the two miles between Field & S Field (or Tent Lookout) trails passed. Think I was more patient and willing to "just follow tread" instead of fighting for elevation, like I did last time I was on this stretch. The next few miles were similar conditions, with some great views along the way. I assumed that the trail would stick to the very tippy-top of the ridge the entire way -- instead, it drapes like lazy garland, swinging from one side to the other, only occasionally riding the top.

Swung out on Grassy Knoll for camp with some stellar views out west. Wind was a slight issue, even nestled in a small grove, which woke me up a few times before I gave in and piled clothes around me. Solid sleep afterwards.

West Divide pt. 2
I had forgotten my phone cord and over-used my phone yesterday texting with the kids from Grassy Knoll (had a bar or two), so I rushed this section with the little bit of GPS-battery I had left. It felt more overgrown today with numerous sections of greedy manzanita encroaching on the trail, still offered some good views over towards Kielberg. Reached the junction, turned off tracking, and enjoyed second breakfast with my remaining water.

Powers Garden
Dropping down to the valley on the unnamed? connector was fairly easy, and then the highway along the creek is always a cruise. Spent some time searching below the marked Rattlesnake Spring for some pools -- years ago, some horse riders had told me that there was usually pools of water in the creek here -- and came up dry (heh). Maybe they were talking about another spring. Anyways, watered up again at Power's Garden Spring and reached Horse Creek before noon.

Tortilla
My plan had been to exit via Corral Canyon. However, with a near-dead phone and the route-finding involved on that grassy slope, Tortilla seemed safer, so I had to settle for backtracking (most of) my route in. It was rather enjoyable, with a pleasant breeze cutting through the sun's heat. There were a lot more cows at Mud Spring this late in the afternoon, and I tried to have some conversations with them before they scattered off. Guess I'm more of a deer person. Anyways, was a heck of a fun overnighter, and I'm glad I finally completed the last few miles of the northern wilderness.

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

	Field Canyon Spring	Quart per minute	Quart per minute
	Deep enough to scoop water out of and overfilling onto and beyond the trail. Seems fairly dependable.

	Horse Canyon	Dry	Dry
	Dry along trail, very disappointing.

	Mud Spring	Gallon per minute	Gallon per minute
	Trough is overflowing, but entire area is fouled by cattle and stinks.

	Powers Garden Spring	Quart per minute	Quart per minute
	Lowermost pool was full and trickling over, was also greenish and stunk. Upper pools were delightfully clear and tasty.

	Rattlesnake Spring	Dry	Dry
	No sign of spring, dry in creek below.

	Upper Sycamore Tank	1-25% full	1-25% full
	A few small pools of water from recent rains. Wouldn't depend on it more than a week past rains, especially during a dry season.

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1 archive

Oct 09 2015

Tough_Boots

Routes 67
Photos 2,708
Triplogs 755

89 male

Joined Mar 28 2008
Phoenix, AZ

Tucson, AZ

Tucson, AZ

Backpack		Oct 09 2015
		Tough_Boots • Triplogs 755

Backpack	25.50 Miles	5,946 AEG

Backpack	25.50 Miles	4 Days
	5,946 ft AEG

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Powers Garden Trail #96

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HAZ - Event

	BiFrost	chumley
	clairebear	FOTG
	John9L	johnlp
	Jonnybackpack	slowandsteady

Our canyon trip had to be canceled last minute so we bumped up our Powers Garden trip. Lily and I rode in on Friday with 9L and Claire. We started on the East Divide trail but found it soon disappeared shortly after the junction with the spur trail over to the Tortilla Trail. We could have fought our way through but I don't think any of us were too interested in that so we opted for the more pleasant experience and took the spur to the Tortilla and headed that way.

We had a nice hike in. We came across a herd of cranky cattle. Lily's pads have been a bit shop worn since our last two hikes so I had her boots on her-- of course she lost one early on and I never could find it. Luckily, its really just her rear pads she's had issues with so she really only needed two. We eventually reached Powers Garden to find a trail crew down there working. They were nearing the end of their week down there and looking forward to a week off before they return again.

I decided just to be safe that I would give Lily a pretty easy time for the two days down there. On Saturday, we stuck near camp while Claire and 9L went down to the mine. We spent some time exploring a bit both directions on the Powers Garden Trail. I also caught up on some reading while waiting for the big Saturday crew to arrive. There's nothing much better than reading Wallace Stegner next to a creek. The others turned up much later than expected and I learned that our way in was definitely the more pleasant option

On Sunday morning I decided to take a quick easy hike up the Field Canyon Trail. Its only 2.3 miles each way but I hadn't expected the quick 1,500 ft gain so Lily and I managed to get in a nice little workout. I ran into the trail crew boss and talked with him a bit on the way down. I invited him and his crew to come hang out in the evening and share a fire with us. They all showed up later-- great group of workers.

On Monday morning I tried to head out relatively early. I knew it would be a little warmer so I wanted to get Lily out between noon and 1. It was pretty pleasant until we got past Muddy Spring and then it got a bit toasty. I could tell Lily was getting a bit worn out with the heat and the pack and the boots which I'm sure are uncomfortable. Luckily a breeze and some clouds showed up for the last mile and a half and Lily recovered pretty well and we had a nice end of our hike.

This area is absolutely beautiful and quite rugged. I really enjoyed it. We ended up here at the perfect time. There's water everywhere right now and I have a feeling that's pretty uncommon. I hope I get the chance to explore more of this area. Some of it reminded me of the Mazzies and some of it reminded me of the eastern Supes but it was all very much its own place.

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Mar 21 2014

GrottoGirl

Guides 3
Routes 569
Photos 11,976
Triplogs 1,634

50 female

Joined Sep 18 2009
Tucson, AZ

Powers Garden Loop and Rhodes Peak, AZ

Backpack		Mar 21 2014
		GrottoGirl • Triplogs 1,634

Backpack	32.57 Miles	9,326 AEG

Backpack	32.57 Miles	3 Days
	9,326 ft AEG		40 LBS Pack

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Corral Canyon Trail #291

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TUB - Group

RedwallNHops

uphill_junkie

On Friday, we hiked into Powers Garden via the Tortilla trail. We arrived at the Garden and found a couple of groups already there. So, we found a nice quiet site tucked out of the way, yet still close to water. That night, we started in on the two boxes of TJ style Oreos Joel and I had brought. We had a nice juniper fragrant fire and then retired near backpacker's midnight.

Saturday we got started about 8 AM and headed up to the junction with the South Field Canyon trail and the Tent Lookout Trail (which appeared to be labeled the Field Canyon trail). Joel and I had a disagreement about which way to go. I had downloaded hazbot tracks therefore I wanted to take the South Field Canyon trail. I was overruled because the South Field Canyon trail was not really labeled and the other trail would be along a ridge line so there wouldn't be any significant elevation loss. So off we went along the Tent Lookout Trail to the East Divide Trail. Along the trail was a bit overgrown but we didn't think anything about it. When we left the Old Tent Lookout site, we had a hard time keeping on the trail. We spent a lot of time getting ourselves back to the trail just to lose it again. Basically, there isn't a trail left unless you call a trail bed that you would have to crawl along in order to stay on route a trail. Yet, I still haven't met a bushwhack I did not like. The challenge of trying to stay on track is always one I'll try even if I fail many times. Finally, we hit the junction with the South Field Canyon Trail. I had a moment of satisfaction to hear Joel tell me that I had been right. In all I won - no matter what - since I like bushwhacks and I also like to be right in the end! From the junction we followed a well defined trail up to the ridge. From there we followed really large cairns for a couple miles. Not much of a trail was defined between the cairns but the travel was relatively easy. Finally we approached Rhodes peak. By looking at the map and the terain it looked like an approach from the trail up the end of the peak would be the best, but we wanted to see what else the peak had to offer. We waited until the trail almost started to drop elevation and then we made our push. Along the way we got a great view down into the San Pedro Valley and a canyon descending from our ridge called Buck Canyon that had amazing cliffs. It was a nice scramble to the top through some volcanic welded tuff. The views from the top were stunning in all directions. We sat and enjoyed our lunch and debated our options. Originally we were going to do a big loop encompassing Pipestem canyon, however the bushwhack took up a lot of valuable time. We decided to return the way we came but head down South Field Canyon. South Fiel Canyon was delightful. One memory that will stick with me for a while is the amount of older growth junipers and ponderosa pines. One Ponderosa filled the air with butterscotch fumes that were abosolutely delicious! Close to the bottom of the canyon was a dam that had been slitted in. I was still amazing to see the masonary work.

We returned to camp and was joined by UpHill Junkie and partner. They struggled with filtering the water that comes from Powers Garden Spring. The Spring itself was the lowest I've seen it. There was barely two pools of water with a mineral blue tinge. The pipe near our camp delivered about 1 liter in less than a minute, if you let the pipe full between collections. Joel and I have mostly given up filtering which we fully appreciate whenever we watch our friends filter water for more than an hour!

In the morning, we had a late departure time of 9 AM set, but we left a bit earlier as everyone was ready. We made sure everyone made the turn off the Rattlesnake Canyon trail. The climb up Corral Canyon was steady. We had a stop at Corral Springs. After the spring we started to get views of the East Divide and Rhodes Peak. Nothing is more satisfying then identifying where you recently hiked. We took another break at the saddle and then started the long descent back to the car. Luckily the terrain was varied. We saw a couple of really cool dikes. This trip probably is a geologists dream!

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Greater Short-Horned Lizard

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Powers Garden Spring

	Corral Spring	Dripping	Dripping
	Few tiny pools

	Field Canyon Spring	Dripping	Dripping
	Tiny catchment had water.

	Horse Canyon Tank	1-25% full	1-25% full
	I didn't look in the tank but there was water. The cows were near.

	Mud Spring	Dripping	Dripping
	Enough for dog water :)

	Powers Garden Spring	Quart per minute	Quart per minute
	At the pipe midway to the cabins. The spring had two pools. Neater level was a lot lower than normal.

	South Field Canyon	Pools to trickle	Pools to trickle
	Saw a couple pools in the canyon...

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Mar 21 2014

uphill_junkie

Guides 2
Routes 9
Photos 1,486
Triplogs 944

female

Joined Apr 28 2010
Tucson, AZ

Powers Garden Loop and Rhodes Peak, AZ

Backpack		Mar 21 2014
		uphill_junkie • Triplogs 944

Backpack	20.00 Miles	5,500 AEG

Backpack	20.00 Miles	3 Days
	5,500 ft AEG

no routes

no photosets

Linked

Corral Canyon Trail #291

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TUB - Group

	GrottoGirl	RedwallNHops
	Tugger

I'm being lazy and piggy backing off Belinda's report. :-) I didn't do the loop hike, so I'm guesstimating the elevation and mileage.

I couldn't take Friday off work, so Tugger and Mark and I decided to meet those guys down there on Saturday. We got a crack of noon start, so didn't get down to camp until about 4:30ish. We needed to pump water, so we did that right after setting up camp. Took almost 2 hours to pump 12 liters!! =-O The algae kept clogging the filter, and every bottle, Mark had to take it apart and scrub it! What a pain! So finally we got back into camp to enjoy dinner and Belinda's awesome fire skills. :-)

I honestly felt like we were in the Mazzies! It's basically the same kind of terrain, the same elevation and the same scenery. Some of the trails were pretty rough, and poor little guy Tuggie was probably wishing for a doggie spa. :-) We got rattled at once on Sat and once on Sunday. All our dogs (feet included :-)) were toast when we finished Sunday. Mark and I enjoyed a couple cold brewskis at the trailhead while Tug enjoyed a soft bed inside the jeep. He wouldn't walk the whole next day! :-( (he was mostly milking it ;-))

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No pants!

Mar 21 2014

RedwallNHops

Guides 1
Routes 269
Photos 613
Triplogs 1,360

50 male

Joined Dec 22 2003
Tucson, AZ

Powers Garden Loop and Rhodes Peak, AZ

Backpack		Mar 21 2014
		RedwallNHops • Triplogs 1,360

Backpack	32.57 Miles	9,326 AEG

Backpack	32.57 Miles	3 Days
	9,326 ft AEG

no routes

no photosets

Linked

Corral Canyon Trail #291