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| Backpack | 61.35 Miles |
14,730 AEG |
| | Backpack | 61.35 Miles | 5 Days | | |
| 14,730 ft AEG | | 40 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Intro: I went out a couple weeks ago for a 4 day backpacking trip through the Mazatzals to complete passages 23 and 24 of the Arizona Trail. Accompanying me was my mom. We ended up hiking Passage 22 as a day hike after we finished the backpacking trip.
Car shuttle: We had two vehicles this time, so we dropped off the Chevy Suburban at Doll Baby Ranch, then drove the Ford Explorer to the Mt. Peeley Trailhead to begin our hike. We didn't want to have to drive the Mt. Peeley road more than necessary, so when we finished the backpacking trip at Doll Baby Ranch, we drove down highway 87 and camped off a forest service road that takes off 0.6 miles south of Sunflower. In the morning, we parked there off the 87 and hiked along the road 0.6 miles to the AZT to begin passage 22. After finishing the hike, we drove the Ford back to the highway, then picked up the Chevy and drove both home.
Day 1: By the time we got the cars where they needed to be, it was around noon. For anyone who's interested, it's an hour and a half from Doll Baby Ranch to Mt. Peeley Trailhead. So we got started hiking and wanted to make as many miles as possible before camp. Particularly, we try to avoid dry camps since they increase pack weight, so we were hoping to make it to Bear Spring. We saw the sign at the TH about GPS Joe, who had an unfortunate incident while hiking Sheep Mountain and his body has never been found. I never had the pleasure to know him, but I know he was influential here on HikeArizona and some of you helped with the search efforts. I wore my HikeArizona shirt in his honor.  We were surprised by the initial climb, because I had thought the trail was supposed to descend from the Mt. Peeley TH. But after that was done, the rest of the day's hiking was pretty straightforward. The trail wound around past the canyon where Deer Creek has its headwaters. I've never hiked the Deer Creek trail in the Mazzies...but I've heard it's beautiful and I can't wait to go there! We made it to Bear Spring right about sunset and had just enough time to set up camp and cook dinner in daylight. We had enough water to make it through the night, so we waited to take the 1/4 mile walk down to the spring for filtering water till the following morning. I should also note that there are three very nice campsites here amidst some pine trees, so it makes excellent camping. The first site you get to going northbound has the best views of Mazatzal Peak.
Day 2: After filtering water from the spring and a tasty breakfast (I can't remember what we ate, either oatmeal, corn grits, cream of wheat, or hashbrowns!) we packed up camp and headed off. Most of the hike today was classic Mazatzal scenery, trail conditions, and vegetation. Windsor spring was once again dry, although the ground was damper this time than the last time I was there. It just doesn't seem that reliable.  From Windsor spring, the next 5 or so miles we had hiked previously when we did the big loop hike around Mazatzal Peak, up Barnhardt and down Y Bar. That's probably the nicest section of trail, nice and wide and smooth. Saw a couple fighter jets flying overhead, which was pretty cool. We saw some last trip too, so we're wondering if this is an area they like to train in. There was plenty of water at Chilson spring and in the whole creek for a quarter mile beforehand, but we had to make more miles, so we continued all the way to Horse Camp Seep, which had plentiful water and great views! We made it just in time for sunset. This night we made a campfire and roasted marshmallows for S'mores. That was fun!
Day 3: After eating breakfast out on the slick rock in the creek, we explored around a bit and found a "slice of pie" very similar to the one on Battleship Mountain. For those of you not in the know, a slice of pie in nature is when a piece of the rock cliff literally falls out and is resting a few feet away from its original position. The slice of pie here is about a quarter of the whole pie, whereas on Battleship Mountain in the Superstitions, the slice of pie is more like 1/6 of a pie. If you google Pie Rock Superstitions, you'll see a photo to know what I'm talking about. Along the trail today, right out of the gate there was a pretty hearty climb, and we stopped by Hopi spring just for fun and saw it has plenty of water. Upon reaching the top of the climb, near (34.12691, -111.49925), those were some of the best views on the whole trip. We could literally see from Mt. Graham and Mt. Lemmon in the south all the way to Humphrey's Peak in the north, and all the rest of Arizona in between those mountains spread out before us. We could see Phoenix (Camelback, Squaw Peak, White Tanks, Estrellas, even Shadow Mountain by our house!), Fountain Hills, Cave Creek and Carefree, the Seven Springs area, the Bradshaws, even parts of the Verde Valley and Mingus Mountain. It was truly an incredible view! The rest of the day was an average day of hiking, though we noticed that as soon as we transitioned from AZT Passage 23 to AZT Passage 24, the trail became much smoother. Special thanks to whoever maintains Passage 24. It was fabulous! Shortly after 24 begins, the trail descends way down into a valley, where there was water for about 1/2 mile in the creek and various pools, then the trail climbs back out on the other side. We ended up camping at Brush spring on the other side of the ridge, which had plentiful water flowing at a good rate. Follow the cairns down a good 5 minutes (on a well defined use path) to get to the best water. The first couple areas you can get water are okay, but not great.
Day 4: Today, we met a cool guy who is retired and hikes full time. He doesn't own a house and his wife lives out of their Jeep. She's more of a camper, not a hiker, so she camps and he hikes. He started the CDT at the beginning of this summer, made it most of the way, but then got snowed in. So he hiked over to Flagstaff to do the AZT in the winter. He walked up to Utah, then back southbound and we met him in the Mazatzals. He plans to continue south to Superior, then take the Grand Enchantment Trail to Albuquerque. At that point, he and his wife will go to Georgia to visit relatives for Christmas, then he'll hike the 1,000 mile Florida trail before coming to to AZ to finish the AZT, then he'll finish the CDT later in the spring. Anyway, most of that is off topic, but it's a fun story, so I thought I'd share it here. As for us, we hiked most of the day and eventually made it to the East Verde River. At this point, we used the AZT connector trail to head back to Doll Baby Ranch, arriving just before sunset. From what I've heard, you can take the road all the way from LF Ranch to Doll Baby Ranch, but it's longer. The trail we took goes through some catclaw, but it's not too bad.
Day 5: Bonus day! We decided on a whim we'd like to try to hike AZT Passage 22 as well, so after getting dinner in Payson, we bought a few foodstuffs for lunch for the day hike. Unfortunately, we didn't have our day packs with us, so we used our backpacking packs for the day hike (we have the traditional backpacking packs that weigh around 5 lbs, not the lightweight ones). We got an early start and were pleasantly surprised at how much water there was along this section. The trail started out pretty good, but the descent along the homes in Sunflower was pretty nasty with large round rocks. We got to the power lines and there was one vehicle parked there. The best part of this hike was the section around the mine, where hiking northbound there was a ~2 mile section of trail that was perfectly smooth and slightly downhill. We made good time on that section! But overall the 18 miles and the 3,000+ feet of elevation gain took its toll on us, and we arrived at our vehicle about 45 minutes after sunset. There was a pretty full moon, so we never needed artificial light, but we were definitely cutting it a little close.
Conclusion: Overall, it was a phenomenal trip--perfect weather this time of year! Also a great way to burn some vacation days before the end of the year (more of that coming soon...) Stay safe out there, and RIP, GPS Joe. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Isolated
Some fall colors, particularly along the NOBO descent of passage 24 towards Doll Baby Ranch. |
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Bear Spring - Fisher |
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| | | The spring "basin" was full of cool clear water. Tasted great! |
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Brush Spring |
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Gallon + per minute |
| | | Plenty of water here! Follow the cairns about 5 minutes for the best water. |
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Chilson Spring |
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| | | Plenty of water here...the spring box was full. Quality okay, but not great. |
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Hopi Spring |
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| | | Not only was the spring box full, but there was lots of water on the ground, and some natural pools. |
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Horse Camp Seep |
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| | | High quality water. Not sure how much it was flowing. We pulled water from the first pools you see in the slickrock. Further down the canyon it looked like there was some flow. |
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Rock Creek |
Medium flow |
Medium flow |
| | | Lots of water flowing into the East Verde River. |
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Rock Spring |
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| | | I don't know about the spring particularly, but the whole creek was flowing with what I would call "light flow" on the HikeAZ scale. We filtered many liters in the canyon. Passage 22 had 3-4 creeks/sources along it! |
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Thicket Spring |
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| | | Pretty standard spring with box. Plenty of water here. |
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Windsor Spring |
Dry |
Dry |
| | | Looked everywhere. Just a little damp ground was the most I found. | | | |
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