Independence day at West Clear Creek

For Independence day we sought to get out of the Phoenix Metro area, and the heat, and go where it would be a little cooler and we could enjoy walking in the forest (a real forest, not a cactus forest...).  We drove 2 hours up to Camp Verde, and to the West Clear Creek wilderness area.  There is a trail that follows Clear Creek for a ways, and the creek itself, with pools and plenty of places to jump in and get wet.  Camp Verde is only about 10 degrees cooler than Phoenix, so splashing in the water would be welcome.

The trailhead is in the Bull Pen day-use area, at the end of Bull Pen Road.  The trail goes past the namesake for the area, the former Bull Pen Ranch.  Bull Pen Road is drivable by regular cars (we saw sedans and minivans in the parking lot) but I was glad we had a high-clearance vehicle, there were a few deep ruts and large rocks that would really rip up a smaller car.

Have fun!

Within view of the parking area was a cliff face that really looked like a face - broad smiling mouth, wide-set eyes.  Almost like it was talking to us.  The first mile or so of the trail goes through a meadow, and past the old ranch house, before dropping to the creek.  There is creek access closer to the parking lot, which was full of people up picnicking and splashing - a little louder than I would prefer.  Walking across the meadow was a little hot in the sun, but with good views of the surrounding cliffs.  The meadow climbed up a little bit, leaving the creek in a canyon - it wouldn't be easy to work up along the creek for very far.

Bull Pen Ranch

First view of the creek - upstream

Once we got to the creek it was shady and much cooler.  The trail went along the north side of the creek for a while, on a narrow bit of land and rock, with rock stairs in a few places, before coming to the first stream crossing.

Looking downstream

We crossed the stream at two places - the first was a little deeper, past my knees, the second was shallower than that.  Between the two crossing we moved from the day-use area into the wilderness.  The Clear Creek Wilderness extends the whole length of the creek in the Coconino National Forest, the trail goes for 8 miles before climbing out of the canyon.  Past the end of the trail (another 20 miles or so) is harder navigation, with some places requiring swimming in the creek between steep canyon walls.  We only went about half a mile past the second crossing, before deciding that the sky didn't look favorable for continuing the trek (unless we wanted to possibly extend our stay in the creek longer than I would prefer...)  

 We could see darker clouds gathering around, as we returned to the first stream crossing, which had a number of large rocks to sit on while we ate our lunch.  The kids went out into the creek and splashed a bit - walking in the water was really nice and cool.  We played until we started hearing thunder.  Not wanting to get caught on the wrong side of the creek if the water started to rise, we crossed and started back towards the parking lot.

We walked about 10 minutes before it started to rain a little, then another 2-3 minutes before the skies opened up and we broke out the raincoats and ponchos (at least those who brought them...).  The rain continued until we got back to the car, by which time it was starting to slow down.  The parking lot didn't get as much rain as the canyon did.  I was quite wet by the time we reached the car.

All in all - a really nice trail and a nice canyon.  Once we got a little ways along the creek on the trail we didn't see any other people, the people up to splash for the day stayed within about a mile of the parking lot.  The rain wasn't a huge problem, it was still pretty warm (in the 80s) so once the rain stopped it wasn't too uncomfortable.

A few lessons learned:

• Waterproof hiking shoes are not the best to wear on a trail with stream crossings.  Reading about the trail it sounded like it was possible to manage the first few crossings without getting in too deep, but the water might have been a little higher.  I didn't really get all the water out of my shoes until I took them off, and even then they were damp 2 days later.
• I didn't prepare for the weather like I wish I had.  I packed more for lazing in the shade than for a thunderstorm.  If we had been caught across the creek and the water rose substantially we might have been there a little while, and we didn't really have supplies for that.  Having at least a tarp would have been good, along with a few more emergency food supplies and fire-making supplies.
• Cool water feels awesome on a hot summer day.

A few more pictures from the trail.  The creek cuts through the red sandstone that makes Sedona so beautiful, so we had pretty red walls to look at through the trees in the creek bed.

R-C Cub Adventure Camp Hammock Camping

Last weekend (Father's Day Weekend) was the annual Pack 653 trip to Cub Adventure camp, the overnight cub scout camp for the Grand Canyon Council.  This was John's last year as a camper, he will be crossing over to Boy Scouts in the spring.  This was Kyle's second year on staff as a Den Chief, helping out the campers in getting around and helping the program staff with activities.   Next year maybe John will join as a Den Chief, and it will be Kyle's last year as a Den Chief before he can be "unpaid staff" at the camp (we have to pay for Kyle to be a Den Chief, and pay for an adult to go along and help out also, so unpaid staff will be an improvement money-wise...).

I did take a lot of pictures, of scouts doing activities, some are posted below.  This year our unit had 2 scouts along without parents, so we setup a tent with just 4 scouts in it (since boys can only share a tent with their own parents).  John joined in that tent, so I didn't have to share with anybody - which made a great opportunity to try out my new hammock.  I picked up an Eagle's Nest Outfitters DoubleNest Hammock for $16 at the REI Garage Sale.  The damage tag said there was a small rip in the hammock, but I couldn't see anything but a snag in one spot.  I wanted to try out the hammock for backpacking, since the hammock parts are easier to pack (and pack around) than a tent - this was a great opportunity since I didn't need to setup a tent for John and myself.  The weather was clear all weekend, with highs in the low 90s and lows around 50.  I had the hammock along for free time napping, with John in another tent I could use it to sleep in.

Sleeping in the hammock worked well after I figured out a few things.  I did bring my sleeping pad in and slept on that in the hammock - quite important since colder air circulating under me caused my back to get cold when I slipped off the pad (and I slipped off the pad a few times the first night.  For the second and third nights I adjusted the tension on the hammock, bringing in more of a sag, and that worked well to help keep me centered and on the pad.  50 degrees did feel pretty chilly in the middle of the night - but the sleeping bad kept me plenty warm as long as I stayed on the sleeping pad.  Since the weather was going to be clear, I didn't setup a tarp over the hammock - which meant that I was up with the sun rise around 5:30 - but I will also say that I had a fantastic view of the stars in the night, through the trees.

The only real fun was on day 3 when I got back to camp to find a stream of ants walking down the suspension lines and through the sleeping bag and everything in the hammock.  They seemed to have taken offense to my setup on one of the trees, so I moved to another pair of trees and shook them out of everything...  I will probably invest in a bug net - there isn't a great need here in Arizona (I didn't notice any bugs at all) other than to catch the little twigs and needles falling off the trees.

The hammock won't work on all trips - winter trips in the desert don't often have suitable trees for hanging from - but I was able to see that it works out.  I didn't have any trouble sleeping, and didn't wake up with any stiff or sore joints like I often do sleeping on the ground.

Christopher Cree runs through the scout camp

John ready for Archery

John on a horse!

Feed Me!!!

Cow skull or tree?

Black River fishing May 2015

Over Memorial day the boys and I joined Troop 653 on the annual fishing trip to the Black River.  The site that they visit (and have visited for the last 15 or so years) is on the White Mountain Apache reservation, about a 4 hour drive from Mesa, with the last 12 miles and 1 hour of that drive being on an unpaved 'road' that would be the first road I've driven that actually requires a high clearance vehicle.  The Suburban ('El Carro Grande') handled the trip to the river just fine, though the last 3 miles involved a 1000 foot ascent and descent and speeds no higher than 5 MPH, with > 10% grade up and down.

The last 12 miles to the campsite

Elevation profile from the highway, crossing the White River then to the Black River

The White River and Black River join up to form the Salt River a little down stream of where we camped.  The main draw of the Black River is great smallmouth bass fishing - and from the number of fish that came back to camp it looks like people had a good time fishing.  I caught 2 small bluegills and one small smallmouth, John caught a small smallmouth - none worth keeping, but enough for us to get invited into the Benevolent Protective Order of the Fish Head.  On the elevation profile, the dip in the middle is the White River, the left side is the Black River and the right side is the highway.  Quite an exciting drive, with big rocks, bumps, and things that would rip parts of smaller cars off...

It was a little chilly over the weekend, especially considering that getting anywhere on the river involved walking in the river.  Highs in the 70s, lows around 40 at night.  Most of the weekend did involve fishing and cooking fish, or playing games in camp.  I don't have a lot of pictures from fishing - not wanting to bring along the big camera and risk it getting wet (something which would have happened).  In the course of fishing I slipped twice and sat down right in the river (generally less than 3 feet deep), and got plenty wet.  The mornings were beautiful, calm air, calm river and bird song to listen to.  No electronic distractions (we were quite a ways out of cell-phone range).  Some wildflowers in bloom in the meadows and along the river.  This being Arizona, even though we were high enough for trees to grow there are still a good number of cactus growing as well, and the prickly-pear were also in bloom.

Looking upriver from camp

Looking downriver from camp

 The camp site (Tick Flat) was right near a fork in the river where there was an island.  The following pictures were taken in the early morning looking down the smaller leg of the fork, where there were more rapids.  One interesting thing to note - the island rose up about 8 feet above the river, yet shows signs that it gets submerged...

Evening looking across the river

Flowers on the hill

The trip was great for being able to just relax.  We didn't have any real wildlife encounters - other than a really annoying bird that perched in the top of a tree near the camp and was calling all night long, making it a little hard to sleep.

Chiricahua National Monument, April 2015

We took a family trip to camp for the weekend in Chiricahua (cheer - i - caw - a) National Monument in south-eastern Arizona about 4 hours drive from home.  Chiricahua is known for rock spires and columns, caused by partial erosion of rocks in the mountains.  There are a lot of hoodoos, and other rock formations which look like people and other things (other than rock...).  It was really pretty interesting to see some of the rock formations, and some of the other things in the park.  The park is a 'sky island' - a group of mountains rising up from the plains, and providing cooler environments at altitude, with a little more water than in the lower grasslands.  So there are more trees, and some species that can't survive in the lower desert, like coatis.  We didn't see any coatis, but we did see plenty of very bold Mexican Jays.  The campground was full of jays that were willing to approach very close to us, steal food from the dogs bowl, steal food from our hands, and generally watch us like little robbers.  I don't have any good pictures of the birds, but there were quite persistent and annoying.

Hoodoos in the park

Being mid April, and some abnormally cool weather in Arizona in general, the days were great for being outside and hiking, while the nights were a little chilly, causing us to turn into the tent pretty soon after dinner.  According to the ranger station, the low temperature on Friday (our first night) was 38 degrees, Saturday was around 70 for a high and 40 for the low.  Both days warmed up very quickly once the sun was up.  The campground is at about 5400 feet elevation, the high point in the park is over 7000.

Saturday morning we took advantage of the shuttle from the campground to the upper parking lot at the Echo Canyon trailhead.  Our plan was to hike back to the campground, a distance of about 7 miles.  We hiked on the following trails back to the campground:

• Ed Riggs trail
• Mushroom Rock trail
• Big Balanced Rock trail
• Heart of Rocks loop
• Sarah Deming trail
• Lower Rhyolite Canyon trail

Along the way there were plenty of sights to see:

Cochise Head formation

Yogi bear checking out a pic-a-nic basket

Steve from the Bloom County comic strip

Cactus in bloom

Horsing around with rocks

Ed Riggs dropped down into a canyon, then we climbed up on the Mushroom Rock trail to join with the Big Balanced Rock trail.  Most of the hike on the Big Balanced Rock trail was in the open - the Horseshoe fire in 2011 burned most of the this area in the Monument, and much of what we saw was charred trees on this trail.  The Big Balanced Rock trail ended at its namesake rock - a 2000 ton boulder balanced on top of a column (and here sticking out of John's head).

Ouch - the weight on my head!

The Heart of Rocks Loop has a number of formations in one place that were interesting:

Kissing rocks

Rock duck on a rock

After the Heart of Rocks loop, we descended back to the campground over about 3 miles - all downhill, with views into the surrounding grasslands, some flowers, and more rocks.  And a lizard sunning on (what else) a rock.

Blending right in

Something is on my shoulders

7.7 miles hiking back to the campground, arriving back in the early afternoon after about 5 hours.  We only explored half of the trails in the Monument on this trip, and may be back to see some of the other sites in the area, like Fort Bowie and Cochise Stronghold.  After the hike, all of the kids were tired of looking at and learning about rocks, so it might be a while before we go to a park based mostly on the rock based scenery...

Welcome to the Trolls Woods

Why???

I'm starting a second blog to hold more of my wilderness encounters, keeping things separate from my deeper thoughts that go on the Shallow Thoughts blog.  The other blog is still there, and will see more work as time goes by, and I explore more.

Here I plan to put more of my preparations for an upcoming planned trip into the Grand Canyon this fall.  I've also been learning about all of the awesome hikes that are available within 2 hours of my home, and lots of possible backpacking opportunities as I warm up for the fall trip.  So, expect lots of pictures, and lots of posts about camping and hiking.

Since I live in the desert, please don't be disappointed when I don't have activities in the woods - our lovely National 'Forests' around here are full of cactus and smaller trees - I figure if the USA can call it a forest, I can still say I'm camping in the woods!  :)

Backpacking in the Superstition Mountains - Second Water

One of my goals for this year is to backpack down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camp at least one night.  Since I haven't done a lot of backpacking I'm working up to that - both in just hiking with elevation changes and in hiking with the backpack full of gear.  This weekend I did a easy shakedown on the eve of John's birthday, taking him a little bit into the Superstition Mountain Wilderness on Friday night, sleeping overnight and then going home early on Saturday.  Neither of us have really gone backpacking before, so I wanted a pretty easy trip for the first time.  John was really excited about making the trip - Kyle was not interested in going so John got an early birthday present of time just with me.

We went in at the First Water trailhead.  I'd hiked along Second Water trail with Elizabeth earlier in the year, an I knew that there were good campsites along the trail after it crosses First Water Creek, so we wouldn't have to walk more than about half a mile.  There would be other campsites about 1.5 miles in, on top of a Mesa in an area called Garden Valley.  Since the forecast was for some wind, I didn't really want to camp in Garden Valley, since it is higher, flat and exposed to the wind.

John was carrying his sleeping bag, pad, clothes and water.  I had the tent, food, cook gear and my sleeping gear.  We walked in without any troubles, and did walk past where we ended up camping -John wasn't ready to stop yet - continuing on for about 1/4 mile more.  At that point, John was getting a bit tired - the weight of the water was causing most trouble so I took that from him.  Since it was a ways to the next camping site we decided to turn back to the big meadow and setup near the back of that area.  There was a tree between us and the trail, we were about 150 feet off the trail, and there was a hill to the east to keep the wind away.

No problems with setting up the tent, and the sun was set by the time we started eating, but it wasn't too dark.  Part of my goal with this trip was to get rid of some freeze-dried food - I don't like all of the sodium in the commercial backpacking food and plan to get more into making and drying my own food for future trips.  Because we had the freeze-dried food, all I brought for cook gear was a kettle, some bowls and utensils - along with a backpacking stove and fuel.  We finished eating and cleaning up before it got really dark - but it did start getting colder pretty fast, and there were a lot of mosquitos.  I haven't had to deal with mosquitos on any trip in Arizona in the last 5 years, this trip they were really out in force.  The Superstition Wilderness is generally a desert area, but there are creeks and we have had rain recently.  While I didn't see water in the creek, I know from experience that there would be pools of water further up in the creek - ideal breeding places for mosquitos.  I was glad for the tent to keep the bugs off us, and somewhat distressed at the number of them that got in while we were getting into the tent...  John was ready to get into the tent right after finishing eating - he was cold, and had been walking around to try and keep warm and to keep the mosquitoes from landing on him.

Asleep by 8pm, warm and cozy in our sleeping bags.  John slept well through the night, though we both were initially a little warm (it had been 78 that day) and then cold.  When the wind did blow, we could feel that through the tent - whether it was coming under the fly and then through the mesh of the tent, or through the vents at the top, I could feel a breeze inside the tent.  It was pretty cold by morning, with a low temp below 50 degrees.  This was the first time camping in the area where I didn't hear coyotes during the night - just birds and crickets - and a surprising number of planes after taking off from Phoenix Sky Harbor.  It is amazing how noticeable the sound of the planes is when the other city noises aren't present.  We were too close to Phoenix to see much more in the way of stars in the sky - and the full moon made it easy to see outside without lights.

We were up a little before sunrise.  Because of the hill to the east, we didn't get sun at our site until about 25 minutes after I first saw the mountains around us illuminated.  The early morning sun on the red and yellow rocks is beautiful, and something worth some discomfort to experience.  A quick breakfast, pack up and we were on our way back to the car around 8AM, reaching the parking lot about 20 minutes later, and getting home by 9AM.

What worked and what didn't
Since this is a bit of a shakedown, I think its worthwhile to look at what gear did its work and what gear didn't - something that will be useful as I move towards my goal of backpacking into the Grand Canyon.

Tent - I used a REI Passage 2 tent.  The tent is small, good for two people, and pretty light.  The only advantage that it had over sleeping on a ground-cloth (for this trip) is that it had mesh to keep the mosquitos out.  The tent is good for summer camping where good ventilation is desired to keep cool, it has a lot of mesh on the sides and doors.  It keeps out rain well (I've experienced that several times now), but doesn't keep out the wind well, or keep heat inside.  For this time of year, and the temperatures I would have preferred less mesh.  Between the temperature in the tent, and my sleeping bag, I was fairly chilly in the morning.  So, works, but I note that I'd want a more closed up tent, and maybe a warmer sleeping bag.

Sleeping bag - Sierra Designs, I'm not sure the model or the temperature rating.  I've had temperature control problems with this bag before - on this trip I was comfortable, then warm, then really cold.  Probably some issues with sweat when I was warm, which then condensed in the bag and decreased its effectiveness.  Based on this trip and some others, I think that its about a 40 degree bag, a little uncomfortable below 50 degrees.  For any real trip I'd prefer a bag that is smaller and lighter - and probably need one with a lower temperature rating.  (It is fairly sad that I was cold on this trip - the forecast for Mesa was a low of 51, in the wilderness and a little higher it probably got down to 48).

Pack - I used a really old Jansport external frame pack.  While we only hiked a total of 1 mile on this trip, I can see it either needs some adjustment, or I need an upgrade.  There was some pressure point on my right hip after about half a mile that would have become really uncomfortable on a longer walk, and the right shoulder strap started a little uncomfortable - but I was able to adjust that (I think).  Lots of room I didn't need on this short trip.  Probably still OK - I'll need to take some longer walks with the weighted pack to make sure it doesn't hurt me.

Stove - I have a nameless IsoButane backpacking stove off Amazon - cheap, small and pretty reliable.  No problems on this trip, it was able to boil 30 ounces of water for coffee/hot chocolate in about 4 minutes.  I did crack the insulator on the ignitor riser, so might expect some trouble in the future...

Clothing - this is a weird time of year in terms of what clothing is needed.  I used everything I brought.  When we started, it was good short-sleeves and shorts weather, changing to long-sleeves weather after dark.  The morning needed a fleece jacket and a warmer hat - John took my gloves.  Most of the bulk in the pack was clothing for the night-time and morning when it would be cold.  By the time we got back to the car I wanted short-sleeves again.

Things I brought and didn't use - I had a small tarp which probably should have been left at home - I didn't expect to need it, and wouldn't have needed it based on the weather forecast unless to act as a wind-block if we weren't sleeping in the tent.  About 1 pound which could have been left.
Water treatment - I brought along a Steripen just in case we got delayed.  We had enough water (even came back with 1 liter) so this was just an emergency item.  Lightweight and small, so not a big problem to carry.  This time of year it isn't too hard to find water in the Superstitions, May and June are a different story...
I had other emergency items which thankfully didn't get used - first aid kit, map, compass, alternate fire-starting means.

This was a fun little trip.  The Superstition wilderness is within an hours drive, and there is a lot of space to explore.  Plenty of overnight routes are available, so it should be easy for me to leave Friday afternoon and return Saturday - even if we do a longer route.  The only problem is that summer is coming - probably another 6-8 weeks of opportunities and then it will be too hot to venture into the wilderness.  Summer camping takes a 2-4 hour drive to get into the mountains, where there are plenty of other trails in the National Forests.  A lot of Arizona is public lands and forests (even if some of the forests are short on trees) - there is a ton of places to explore and should keep me busy for several years.  Hopefully I'll get out to explore a bit more and can post more about those travels as time goes by. (I know, its been 2 years since my last post!)