Moments in Dirt and Ink

Apache National Forest (map link) I wanted to hike the Tige Rim and was told the road should be good enough if you pick your rocks carefully. Turns out, there were two spots that I was a little worried I only got past because I was going downhill. One rolling solid rock piece of road with a very narrow, large rock covered bypass was bad enough that it stuck in the back of my mind throughout the hike as I worried about how I would safely get up it. Everything was soft sand shortly before I got to the parking just over the state line in Arizona, but the actual parking area was good enough. My first order of business was the distraction of a state line marker, or so I thought, just south of the road. Black Mesa Forest Reserve boundary post no. 48 from 1902. Cool, a forest reserve post. I realized it wasn't marked "MP" and a number like a few to the south. Then again, those are 41 and 42 and then just about the right amount of space to fill in 43-47 in between. The...

Apache National Forest (map link) How, I ask you, how could I pass up a trail to Dangerous Park? I found it passing by Black Bull Peak and decided that would be a reasonable goal to propel me to walk along Dangerous Park Trail beside Dangerous Park Canyon through the actual Dangerous Park. Although what exactly was Dangerous Park, I wasn't sure, but suspected it was either where there was a coral or the flat bit before that. My vote is the flat bit south of the coral. The Dangerous Park Trailhead is at the far end of Pueblo Park Campground next to a different coral. So I passed through the gate, then around some fencing through the coral even though there was a second gate on offer. It was a closed ranch gate with barbed wire on the holding loop and I didn't feel like dealing with it. Then it was just the same as the interpretive trail for about 200 feet where it forks and this time I went right. It climbs to gain some views over the first mile. Surrounded by tree...

Apache National Forest (map link) I decided to start out small and since I was camping right next to the trailhead, it was easy to find the interpretive trail in Pueblo Park Campground. (Maybe soon to be a fee campground, but free for now.) The box held a single well used, one time repaired, brochure with a long note about how it is the very last one, so do not, under any circumstances, keep it. (The brochure is titled: Trail to the Past... Prehistoric and Historic Settlement in the Pueblo Creek Area. It is a Gila National Forest publication since they are in administrative control of this part of Apache.) It said just follow the mounded cairns and stop at the numbered signs, but I found the map on the second page necessary in a few spots. I even started off following the faint track of an old road before noting and calibrating to the cairns going up a path to the left. Right, those big mounded rock piles of cairns. From there, I was set through the first couple stops. A notic...

Apache National Forest Click for map. I decided Timmy should get a little stroll out to the lake. I don't want it to be too late in the day because the poor boy seems to start feeling the heat around 70°F with all that fur. It's the same start on Largo Trail #14 as before, and this time I'll get those benchmarks along the way. When the road tops out on a little hill, it'll be time to turn down a use trail and wander toward the lake. Following the road, driveway really. The overlook is above, but we'll not go that far. The little bit of use trail at the top of the tiny hill. Timmy knows benchmarks are boring. He gave it a sniff at least.

Apache National Forest Click for map. What struck my fancy to hike while at Quemado Lake was Escondido Mountain, although I'm not sure how one can get away with calling a 1800 foot prominence peak "hidden" is beyond me. It has no trails up it, so I have to determine my own route. Escondido Trail caught my eye first, but it really doesn't go high up the mountain and it doesn't do it on one of the steeper slopes. The road it starts from looks like a better bet, follow it up as far as it goes then grab the ridge tot the right. The easiest way up, though, looks like a 4WD road that starts further south on the (should be) Scion friendly Baca Road #13D. This one climbs high up to a saddle west of the peak leaving less than a mile of ridge walking to the top. Although it means a couple miles road walking on something I can drive, I think I'll combine the two into a loop. I just have to find parking near the intersection of 13D and 4018J, which is pretty eas...

Apache National Forest Click for map. It's probably about time I made it out of Gila National Forest, but I didn't get all that far. I decided to hike up to yet another lookout from Quemado Lake and whatever else might catch my fancy. Hey, lookouts should have grand views. It's nice to be away from burn warnings, although I have spotted a few around looking exactly the same as the Gila ones, right down to the "Gila National Forest" at the bottom. I might be in Apache, but only the oldest signs say so. The area is administered by Gila. And it's smoky. It wasn't smoky yesterday when I sat and wrote, but now my view is grey. I sure hope it clears out by the time I get to the top. The trail starts at the west end of the first unit of El Caso Campground. (This campground is free. The two closer to the lake are pay, but come with much better views.) It is signed Largo Trail #14 and starts off along a pair of ruts that are the driveway for an inholding ...