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| Hiking | 27.15 Miles |
5,883 AEG |
| | Hiking | 27.15 Miles | 12 Hrs | | 2.86 mph |
| 5,883 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 30 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I really like the Sheep Bridge area, but the drive is a pain. The road from the 24/269 intersection was in better shape than the last time I took it. A lot of the minor rock steps were gone. I think the recent rains deposited a lot of dirt on the road and evened out the rock steps. The Tangle creek was flowing a bit higher than usual.
Two unusual/interesting/weird events happened this day. One was at the start and the other was at the end of the hike.
Just as a started hiking on the bridge a helicopter landed on the beach!! At first I was thinking it was a rescue, but the helicopter was not police or SAR. Neither the pilot nor the helicopter had any official markings. The pilot stood in the river with some device taking readings or pictures. I thought about asking for a ride to a remote spot in the Mazzies, so I could do a one-way hike back  . Maybe the other end of the Verde River trail.
Now for the hike:
The original plan was to hike to the Willows Spring / Midnight Mesa intersection as an out and back. The Willows spring is well defined and in good shape, but now it's obscured with the tall grass. It took me much longer than expected to reach the Mountain Spring area. I checked out the Mountain spring and the water looked yucky  with algae. The spring itself is shaded with tall trees.
The Willows spring trails gets nicer past the Mountain spring. There were 5~6 foot cairns leading the way up a saddle. The Mazzies make you work hard, but they reward with amazing views. I was past my turn around point, but the trail and views were so nice that I couldn't bring myself to turn-around  . I'm pretty sure I turned around at the Lost Spring trail. I either missed the sign or the sign was missing.
Since I fell short of hitting the Midnight Mesa trail ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") , I returned on the Dutchman's Grave trail aka the Mountain Spring loop. About a 1/2 mile down the Dutchman's grave, I found a 5 point elk antlers by a tree  .
There's a little bit of route finding on the Dutchman's grave trail. I personally like the Willow Spring trail better.
I returned to the Sheep Bridge in the dark. I did notice that most all of the creek was dry. I was hoping to see waterfalls and gushing water like people have been seeing by Eastern side of the Mazzies.
Now for the 2nd unusual/weird event of the day. As I got closer to the Verde River I could see a pair of tail lights on the road. They were parked for a long time. At first I thought it was someone setting up camp. After a bit the lights moved a bit. Then the road was out of sight and then I stopped seeing the lights. When I hit the sheep bridge, I saw a pair of tail lights right next to my Jeep. Something seemed odd about the tail lights. Then it dawned on me, it was a sedans tail lights! It was a Nissan Altima!
When I got to my Jeep, a young kid came out with a crude hand drawn map of the Verde River. He asked if he could hike on banks of the Verde. I was tired / confused and weird-ed out. I told him to wait till morning and just hike on the Verde trail.
He told me that it took him all day to get to this point. He had tried to drive over the Horseshoe Dam and was turned away. He was going to spend a couple of days at the Sheep Bridge.
Then it gets better. All of a sudden he starts yelling *!?*  , *!&@ . He locked his keys in the running car. He had to bust out the passenger window to get back in the car.
There's more, but I digress...  |
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"Everywhere is walking distance...If you have the time"
-Stephen Wright |
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