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| Hiking | 10.25 Miles |
1,655 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.25 Miles | 6 Hrs 32 Mns | | 1.67 mph |
| 1,655 ft AEG | 24 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I’m posting this 32 months after my trip. I must have gotten distracted right after the hike. My plan was to hike down the Bob Bear trail to the intersection with the Mail Trail, first turning left down the canyon as far as the old dam site, then back up to the intersection and a ways up the Mail Trail.
I arrived at the parking lot at 8 am on a cool Friday morning and was the first car at this popular location. There is an outhouse at the lot.
You can tell this is a popular and problematic trail due to all the signage at the trailhead. All the information is about rescue. The trail down starts out super wide and super easy. In a short distance, the road suddenly ends and turns into a trail. People say this is no shade on this trail. It is not continuous, but there is quite a bit, especially some old juniper trees.
As I arrived at the intersection with the Mail Trail, I started my hunt for some geocaches. I couldn’t find the premium cache near the junction, and headed downstream to an EarthCache at a spring, then on down to the cache at the old dam site. There are the remains of beautiful gardens at the old dam site. I found irises and tulips.
Returning to the intersection with the Mail Trail, I found the trail register, where recently hikers reported taking the Mail Trail as a bypass on the Arizona Trail. There is a sign marking the trail as a dead end. I hiked upstream to where I thought the Mail Trail should cross Fossil Creek, leaving the trail along the creek, but could not find any evidence of the trail on the other side.
As I returned on the climb back up the Bob Bear Trail, I encountered several guys with chainsaws cutting back the brush from the wide part of the trail. They said they were cutting it back so the ambulances could get down. This is crazy. Just crazy. That is why I prefer wilderness trails in Arizona. |
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