Haunted Canyon Backpack

[Arizonaheat]

Arizonaheat left earlier in the week for a multi-day backpack trip, in the Haunted Canyon area, with Tony’s Cabin being base camp. Before the adventure began I had all kinds of ideas in my head that I wanted to accomplish, i.e. Pinto Creek to Reavis Trail, Haunted Canyon Trail to the lower trailhead, Paradise Trail to Bull Basin then back to Tony’s Cabin, to conquer our failed previous attempt exiting via Bull Basin among other things. The worse part about all this is that most of the trails are out and back, no loops.

Departure day came and I made my way down the road to my departure site, the Upper Haunted Canyon Trail. When I left the pavement by Pinto Mine I was quite surprised how wet things were. I made my way down 287 fighting mud and water in places. Soon I was at the turn off for 287A, I made my turn and could immediately see no one had been down the road ahead of me. I really didn’t give this much thought as the road is on a good solid base. About two miles up the road, I came upon a large piece of tree that had broken off and was blocking the road. I was able to move this out of the way and get around it without much problem. I was soon going down a stretch of road that was a muddy mess, uncertain if I was going to make it or not since I only had a 2WD vehicle, but as stated earlier the base was solid and I soon found myself past this section. I really didn’t expect things to be this wet!

Soon I was at the upper trailhead, put on my pack and was off on my adventure. I wasn’t far down the trail when I was greeted with water running down the trail and a nice creek flowing down the drainage along side the trail. There was a good flow all the way to Tony’s Cabin and portions of the trail were a real mess.
When I got to the Haunted Canyon / Bull Basin intersection it was obvious that the Bull Basin trip wasn’t going to happen. To much water flowing down the drainage that is the trail. It should also be noted that the large stock pond that was empty on our December trip was now completely full with water flowing out the spill way. The creek crossings that are necessary to get to the destination were interesting at times, not dangerous, just required some ingenuity to keep the feet dry. I was soon at my destination, and reflected on how nice it was listening to and seeing flowing water on the trip in.

I set up camp about 150 yards from Tony’s Cabin, then it was time to fix something to eat before dark. I ate my meal while being serenaded by the water flowing down Pinto Creek. It was great.

I awoke the next morning, had breakfast then was off on my planned hike to Reavis Trail via Pinto Creek Trail. Well guess what, I wasn’t to far down the trail when I found out this wasn’t going to happen either, unless I was willing to get really, really wet. Water was flowing everywhere imaginable and the trail was submersed, with no dry way around. I didn’t feel like wading so I turned around and returned to camp. I spent the day doing some heavy duty R&R, sitting by Pinto Creek listening to and watching the water, exploring the immediate area around Tony’s Cabin, and I did several hours of clean up and maintenance at the Cabin. The Cabin was in pretty good shape inside, I took everything out of the food storage locker, sorted and reorganized everything, I found a geocache inside one of the food lockers.. Outside was pretty much a mess. Lots of garbage ( I got a lot of it, I know I didn’t get it all), and there was a huge fire ring no more than 10-15 feet from the cabin.( This wasn’t a small controlled camp fire ring, it was a bonfire ring, probably about 4 feet in diameter. I dismantled the ring, got a five gallon bucket and a shovel from inside the cabin and started removing ash from the pit. I removed 60 gallons of ash from that pit ( that is more than a 55 gallon drum of ashes), along with a good amount of unburned trash, egg shells etc. I’m not anti campfire, but lets be responsible, I don’t want to see the cabin burn down.

To make a long story short the rest of the trip turned out to be pretty much R&R, with some mild hiking around the area, there was just way more water than what I had anticipated. I’m not complaining though.
I found one area on the lower Haunted Canyon Trail where there was water gushing out of the side of a cliff into the creek. It was really awesome.

A great time was had, didn’t see another person in three days, the weather cooperated nicely with highs around 60, everything was wet and green, the moon was near full, had the sound of the creek to put me to sleep………..etc. What more could I ask for? Ok, Ok your right, a female companion to share it with, but hey a guy can’t have it all. Besides that would make my Mistress, Lady Superstition, upset with me. Now she knows how to treat a guy!!!!!!!!

[Nighthiker]

Thanks for cleaning the area up at the ranch.

[ck1]

Great Post!
_________________
-Colin

"The Journey is the Destination"

[k9hiker]

The Canine Hiking Club hiked the HC trail on the weekend of 3-15 and 16 starting from the Miles TH, camping at T's cabin and ending at the lower HC TH. We were witness to much of the rain responsible for your wet trip AZHeat.

My friend found this website that keeps track of the flow rate of Pinto creek.
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/az/nwis/current/?type=flow

He saiud "at the measuring station, the flowrate had doubled and the
water level rose a couple inches during our hike out. By 11pm the
flowrate was 20 times higher than when we started, and the height of
the water had risen by a foot!". Crazy!

It was refreshing to see so much water flowing in the creek though.

On a side note, there were a couple of cowboys staying in the cabin when we were there. Said they know the land owners. They were really interesting fellows.
Thanks for beautifying the place. You good dooby you!
_________________
Jamie
Canine Hiking Club of AZ
www.mydog8az.com

[Arizonaheat]

Thanks for the info. I loved all that water and will remember it fondly this summer.
_________________
Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life.