After our little hike to the summit at Picacho Peak Jonah and I felt like some more hiking. We decided to go try a little adventure to a new trail I had been scoping out for a backpack trip with my wife. The trail is To the west of Globe. To get there you take the 287 public access road into the mine off of the highway 60 between Globe and Superior. This road takes you for an adventure that Jonah and I decided my little Ford Focus wouldn't be able to make.
At first we got to a trail and decided to see if it was the one we wanted. After getting our selves wet while crossing through streams and walking for about ten minutes we decided this is not the trail we wanted because the trail we wanted went due west and this trail was not going west at all. It ended up being trail # 403. So we returned and got into the CRV to head back to the 287 and take another fork that maybe would get us there. Yeah it continued to where we wanted to get off and get to the trail. There was a barn and a very large corral at this spot just as the map said. So moral of the story read the map a little bit before because it might save you some valuable time.
Once to the trail head we did a little warming up and decided to hike the real trail. The first 8 minutes we probably hiked about half a mile maybe a little less. We thought gee this will be a very easy quick hike. Did we ever think wrong? We found our first river crossing, did that with ease, and found the trail on the other side. A few more minutes down the road we repeated this process. However we got to the third spot we were to cross and somehow didn't find a good designated trail. We happened to blaze trails that looked like they had been blazed by others. In several spots we just walked along or even through the river. We were traveling through a canyon and basically all we had to do was follow the river. That made finding our way easy, but it became very difficult at times trying to decide which side of the river to walk along or where to cross. At one point we decided to trudge right through the river reaching crotch deep levels of water.
At about the 45 minute mark we decided to get a little concerned about time. we originally started at 2:20 PM thinking it would take us about 45 minutes to reach Oak Flats (~2.5 miles) in. We had not gotten there yet. We decided that by 3:50 if we had not come across the Oak Flats area we would have to stop take a few minutes and rest then head back out in the interest of time. We needed to be back by 7ish for the sake of our lonely wives. Not to mention we wanted to get out before it was really cold and really dark. We kept on trudging though crossing deep waters and hiking with wet clothes.
At about the 3:45 mark I mentioned time and we looked at each other thinking its probably time to turn around and relax for a few minutes. Literally just then as we were giving up and deciding to return we looked to our left and saw a cairn (pile of rocks signifying trail marking). Just a little ways down from there we saw the trail marking for the 212 trail. We looked a little farther on and saw the corral that was supposed to be at the Oak Flats area. We had made it!!! And to think we were gonna give it up and return at the very spot.
It was an incredible view once at the end we enjoyed being there and relaxing for a few minutes before returning. there was a very large camp fire, some large sitting stones, and a couple of large logs to relax on. What a perfect place for camping. It will be tough with the backpacks but will be very doable. After all Katie really enjoyed the pictures and is getting very excited about backpacking in to the campsite.
On our return out we decided to be a little bit better about trying to follow the trail. It made a very large difference because we made it back in about an hour as compared to the hour and a half to get there. With packs and the frequent adjustments we will be having to make I think it will take about 3 hours to get in. I want to take our time: enjoying the view, taking lots of pictures and keeping ourselves energized so that we don't get discouraged.
Back home we went arriving right on time at 7:00 PM. What a better way to exhaust a day than to look at the computer screen. I totally enjoyed that and look forward to going quite a bit more often.
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