Apache National Forest

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I decided to post up this trip report although it has been months since I completed it. I posted it on Spot Adventures, but I never did take the time to put it up here. Why? Probably because it's a well traveled route, and I felt a little silly posting about a single night trip on ExPo. The recent talk about the decline in trip reports made me have a change of heart. If any of this simple "car camping" trip can serve to inspire anyone here, I would like it to be read.

 

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I threw this trip together a week before my wife and I would be escaping the Tucson heat by joining my In-Law's at a cabin in Pinetop. I was excited to test out the new (to me) RTT I had recently purchased. I built some brackets so I could mount the tent on our stock Nissan Xterra's roof rack. It mounted nicely, so I transferred the fridge and other "essential" camping gear into the Xterra and we were on our way.

I had gone over my usual camping checklist. I left off buying the food and a couple other items since we would have a couple days at the cabin. We did our shopping and enjoyed the cooler weather while at the cabin. The only complaint was the constant rain. It's was nice at the cabin, but not so nice for the trip to come.

 

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Day 1 (July 25th 2010)

We departed the Cabin around 10:00 AM, all packed up and ready for our first adventure with the Xterra and the RTT. Heading east on Hwy 260 it was evident that rain was still in the forecast.

The forest roads on the way to the campsite were in good shape. Water filled potholes were the only thing that reminded us we were off pavement. We reached the campgrounds around noon and drove the whole stretch so we could find the spot we liked the best. We got lucky, because the best spot we found was wide open waiting for us. We set up camp and it was looking good. I didn't know it at the time, but this would be one of the few things I got right on this trip.

 

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We explored the area a bit. I took a lot of pictures of the wildlife and plants (a bit of a novelty for a desert rat like myself.)

Both of us settled back into our camp chairs and enjoyed the Black River flowing behind us as we read our books. What I didn't know was the rain was getting ready to start again. The firewood in the area was already soaked through, but I was confident that I would be able to get something going. I admit that I was completely unprepared for how difficult that was going to be... too bad my wife was along with me for this one.

 

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Getting late in the day, and now raining, I went to fire up my lantern. It wasn't a welcome surprise to see the mantle ripped clean through. I realized as soon as I saw it, that I meant to pickup extra mantles but had forgotten to put them on my shopping list in Pinetop. To add to the mounting problems, the picture perfect spot I parked the Xterra at turned out to be the lowest elevation of the spot, so we were forced out of the changing room / pond under the tent and into the back of the vehicle. My spirits where pretty low at that point. I needed some dry wood to salvage this trip. That would bring our next adventure.

 

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We decided that we would purchase some dry wood from the campsite host, so I could try and salvage this debacle. He was located about a mile up the road, so we set out on a hike.

Luckily, the rain had died down. We returned with dry wood, ready to go. Without any kindling available, I resorted to burning my wife's magazine and shavings I cut from the dry wood to try and get the fire started. I still wasn't having any luck.

I finally got something resembling a fire going around 7:00 PM. It wasn't roaring yet, but looked like it would... an hour later we sat in the dark without even an ember to blow on. We were mildly comforted by the fact that our neighbors were having the same troubles we where. Misery loves company I guess. It was just too wet. Out came the backup plan and I started the camp grill and cooked dinner by headlamp. We ate our food, had a beer, and listened to the sounds of Bach from a neighbor playing classical guitar. A bad day camping still beats a good day in the office.

 

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Day 2

I woke to the sound of the river and couldn't have been happier. I slept better than I ever have while camping. I love this tent!

I started on breakfast: pancakes, and eggs. Instead of carrying eggs to make pancake batter, I used Organic Batter Blaster. It was looking and smelling fine, but I forgot a spatula and my backpacking pans are the opposite of non-stick. I cooked half of a pancake and decided that they would have to wait. So, it was down to just scrambled eggs out of a carton. They turned out much better although a little bland from lack of salt that somehow found its way out of my gear.

We packed up camp and got ready to hit the road. I said goodbye to our neighbors and their sixteen and a half year old Shepard mix. With everything ready to go, we continued south driving past fishermen already busy working their favorite spots on the river.

 

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It was more well-maintained forest and county dirt roads on our way out until County Rd 574. It didn't look how I envisioned, so I ended up driving right past it the first time. I took a side road and looped back to it. The entrance was marked with a barbed wire cattle fence with a simple note to close the gate after you. Simple enough, we pushed on.

Shorty after heading down the first stretch we ran into a man-made obstacle.. It was a mound of dirt formed into a four foot high speed bump of sorts. I accepted the challenge even though with the stock SUV it would have been smarter to find another route. The break-over angle the mound created was enough to scrape the underside of the Xterra but not high center it. Down the trail we went. Dodging downed trees and finding the overgrown road(?) became an art form, so not to damage my wife's daily driver.

We encountered a handful more mounds on my way through and barely made it over each, until I came upon the challenge of the trip. The trail right before this one was covered in mud from all the rain. I tried all sorts of lines over the obstacle, but each time I would get high centered and loose traction. All told we spent twenty minutes trying to get over the mound my truck wouldn't bat an eye at. A combination of well placed logs, momentum, and throttle ended up getting us over. My off-road pride remained intact.

BTW: This was not the mound that almost forced us to turn around.

 

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From there on, the remainder of the trail was short and easy. We were on Hwy 191 flinging mud and heading south quickly.

It was nice to get on the paved road with the cool wind coming through the window. We made a stop at Blue Vista lookout for a beautiful view. Then, the sky opened up again. It was white knuckle driving down the twisty mountain roads for the next 50 miles.

 

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We stopped at the lookout before driving into Morenci to take a picture and take a break from what could be described as a motorcyclists dream. It was a picturesque spot, but you can't help but notice the eyesore of Morenci's open pit copper mine creeping into view. I was astonished by how breathtakingly awful the mine was. Miles went by of cavernous pits that make the gigantic dump trucks look like ants. I looked over at my wife and jokingly said, "Do you think they'll fill it all in when they're done?"

It was a long uneventful drive home until I had an idea...

 

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I originally planned on entering the Tucson area by way of San Manuel and driving through Reddington Pass (The gap between the Catalina and Rincon Mountains.) I later scrapped the idea thinking it might be too much. I changed my mind after realizing we would be entering the Tucson area around rush hour on a Monday. The location of our house makes for plenty of city driving by coming in on 77. If we took Reddington Pass, it could cut down on the stop and go.

My GPS battery had called it quits before we arrived in San Manuel. I no longer had a car charger for it since one of my dogs lovingly customized it for me, so I was flying blind. I wasn't worried since I reviewed the route before heading on the trip. I didn't print any maps of this area out either, since it was so close to home... Classic mistake, I picked the wrong dirt road.

It started heading in the right direction toward the pass, so I didn't think anything was wrong. The better part of an hour in and I started thinking, "this road better start curving east." It didn't. It became clear to me that this old mining road was going to link up with the old Mt Lemmon Hwy (an old Jeep trail up the backside of the mountain.) We were pretty much committed by that time. It would have been about an hour to get back to Hwy 77 and about the same to get started on Reddington Rd. Up the mountain we went.

My wife, knowing we would have another hour descent off of the mountain after arriving at the top another thirty minutes away, was understandably upset. We had been in the Xterra for seven hours at this point and she was ready to be home. We hit the end of the trail near the top of the 9000 ft + mountain. I asked my wife, "Do you want to go all the way to the top?" Bad timing on my part... it was a quiet vehicle the rest of the way home on more twisty mountain roads.

 

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Reflection

For our following adventures, I decided to make some changes:

1.) Food planning, packing, and camp kitchen equipment / implements have been turned over to my wife. I will only regulate size and weight restrictions for her planning. My days of solo backpacking and minimalist attitude will not make for a happy household anymore, so this will ensure future adventures together.

2.) A new GPS car charger will be purchased for the Xterra and my USGS maps will be printed. When it's early in the day exploration is fine, but when it's getting to be late in the day, the exploration mode needs to turn more toward proper route selection.

3.) I will research more about wet weather camping. As a leader you're suppose to train toward your deficiencies. Camping under anything other than desert conditions would be one of mine.

Obviously many things went wrong for us on this trip; however, much had been gained by the spontaneity of it. Adhering to a strict travel plan / schedule would have taken much of the adventure out of what in all reality is a well traveled route. That's how adventure is created! Many little things that went wrong may have made the journey less glamorous, but are payed back many times over with fun stories on an otherwise easily forgettable trip. This trip was a controlled learning experiment that makes me look forward to many more future adventures.

 

[Wes Craiglow]

Great trip report, and great pics. Thanks for sharing.

And I really like your retrospective on the trip; sort of a "lessons learned" corner. (Especially about keeping the wife happy! One to remember for sure! ) I think I might begin making notes like this about trips I take... in the Army we never do a thing w/o an AAR: After Action Review. Great concept.

Thanks again!

wc

 

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Thanks!

sort of a "lessons learned" corner.

Exactly.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

-Albert Einstein

 

[SmoothLC]

We stopped at the lookout before driving into Morenci to take a picture and take a break from what could be described as a motorcyclists dream. It was a picturesque spot, but you can't help but notice the eyesore of Morenci's open pit copper mine creeping into view. I was astonished by how breathtakingly awful the mine was. Miles went by of cavernous pits that make the gigantic dump trucks look like ants. I looked over at my wife and jokingly said, "Do you think they'll fill it all in when they're done?"

Wow - that is a big area and I live next to one of the larger open pit mines.

Bingham Canyon Mine