Thanks to Scott for his leadership and friendship on this trip! As a first timer on an Expedition Portal trip, I was very impressed with the people who attended. It was a great group to spend a three-day trip with!
I had the opportunity to haul Scott's Jumping Jack tent trailer on the trip. It tows very well both on and off highway. Even in rough conditions it stayed pretty close to the track I intended it to take. It's also easy to setup and very comfortable to snooze in.
Friday:
The trip started at the Ft. Whipple Museum in Prescott. It's well worth the visit! The historical items were varied, and included some Civil War era carbines and a 50's era ‘lectro shOck therapy machine. Ft. Whipple is currently the site of a VA Hospital and the Prescott National Cemetery.
I was very surprised to find that Scott's research showed the Overland Trail skirted around the headwaters of the Verde near Paulden, AZ. and crossed Hell Canyon a few miles to the northeast. The hiking team headed out for a 2-mile walk in 100+ degree heat! We met them on the opposite side of the canyon, and headed east on the Drake road to CR73 that heads to Williams, AZ. We stopped at Bandit trailhead, and then headed to Bear Springs. From Bear Springs the Overland Trail heads up to Summit Tank. This was part of the Sheep herding trail – We missed seeing a Basque Shepard and about 300 head of sheep on White Horse Lake road (they came thru my neighbors camp on Friday at the Summit Trail head!). We made camp in darkening skies and had a few hours of light showers Friday night. Still, we managed to have a nice fire and a couple hours of good relaxation.
Saturday:
After breakfast Sat morning we played for a short time in a cinder pit, then headed to the historic CCC camp sight. From there we dropped the hiking crew off at Dead Horse Tank. They started out about 10:00 AM on a trek following the original Overland Trail route to Dow Springs via Pomeroy Tanks. Those of us not hiking attempted to parallel the route to Pomeroy Tanks as close as possible. We stopped to check out the tanks – a short hike revealed some very large pools of water in a beautiful canyon. We then headed to Dow Springs to have the second group of hikers head in to join the intrepid group from Dead Horse Tank. Mike and Al headed out to do some Geocaching, and upon their return I headed out with the Jumping Jack trailer to get a start on the group since it was starting to rain and the terrain is a bit rougher than the rest of the trail. The area is famous for it's greasy clay, we got to see about 6 miles of increasingly slick travel in a moderate monsoon shower. Fortunately, the storm moved off to the west in time for us to setup a great camp near Scott Springs off FS231.
Sunday:
The morning was cool and cloudy as we headed into Flagstaff to the site of Old Town Springs – the original northern starting point of an 8 to 10 day journey from Flag to Prescott via the Overland Trail. The day finished with temps getting hotter than expected – it was a little humid to boot.
After driving home I spent about an hour with a hose loosening mud from the truck, and it still took $8.00 in quarters to finish cleaning the Taco and trailer. The sticky, sticky stuff with pine needles in it turned into an adobe like substance…
I didn't take a lot of pic's, but here a few of the one's I did.
Later!
Mark
