Hackberry Powerline Closure

[seth_js]

The entrance to the popular Powerline (Hackberry) trail will be closed starting Monday. They are putting up a drill right on the trail at the entrance to the first drop in (before the downhill sheer face). Myself and two friends were coming out on Saturday when they were bringing all the equipment in. We are not sure if the other entrance (further down the paved road from the campground) is still open or not. If it is closed as well, as guess you could still go in off of the 177, but if you ask me, the funnest part of the loop is that very first part, which would then be an out of the way option.

 

[goodtimes]

Personally, the best part of the trail is coming in from the back end of Oak Flats campground.

 

[flyingwil]

I am just glad I got to run it before it closed!

 

[seth_js]

Personally, the best part of the trail is coming in from the back end of Oak Flats campground.

Where exactly is that?

 

[goodtimes]

Hang a left into the campground, go all the way through the campground, and keep on going. Eventually it will dead end into the trail which is now closed (ref: first post in the thread).

 

[flyingwil]

I think that is the camp ground entrance where you end up going down the the slick rock like we did at this years AZROCKS when Chris lead the group.

 

[seth_js]

Hang a left into the campground, go all the way through the campground, and keep on going. Eventually it will dead end into the trail which is now closed (ref: first post in the thread).

That is the portion that I consider the funnest part of the loop. I was saying that you could still do it, but it would be an in and out kind of thing instead.

 

[goodtimes]

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same section of trail or not. There are 4 ways that I know of to get into the valley, one is through the back of Oak Flats campground (you have to literally drive through the campground to get there), 2 more entrances are off of the mine access road (paved), farther south than Oak Flats (but the same access road), one on each side of a hill, and the 4th is off of 177.

On the first attached image:
Yellow = US 60
Black = paved mine access road
Red = bumpy dirt road
Blue = fun part of trail

In the lower left hand corner, are the 2 entrances closest to the mine (entrance1 and entrance2). The last time I was in there (several years ago), they were doing some drilling right below what I have labeled as 'entrance 1', so we went around the hill and used 'entrance 2'. The next day, we came back out through what I consider "the fun part", and ended in the campground, instead of the way we went in the previous day.

The second attached pic is just a view of a larger area (without my virtual crayon scribbling all over it) for reference.

Which of these 3 entrances is now blocked?

 

[Rockcrawler]

Brian,

Is this the area that we were in for the tread lightly training w/ Scott?

 

[Westy]

The trail is now blocked off at the "fun ends" marker, just above where the old pickup truck sits.

I ran it 2 weekends ago...just in time before they blocked the trail. There will still be access but as seth pointed out, running the loops will not be the same anymore. You'll have to backtrack out UNLESS the miners can add a trail in around their machine, much like easier access road from the Magma mine road. Although I believe they blocked this access as well.

 

[seth_js]

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same section of trail or not. There are 4 ways that I know of to get into the valley, one is through the back of Oak Flats campground (you have to literally drive through the campground to get there), 2 more entrances are off of the mine access road (paved), farther south than Oak Flats (but the same access road), one on each side of a hill, and the 4th is off of 177.

On the first attached image:
Yellow = US 60
Black = paved mine access road
Red = bumpy dirt road
Blue = fun part of trail

In the lower left hand corner, are the 2 entrances closest to the mine (entrance1 and entrance2). The last time I was in there (several years ago), they were doing some drilling right below what I have labeled as 'entrance 1', so we went around the hill and used 'entrance 2'. The next day, we came back out through what I consider "the fun part", and ended in the campground, instead of the way we went in the previous day.

The second attached pic is just a view of a larger area (without my virtual crayon scribbling all over it) for reference.

Which of these 3 entrances is now blocked?

We are talking about the exact same spot. Exactly where your "Fun Ends" pin is there is going to be a drill starting today.

 

[seth_js]

The trail is now blocked off at the "fun ends" marker, just above where the old pickup truck sits.

I ran it 2 weekends ago...just in time before they blocked the trail. There will still be access but as seth pointed out, running the loops will not be the same anymore. You'll have to backtrack out UNLESS the miners can add a trail in around their machine, much like easier access road from the Magma mine road. Although I believe they blocked this access as well.

Exactly. We considered contacting the mine company (Resolution Copper) and asking them to give us a bypass, but where the drill is there really isn't room to give an alternate line (right above the old pickup truck on the shelf road).

http://www.resolutioncopper.com/

 

[goodtimes]

Ok, I was thinking you were talking about one of the entrances farther down the paved road (marked "entrance1" and "entrance2").

Well, that about sucks. There is a whole bunch of "bumpy dirt road" if you go in any of the other 3 ways, before you get to the fun stuff. I doubt that you will get Resolution Copper to do anything. They want the whole area closed off to everyone for all of eternity so they can do their block cave mining operation. Last I heard, our governor was going to let them do it.

Kyle, you are correct. This is the area where we did the tread lightly stuff with Scott.