superstition wilderness

[goofball]

spent a few days bp'ing here over spring break. never been to arizona for hiking before and damn glad we went. VERY pretty. a different flavor than the utah-centric mode i've been in for so long. felt very stuck most of teh time though, off trail is not much of an option here but in limited pockets. too many spiny things to poke and rip flesh and clothing. we caught it at the tail end of perfect i think. lots of blooming flowers but no cactus blooms. plenty of water, never more than a couple miles or so w/out seeing it in abundance. it was a very wet winter though. we put in at canyon lake along the boulder canyon trail and camped east of marsh valley and white rock spring day one. day 2 we looped east from there along the dutchmans trail to bluff spring and terrapin trail, up and over the geronimo shortcut to the peralta trail, then back to camp via upper black top mesa pass and the dutchmans trail again. *whew* we didn't want to be stuck w/ nothing to do but sit in place to finish the day, since off trail was not a pretty option. then day 3 we head out along the dutchmans trail, over bull pass to teh black mesa trail, up and over to the second water trail and then boulder canyon trail again to finish at canyon lake. had a blast !

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562894820arRjjO

heading in along boulder canyon trail, the ever present weavers needle in the background




camp




weavers needle




poppys and cactus (decaying)

[Brewhaha]

Gorgeous!

[RedRoxx]

Welcome to near my neck of the woods. Off trail---difficult to do in some places but a lot of us do so and leave a lot of skin and blood to prove it.

[goofball]

thats a pretty neck of the woods down there it is. i would really like to hit some more southern stuff but have heard it is like the wild west w/ all the illegals coming across. have heard some scary stories and don't want to to have to hurt or, more importantly, get hurt if it came to that. are encounteres w/ illegals all that common ?

[RedRoxx]

I've done quite a bit near the border and a lot of it solo. I have never had any problems. But others do, from broken in cars, to being robbed etc. I've "run" into more than a few illegal immigrants in my hikes, no problems. The drug runners are the ones you don't want to accidentally cross. I've been lucky so far. I've driven and hiked a lot off the El Camino Del Diablo, the Chiricahuas and the Huachucas, all near the border.

I just returned from a solo 3 day in the Galiuro Mountains, saw nary a soul. Hard to do that sometimes in the Supes.

[Shan]

Awesome photos!