TR: MercOphir Canyon Trail

[BruteForce]

Decided that since its going to continue rain:snow for the forseeable future, I'd take today off and scout out Ophir Canyon (now named <by> MercOphir Canyon Trail).

Still quite a bit of snow up top, in some places well over 3' of hard-packed snow. I found out how deep it was when I stepped in a hole covered by snow and literally found myself sitting and the legs fully outstretched on rocks deep below! :-?

I parked and staged at Sunshine Canyon and decided to explore a nearby trail heading North/East.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this canyon just kept climbing and heading into the mountain. About 1/2 way up, I surprised a huge herd of deer and parked to snap a few photos:





From this point, I turned around and proceeded North toward Mercur Canyon Road, crossed it and continued past the Airsoft gaming area and continued onward toward what I'll now call MercOphir Canyon trail.





At this point, there wasn't much snow but I was starting to see signs that the snow would become problematic.

Did I mention that I only had 2 miles clocked on this brand new ATV before embarking on this scouting trip? What an awesome machine!

At any rate, I continued Eastward up into the canyon and the snow continued to get deeper. Fortunately, it was hard-packed and I easily rode over the top of 1' of packed snow until almost 3/4 of the way toward the top. At this point, the snow was now 1-3' packed in spots and was quickly becoming more difficult to plow through.



Again, I continued to plow through, but at this location, it was simply too deep and I was stuck.




I then decided to place a geocache at this location, entitled: First Tracks on the MercOphir Trail . In a spot near the geocache placement, I sunk into a hole well past my knee. The snow is still really deep out here!




All-in-all, it was a great ride on the only day where we haven't seen snow, rain or high winds (or all at the same time). With the amount of snow up there, the ATV/Geocaching event will need to probably be pushed until May or another location determined.

[accadacca]

Cool report!

This time of year drives me crazy with all the snow on the trails. Grrr

[tokmik]

That is so cool..... nice pictures!

Wish i could go there, i love snow.



arizona canyoneering