I spoke too soon!
Ryan and I were driving back to Flagstaff yesterday after a weekend spent backpacking through the Tonto National Forest’s Superstition Wilderness Area, and he asked how I thought the weekend went.
Despite an unexpected hailstorm we got caught in mid-hike out, despite the Maricopa County search and rescue team that approached us first thing Sunday morning and despite the high-velocity winds and rains that soaked through the bottom of our tent and into our sleeping pads, I said the trip was great.
“Nobody called search and rescue for us, I didn’t twist an ankle, I didn’t vomit at any point and I didn’t get any blisters. I’d call that a success!”
Except… again. I spoke too soon. I have a MASSIVE blister on the bottom of the ball of my foot that I somehow didn’t notice until this morning.
Regardless, I still think that our past weekend backpacking the Superstitions was a success!
We didn’t get started until about 1 p.m. on Saturday. My younger brother was in the Phoenix area for work and he ended up coming down with a brutal fever, so we drove a little bit out of our way first thing so we could pick him up soup and say hi, from a distance, with masks.
Then we ran a few quick errands before getting to our trailhead.
We (I) decided to hike Canyon Lake Trail. There are two parking lots on Forest Road 78 that lead to the trailhead— we drove through Apache Junction and parked at the lot further from the trailhead, which is more designated for horse trailers. (There were a LOT of horses on this trail.)
We loaded everything up and outfitted Yukon with his pack and GPS collar, and then we were off.
Our trail started at the Dutchman’s Trail Trailhead. We followed Dutchman’s Trail for a bit, then we followed Second Water Trail (#236) for a bit before moving onto Boulder Canyon Trail (#103).
Our hike was a little cloudy to start, but the clouds disappeared quickly and then it was a gorgeous 70-degree day with blue skies.
After about 6.5 miles, once we’d hiked up out of Boulder Canyon, we decided to find a place to set up camp. There were a lot of good places down in Boulder Canyon along the stream, but we loved the view from above and wanted to continue hiking closer to Canyon Lake in the morning, so we decided the vista was a good place to set up camp.
We were a little torn — there were two prime spots really close to each other. One had a gorgeous view of the canyon, and one had a little sliver of Canyon Lake.
We opted for the view of Boulder Canyon.
We set up our chairs and tent, and got out our camp stoves and backpacking meals so we could enjoy dinner along with the sunset.
While we were in Durango last weekend, Ryan had mentioned wanting to stop at the Farm to Summit store to pick up some backpacking meals to try, but they were closed over the weekend.
However, I went online and found out a local rec store in Flag, Peace Surplus, sells them! So I bought one to try.
Highly, highly recommend.
So, back to that whole “search and rescue” thing I teased earlier.
The weirdest experience of the weekend.
Right after I started getting my food ready, we were approached from behind by a random man carrying a backpack and wearing jeans.
He asked us if we knew how far it was to Canyon Lake and how to get there, and also if we had water to spare.
He didn’t have a water bottle or anything. Ryan gave him a cup of water to drink and after we checked to make sure he at least had a source of light, Ryan then took him back to the trail we were on that led to Canyon Lake.
We were both super concerned about him because the sun had just set, but also, there wasn’t much at all we could do for him short of offering to call 911 (most of the trail didn’t have cell service, but there was the tiniest bit of reception out on the vista where we were camped) or getting him back onto his trail. We only had enough water for the two of us and Yukon, and it’s not like we packed an extra tent or sleeping bag or water bladders or anything.
Take this as a reminder: Wilderness Areas are very, very dangerous if you are not prepared.
Anyway, after Ryan escorted the man back to the trail, we crawled in our tent and went to sleep.
The sleep was short-lived. We woke up at about 11 when the heavy winds and rains started. Yukon was very afraid. While he usually sleeps at the foot of our bed, he kept crawling closer and closer to both of us and the edges of the tent. We eventually got him in between the both of us and had to drape our sleeping bags over him and calm him down.
Yukon is afraid of the weirdest things. Fireworks? Fine. Exercise balls? Terrifying. Vacuum? Toy! Heavy winds? Oh heckin nopes!
The winds and rains battered our tent around all night, so neither of us got much sleep due to that and Yukon’s fear.
We woke up at sunrise on Sunday. The weather was so intense that our tent vestibules didn’t really do much at all. My pack was soaked (I didn’t think to put the rain cover on it) and the rain had soaked through the bottom of our tent and into our sleeping pads.
However… the views were totally worth it!
What was rain for us was snow higher on the mountains.
Once the clouds cleared up, we had the most gorgeous view for our morning coffee.
Photos really didn’t do it justice. It was well worth the wind and rain!
We made coffee and broke out our Backpackers Pantry breakfasts.
And… once again… I had just poured a bunch of boiling water into my foil packet and sealed it up when…
“Hello? Hello? We see your tent… is anybody in there?
“…We’re a search and rescue team with the sheriff’s office.”
Again.
Ryan got out of our tent, which was all zipped up again at that point because it was raining on-and-off all morning.
The team asked us if we were two missing hikers (which, no), and then asked if we’d seen anyone who looked like they were struggling (which, yes).
We told them about the man we’d seen the night before and they let us know that, yes — that man did make it down to Canyon Lake (good), and that man had sent out a search and rescue team to look for his two friends that he did not tell us about, who were still down somewhere in the canyon (bad).
Apparently, the three men were searching for the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine, and got lost.
It was cold, windy and rainy, but luckily, temperatures stayed above freezing, so nobody would have died from exposure. It just would have been one hell of a miserable night, since the trail was pretty open — no coves, caves or shelters anywhere along the way.
Again: WILDERNESS AREAS ARE DANGEROUS! PACK AND PREPARE ACCORDINGLY!
We shared contact information with the search and rescue team, wished them luck and went back to coffee, breakfast and Yukon snuggles.
Once we hit a break in the rain, we packed everything up and went back to the trail to finish our hike.
We hiked another mile out toward Canyon Lake. We’d originally planned to hike down to Canyon Lake, but ultimately decided against it because it was cold and rainy, and we didn’t want to hike 700 feet down, and then 700 feet back up just to stand in a parking lot and look at the lake from a level perspective.
We turned around at that point and hiked the 8-plus miles (and 1,400 feet of elevation gain!) back to my Jeep.
The hike back was a slog. The rain came and went, and then eventually turned into hail.
We knew there was rain in the forecast, but the forecast called for a 3/4-inch “drizzle.”
…it was a lot more than a drizzle.
However, I was so glad we didn’t cancel, because I’ve never seen the desert so green and lush. All the saguaros were swollen with water and everything was so vivid and alive.
The hail really didn’t last that long anyway.
Besides, the hardest part of our hike wasn’t even the hail. It was definitely the part where all the rain we’d received turned our actual trail into an uphill stream.
And then a mud pit.
I’d brought Tevas because 1. I like to use them as camp shoes, and 2. I knew there’d be water crossings that were too deep for my hiking boots, but it was pointless to change into them because — even though it was covered in running water — it was still a desert trail, with lots of sharp pokey things.
So, I slogged through in my leather Danners. My feet stayed mostly dry, but Ryan’s trail runners were soaked.
We eventually made it back up to the flat mesa we’d trekked across for the first part of our hike, which was ankle-deep mud.
Also sucked.
But then, we made it out and back to our car.
Remember how I said we parked in the lot further from the trailhead?
I regretted that so much during the last mile of this hike.
We changed out our clothes, loaded up our packs and went straight to Four Peaks Brewing Company.
And that was our weekend! After dinner, we drove back up to Flagstaff, where we had six more inches of fresh snow waiting for us.
Overall, I absolutely loved this trip. The Superstitions exceeded my expectations — and while the rain sucked to sleep through and hike in, I couldn’t believe how vivid and alive everything was on our hike.
There’s nothing like a hike through a mountain range to make you feel small and insignificant.
Until next time!
