September 22, 2002

"Four Peaks Sake"

Although we had a lot of things planned for the month of September, including a solo trip to San Francisco, a baby shower, and lots of skydiving, John and Mary and I still found time to do a little bit of day hiking during the weekend. Sunday, September 22 was a perfect day for hiking. The temperature in Phoenix was going to be in the 90's, and we didn't have anything else going on that day. When he began to look for something for us to do that day, John suggested that we try to get a new wilderness area…and he came up with the perfect idea. "I think we should do Four Peaks," he said. Oh, no! I thought. Not Four Peaks! Not that road again! It had been just over two years - September 17, 2000 - since our last attempt to cross over the top of Four Peaks, and we had nearly destroyed the under carriage of the van doing so! Having successfully traveled over Four Peaks once before - in April 1999 - we were in for a surprise when we discovered that the road had suffered a lot of erosion and was severely rutted and worn. After being bounced around mercilessly for several hours, we eventually made it to SR 188, only to discover that we had damaged the carrier bearing on the van. We limped to the Mazatzal Rest Area, at the junction of SR 188 and SR 87, where we called AAA for a tow truck. Needless to say, my memories of the road over Four Peaks are not good ones, and I was not looking forward to making that trip again…even if we did have a Jeep Grand Cherokee! John tried to assure me that it wouldn't be that bad; he told me that his parents had recently made the trip in their own Jeep, and they had told him that the road wasn't so bad anymore. I reluctantly agreed to the trip, but I still wasn't looking forward to it! So, on Saturday morning, September 22, the three of us got up early and left the house at 7:00 a.m. to begin our day's adventure on Four Peaks. Unfortunately, it took us a little longer to get out of town than we had planned, because John forgot to pack the baby backpack! He dropped me off at the grocery store to buy film for the camera, and while I shopped, he went back home to retrieve what we had forgotten. When we met up again, fifteen minutes later, everything was finally in order, so we got underway once again. The plan for the day was to drive to the Lone Pine Trailhead, where we would hike a four-mile loop trail on the Four Peaks #130, Amethyst #253, and Browns #133 Trails. Of course, the big adventure would be getting to the trailhead. To get to Four Peaks, we took SR 87 north to Four Peaks Road (FR 143), which is marked with a sign indicating "Four Peaks". From the turn-off, it is 18.8 miles to El Oso Divide, and another 1.3 miles after that to the Lone Pine Saddle Trailhead. We anticipated that travel along Four Peaks Road would be slow-going, especially through Mud Spring, where the road was supposed to be at its worst…or at least it was the last time we were there! I guess that was why we were greatly surprised to see that the road had been maintained over the past year! When we reached the area near Mud Spring, John put the Jeep into low-gear and prepared for the worst, only to find that the rocky, rutted road had recently been maintained. A good portion of the rocks had been pushed to the side of the road, leaving us with only a slightly bumpy ride. In fact, the entire road had been maintained. The road between Mud Spring and El Oso Divide had once been very rutted, mainly due to erosion from flooding. (From what, I could only venture to guess, because it couldn't have been RAIN!) Now, it was smooth again, with only a little bit of the typical wash-boarding that one would find on any all-weather forest road. Mary and I didn't get jostled at all. In fact, the trip up the mountain was so pleasant that I wouldn't mind going up there again! We reached the Lone Pine Trailhead around 9:45 a.m. While Mary ran around the trailhead parking area, collecting rocks to throw, John and I prepared for our hike by making sure that we had plenty of water to drink, plenty of snacks and food for lunch, and, most importantly, plenty of sunscreen on our skin. The areas in which we would be hiking were very exposed, having been burned in the Lone Pine Fire in 1996, so we probably weren't going to have much in the way of shade on this trail. At 10:00 a.m., with Mary on John's back in her backpack, we began our hike on the Four Peaks Trail #130, along which we had some very nice views of Lake Roosevelt. (From high up on the mountain, though, we could see just how low the lake was; Roosevelt was only at about 30% of its capacity, because of the long drought.) Almost immediately, we entered into the Four Peaks Wilderness Area, making that our twenty-ninth wilderness area explored (nearly one-third of Arizona's wilderness areas!)…and Mary's tenth wilderness. The Four Peaks Trail started out as a very pleasant hike that followed a ridgeline along the flanks of the mountain range as it headed northeast towards the junction with the Amethyst Trail, about 1.3 miles later. At an elevation of 5600 feet, the trail was lined with a mixture of pinion and oak trees at first, later giving way to more desert-like foliage as we entered into the more exposed areas. Among the burnt trees, passed through grasses and short shrubs, plants which had taken over since the fire. Upon reaching the burned area, I suddenly realized why John had chosen that trail in particular. "You just wanted to see all the burnt trees!" I exclaimed, remembering how much he had enjoyed the Rim Trail #139, in the burned Sierra Ancha Mountains. (His father had joked with him about being obsessed with burnt wood after that hike.) "YES!" he replied, and we both laughed. It only took us about forty-five minutes of easy hiking to reach the Amethyst Trail #253 - a three-mile long trail that climbs 1,100 feet to the Amethyst Mine - but we would only be going as far as Browns Saddle, about 1.5 miles away. There, we would take the Browns Trail #133 all the way back to the trailhead. The Amethyst Trail is one that is ranked as more difficult…and we would soon find out why. The Amethyst Trail begins as a very rocky, steep climb uphill. From the trail junction to Browns Saddle, the trail gains about 700 feet over a mile and a half (roughly). The entire trail is exposed as it climbs up the flanks of the mountains, through areas that were severely charred in the Lone Pine Fire. In fact, only part of the trail has been cleared away since the fire. About halfway up the trail, we came to the point where the forest service had stopped clearing away debris. We found their cache of tools along the trail, under canvas, and from that point on, we found ourselves stepping over fallen logs every few feet or so. We did managed to find a few shady spots along the trail, where we could stop to take breaks and catch our breath after the long climb uphill. We also gave Mary the chance to get out of her backpack and stretch her legs, although there wasn't much room for her to run around on the rocky trail! We took two fifteen-minute breaks along the trail at first, because it was just getting to be too much of a climb for me. Then, after nearly an hour of non-stop climbing, we sat down and had lunch, so that we would have enough energy to push for the top of the climb… …which, to our surprise, was only fifty feet away from the spot where we had lunch! D'oh! "I told you we would be having lunch at the trail junction!" John announced as soon as the junction was in sight. From the trail junction, the Browns Trail began to descend gently through an area shaded with oak trees, making it the most pleasant part of our day. The most difficult part was behind us, and all we had left to hike was about one mile of easy trail. So why didn't we choose to start on the Browns Trail and do the trail as a counter-clockwise loop? It would have been a much easier climb for us, as the grade was not nearly as steep as the Amethyst Trail. However, descending on the Amethyst Trail would have been just as difficult as ascending because of the steep grade. Sometimes, it is just easier to go up on the steep trail than it is to come down! Just minutes after we started hiking the Browns Trail, we heard a loud swoosh overhead. We looked up in time to see several fighter jets pass overhead on a training mission. One of them even buzzed Lake Roosevelt. John and I stopped to watch them then continued onward. It was on the Browns Trail that we gave Mary a chance to hike on her own, but despite the ease of this trail, she did not do very well this time. She fell down several times, and each time she got up, she insisted on being carried. While Mary was riding on John's shoulders, we passed by a father and his three year-old son, and we pointed out to her that "that little boy" was hiking. "That's okay," the father said, "I usually have to carry him, too!" The Browns Trail continued to descend gently all the way back to the trailhead. Just minutes after leaving the wilderness area, around 1:30 that afternoon, we found ourselves back at the Jeep…only to be greeted by a pretty woman holding a beer! Well, not really. As we arrived at the trailhead, we saw a couple - a man and a woman - who had also just finished hiking, and they were enjoying a post-trail beer. "What a way to finish a trail," John said, and all I could do in response was shake my head. After completing our four-mile hike, it was time for us to head home. As soon as we were ready to go, we all got into the Jeep and drove away. It was my turn to drive. Instead of going back the way we came, I decided to take us down the other side of the mountain, towards SR 188. That part of the road was always in much better condition than the initial 18 miles, and this time was no exception. I took that ten miles of road with the greatest of ease and put us back on pavement by 2:00 p.m. So, we survived another trip over Four Peaks - this time, without damaging our vehicle - and (third time's a charm) we finally had the chance to hike in the wilderness area. Despite the difficulty I had had on the Amethyst Trail, we all enjoyed exploring something new, and we looked forward to our next adventure...

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