October 6, 2002

"Bearly Flat"

On Sunday, October 6, we decided to go day hiking. Now that we were able to go hiking again, John began to spend lots of time looking for new trails to explore and new wilderness areas to visit. He frequently consulted both of our Arizona wilderness books in search of places to go, and whenever he found something interesting, he would tell me all about it. That weekend, he thought it would be fun to do the Bear Flat Trail #178, in the Hell's Gate Wilderness Area. Although we had done Hell's Gate before (on the Hell's Gate Trail #37, in April 1999), Mary had not, and that would be her eleventh wilderness area. We also had not done that particular trail, which was supposed to be a very nice hike. On Friday night, John's parents called us to ask us what we were doing that weekend. When they heard that we were going to be hiking on Sunday, they asked if they could go with us - they would even drive us there in their Jeep, if we wanted. John and I shrugged and said, "Okay!" After all, it had been a year since we had last hiked with both of them (Mount Graham, October 2001) - it was time for another Verley adventure! So, on Sunday morning, Bill and Erika picked us up at 6:00 a.m. in their Jeep Cherokee, and the five of us left Phoenix to begin our day's adventure. To get there, we took SR 87 north to Payson, then turned left onto SR 260. In Little Green Valley (about twenty miles east of Payson), we turned onto FR 405A, which was marked with a sign indicating "Thompson Draw" and the "Bear Flat Campground". A half-mile from the highway, we turned onto FR 405 and followed that for another 3.5 miles to the trailhead. The trailhead is not actually located in the campground; instead, it is next to Tonto Creek and only feet from the Bear Flat Ranch, on private land. There is a warning sign at the trailhead to inform visitors that the land across the bridge is private property and that trespassing is prohibited. We arrived at the trailhead shortly after 8:30 a.m. As we emerged from the Jeep and into the shaded trailhead, we were met by the cool morning air that was quite nippy to those of us wearing shorts and T-shirts. We couldn't wait to get moving, just to warm up. The five of us spent a few minutes preparing for our day hike: putting on sunscreen, packing food and water, marking the trailhead with the GPS, and loading Mary into the baby backpack (she would not be able to hike the first half-mile of the trail). Then, at 8:50 a.m., we began our hike on the Bear Flat Trail. The name of this trail is highly misleading - in fact, it is barely flat at all! From the trailhead, the Bear Flat Trail #178 crosses over Tonto Creek (there are rocks piled up for that purpose) and immediately begins to climb…and climb…and climb. First, it climbs up out of the creek to a wooden trail sign; then, it climbs along the fence line of the Bear Flat Ranch. After that, it climbs steeply - very steeply - up an old jeep road to the wilderness boundary - a total of a quarter-mile and three hundred feet of elevation gain. At the end of that initial climb, we found the Hell's Gate Wilderness boundary, up on a saddle that was covered with stinky little red flowers. We stopped there briefly to take a breather before continuing on the next leg of our half-mile climb. From the saddle, the trail descended very gently and followed the contour for about a tenth of a mile; then, without warning, we began to climb once again. Although still very steep, it was not nearly as steep as that first quarter-mile. Gradually, as we drew closer to the saddle at the top of our climb, the grade began to taper off, making travel just a little bit easier for us. However, I think we were all glad when we finally reached the trail junction at the end of the first half-mile, because that was the end of the long, difficult climb! At the trail junction, we had two options: 1) we could continue on the Bear Flat Trail, or 2) we could take the Mescal Ridge Trail. John left the option open to all of us, so we voted to continue on Bear Flat, since we didn't have the topos for Mescal Ridge anyway - that, and the Bear Flat Trail was supposed to be relatively easy from that point on. From the trail junction, the Bear Flat Trail took us along the contour, through the high grasslands of the Mogollon Rim. After crossing over a drainage, we then climbed up a finger ridge - a short climb, but a climb nonetheless. Next, we dropped down to a creek crossing, where we discovered a red sign marking the end of the wilderness area. There was also a very confusing trail junction; instead of the Bear Flat Trail, the sign indicated that we were on the Mail Trail #178! "This is probably an old mail route," John said, and after that he and his father debated on whether or not it was used to transport mail between Globe and Payson, or Young and Payson. We stopped to take our first break at the dry creek crossing, so that we could let Mary out of the backpack to run around…and so that we could rest from all of that climbing. We spent about ten minutes there before we decided that we should keep going. From the drainage, the Bear Flat Trail continued to follow the contour, ascending over finger ridges and descending towards creek crossings. Along the way, we passed through grassy hillsides that were spotted with pinion and juniper, as well as scrub oak, manzanita, and (as always, my favorite) catclaw mimosas. Soon after that, the trail left the contour and began to wind its way through the trees. For me, this was the prettiest part of the trail. It was shaded and cool - and flat, too - and had there been water in the creeks, it would have been a great place for a backpacking trip, as there were plenty of lovely campsites there. Here, we decided to let Mary hike a little bit on her own. She managed to hike about a quarter of a mile, on her own, with help from us and later from Grandpa and Grandma. Eventually, she ended up on Grandpa's shoulders, for it was much more fun to be carried. She also rode on John's shoulders for a little while, but when she wouldn't quit pulling on his ears, he decided to put her back in the carrier, where she couldn't do as much damage! At about 2.5 miles, Bill announced that he wasn't feeling very well and that he was going to start hiking back to the car. Apparently, he had just had the stomach flu and still was not at a hundred percent that morning. (John, Erika and I had all had it, too, a few weeks earlier.) "You guys can keep going," he said, "but I'm going to head back." John decided that we should all start hiking back, mainly because he didn't want his father to hike alone if he was sick. Besides, it was already 11:00 a.m., and we were going to turn back in an hour anyway. We had lunch nearby in a grove of oak trees; then, around 11:15, we began to hike back to the trailhead. During our return hike, we traveled at a very good pace and managed to reach the Mescal Trail junction in about one hour. After the junction, though, our pace slowed considerably as we began the half-mile-long descent to the trailhead. This was the most difficult part of the hike, and in order to make it safely to the bottom of the hill, some of us had to hike with the greatest of caution. Between Erika and me, we have sustained enough "slip & slide" injuries (her broken ankle and fractured knee and my tailbone) to make us extra careful when going down steep trails. For the most part, though, the descent was not as dangerous as I had thought it would be. Using a combination of methods, including switchbacking and using natural "stair steps", I made my way downhill. When I reached the steepest part of the trail (the last quarter-mile), I used the same technique that I had used when I first hiked in the Hell's Gate Wilderness: side-stepping. It worked great…until John began to "serenade" me at the bottom of the hill! Trying to distract me, he began to sing a selection of tunes ranging from "These boots are made for walking", "There she was just a-walking down the street", and the all-time favorite, "Mamma was a rolling-stone". Needless to say, his attempts to distract me were unsuccessful, and I made it to the bottom without falling. Our hike ended at 1:00, when we finally arrived at the trailhead. We spent about a half an hour sitting at the Jeep to rest from the hike - and to have a cold drink from the cooler - before we decided to head home. On the way back to the highway, we decided to take FR 405, which would take us by the Hell's Gate Trailhead - just a little scenic route, to show Bill and Erika where the other trailhead was located. About a mile past the trailhead, we were back on SR 260, heading towards home.

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