The Ted Johnson Residence

So there's this sick and twisted comic strip called Red Meat that I've been enjoying since I first saw in SF Weekly back 1998. It also runs in Flag Live as well as many other entertainment guides across the nation. One re-occurring character is Ted Johnson. Here's a snippet of his warped world taken without permission from www.redmeat.com:

Anyway, I go running in the neighborhood behind my house at least twice a week and finally brought the camera long to take a photo of the official Ted Johnson Residence (side note: the grass is uncut and the place looks abandoned.....maybe Johnny Lemonhead finally got his revenge).

Spring Backpacking Trip: Mazatzal Wilderness

Destination: Mazatzal Wilderness in Central Arizona

Intended route: Verde River Trail to Dutchman's Grave to Red Hills to Midnight to Willow to Verde River.

When: 3 days in mid-March, 2010

Who: Me, two friends, and Bo The Dog

Useful sources: http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/tonto/wilderness/wilderness-mazatzal-index.shtml

Sorry, but I lost the photos for this trip....trust me, it's great.

This was my fourth trip to the largest Arizona Wilderness Area you've never heard of. It's a rugged, isolated, and seldom visited expanse between the Verde River and Payson. As summarized on www.toddshikinguide.com:

Mazatzal Wilderness Overview - Tonto National Forest

The Mazatzal Wilderness is a very large area (250,000 acres) encompassing the north western section of the Tonto National Forest. The wilderness was established in 1940 and expanded to its present size in 1984. The name is correctly pronounced 'Mah-zaht-zahl' sort of like 'Matzo ball' not to be confused with the Casino which is pronounced 'Ma-te-zel' ..... go figure. Elevations range from 1,600 feet at the Verde River to Mazatzal Peak which tops out at 7,903 feet (expect snow in the winter). The plant life is typical for this portion of Arizona with Lower Sonoran vegetation at the lower altitudes, grassy chaparral as you climb the slopes and mixed conifers towards the upper regions. The Mazatzals provide a terrific opportunity to really get away from civilization (with the exception of the Bernhardt Trailhead where most people visiting the area may be found). The drawback is that many trails are seldom used, making them quite overgrown and difficult to follow. If that weren't enough some of the trailheads may be hard to get to as well. The good news is that with the less enthusiastic individuals having been turned aside by the daunting remoteness, stupefying adversity and the alluring sounds emanating from their TV, the place is all ours (unless you count the cows that have trashed some sections).

We started out from Sheep's Bridge on the Verde River Trail before turning off at Dutchman's Grave. We climbed a mesa which provided great views of the Mazatzal peaks ahead of us and the Verde River Valley behind. Sonoran desert is the dominant vegetation type here. The trail then dropped off the mesa and met the Red Hills Trail where we turned north and made camp at Gosselin Spring next to the ruins of an old cowboy shack.

The next morning we continued on the Red Hills Trail as it climbed steeply to the mesa above. Due to an extremely damp winter nearly every creek was running hard. About 500 feet before the mesa levels off, a developed copper mine appeared on our right. We took sometime to explore this bit of human history before slogging on to the top. The trail traverses the mesa passing several more open pit copper mines from sometime in the mid-1900s before we were forced to climb yet another mesa.

Now, this is where Todd's bit about overgrown trails comes into play.....the trail was basically non-existent.....part of this was because of the 2004 Willow Fire, but mostly due to the fact that this trail leads into one of the most remote parts of one of the most remote wilderness areas in the southwest. We struggled downhill eventually into a mess of a creek system. After much effort, we finally found where the trail picked up and climbed out of the waterway.

It was approaching 4pm at this point and we had no idea how far we had actually gone. Turns out not very far at all.....on top of this, the overgrown trail now became a trail on paper only. Three of us and the dog (who can usually find the trail before we can) spread out, scouting the hillside for over an hour. At 5pm, we had to call it a day.

Retreating back to the previous creek to make camp, we realized that there was no way we could complete the intended loop in the time we had. The next day, we returned to Dutchman's Spring for the night before heading home the following morning. Was the trip a wash? Maybe. But in reality, we knew this place could easily spank us. The remoteness and beauty of the desert is a reward in itself. I'd love to go back in the future with GPS coordinates and GPS unit in hand, plus and extra day to do what we thought would be a 3 day loop.

Agave in Spring (pre-bloom)

Lake Powell Trip

Spent May 14-17 on Lake Powell for a couple of buddy's bachelor parties.....don't remember vast swaths of this time, but great fun was had. Here are a couple of shots.

Camp near Gun Sight Butte in Padre Bay

Rainbow bridge, the largest natural arch in the world

Summer '09, Fourth Installment: James Canyon Adventure and Pecos Baldy Wilderness

7. James Canyon Adventure: sometime in August when no rain was forecasted

This little excursion, done solo (which in hind sight, probably wasn't the world's safest feat), is located just minutes from Flagstaff. It's also one of the coolest routes I've ever followed and makes for a fine introduction to technical canyoneering. With my rope, harness, ATC and locking carabiner, and dry bag packed into my day pack, I headed south on foot from the Kelly Canyon exit of 1-17 until I dropped into James Canyon. Less known than it's bouldering mecca of a sister Kelly, James is a bastard of a far different caliber. As the photos below show, water is abundant in James. With a series of slot canyons dominated by some deep pools, 2 rappels (one mandatory, but if you want to live a little, do both!!!), and a 75 foot long by 5 foot wide "hallway" of bone-chilling water, James Canyon is one of those adventures which in the midst of it makes you think, "what the hell am I doing here?", but which goes down in the long term as truly epic. That said, I recommend tackling this beast on a day when air temps are in the 90s so that you can warm up quickly after exiting the many pools.

P.S. Here's an additional summary from Todd's Hiking guide: http://www.toddshikingguide.com/Hikes/Arizona/Coconino/Coconino2.htm . (please note that I did the hike down James and then down Pump House to Highway 89A, not James to Pump House to Kelly back to car as Todd did.)

Some early signs of water

This first pool could have been bypassed butI chose

to scramble down the slot and swim it....why not?

First (optional) rappel into two deep but not so cold pools.

Looking back up at the slot canyon section of James. I got stuck above this when I didn't want to jump into shallow but murky water from a 6 foot lip (couldn't see what I was jumping into and hence didn't want to break an ankle). I eventually wedged myself into the narrow slot facing upstream, and despite scraping my belly, got down. I then said to hell with it and jumped into this last pool. It was plenty deep for once and the going got easier thereafter.

View from the second rappel with (look closely), dead skunk in pool.

Another view from the top of the 2nd rappel

After the 40 ft rappel, looking back up from where I had descended. If you look closely you can see my rope and pack on the right side of the shot.

The "Hallway"....sorry the shot was out of focus but it's the best I could get. This sucker probably sees about 45 minutes of sun a day....even in mid-August I estimate the water was in the low 40s. It was also over my head which meant I was jaw deep swimming through it. Ever hear stories about how people experiencing hypothermia just give up and either strip off their clothes, jump in water, or otherwise doom themselves? I felt a tinge of that urge just to stop about halfway through but let the tough guy side of my brain break that idiocy in two. 20 seconds later I was on the other side stripped down to my underwear basking in the sun and doing jumping jacks to warm up ASAP. You only live once, right?

8. Pecos Baldy Wilderness Trip/Bagging Truchas Peak: August 14-17, 2009

The PB Wilderness Area is located in to the northeast of Santa Fe, NM and contains some of the highest peaks in Southwest. We went there specifically to bag Truchas Peak, which at 13,102 ft is the 2nd highest point in NM. We made base camp at Pecos Baldy Lake by the following route:

At Jack's Creek Campground, begin hiking on trail #25. The trailhead elevation is 8400 ft. The trail begins an ascent due north, then climbs 4 switchbacks up to a forested ridge. The trail continues north and at about mile one and 1/2, the trail splits. Take the left hand split towards Pecos Baldy Lake which will now be trail # 257. At mile 6 you will arrive at the beautiful Pecos Baldy Lake.

Rather than rattle on about the many fine attributes of southern Rockies that make up PB, I've cut and pasted a summary of the area (see below) from www.summitpost.org . Following this is but a sampling of the photos I took during our 3 nights in the Wilderness.

Overview:

Truchas (Spanish for "trout") Peak, also known as South Truchas Peak, is the highest peak in the remote Truchas Peaks group, which is located in the Pecos Wilderness Area in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, about 20 miles north of Santa Fe. In this group are found South Truchas Peak, Middle Truchas Peak,West Truchas Peak (or West Middle Truchas) and North Truchas Peak. Despite being one of the few peaks in New Mexico of over 13,000', Truchas Peak is seldom visited. The Truchas Peaks are not even covered in the books "50 Hikes in New Mexico" or "100 Hikes in New Mexico" The Truchas group is truly a beautiful group of mountains. Unlike many of the broad, dome-shaped mountains of northern New Mexico, the Truchas mountains are craggy, steep mountains that are more reminiscent of their neighbors to the north in Colorado. The easiest route to the summit is only a class 3 route, but many more difficult routes could be developed in this mountain group. NOTE: there is a great deal of confusion regarding the nomenclature of Middle and West Truchas. These two peaks are really separate high points on a connecting ridge. On many maps, the true Middle Truchas Peak is not named, but West Truchas is erroneously called Middle Truchas. Imagine a "Y" with the upper right line being longer than the upper left. This "Y" represents the ridge system connecting all of Truchas Peaks At the top of the right line is North Truchas, quite a bit farther north than Middle or West Truchas. At the point where the three lines of the "Y" intersect is Middle Truchas. At the top of the left line of the "Y" is West Truchas, and South Truchas is obviously located at the bottom of the "Y." Truchas Peak is really the second highest peak in New Mexico, behind Wheeler Peak. Official lists place Truchas at the fourth highest, but the two peaks between Wheeler and Truchas are really mere subpeaks of Wheeler and not really mountains in their own right.

Pecos Baldy Lake

Views from the summit of Truchas