What's Up with Ellis: Ash Creek Below Mingus Springs

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Ash Creek Below Mingus Springs

Six Skyliners hiked along Ash Creek below Mingus Springs on 7 November 2015. We started this hike by parking at a gate marking the entrance to a 4-H Camping facility. We arrived there by driving south on Hwy 89A through Jerome to the top of Mingus, turning left onto Forest Road 104 and following it for 1.5 miles before turning right onto FR 413 which we followed for 2.3 miles before again turning right to follow FR 132 for 0.4 miles to arrive at Burnt Canyon Tank. Forest Road 105 angles right at the tank and we followed it for 1.5 miles to the locked gate at Mingus Springs 4-H Camp.

Locked gate at Mingus Springs 4-H Camp – March 2015 photograph

What is now the Harold and Mitzie James 4-H Camp & Outdoor Learning Center was established on 55 acres of a mining settlement that dates back to 1899.¹ The original “prospectors patented 25 contiguous claims of over 500 acres along Ash Creek.”²

The James 4-H Camp website says it is a “100 bed camp has modern heated cabins with restrooms and shower facilities easily accessible. We offer a spacious dining hall, patio, fire pit and various activity areas for programming and a spacious lawn for play and learning. The health center is centrally located and all staff are CPR/First Aid certified and have passed federal and state background checks.”³

Eight other private holdings exist in the area and it is sometimes difficult to determine whether one is on private property or Prescott National Forest land. We did our best to stay on public land but were sometimes unsure of the boundaries. Basically, we just skirted the fenced 4-H Camp property and looked for no-trespassing signs for further guidance. Timber harvesting is underway in the surrounding area of the National Forest and the harvest boundaries marked by the Forest Service provided some guidance. However, this was not infallible as the loggers, apparently under an agreement with the camp, had also harvested timber in areas that seemed clearly to be on camp property.

We had originally scouted this hike last spring and had decided at that time to skirt the camp property by following the fenceline along the east side of the property. This involved hiking just a few yards from the gate back up the road we had driven in on and then leaving the road heading northeast at a bearing of about 71 degrees true. The goal is to hike along the fence running up the hill to the top where the fence corners and then runs southeast in order to bypass the private property. Just follow closely along the fence and you will find animal trails paralleling it all the way.

It seemed quite a steep climb from the road up to the fence corner and I later determined by examining my GPS track that we had climbed almost 450 feet in approximately 0.1 miles. It was indeed a good workout for the start of our hike, but it was mercifully short.

When we reached the corner of the fenceline, we stopped for a group photograph.

Left to right: Lila Wright, John Chartrand, Loren Pritzel, Daisy Williams and Karl Sink

The trail along here consists mostly of old cowpaths. In other words, no formal trail exists. On the other hand, the hiking is really not difficult if one just takes care to keep close to the fence. That was not difficult as cows tend to make paths close to and parallel with fences, looking for a way to the greener grass on the other side I suppose.

We found an occasional gate, always locked, in the fence and climbed into and out of several washes as we passed along a ridge above the campground. Although none of the washes were difficult or involved much climbing we were soon ready to stop for a brief rest and a snack. When we stopped we were only a little over a mile into the hike, but we had started off with a sharp climb and were now at a really good spot overlooking the small pond (lake?)the camp uses for boating and swimming. The camp calls it a 2-acre pond, the first use I have noted of the word pond for a body of water in Arizona. Where I grew up in East Tennessee almost every barn had an associated pond for watering stock, usually fed with water from the barn roof. Ponds, were also built in pastures that did not have access to a reliable year-round stream; these were normally filled with natural runoff from rains and snow. They were also sometimes so as to catch the runoff from a small stream. These were known as “spring-fed ponds” and I think were distinguished from lakes by the fact that a pond normally takes the entire stream flow whereas a lake, such as might be formed by a dam, would normally have an overflow of water. By this criteria the body of water at James 4-H Camp could be classified as a stream-fed pond. There was, however, a small amount of water flowing in Ash Creek below the pond, so might also technically be a lake. I really don't think a formal distinction exists.

Overlooking the two-acre pond at James 4-H Camp.

We crossed one fence (smooth bottom strand) running perpendicular to the fence we were following and, about 1.5 miles from where we parked, arrived at Ash Creek just below the camp. As shown below, we crossed the creek, a mere trickle flowing between large rocks.

Hikers approaching the Ash Creek crossing below James 4-H Camp

We were really unable to determine whether we were on forest land or private property at this point. Although still outside the fence that, insofar as we could tell, marked the camp's property line, we found that we were standing between two gates. One of these (below left) marked the entrance to the camp proper but was not locked; the other, leading away from the camp, was locked but was provided with a stile to permit easy access for hikers. The photograph of the stile (below right) was taken from outside the gate looking back toward the camp.

Looking south, away from the camp, we could see that the road we were on turned right and led to what appeared to be a private residence located on a bluff above Ash Creek. (Later investigation confirmed that the road ended there.)

Our trail led along the stream at the foot of the bluff. Along the way we found an old Airstream trailer of the sort used by NASA in 1969 to transport the Apollo 11 astronauts from Hawaii to Houston following the first moon landing. This part of the Apollo 11 recovery operation is outlined in my book At Sea & Ashore During Vietnam.⁴

All went as planned. The recovery aircraft were in the air and the President was already onboard when the Command Module splashed down. The Underwater Demolition Team fixed the module in place using a sea anchor and stabilized it with a flotation collar. They also provided BIG (Biological Isolation Garment) suits and a life raft for use while donning them. The astronauts then transferred to a second life raft from which they were hoisted one at a time to the hovering helicopter, which transported them to the Hornet about half a mile away. The recovery helicopter landed on Hornet’s flight deck, the flight crew disembarked, and the three astronauts along with a flight surgeon remained inside while it was moved onto elevator 2, lowered to the hanger bay and towed to the pre-positioned MQF (Mobile Quarantine Facility). Still in the BIG suits, the astronauts walked about 30 feet and entered the MQF (in which they would remain until transported back to Ellington Air Force Base aboard a C-141) and changed back into NASA flight suits.

We also saw an old, long unused, corral. A contact at the camp later told us that both Bottle Ranch and the Rafter T Ranch once had allotments and fences in the area. An online search returned no pertinent results for a Rafter T Ranch in Arizona. Bottle Ranch, on the other hand, still exists and is headquartered about seven miles downstream on Ash Creek. Judging from dried, but fairly recent, cow dung along the way, it appears that Bottle Ranch still uses the area for summer pasture.

The trail follows closely along Ash Creek, sometimes on one side, sometimes the other and occasionally on rocks in the streambed, for about 1.0 mile to the junction of Ash Creek with the creek below Strawberry Spring. This was our goal for the hike. However, on the March scouting hike, we had left the stream in favor of a fairly well-defined trail located on the left side about 0.6 miles below the camp and returned to it another 0.7 miles further downstream; we decided to continue to that point.

When we reached a place that we recognized from the scouting hike, someone asked how much farther it would be to the junction with Ash Canyon Trail, a trail some of us had hiked more than once. I later examined my GPS track and found that it would have been about an additional 0.7 miles. The map insert included below shows a GPS track of an April 2015 hike down Ash Canyon to Bottle Ranch (blue track) along with today's GPS track (red track)

The current hike in relation to Ash Canyon Trail

We paused for lunch and then headed back the way we had come. As we hiked along the stream it occurred to me that we had missed the best season for viewing flowers in this area. Our scouting hike in March had been a little too early and November was too late. However the flora on display was enjoyable in any season. We had started in a mature, although currently being logged, ponderosa forest, climbed to a hillside covered with junipers and other low-growing species as we passed above the camp and then descended back into the ponderosas again as we followed the creek. The immediate area along the course of the streambed has been kept clear, presumably by a combination of flooding and grazing. However the hillsides include a variety of species in addition to the ponderosa pines. Some of these, especially those sporting their fall colors, provided a pleasing contrast with the predominant pines. In particular, I was struck by a stand of colorful oaks (below left) and two lonesome birches (below right) thrusting gracefully skyward among the surrounding trees.

When we arrived back at the James 4-H Camp, we decided to try returning to our vehicles by hiking along the camp boundary on the west side. Although not very difficult and, for much of the way, easier going than hiking along the east boundary had been, this turned out not be as straightforward as we had thought. It was easy enough to stay outside the fence denoting the camp boundary. However, due to several cross fences, it was otherwise difficult to distinguish between forest land and private property. Additionally, the hiking distance was approximately 0.1 miles longer than on the east side.

Some of the group, with permission of one of the property owners, took a slightly shorter route by hiking through the camp for part of the way. They were told that it is normally possible to hike through the James 4-H camp with advance permission. We all arrived back at the parking area at essentially the same time.

The hike, as shown by the red track on the included map (below) was 6.2 miles in length, the highest elevation was 6777 feet and the total ascent was 1375 feet.