On 16 August 2014 eight hikers joined me for a hike on the General Crook National Trail along the Mogollon Rim. We drove to Kehl Spring Campground on Forest Road 300 (Rim Road) and left six hikers there to wait while the remaining three continued on to FR 95 about a mile past General Springs and parked one vehicle. We then returned to Kehl Spring to start the hike.
The
below group photograph was taken at Kehl Spring Campground by a
camper volunteer using Jeff's smartphone.
Traffic
was light on FR 300 and the campground was deserted when we arrived.
By the time we returned from leaving a vehicle at FR 95, a few
campers had arrived, and when we returned after completing our hike,
it was still only about half full. We were surprised that it was not
more heavily used on this sunny August weekend during. On the other
hand, traffic on FR 300 was quite heavy by this time, having
increased steadily during the day. The road, although unpaved, is
well-maintained and the traffic was composed of everything from
sedans, campers and pickup trucks to dune buggies.
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| Left to right: Daisy Williams, Lila Wright, Kwi Johnson, David Beach, Jeff Brumbaugh, Ruth Frazier, the author, Gordon Bice and Jim Manning |
But
back to our hike. We were attempting to follow a GPS track I had
downloaded to my Garmin 76csx. I no longer remember the source of
the track, but it turned out to be fairly accurate. We deviated a
bit immediately after leaving the campground when I started looking
at flowers along a wash instead of my instrument.
 |
| Spiderwort |
 |
| Coneflowers |
When
I next checked my GPS after going astray to look at the flowers, we
had wandered from our planned track. This deviation is
displayed below (right). Our track is shown in red, the planned track in
dark blue and Rim Road in yellow. After correcting our error by
returning to the planned track, we searched in vain for some trace of
the original Crook Trail. We did find a couple of old road beds, but
they all ran in the wrong direction. We found none of the chevrons
(or letter Vs) normally used to mark this trail. Perhaps they were
there and we would have seen them had we but stayed on the correct
track from the beginning.
!n
any case, we eventually got back on track and the trail coincided
with Rim Road for about 0.25 miles before veering off to the south to
follow parallel to the road about 100 feet away. However, we had now
reached the area burned by the Dude fire in 1990 and the actual
General Crook Trail is still littered by fallen trees and overgrown
by low-lying shrubs and briers. The hiker is well-advised to avoid
trying to find the actual trail for the next 2.7 miles or so,
measured along Rim Road, until the road and the trail veer away from
the rim. Trying to follow the trail is simply not worth the effort.
We did try a couple of times, but always returned to the road. Trail
markers are generally missing in the burn area and, in the very few
places where the actual trail could be identified, the fallen trees
and undergrowth are a real problem. Of course it is sometimes
possible to swing a bit farther north to avoid the burn area, which
never extends far north of the rim. However, you would no longer be
on the Crook Trail. My advice is to just follow Rim Road through
this section, hiking it early in the morning to avoid most of the
traffic.
The
burn area has an attractiveness all its own. The view looking out
over the rim is fantastic.
Among
the plants taking advantage of the absence of an overshadowing forest
was a striking clump of Indian paintbrush nestled against a rotting
tree trunk . A little farther along someone had added a bit of color
by tucking a doll into the broken top of a dead tree trunk.
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| Looking southeast across the Mogollon Rim from Rim Road |
 |
| Doll nestled high in a dead tree |
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| Indian paintbrush |
After
following the old trail for about a mile from where we stopped for
lunch, we came to Forest Road 123 which runs up Battleground Ridge to
the site of the Battle of Big Dry Wash, the last battle fought
between the Apaches and army regulars.1
From this junction Rim Road continues east toward General Springs
while FR 123 runs up the ridge between General Springs Canyon and
Crackerbox Canyon. The hiking was very easy along here. We were
following a well-maintained dirt road and very visible trail markers
all along the way. I also saw several colorful mushrooms in this
area.
 |
| Walking along the original Crook Trail |
 |
| FR 123 running up Battleground Ridge |
 |
| Mushroom |
The
trail markers we were following led us 0.15 miles further north on FR
123 than the track I had downloaded indicated. I suspect that the
downloaded track might have followed one iteration of General Crook
Trail and the one we followed another. After all, wagon roads were
rather informal things, tending to change frequently. Rather than
repair a rutted section of road, it was often more convenient to
simple go around it. In this case, we continued on with confidence
as we were never really out of sight of the next trail marker. When
the trail did turn off Battleground Ridge Road, we found ourselves
following along an ancient roadbed, now overgrown in places with
young trees, but still easy to follow. If there were some doubt, we
just looked for the next chevron.
The
old road led us down into General Springs Canyon. Near the bottom,
we encountered the aqueduct, at this point an aboveground pipe, that
carries water from Blueridge Reservoir to the East Verde River. The
following is quoted from a 3 August 2013 hike report:
Blue Ridge
Reservoir, constructed by Phelps-Dodge, was completed in 1965 at a
cost of 7.2 million dollars. It was constructed as part of an
agreement between the company and Salt River Project to allow Phelps
Dodge to use water from the Black River at its Morenci facility. A
187-foot-tall concrete dam was erected to create a 15000 acre-foot
reservoir in the East Clear Creek Canyon. East Clear Creek is a part
of the Little Colorado River watershed, outside the SRP's service
area. Water from this reservoir would then be supplied to SRP to
compensate for the water taken by Phelps dodge from the Black River.
The water was routed through a tunnel and then pumped up a 435-foot
shaft to a pipeline which carried it 10 or 11 miles to the East Verde
River. A hydroelectric generating station was installed at the lower
end of the pipeline to generate power to drive the electric motors
which lifted the water from the reservoir.
In 2005, pursuant to
a clause in the agreement that allowed SRP to purchase the reservoir
should Phelps Dodge decided to sell it, SRP purchased it to add to
their system's resources. The reservoir was also renamed C.C Cragin
Reservoir in honor of an early 20th century SRP general
superintendent. However, it is still generally known as Blue Ridge
Reservoir.2
Under a separate
agreement, SRP will provide Payson with a 3000 acre-foot annual
allocation of water from the reservoir. To make use of this water
allocation Payson is installing a 13.5 mile long, 18-inch diameter
pipeline from the tailrace (discharge) of SRP's existing
hydroelectric facility to a new 234 Kilowatt hydroelectric facility
which will generate power to operate a new water treatment plant.
This project is scheduled to be completed in late 2016.
From
there we followed the road along the aqueduct on down to the cabin at
General Springs. Again this seemed to be a deviation from the GPS
track I had downloaded, although a minor one, and at the cabin I
looked back the way we had come and saw one of the Crook Trail
markers nailed to a tree. The road was numbered 9030S. The chevron
trail marker is visible on the large tree trunk upper right.
 |
| Looking back the way we came from General Cabin |
According
to information posted at the site, the small spring located here was
named after General George Crook who used it while traveling the old
Fort Apache-Camp Verde Military Road. Also according to the Forest
Service, the cabin (see next page)
was built between 1914 and 1915 by Louis Fisher and used by the
Forest Service until sometime in the 1960s. It was rehabilitated in
1989. The spring is located across the meadow, partly visible in the
photograph.
 |
| General Springs Cabin |
We
had separated at the junction of Rim Road and FR 123, with two of our
party continuing on to General Springs by way of Rim Road while the
rest of us were following Crook Trail. They rejoined us here.
Railroad
Tunnel Trail runs down the rim for about three-quarters of a mile
from the General Springs area and we had discussed hiking it while we
were in the area. However, after checking the time, we decided to
leave that for another day and continue on along Crook Trail to our
parked vehicle at Forest road 95, just over another mile as it turned
out.
The
total one way hike distance was 8.3 miles, the maximum elevation was
7627 feet, the total ascent was 1499 feet and the total descent was
1099 feet.
Our
GPS track is shown in red on the included map (next page). The GPS track I
downloaded to use as a guide is shown in dark blue and Rim Road is
shown in yellow.
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