Barbershop Trail

On 5 September we did a scouting hike on Barbershop Trail (Trail 91). From Cottonwood, actually the Safeway Parking Lot, we drove 46.9 miles east on Hwy 260, turned left onto Hwy 87 and drove 2.5 miles before turning right onto FR 300, a dirt road. We continued east on FR 300 (Rim Road) for 16.5 miles to the junction with FR 139, turned north on FR 139 and drove 1.9 miles to park a pickup vehicle at the Barbershop Trail crossing. Note, as shown in the below insert, the western Barbershop Trailhead is actually at its junction with Houston Brothers Trail about 0.1 miles farther west from the FR 139 crossing.

The vertical purple track is Houston Brothers Trail, the red track is a part of Barbershop Trail that we hiked, the light green track is FR 139 and the Dark Green Track shows a section of Barbershop Trail that we did not hike.

We then drove back to FR 300 and continued east for another 3.9 miles to the junction with FR 137. We followed FR 137 north 3.7 miles to the Barbershop Trail crossing and parked to start our hike. Similar to the western end of the trail, we were again about 0.1 miles from the actual trailhead; this is shown in the below insert.

The red track at left is a part of Barbershop Trail that we hiked, the dark green track shows a section of Barbershop Trail that we did not hike and the blue track is FR 137

We paused for a group photograph before starting our hike.

Left to right: Dave Beach, Karl Sink, Gordon Bice Jim Manning and Jim Gibson

As noted, rather than continuing to the trailhead at Buck Springs Cabin, we started our hike on Buck Springs Ridge at the junction of FR 137 and Barbershop Trail, about 0.1 mile short of the cabin.

From Buck Springs Ridge we descended by way of several switchbacks into Yeager Canyon, crossing and following for a short distance an old disused road. This old road is shown as FR 666 on some old maps but is not shown at all on the 2016 Coconino National Forest Travel Map. Just where the trail entered the roadbed, we saw a small pine that had been struck by lightening during the current monsoon season. The damaged trunk of the tree is shown (below left) followed by a section of the switchbacks (below right).

From the bottom of Yeager Canyon we ascended Dane Ridge on the other side and then descended into Bill McClintock Draw by way of Coyote Spring Wash, noting several maple trees scattered along the way. Near the top of the wash we passed the junction with U-Bar Trail. At the bottom of the wash we crossed an old road, overgrown with grass but still passable. The 2016 Coconino National Forest Travel Map identifies this road as FR 321C, branching off FR 321, and shows it connecting by way of FR 9616J to FR 218C and returning to FR 321. Together, these three short sections of road form a loop that runs along the ridge between Dane Canyon and Bill McClintock Draw. The current map also shows a FR 321C stub from FR 312 just north of Coyote Spring and old maps show that FR 321C once formed a loop that left FR 321 on Dana Ridge above Bill McClintock Draw, crossed the draw at the mouth of Coyote Spring Wash and reconnected with FR 321 north of where Barbershop Trail crosses the road.

In Bill McClintock Draw we passed an old sign that identified a section of now unused road as FR 9733R. The National Map, an online topographic map provided by USGS, shows that this was once a spur from FR 321C that led north down the draw.

Our trail crossed Bill McClintock Draw and connected with FR 321C at the mouth of a wash that feeds into the draw from the north. We followed signs that led us north up the middle of the wash. In retrospect we would have been better served had we continued across the mouth and followed the road which runs along the west side. A view of the wash looking south to the draw is shown in the following photograph. The road (FR 321C) that we could have followed is behind the trees on the left.

Long, narrow meadow formed by a wash leading north into Bill McClintock Draw

From the wash feeding into Bill McClintock Draw we crossed a ridge and dipped down into a parallel wash that also flows north, but empties into Dane Canyon. The trail climbed gently in a southerly direction up the bottom of this wash for something over half a mile before turning west to cross another ridge and drop down into Dane Canyon. Just as we started our descent into the canyon, we saw a large amount of splintered wood along the trail and, looking about, found a second tree that had recently been struck by lightening. Each of the strikes had been on the northwest slope near the crest of a ridge. As can be seen below this second tree was completely shattered.

Tree completely destroyed by a lightening strike

We had scheduled this hike twice before during the current season, canceling each time due to forecasts of thunderstorms in the area. Finding evidence of two separate recent lightening along the trail certainly validated our decision to cancel those hikes.

We continued our descent into Dane Canyon, crossed over and climbed out the other side, crossed FR 145 and immediately started our descent into Barbershop Canyon. Although there is no recent sign of ranching activity, the area must have once been grazed extensively because we passed three separate gates (or stiles) on this hike. We passed the second of these as we descended into Barbershop Canyon. The gates were all constructed of green-painted metal similar to the second one (below left). At the bottom of Barbershop Canyon we found an old weather-beaten sign (below right) secured to its post by a length of green rope.

The three gates all had in common that they were basically no longer affixed to intact fences. One could either pass through the gates or simply walk around them. The barely discernible lettering on the trail sign informed us that we were indeed on Barbershop Trail # 91, that it was 3.5 miles back the way we had come to Buck Springs Cabin and that it was another 1.3 miles the way we were heading to Houston Brothers Trail. Since Barbershop Trail Starts at Houston Brothers Trail and ends at Buck Springs Cabin, that would make the entire trail 4.8 miles long. This did not accord very well with my GPS readings but neither the Forest Service mileage figures nor the GPS readings are notable for extreme accuracy, at least in my experience.

The bottom of Barbershop Canyon forms another of those long narrow, grass-covered meadows. From the trail crossing, the view looking north down the canyon was especially lovely, set off as it was by a finely-layered, multi-colored rock outcropping on the right, enclosed by the forest on either side and with a slow-flowing stream meandering along the bottom.

View looking north down Barbershop Canyon

From the meadow at the bottom of the canyon, we followed the trail west up the wash that drains the area around Barbershop Spring into the canyon proper, passing the spring and the third stile on the way.

According to my cleaned-up GPS track we hiked 5.0 miles. That indicates that the entire Barbershop would be approximately 5.2 miles long. The highest elevation was shown as 7702 feet and the total ascent as 1073.