On
18 August 2012, fourteen hikers, several from the Skyliners, got
together for a hike on Bill Williams Trail. Ellis Price, Dolly Yapp,
Lila Wright, Gordon Bice, Anita Jackson and Dave Beach met at the
Cottonwood Safeway parking lot. From there we drove to Becky
Fowsky's house in Sedona where we were joined by Becky, Cathy Lutz,
Jon Lloyd, George Everman and Akemi Tomioka. Four additional hikers
(Kwi and Lynn Johnson, Floyd Gardner and a companion) traveled
directly to the trailhead.
We
traveled up Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff, drove west on I-40 , took
exit 161 at Williams, crossed under the freeway and turned right onto
Frontage Road. We drove about six-tenths of a mile and turned left
to the Ranger Station where the trail starts. There we found a
toilet and an informative trail sign installed at the parking lot
where Bill Williams Trail starts.
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Trailhead Information sign
|
Kwi
and Lynn Johnson, followed by one other hiker, had already started
the hike; however, Floyd Gardner was waiting for us at the trailhead.
We
donned our packs, making sure that we had our rain gear handy because
of the forecast – 40% chance of rain – and headed up the trail.
At first the going was easy, through a pine forest with a gentle
slope. However, that soon changed and we found ourselves climbing a
relatively steep slope with a few rather high steps. However, the
trail soon leveled off again and resumed its gently upward slope.
Along
the way we met a hiker carrying the most impressive mushroom I had
ever seen.
He was cradling his prize tenderly in his arms while dreaming of a
delicious breakfast the next morning with a goodly portion left over
for the freezer.
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| photograph by Akemi Tomioka |
Akemi's
photograph, above, displays the sheer beauty of the mushroom. To
better understand why there would be leftovers after breakfast, see
the photograph below by the
author.
 |
| Photograph by the author |
We
posed for a group photograph on a sunny log alongside the trail.
 |
Left to right: Lila Wright, Dolly Yapp, Floyd Gardner, Akemi Tomioka,
Becky Fowsky, Gordon Bice, Dave Beach, the author, George Everman,
Cathy Lutz, Anita Jackson and Jon Lloyd
– photograph by George Everman with time delay
|
After
sloping gently upward for awhile, the trail dipped downhill for a
short distance and then resumed its relentless uphill climb,
eventually becoming quite steep with a section of switchbacks leading
up the mountain and connecting with a jeep road. Around 8000 feet in
elevation we saw, in addition to a lot of mushrooms, patches of
beautiful, columbine flowers (see right –
photograph by Jon Lloyd).
After
navigating the steep, switchbacks on up the mountain, we came out at
the Jeep road in a saddle about 240 feet below the fire tower on the
peak of Bill Williams Mountain. I learned later that the road runs
down the south side of the mountain to connect with South
Perkinsville Road. At the saddle, Bill Williams Trail crosses the
road and continues straight up the mountain, but reconnects with it
after about 100 yards and then follows it the rest of the way to the
tower.
Some
of the hikers who had gone ahead met us at the road; we met the rest
of them on our way on up to the tower. We also found some lovely
flowers along the road.
Some
striking examples of Indian paintbrush and numerous patches of
asters stood out.
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| Indian paintbrush – photograph by Jon Lloyd |
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| Asters – photograph by Jon Lloyd |
Although
we were still climbing steeply, the going was fairly easy once we
emerged onto the jeep road the second time and we were soon at the
fire tower.
Several
members of the group decided to climb to the top of the tower and,
after removing my backpack, I decided to join them. There were three
hikers ahead of me, and the limit was four, so upon reaching the
bottom of the extremely small “crows nest” (apartment at the top
of the tower), I took a quick look around, found the view to be
little different than from the foot of the tower, and returned to
allow someone waiting below to climb up.
The
below picture of climbers ascending the tower was taken by Jon Lloyd.
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Climbers ascending the fire tower on Bill Williams Mountain – by Jon Lloyd
|
After
descending from the tower, I quickly headed back to the saddle below,
where the trail had first emerged from from the forest to cross the
jeep road. We had agreed to stop there for lunch I also wanted to
get in a short nap before heading back down the mountain, and the
skies were already looking quite threatening.
 |
Photograph taken from the jeep road just below the fire tower on
bill Williams Mountain
|
When
I reached the saddle, the rest of the group were ensconced in a rocky
viewpoint with a great view of the surrounding area. As for me, I
chose a sunny spot with a little grass, wolfed down my lunch and
settled in for a nap (photograph at left by Akemi
Tomioka).
Meanwhile
the rest of the group occupied themselves with admiring and
photographing the scenery and doing mushroom artwork.
The
below photographs illustrate these activities.
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Hiker mushroom art – Photograph by Akemi Tomioka
|
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From Bill Williams Mountain – photograph by Jon Lloyd
|
The
rest of the group awakened me all too soon, making preparations to
start back down the trail. Having already decided that we would not
beat the rain in any case, I would have been perfectly content to
spend some more time napping. However, I didn't want to hold the
group up too much, so I arose and straggled along behind them.
Sure
enough, the rain came, and hard. I stopped at the first sprinkle to
unpack my rain suit and George, who was trailing along with me,
donned his poncho. My rain suit worked just fine in keeping the rain
off; however, it was so hot that I got wringing wet from
perspiration. I might as well have braved the rain. The next time,
I will take a light-weight poncho, something that will allow a little
ventilation.
After
returning home, I did a brief search for Bill Williams and found the
following information available in a Wikipedia article:
Williams
is named after
William
"Old Bill" Williams,
a mountain man
and
trader who often trapped in the area.1
According to my GPS the hike was 3.5 miles one way, the maximum elevation was 9276 feet and the total ascent was 2326 feet.
The
GPS track for this hike is shown on the included map (below).
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