South Mingus Tadpole Loop

The hike starts on Forest Road 493 at Copper Chief Mine, just 0.2 miles from FR 413 (Allen Spring Road) and takes an old jeep road that runs past Grand Island Mine and then continues south of and parallel to Allen Spring Road for two miles before joining that road just 0.3 miles short of Allen Spring. The hike then continues on Allen Spring Road for another 1.6 miles beyond Allen Spring and ascends to the top of Mingus Mountain on Coleman Trail. It then descends the mountain on what is generally referred to as Schoolmarm Trail to connect with Allen Spring Road at Twin Springs. From there it is only 1.6 miles back the parking area at Copper Chief Mine. When a track of this hike is viewed on a map, it roughly forms a tadpole shape.

On 24 October 2013, we drove from Cottonwood on FR 493 to Copper Chief Mine and parked on the narrow ridge at the beginning of the old jeep road. There, we took a few minutes to look around and enjoy the view before starting our hike. Ahead of us lay Mingus Mountain, now clad in the colors of fall, the rust-color of Gamble oaks and the bright yellow through dark red colors of maples. The peak shown in the middle of the horizon in the photograph below is where Schoolmarm Trail starts its descent from the top of the mountain.

Fall colors on Mingus

The old jeep road descended sharply for about 0.2 miles and then leveled off just as we passed Grand Island Mine. This mine is described in minedat.org as “A former underground Cu-Au mine on 14 claims.”¹ It had a 520 foot deep shaft, now enclosed by a wire fence, with a cross-cut at the 200 foot level.

About a tenth of a mile beyond the mine we crossed Oak Wash, now dry, and continued south along the old road for another 1.7 miles before it ended at Allen Spring Road. We had good views all along the way, and stopped for a group photograph with the delicately painted slopes of Mingus as a backdrop.

Left to right: Frank Lombardo, Jim Manning, the author and George Everman 

– photograph by Name Withheld

We paused only briefly at Allen Spring. There really isn't much to see there, just a locked door (right, photograph from February 2013; hikers, clockwise from top right are: Becky Fowsky, Frank Lombardo, Jim Manning, Mary Gavan and George Everman) barring the way into the cave that contains the spring. I have often wondered just how far the cave extends into the mountain behind the always-locked door at Allen Spring and I finally found an answer. John Scarcella, in an article published in the Jerome Times wrote that:

Most of our water comes from the Allen Springs line. This series of 8 springs stretches out along Mingus Mountain for about 10 miles and begins with Allen Spring. A tunnel connects to a natural cave that goes over 1 mile into the mountain. The other springs, Copper Chief, Twin (two), Silver, Blowout , Baltimore and Cliff are similar to Allen Spring only smaller and with shorter or no cave connections.²

Leaving the spring behind, we continued south on Allen Spring Road, climbing gently and gaining over 500 feet in elevation in the remaining 1.6 miles to Coleman Trail. We expected to find few flowers in bloom for this hike; we were instead looking for fall colors. We were thus pleasantly surprised to find a few hardy specimens, such as a verbena plant and the brilliant yellow false goldeneyes (right) dressing up the roadside.

Verbena

Yellow false goldeneyes

When we turned off Allen Spring Road onto Coleman Trail for our climb to the top of Mingus Mountain, we were about half a mile from the upper Black Canyon Trailhead.

Coleman Trail, located at the south end of the mountain, rises steeply through a series of switchbacks to climb 600 feet in about 0.7 miles. It then levels off somewhat and rises another 350 feet in the next 1.1 miles to the point where we would turn off to bushwhack our way to the Schoolmarm Trailhead. Along the way, the trail comes within a few yards of the rim providing a great view across Verde Valley and on to the San Francisco Peaks.

Jim Manning looking out across Verde Valley to the San Francisco Peaks

As we turned back to the trail from the viewpoint, I saw a delicate looking red plant (left) growing at the base of an old tree stump. George later informed me that it is known as fetid goosefoot.

Shortly after our short pause at the rim we found ourselves traveling along an old, unused road and the alligator junipers gave way to ponderosa pine (right). The trail, as had been true all the way from Allen Spring Road, had recently been repaired and was easy to follow.

Following my GPS track from a previous hike, we left Coleman Trail at point N34 41.050/W112 06.986 and headed northeast (bearing 15% true) to reach the trailhead just 0.1 miles away.

From the Schoolmarm Trailhead, the south set of towers on Mingus (left) are only a short distance to the north. We stopped here for lunch and the other hikers kindly allowed me to take my customary 20-minute noontime nap.

Thinking about the section of trail we had just completed, I wondered where it had gotten the name 'Coleman'. I later did a quick search and came up with nothing. I can only assume that it started as a cattle trail used for summer grazing on Mingus. Indeed, judging from the numerous fresh cow pies we saw along the way, it seems to still be used for that purpose.

Likewise, I am unable to find anything on Schoolmarm, our next section of trail. However, I was once told by a now-deceased leader of the Skyliner hiking group, that its name was derived from usage by a pioneer schoolteacher who alternated her teaching duties between two schools located at different mining camps on the mountain. It is now overgrown, very hard to follow and seldom used. But it is a great fall hike when the maples and gamble oaks are in full color. Referring to the below photograph, the trail zigzags its way down the steep slope and enters the treeline on the right side of the wash just right of center. It quickly leads back across the wash, makes a sort of loop along the slope on the left side, then returns to the wash and follows alongside it it all the way to Allen spring Road, crossing once more near the end.

Looking down the mountain along the course of Schoolmarm Trail

The left photograph below shows a maple tree with unusual deep red foliage contrasting starkly with the surrounding light yellow and rust colors of other maples and gamble oaks. The photograph on the right displays a wide range of colors, from light yellow to dark orange on a single maple; the yellow-green, soon to be rust-colored, leaves in the right of the photograph are borne by a gamble oak.

Deep red color on a maple tree Maple (center) and gamble oak (right)

Although we had hiked this way just a year ago, I found myself frequently referring my GPS track to make sure we were still on the trail. Even so, I had to retrace my steps more than once.

Schoolmarm Trail ends at Twin Springs on Allen Spring Road. Copper Chief Spring, located about a tenth of a mile south of there, has a faucet installed in its discharge line and I always like to check to see that it is still operative when I am in the area. We found that the discharge line had recently been repaired to stop some leaks we had noted last year and that the faucet itself had been replaced.

Following the track I had loaded on my GPS would take us back to our car by way of a very faint, little-used trail that leads from Allen Spring Road to the old jeep trail we had started our hike on. Returning to our cars that way would be about 0.5 miles shorter than if we returned along Allen Spring Road and FR 493. However, we would descend about 100 feet and then climb back up again, so we choose to hike the extra distance.

According to the data recorded by my GPS, the hike distance was 9.0 miles, the total ascent was 2493 feet and the highest elevation was 7647 feet.

The GPS track for this hike is shown in red on the attached map (below). The short green section of track shows a very faint trail that runs between the old jeep road and Allen Spring Road.

1 From: http://www.mindat.org/loc-48598.html

2 http://www.jerometimes.com/watersystem.html