FR155 – Bakers Pass – Pipeline Loop

The weather forecast when I checked the evening before had been for mostly sunny skies and when we left Cottonwood for our hike on 9 April 2016 there were just a few clouds in the sky, mostly on the horizon. Our hike for today was primarily along well-drained forest roads and a little rain really wouldn't bother us anyway.

We left the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot at 0700 and drove south on SR 89A for 9.1 miles to the firehouse in Jerome. There we continued straight ahead on Perkinsville Road (FR 218/CR 72) for another 6.9 miles, turned sharply right and downhill on Forest Road 155 and continued for an additional 1.3 miles to park at Horseshoe Tank.

Horseshoe is a large tank, divided by a fence so as to water stock in two separate pastures. Looking across the tank George Everman noted what appeared to be an elaborate corral on the other side, so we hiked over to investigate. We walked past the tank and beyond the corral and then looked back for the view shown in the photograph (below).

Looking back across Horseshoe Tank with the corral in the forefront

The fence that runs across the tank, permitting access by stock in two separate pastures, can be seen at the left in the photograph. At the top, just left of center is seen a powerline pole. We were not sure what power was used for at the tank; however, the elevated structures shown in the corral could mean that cows are butchered at the site, so perhaps portable chillers are brought in for that purpose.

We gathered at the corral for a group photograph and then returned to where we were parked to start our hike.

Left to right: Jim Manning, Betty Wolters,Keith Reichenback, Floyd Gardner, Dolly Yapp, Joanne Hennings, Ellen McGinnis, Jim McGinnis (rear), Lila Wright, Daisy Williams, Karl Sink, Loren Pritzel, George Everman and Gary Jacobson – author not shown

The only cattle we saw for the entire hike were two nursing cows, lingering with their calves near the tank. One of the cows had a distorted horn, angled down rather than jutting up as is normal.

The only cattle we saw during this hike

Several members of the group, including the author, had hiked this trail in September 2009, starting at Perkinsville Road, and we vividly remembered the steep climb, 525 feet in 1.3 miles, from Horseshoe Tank back to Perkinsville Road. We had parked at the tank for this hike primarily to avoid repeating that difficult climb.

Our plan was to hike on Forest Road 155 to Bakers Pass Tank, continue on FR 9004L to Bakers Pass and then return to FR 155 by way of the El Paso Natural Gas Pipeline service road. We passed the intersection of the pipeline and forest service roads, about 0.4 miles below Horseshoe Tank, on our way to Bakers Pass Tank and stopped to look at the pipeline instrumentation mounted there. In the photograph (below left) Karl and Jim and are shown examining the equipment while Keith is looking toward the service road we will follow on our return. A number of years ago, I had spent a lot of time driving the backroads of Arizona and New Mexico to inspect El Paso Natural Gas and Kinder Morgan facilities. At that time they were separate companies; but, as indicated by the sign (below right), have since merged.

Pipeline instrumentation        Pipeline caution sign        

As can be seen in the background of the photograph (above left), we were hiking through an area of grassland and scattered juniper. Sometimes the junipers were more dense than shown here, sometimes less; but they were always present. Less noticeable were scrub oak, cactuses, snakeweed, an occasional clump of beargrass and finally a single, lonely primrose (right).

In one area we found the trailside virtually blanketed with yellow bladderpod blossoms (below left). I singled out the best of the plants for an individual photograph (below right).

A profusion of bladderpods   An individual bladderpod

As we continued north on FR 155, we had a good view into the rough, mountainous country that lies beyond the Verde River, west of Sycamore Canyon Wilderness and east of Perkinsville (photograph below).

Looking north beyond the Verde River from FR 155 below Horseshoe Tank

After hiking about 1.5 miles north on FR 155 from Horseshoe Tank, we came to a fork in the road. Forest Road 155 took the right fork while the road straight ahead became FR 156. An old, faded but still legible sign (below) provided guidance, indicating that we should turn right and continue on FR 155.

Old sign posted at the intersection of FR 155 and FR 156

The road became a little rougher as we climbed a low hill after turning at the fork to head for Bakers Pass Tank; but it then leveled out and was good the rest of the way to the tank.

Approaching Bakers Pass Tank, we saw a corral (below left) across the wash. There were two horses in the corral; however, only the rump of one horse is shown in the photograph. Ahead (below right) was a massive dirt dyke that formed the downstream rim of the tank.

                            Corral – rump of one horse      Massive downstream                                    is visible                                       dyke at tank                       
 

The photograph (above right) was taken at the fork in the road. Forest Road 155 continues to the left, running along the foot of the dyke; Forest road 9004L is the right fork running past the right edge of the dyke and continuing up the valley below Bakers Pass.

Forest Road 155 had turned at the FR 156 junction and taken us in an easterly direction around the bottom portion of our loop hike to Bakers Pass Tank. Now we were heading south on FR 9004L and, looking ahead toward the pass, it looked as though our good luck with the weather might be coming to an end; ominous clouds were gathering on the horizon and the sun had deserted us.

We had noted a large, deep, rapidly eroding wash running down the floor of the valley above Bakers Pass Tank. One of the hikers referred to it as a miniature Grand Canyon. Erosion from the wash was obviously rapidly silting up the tank below, reducing its capacity, and resulting in the need for frequent renovation. This probably explains the large downstream dyke.

About 0.8 miles up the valley we noted what at first appeared to be the construction of a new tank (below left). Later I learned that this was the site of existing Henry Tank. The floor of the excavated region was very uneven and it at first appeared that the project had been abandoned. However, we then discovered an excavator (below right) tucked behind a tree and realized that the workers were likely just taking the weekend off.

Stock tank excavation site       Excavator                             

We found a few more flowers along the way. These included a verbena (below left) and a blanket flower (below right).

Verbena                                     Blanket flower                     

As we made our way up the valley toward Baker Pass, the road became steeper and rougher, navigable only by jeep-like vehicles. About 100 yards from the pass we came to the pipeline service road that we intended to take back across two ridges to rejoin FR 155 below Horseshoe Tank. I paused there to take a photograph showing the ridges with the route of the pipeline across them both (two red arrows in below photograph) and the last of our hikers (right in below photograph) still climbing the trail.

Looking across the valley below Baker Pass – taken 100 yards below the pass

The sky was still overcast and the wind through the pass was brisk. I hiked on to the top for a quick peek through the pass and a photograph. In the photograph (right), the Black Hills loom at right and the mountains on the other side of Verde Valley can be seen on the horizon. After one quick look and one photograph, I returned to a sheltered spot below the ridgeline, found a spot of grass and ate lunch while waiting for the rest of the party to catch up.

After lunch and a short nap (for me, at least), we were on our way across the two ridges between us and FR 155 on the other side. The first ridge, although steep, was a short climb. The second one was a bit more difficult but we soon crested it, passed through a gate, looked down at our cars parked below and paused for a short rest before descending. I took advantage of the pause for a last panoramic photograph (below) of the rough country to our north.

Looking north from the top of a ridge between Bakers Pass and Horseshoe Tank

We were back at our vehicles by 1315 and I, for one, was very happy that we had chosen to park at Horseshoe Tank rather than at Perkinsville Road, thus avoiding a 1.3-mile uphill hike. I never like to end a hike with an uphill climb.

On our return, I stopped along Perkinsville Road to photo-graph some cliffrose I had seen there earlier. However, the lighting was all wrong, so I substituted a photograph (left) taken near Bakers Pass.

Our hike is shown by the red track on the included map (below). The blue track is part of Forest Road 155 between Perkinsville Road and Horseshoe Tank.

The hike was 6.9 miles in length, including the side trip to the corral at Horseshoe Tank. The highest elevation was 5245 feet and the total ascent was 1161 feet.

Wilson Canyon and Steamboat Rock

Most of the Skyliners, including the author, had never hiked Steamboat Rock, a very familiar Sedona landmark. Having decided to remedy this shortcoming, we scheduled an outing that would include a climb to Steamboat Rock along with a hike on Wilson Canyon Trail. After downloading what looked to be a good GPS track and the report of a previous hike from HikeArizona.com, we set out on 2 April 2016 with a great deal of confidence.

From Cottonwood, we drove north on SR 89A through Sedona and parked at the trailhead at Midgley Bridge. There were few cars when we arrived at 0740; however, later in the day this parking area is always packed tight with vehicles, so an early start is advised.

The 200-foot Midgley Bridge, constructed in 1938, served as the final link of the newly constructed State Highway 79 (now SR 89A) that connected Phoenix and Prescott to Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, and Flagstaff.¹ The bridge carried (and still carries) traffic across the mouth of Wilson Canyon.

Midgley Bridge at Wilson Canyon in Oak Creek Canyon

According to Professor Amundson of Northern Arizona University, the road was designated as SR 79 in 1927 and became US 89A, an alternate route between Prescott and Flagstaff, in 1940. It lost its US designation in 1992 and became SR 89A. Before the bridge was constructed SR 79 ran north up Wilson Canyon from the present site of the bridge for about 0.3 miles before crossing the stream, by way of a much smaller bridge at the bottom of the canyon, and returning down the other side to the present roadbed. The old roadbed in the canyon still exists and can be hiked for its entire length. The old bridge is long gone but the abutments are still standing.

Old SR 79 Bridge in Wilson Canyon, used before Midgley Bridge was constructed

I have vague memories of traveling down Oak Creek Canyon some 56 years ago as a freshly-minted Navy Ensign on my way from Officers Candidate School in Rhode Island to report aboard the USS General W.A Mann (TAP-112) homeported at Fort Mason in San Francisco, now a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I once thought that I had remembered crossing this old bridge on that long-ago journey. However, that would have been in 1962, long after Midgely Bridge was completed, so I must have been remembering some other sharp turn with a bridge crossing. I do vividly remember that the descent down Oak Creek Canyon seemed endless and I wondered if it might eventually descend into hell itself.

But back to today's hike. After parking at the trailhead we walked past a toilet (Yes. Facilities are provided and a Red Rock Pass is required to park here.). Just beyond the toilet and before a picnic pavilion are two trailhead signs on a single post (right), one pointing to the right for Wilson Mountain Trail #10 and one pointing straight ahead for Wilson Canyon Trail #47.

We continued straight ahead, following the bed of the old highway as it made its way toward the old bridge crossing in Wilson Canyon. After about 0.1 miles we came to a fork. Our trail angled to the right while the old SR 79 road continued straight ahead. A signpost (left) showed the way and provided the additional information that the same path would lead to Jim Thompson Trail.

About 0.4 miles from the point where Wilson Canyon Trail diverged from the old SR 79 roadbed we arrived at the intersection with Jim Thompson Trail. This 2.9-mile trail runs from Mormon Canyon, along the slope of the mountain below Steamboat Rock, to Wilson Canyon, connecting Brins Mesa Trail to Wilson Canyon Trail.

The Jim Thompson/Wilson Canyon Trail intersection marks the edge of the wilderness area. The rest of our hike in Wilson Canyon would be in the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness. The vegetation in the canyon consisted primarily of Arizona cypress, scrub oak and manzanita. The well-worn trail follows closely along the wash, rising gently, as it makes its way up the canyon; we had tantalizing glimpses along the way of the steep cliff walls ahead. The rather dense tree cover meant that we were in the shade most of the time, not necessarily a good thing on this rather chilly, early-April morning.

Steep cliff walls ahead visible through the Arizona cypress, scrub oak and manzanita

Lila had suggested that we divert from the trail and climb Steamboat Rock on the way up the canyon rather than on the way back. However, as it turned out, the GPS track I was using was incorrect and we missed the turnoff. It showed the turnoff as being a short distance above the Jim Thompson Trailhead when, in practice, one actually turns on that trail and follows it for about 0.2 miles before starting the climb up the rock. The person who made the erroneous GPS track must have been part mountain goat; it went straight up a steep untracked, densely overgrown mountain slope.

As it were, we continued on up Wilson Canyon Trail for another 0.8 miles and came to a cairn (right) marking the official end of the trail. We did not turn back at this point because the report we were relying on said that a social trail led up the side of the canyon from this point. We found it just a few yards ahead and followed it, climbing out of the belt of Arizona cypress growing along the bottom of the canyon and continuing up the manzanita- and sumac-covered mountainside.

I paused along the way to photograph a pair of red-orange Indian paint brush blossoms (left) positioned in a bed of green tucked under a low-hanging manzanita branch. The social trail ended hard against the steep canyon wall after just 0.2 miles.

At the very end of the trail, the author and Jim McGinnis are shown  posed hard against the unscalable canyon wall (right). We had climbed about 150 feet to reach this point, so we rested there for a few minutes before starting our descent.

We paused at an open spot on the way back down the slope for a group photograph with the colorful red and yellow canyon walls in the background.

Left to right: Betty Wolters, Jim Gibson, Collene Maktenieks, Floyd Gardner, Loren Pritzel, Bob Rauen, Daisy Williams, Jim McGinnis, Lila Wright, Ellen McGinnis and George Everman

After descending back to the wash at the bottom of the canyon, we decided to push on upstream for a short distance. But before doing that we stopped for a photograph of two hikers who had missed the group photograph. Shown here (left) are Karl Sink (left) and Jerry Helfrich.

Just to the left of the two hikers shown above, a faint trail leaves the wash. We followed it for a short distance until it rejoined the streambed. After that, we just continued up the bed of the wash, noting an occasional cairn as we went. I am not sure what purpose the cairns served; they certainly were not needed to keep hikers on the trail as there was no trail. One just follows the wash, occasionally leaving it to climb around an obstruction.

I remembered seeing a number of western wallflowers on a May 2010 hike up the canyon and I was hoping to find more this time. But perhaps it was still too early for them because we found very few and then usually only a single flower at a time. The photograph (right) displays the best grouping of the flowers I found during today's hike.

Most of the hikers went only a short distance up the wash and stopped to wait at a sunny spot while Karl and I continued up the wash for 0.2 miles beyond the official end of the trail, ourselves turning back at the point shown here (left). 

Rejoining the group we all started back down the trail, looking closely for signs of the turnoff to Steamboat Rock. At this point, still not sure where to leave Wilson Canyon Trail, we were hoping to follow the GPS track. Eventually, however, we arrived back at the junction with Jim Thompson Trail without having found it. There we met a hiker who assured us that the trail to Steamboat Rock was accessed by way of Jim Thompson Trail. A little farther along we met two additional hikers who reinforced that message.

As we left Wilson Canyon, I was reminded of the words of Joe Bartels in a HikeArizona.com report dated 12 April 2012. Bartels wrote that Richard Wilson, for whom the canyon is named, while carrying an uncharged muzzle-loading rifle, chased a bear into the canyon in 1885. The bear turned on him and he took refuge in a juniper tree. However the bear pulled him out and killed him. He notes that there have since been reports that the canyon is haunted by Wilson's ghost.

Ghost or no, we were now safely out of Wilson Canyon and heading west on Jim Thompson Trail. We followed that trail for 0.2 miles before coming to the very obvious turn-off (right) to Steamboat Rock. The dead branches placed across the entrance to the path separate it from the main trail.

We now began to see more flowers, first an indigo (below left) closely followed by an indigo-blackfoot daisy bouquet (below right).

                               Indigo                                          Indigo-blackfoot daisy 

                                                                                    bouquet

Te climb to the top of Steamboat Rock is rated as a Yosemite Decimal System² Class 3, meaning that a fall could easily be fatal.

The difficulty of the climb is illustrated in the photograph (below) showing hikers making their way carefully up the steep slope.

Hikers making their way up the steep slope of Steamboat Rock

The photograph (below), taken from the upper slope of Steamboat Rock, shows Oak Creek Canyon framed by Wilson Mountain on the left and Indian Point on the right.

Oak Creek Canyon framed by Wilson Mountain (left) and Indian Point (right)

Moving carefully all the while, I inched my way up the slope, pausing and positioning myself securely before pulling my camera out to photograph flowers found along the way. Among those I saw on the climb were a mountain sunflower with one of those ubiquitous blackfoot daisies lurking in the background (below left) and a gorgeous, aromatic cliffrose in full bloom (below right).

                              Mountain sunflower and         Cliffrose

                              blackfoot daisy 

The deck of Steamboat consists of a large flat area with the boat's superstructure looming up ahead as shown in the photograph (below).

Superstructure as seen from the deck of Steamboat Rock

From the deck of Steamboat Rock we had a great view looking out over Sedona (below left) and down on Midgley Bridge (below right).

                               Sedona from Steamboat        Midgley Bridge from

                                                                                   Steamboat

Some of the hikers had stopped on the lower slope to eat lunch and wait for us to return, so we didn't linger long on the top. On the way back down I found a really good bladderpod specimen (below left) and then, alongside SR 89A on the way home, a quite attractive clump of globemallow (below right).

                               Bladderpod                                Globemallow

According to my GPS, this hike, shown in red on the included map (following), was 4.9 miles out and back. The highest elevation was 5228 feet and the total ascent was 1537 feet.

1 By Michael Amundson, Professor of History, NAU. Published in the Arizona Sun Times on 7 October 2014. Available at: http://azdailysun.com/news/local/midgley-bridge-cause-for-celebration/article_68b859b6-a45b-5fe0-b5a0-ec7c5f41fe21.html

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosemite_Decimal_System

Long Canyon Trail to Long Canyon Tank

The author and thirteen other hikers left Cottonwood at 0800 on 26 March 2016 to hike on Long Canyon Trail. We planned to hike to Long Canyon Tank, about three miles from the trailhead at Forest Road 618H, and return. To reach the trailhead, we drove east on SR 260 to I-17 and turned north. We exited I-17 at the SR 179 exit and turned right to follow FR 618 across Wet Beaver Creek to the junction with FR 618H. The road is paved all the way to the FR 618H turnoff which is, itself, a well-maintained dirt road. About 0.7 miles after turning onto FR 618H, we came to the Long Canyon Trailhead. Parking is on the left side of the road and a chain is stretched across the road limiting access beyond this point to those with business at Southwest Academy. A gate (right), providing access to the trail, is located on the right.

The trail runs up to the mesa, now looming high above us, that lies between Deadwood Draw and the Canyon that carries Wet Beaver Creek and we knew that we had a steep climb ahead. A trailhead sign (left) posted a few yards from the gate warned us that the trail would be difficult to follow after the first two miles. Lettering on the sign that said “Bell Trail #13 – 10 miles” was confusing and I never determined the meaning. If intended to provide the length of Bell Trail, it is incorrect. Bell Trail, according to the Forest Service description¹, is 11 miles long, ending at Forest Road 214 about a mile east of Cedar Flat Tank. However, all other sources I found, including the Coconino National Forest Motor Vehicle Usage Map² and Garmin's Topo U.S. 24K Southwest map³ show it ending at Roundup Basin Tank which would make it around 7.6 miles long. It also couldn't mean that it was 10 miles by way of Long Canyon Trail to Bell Trail because, although both trails, on most maps, do end at Roundup Basin Tank, that is only about 7.8 miles.

As we continued along the trail, we found ourselves climbing steeply along a rough, rocky trail. It was a much more difficult hike than we had expected and two of our hikers turned back before we reached the top of the mesa. The rest of us continued on our way, going quite slowly and resting often. Flowers were a good excuse to stop and we paused frequently to admire those found along the way. Just a short distance up the trail we noted a bunch of blackfoot daisies (below left) followed closely by a somewhat scraggly globemallow (below right).

Blackfoot daisies                     Globemallow

As implied by the trailhead sign, the trail was easy to follow as we made our way toward the rim of the mesa. Behind us we had an ever-changing view, at first of the Wet Beaver Creek and the area around the Beaver Creek Ranger Station, then, as we climbed higher, of Capitol Butte, on the other side of Sedona, as it gradually became visible above White Mesa. The photograph (below) shows this view.

Looking back from the shelf below the rim of the mesa

The above photograph was taken somewhere around the first of two steep climbs required to reach the top of the mesa. As can be seen in the map insert (below), the first climb is followed by a fairly level hike along a ridge before a second steep climb to the rim of the mesa.

Map insert showing two sharp climbs to reach the rim of the mesa

As we continued up the trail to the mesa we could at times look down on the campus of Southwest Academy, nestled alongside Wet Beaver Creek at the old Beaver Creek Ranch Headquarters. You may find either of those names, sometimes both, depending on what map you are using. I later did a little online research and found the following description:

Southwestern Academy is a nonprofit, coeducational college preparatory school for grades 6-12, with two campuses—one in San Marino, California, and the other in Rimrock, Arizona, USA. The school is accredited by WASC. The school offers boarding and day enrollment for 145 students for grades 6-12 in San Marino and 40 students for grades 9-12 at the Rimrock campus. A year of postgraduate studies is offered at both campuses. Students can transfer between the two campuses. The school was founded in 1924 by Maurice Veronda, father of the current headmaster, Kenneth Veronda.⁴

The school was founded, as noted above, in 1924 in San Marino, California. The Arizona campus, at the old Beaver Creek Ranch, was added in 1963. The ranch was homesteaded in the 1880s by the Casner family; the Broken A-4 brand was registered for the ranch in 1889. The present stone buildings were constructed after the ranch became a private hunting lodge in 1929. Southwestern Academy opened at the site in 1963⁵.

The sign at the trailhead had warned that the trail became indistinct after 2 miles and at 1.7 miles we found another sign (right) indicating that we had arrived at that spot.

I set the scale on my GPS to 120 feet to make sure we didn't inadvertently deviate too far from the downloaded track we were following. As it turned out, however, we really didn't need the GPS track which, in any case, turned out to vary as much as 0.2 miles from the actual trail. We just followed the well-traveled cattle trail. We assumed that the cows knew the most direct path to the tank we were aiming for. They did, however, tend to wander a bit, shifting the trail so that it passed under low-lying tree branches (below left) to brush off flies. But the general direction never varied; they were headed to the watering hole. Verifying our decision to follow the cattle trail instead of the GPS track, we found ancient wire-bound cairns (below right) at intervals all along the way.

Trail detours to pass under limbs              Old wire-bound cairns        

We had started the hike climbing a steep slope covered with juniper and a variety of low-growing plants such as cactus, snakeweed and cliffrose. Now we were hiking along an essentially level trail with widely-spaced junipers and pinon pines growing in high desert grassland. We knew that the area was grazed by antelope as well as cows but we saw neither. We did, however, find some fairly recent droppings from both (right) scattered along the trail.

From the top of the mesa as we neared Long Canyon Tank we had an excellent view to the north, across the canyon that carries Wet Beaver Creek and on to the San Francisco Peaks in the far distance.

Looking north from Long Canyon Trail on the mesa near Long Canyon Tank

It was almost noon when we arrived at Long Canyon Tank (below) and we stopped there for lunch.

Long Canyon Tank – a dreary-looking place but it did have water

We still had not reached Long Canyon; its rim was at least another half mile to the east, as shown in the map insert (below). As the map shows, were we to follow Long Canyon Trail to its end at Roundup Basin Tank, we would hike along the canyon's western rim for some distance and then cross it to meet with Bell Trail which also, according to most of the maps I consulted, ends at Roundup Basin Tank.

The magenta line shows Long Canyon Trail from Long Canyon Tank to its end at Roundup Basin Trail – most of this track was downloaded from HikeArizona.com

On our way back we passed the only standard trail marker (below left) we saw on this hike. We pushed right along and were starting the descent from the mesa rim (below right) by 1340.

Trail 63 Marker                       Hikers starting the descent

On our way back down Daisy pointed out a really nice indigo plant (below left) that I had not seen on the way up and, when we were almost at the bottom of the trail, we passed through a patch of unusually aromatic cliffrose bushes. I stopped to photograph one of them (below right). It was certainly not the most impressive specimen we saw but others were too far off the trail and I was tired.

Indigo plant                             Cliffrose                   

My pack had become unbalanced when we stopped just before we began the last steep descent. I had removed a filled thermos and apparently restowed it improperly causing it to list to the right. Being too pig-headed to stop and correct the problem, thus descending with an unbalanced load, I found that I had some very sore muscles and was walking with a decided list to starboard when I got back to the trailhead.

The total hike distance was 6.6 miles, the highest elevation was 5126 feet and the total ascent was 1296 feet.

Our GPS Track is shown in red on the included map (following). The cyan track at the top is Bell Trail and the dark magenta track continuing east from Long Canyon Tank is the continuation of Long Canyon Trail as it makes its way to Roundup Basin Tank.

1http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coconino/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=55234&actid=50

2 http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3834451.pdf

3 http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-MapSource-Southwest-Topographic-Coverage/dp/B001RYK0JE

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwestern_Academy

5 http://www.southwesternacademy.edu/pdfs/StudHdbk%202015-16.pdf