Henderson Flat – Indian Ruins

Four Skyliners (Jim Manning, David Beach, Frank Lombardo and the author) camped at Henderson Flat on 02 November 2013. The purpose of our visit was to search for three Indians Ruins we had heard were located in the hills above the flat. I had found the locations of the three ruins noted on an old USGS map and we were fairly sure that we knew just where to look, so we set out on this bright and sunny day with a great deal of confidence.

Leaving from Cottonwood, we drove to Jerome on Hwy 89A, turned at the firestation onto Perkinsville Road, crossed the river on the Perkinsville Bridge and continued for another 3.2 miles before turning right onto Forest Road 181. Perkinsville Road, from Jerome to the FR 181 turnoff, although unpaved was in excellent condition; however, FR 181 turned out to be extremely rough, along with being crooked and steep. It should not be attempted with other than high-clearance, 4-wheel-drive vehicles.

About 6.8 miles along FR 181 we were deep in Railroad Draw. Another mile brought us to Henderson Flat where we intended to camp for the night. Jim Manning and I had driven this way just last year to camp out and visit ruins in Sycamore Basin, but I had remembered the distance to Henderson flat as being only 5.6 miles. This time, I thought we would never get there. Later I checked the report for last year's trip and found that the distance was 7.8 rather than 5.6 miles. So much for my memory. Our intended camping spot is marked by an old bunkhouse (above right) and a “trick” tank, the sort of tank that receives the water it stores from a collector rather than from natural runoff. In this case, the collector serves as a roof over the tank itself, as shown in the below photograph taken from a bunkhouse window in November of last year.

“Trick” tank at Henderson Flat and the hills where the Indian Ruins are 

located

The tank shown here with its own collector replaced an older now dried up tank, located a short distance downslope from the bunkhouse. The old tank was of traditional earth-dug construction and depended on natural runoff. The bunkhouse itself had been fitted with guttering that fed a large metal tank (cistern) installed to hold water for human habitation. It was all very elaborate for the few cows we saw, either on this visit or the one last year, and we think the area must have been much more heavily-grazed in the past. Obviously, the long-unused bunkhouse indicates that ranchhands were once in semi-permanent residence at the site.

We arrived at Henderson Flat, set up camp near the old bunkhouse, and were on our way to search for ruins by 1000. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and I planned to just toss my sleeping bag in the bed of my pickup, so my set-up was minimal. The other three campers all set up tents.

I had mapped the locations of the three ruins we were interested in on my GPS and we set out across country to the nearest one. I had been told that they were not very impressive ruins, but we were at least as interested in the search as the ruins themselves and were undeterred.

We crossed into boundary into into the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness area short distance from camp and continued on up the mountain slope, traveling at an angle that required us to cross a couple of washes. The washes were not very deep; however, they were pretty well choked with catclaws, manzanitas and cacti, making the going very difficult and slow. The manzanitas were difficult enough, growing thickly as they tend to do and making passage difficult. The catclaws and the cacti, however, seemed to actively retaliate, the catclaws jumping out to catch us and the cacti launching their spines as projectiles whenever we came near. The catclaws just took a vengeful bite and let go. However, the cactus spines were another matter entirely. They immediately penetrated clothing (even shoes) and quickly embedded themselves into flesh like little heat-seeking missiles.

But, hey, of what matter are a few inconveniences when one is climbing a mountain with friends searching for ruins. Anyway, as we climbed higher we had great views across the way to Mingus and Woodchute Mountains, although the view was somewhat obscured by smoke from a prescribed burn on the other side of Mingus. As we climbed higher, the growth thinned out a bit and we were better able to avoid some the cacti and catclaws, but the way was now steep and rocky.

About a mile from camp and some 300 feet higher, we were approaching the spot where we thought the first ruin was located. It seemed a very unlikely spot and I thought that my information must be wrong.

Approaching the location of the first ruin

However, just when we were ready to give up and head for the next location, a member of our party checked behind some heavy growth and we heard him shout “Indian Ruin.” There they were, a bit more impressive than expected from the information provided by others.

Frank Lombardo at the ruin

A still-standing wall is shown below. Part of the overhang has collapsed filling the space behind the wall with broken rock. We spent some time poking around in the ruin, finding little except a single pottery shard.

Debris contained behind wall

Pottery shard

Quite pleased with ourselves for having found the first site, we set out with renewed enthusiasm for the next location I had marked in my GPS. That site was a mere 0.1 miles and some fifty feet higher in elevation than the first site. Unfortunately, to get there we had to climb back across the ridge we were on descend, for over 200 feet, cross a wash and then climb back up another ridge following a very steep and rocky course. The total distance by this route was about 0.5 miles. The profile for this section of our hike is shown in here (above left).

We found this site more easily, actually stumbling over it on top of a ridge as we were heading to what I thought was a more likely spot. I had expected it to be tucked under an overhang and was heading to a rock outcropping which looked like a good place for one when someone said “here it is.” This one was constructed on the very crest of the ridge we had climbed, just below a further rise in the ridge marked by red rocks. The following photograph shows a section of wall from the old structure and beyond a glimpse of the red rock marking a further rise in the ridge.

Wall remains at bottom, foot of cliff marking a further rise of the ridge at top

We found a few pottery shards, examined them and, as always, left them at the site. Just at the base of the red rock cliff shown in the top right quadrant of the above photograph, we saw evidence of another smaller structure. For storage?

Pottery shards

Remains of small structure … storage?

We were doing quite well. We had found two of the sites we were searching for and were preparing to head for the third. Suddenly, however, we again heard the cry of “Indian Ruins” from a member of the party who had climbed the low red-rock cliff ahead. He had spotted, across the canyon, an unexpected ruin that we had not known was there. It was just a little higher than we were and it appeared that we would be able to reach it by following the contour line around the canyon instead of hiking down to cross the wash and coming back up the other side. We could tell from where we were that it was more substantial than anything we had expected to find today, so we immediately cancelled plans for the other ruin we had anticipated hiking to and headed for this one. The photograph below, taken from just above the second ruin we found shows the unexpected ruin from about 0.1 miles away.

Looking across the canyon at the unexpected ruin

The hike along the canyon wall to get to the other side proved to be perilous and difficult. We had to watch carefully to avoid slipping on loose rocks, all the while dodging cacti and catclaws. By the time I reached the ruin it was again time to stop and remove spines, and I must have spent fifteen minutes at the task before I was ready to hike again.

This ruin contained seven rooms (eight if one counts a small subdivision within one of the larger rooms) and at one time had a second story, probably doubling the number of rooms. The most substantial, still-standing wall is shown here (right). Note that the lower portion of the wall is mortared while the rest is not. Perhaps it was torn down and rebuilt at sometime in the past. Or, possibly, the upper part was just constructed at a later date using a different technique. A pole can be seen extending through the wall about a third of the way from the top. This marks a division between floors.

This photograph (left), taken from the other side of the wall, shows the top part of wall from the poles marking the division of floors up. Most of the upper portion of this side of the wall is mortared. The small section at the very top of the wall appears to have been added at a later date.

Jim Manning is seen examining the aforementioned wall in the following photograph.

Jim Manning examining the large, partially-mortared wall

The below photograph, taken as we were leaving the area, shows the ruin from the end opposite our entry point.

Photograph taken looking back as we were leaving the ruins

As might be inferred from the number of photographs shown here, we spent considerably more time at this ruin than at either of the first two sites. There was, after all, a lot more to see here. When we were through, we decided to make our way diagonally down the wall to the bottom of the canyon and then follow along the wash toward the flat below. We thought we were a bit over a mile from camp and expected to intersect Henderson Flat Trail #53, running up the valley from Sycamore Tank, about half way there.

As it turned out, we were not too far off. We travelled 0.7 miles down the steep canyon wall, along the wash at the bottom and across several other brush, catclaw and cactus-infested washes before finding the trail. The trail itself, although marked by cairns and relatively easy to follow, appeared to be little used. We followed it for 0.6 miles back to camp, passing the dyke that had formed the old tank Henderson Flat along the way. Before it was drained this must have been a substantial tank; it appears to have covered several acres and the dyke had a rock-lined sluice at one end to prevent erosion of the earthen dyke.

We arrived back at camp at 1600, having been on the trail (or, rather, struggling through the brush) for six hours. I was tired and peppered with of cactus spines, but after a few minutes of rest while plucking the spines from inconvenient places, felt much better.

The smoke from the prescribed burn had by now largely dissipated, but had been replaced by a few threatening, clouds that might well be a harbinger of rain showers. I decided that I would pitch my tent after all; it was going to be a fairly chilly night and I certainly didn't want to spend part of it wet. Later during the night, when I heard the pitter-patter of raindrops on my tent, I snuggled with great satisfaction deeper into my warm, cozy sleeping bag.

But before bedding down, we must cook supper and we were all looking forward to some time around the campfire. I had thought that we might have trouble finding nearby fuel for our campfire at the flat. It is an ideal place to camp and shows much evidence of being so used, so I thought that all available fuel would have been used already and brought along some firewood. As it turned out, fuel was plentiful and I wound up bringing my wood home again. There were a number of fire rings left by previous campers, so we just selected the most convenient one and soon were gathered around the campfire to eat, review our day's activities and plan for the morrow.

An early dinner around the campfire with the setting sun still lighting the 

mountains in the background. Does it get any better than this?

We had hiked 3.0 miles, mostly through thick brush and found three ruins, one entirely unexpected. The total ascent was 949 feet and the highest elevation was 5231 feet. Our track and the locations of the ruins are shown on the included map (below).

Henderson Flat – Lonesome Pocket Trail

We got a leisurely start the next morning. We had decided to hike on Lonesome Pocket Trail #61 which leads generally north from Henderson Flat. The trail is marked by cairns and we actually saw a few footprints for the first half mile or so. After that there was no indication of recent usage. At first the trail leads through a meadow; it then enters a juniper forest, rises at a fairly gentle slope, and crosses several washes, gradually becoming steeper and rockier. Soon after leaving the meadow, we found several fossilized sea shells, such as the example shown here (above right). These were found only along a short stretch of the trail. After that, the composition of the rocks changed and we found we were moving through an area of broken up sandstone that appeared to have been deposited in relatively thin layers and was marked by intriguing designs.

About a mile from camp we came to a fork in the trail. According to the trail sign posted sign (left), our trail continued straight ahead for 2.0 miles while a trail to forking to the left would lead to Sand Flat, 6.0 miles away.

We certainly did not have time to hike to Sand Flat as we had decided that we would leave for home at 1200, so we continued on toward Lonesome Pocket. Actually we would not even have time to hike all the way to the pocket, but would just go as far as we could and still be back at Henderson Flat by noon.

As we continued on up the trail we noted a volcanic intrusion left exposed when the softer surrounding material had eroded away, see photograph below. Meanwhile the trail became ever steeper and rockier.

Volcanic intrusion

Steep, rocky trail to Lonesome Pocket

After some more hard climbing we reached a very narrow section of the ridgeline and the trail ahead seemed to level off a bit. We paused there for a snack and I snapped a photograph of my fellow hikers.

Left to right: David Beach, Frank Lombardo and Jim Manning

Even though, as already noted, the trail did level off somewhat for a short distance, we could see that further ahead was another steep climb on up to Lonesome Pocket on top of the mountain. It was now close to 1030, so we decided to return to camp after our snack. We arrived back at camp at about 1140 and were shortly on our way back home.

I recorded the round trip hike distance as 2.9 miles, the total ascent as 912 feet and the highest elevation as 5760 feet.

Our track for the hike on Lonesome Pocket Trail is shown following (below).

Damifino Loop Hike

We hiked the Damifino Loop on 26 October 2013. This hike actually consists of a loop starting at the Cowpies Trailhead on Schnebly Hill Road and hiking on Cowpies Trail, Hangover Trail, Damifino Trail, Casner Canyon Trail, Schnebly Hill Road and Munds Wagon Trail. But that became just too much to include in a title, so I defaulted to using just “Damifino Loop”.

We left the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot at 0700, picked up one other hiker at the end of the pavement on Schnebly Hill Road and continued on to the parking lot at Cowpies Trailhead. The road is very, very rough, requiring a high-clearance vehicle (preferably with 4-wheel drive) for all but the most reckless and foolhardy.

Cowpies Trail dips through a draw, actually a wash that flows into Bear Wallow Canyon, and emerges at the edge of a wide expanse of solid rock. Mitten Ridge Gap, through which we were to pass, was clearly visible and we stopped for a group photograph with it in the background.

Left to right: The author, Samantha Moor, Connie Woolard, Daisy Williams, 

Betty Wolters, Ann Urick, Frank Lombardo, Donna Goodman and Jerry 

Helfrich - photograph by Name Withheld

Small rocks have been arranged on the flat rock surface to form a large medicine wheel, a circle containing a cross. The trail itself is marked by an intermittent line of rocks leading hikers across the edge of the flat rock to another wash, the upper part of Bear Wallow Canyon. The trees in the first wash were predominantly juniper. However, as we crossed this second wash, we noted they had been largely displaced by shaggy-barked Arizona cypress trees.

After crossing the second wash one can turn left to hike across another flat expanse of rock to the cowpie formations. Despite its name, the trail itself does not turn toward these formations; instead it continues, generally northwest, for a short distance to end at the beginning of Hangover Trail (right).

The name “Hangover” is shown on some old maps I have seen and seems to coincide, at least partially with Mitten Ridge Loop (or Mitten Ridge Bear Paw) Trail. In any case it has recently been remarked and the sign shown above has been installed.

Hangover Trail runs through Mitten Ridge Gap which is where Damifino Trail, which we would follow down the other side of the ridge and on to the mouth of Casner Canyon, starts. We decided that, although on past hikes to the gap we had taken a different route, we would follow Hangover this time.

As it turned out, the major benefit to taking Hangover was that the trail was clearly marked by mountain bikers and easy to follow. Our previous route was not an official trail; we just followed one of a number of unofficial trails, sometimes marked by cairns, toward the gap, all ending with a short but very steep climb to reach the gap itself. Hangover, however, first passes below the gap and then turns back and climbs to it through a series of switchbacks; it is longer but may be a bit less strenuous.

As we traveled along the side of Mitten Ridge toward the gap we had what I consider the most definitive view of the cowpies formations, showing clearly the reason for the name.

The Cowpies seen from Mitten Ridge with Munds Mountain in the background

A section of the trail along Mitten Ridge is shown below.

Hikers trudging along the slope on the east side of Mitten Ridge

We found the trail to be clearly marked by the painted white arrows of the sort used by bikers and navigated our way easily through the series of switchbacks to reach the gap. We rested there for a few minutes before continuing our hike.

Some of us had previously hiked through the gap and turned south on the west side to follow what we then called Mitten Ridge Loop Trail but that I have since learned is also known as Mitten Ridge Bear Paw Trail. This time, however, we would turn north after crossing through the gap and follow Damifino Trail to the mouth of Casner Canyon where we would pick up Casner Canyon Trail to continue our loop. Both trails start at the north side of the gap. Mitten Ridge Loop (or Hangover, if you prefer) turns left just before reaching the dead tree trunk blocking the trail in the photograph (above left). To take Damifino Trail one just steps over the dead tree trunk and proceeds straight ahead.

We were now on a trail little used by hikers. Most of the information I was able to find in preparation for a 14 October scouting hike on it was provided by bikers. However, we saw few signs of recent biker activity, just an occasional tire mark.

The name of the trail is a puzzle. There is a story concerning the naming of Damifino Canyon (but note the difference in spelling). According to that story, the head surveyor of a 1930s survey party looking to improve Schnebly Hill Road asked the party's guide, a pioneer who had helped construct the original road, for the name of the canyon. The guide responded by saying “Damn if I know.” This sounded to the engineer like “Damifino” and he wrote it on the map. The mouth of Damifino Canyon is about 1.1 miles southwest of Mitten Ridge Gap and I assume that the name came from there. There is the matter of the difference in spelling (Damifino for the canyon, Damifino for the trail). Perhaps the person who named the trail had heard of how the canyon got its name and decided to improve the translation by making the name a bit closer to “Dam if I know.” We'll never know for sure.

The trail was at first fairly easy to follow, if a bit precarious in places. It followed along the steep, lightly forested western slope of the ridge. The photograph (right) shows hikers on a section of it near Mitten Ridge Gap.

Shortly after we left the gap, it became obvious to Jerry Helfrich that the hike would take longer than the time he had available and he turned back. That was not a problem as he is an experienced hiker and he had driven to the trailhead by himself.

After passing through the forested area we came to an area of bare sloping rock. No trail was visible here and we just followed my GPS track from the 14 October scouting hike. One could do just about as well, however, by simply heading for the spine of the ridge that slopes down past Grasshopper Point (but on the opposite side of Oak Creek) because the trail follows it all the way to Casner Canyon.

Hiking down the spine of the ridge

The following photograph (below) shows hikers making their way down the bare sloping rock on the west side of Mitten Ridge.

Hikers descending the western slope of Mitten Ridge

Once we had made the relatively short descent on bare rock where the trail was not discernible, it once again became easy to follow. It follows along the crest of the ridge passing Grasshopper Point (left), located just across Oak Creek. Continuing on past Grasshopper Point, the trail eventually reaches the end of the ridge and descends steeply by a series of short switchbacks to the stream, usually a dry wash with just an occasional pool of water, at the lower end of Casner Canyon. The trail turns upstream for a few yards and then crosses the wash to join Casner Canyon Trail. We stopped there for a snack.

This trail, built to provide cattle grazing in pastures on the canyon rim access to water, is now used by hikers and horseback riders. From where we joined it, the trail leads sharply up the north slope of the canyon. After a short distance, it levels off a bit and continues upward at a relatively gentle slope for a large part of the way to the top, then becomes steep again. This can be seen from the following photograph taken from Schnebly Hill Road on the opposite side of the canyon. The blue line shows, roughly, the path the trail follows.

Partial tracing of Casner Canyon Trail up the north canyon wall

Just left of center at the bottom of the above photograph the canyon can be seen to split. The lower branch, not the one nearest the trail, is Casner Canyon Proper. The trail actually veers up a side canyon leading in from the north and tops out on the rim about a mile north of the head of Casner Canyon proper. Schnebly Hill Vista is approximately half way between these two points.

The trail was easy to follow, at places reinforced on the lower side by carefully placed rock walls. The peak fall flower season had passed and the sloping canyon wall was not as colorful as it had been for the scouting hike. However, the weather, defying the lateness of the season, had turned unusually warm and the going was extremely slow as we labored our way up the trail toward the rim. The following photograph, taken at the only really shady spot since leaving the bottom of the canyon, shows two of our party approaching a final steep climb, through a switchback, which comes out at an old fence marking the end of steep climbing.

Hikers nearing the end of Casner Canyon Trail

Once we reached the old fence, the trail leveled off a bit and the rest of the climb to the head of the canyon was quite gentle. We also began to see neatly-constructed, wire-bound cairns marking the way. As I had found during the scouting hike, the trail has recently been extended south along the rim to end at Schnebly Hill Vista. The pink jeep (right) shown here was a welcome sight; it meant that we had reached the end of Casner Canyon Trail and that the rest of the hike would all be downhill.

We briefly joined the pink jeep tourists for the awesome view from the vista.

The view from Schnebly Hill Vista

We then headed down Schnebly hill road toward the Munds Wagon Trailhead. Along the way I found a deep purple aster (left), valiantly holding its own against the approach of winter.

The hiking along the road was easy and we made good time, soon arriving at our trailhead. The Munds Wagon Trailhead is located on the right side of the road as you descend, just across from the Schnebly Hill Trailhead. In fact the two trails share a common origin. Each utilizes a section of the old Munds Wagon Road that provided access to Flagstaff before Schnebly Hill Road was built.

The hiking was a bit rougher on Munds Wagon Trail than it had been on the road. However, it is a considerably shorter distance than if one were to follow the road all the way back to the Cowpies Trailhead where we were parked. It circles the Merry-Go-Round formation, following along the ledge that forms what would be the platform carrying the horses on a real merry-go-round.

As we rounded the corner of the formation we encountered a wedding party in the process of assembling. I think some of our party checked to see whether drinks were available yet and were told, “not until the reception.” The wedding had not even started, so we trudged on. The below photograph of the Merry-Go-Round formation was taken looking back from further down the trail.

Merry-Go-Round formation on Schnebly Hill road above Sedona

It was only a short distance on to where we were parked. The trail crosses Schnebly Hill Road once on the way and then passes within about a hundred feet of the Cowpies Trailhead parking lot.

I recorded the hike distance as 7.9 miles, the elevation change as 1481 feet and the highest elevation as 5988 feet.

We hiked 0.5 miles on Cowpies Trail, 1.0 miles on Hangover Trail, 1.7 miles on Damifino Trail, 2.4 miles on Casner Canyon Trail, 1.2 miles on Schnebly Hill Road and 1.1 miles on Munds Wagon Trail.

The GPS track for this hike is shown in red on the attached map (below).

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