We hiked the old route of the trail, through the BLM wilderness off Battleaxe road. In the event, we probably covered about a quarter of what is now the Gila River Canyons passage, in distance, though we probably intersected the actual passage very near its ending. The original narrative follows:
2/18
7:45 – Leave Jim’s house
8:35 – Picketpost Trailhead [where we dropped the car for the end of the backpack].
Dirt Rd. (f231) to gravel-paved cross-road. Circa 2 mi. to developed trailhead.
9:35 – as far as we decided to go on
Battleaxe Rd. Bad washouts, narrow
sections. Lucky we didn’t have Chris
drive us. The AZ Trail narrative is more
accurate than the map.
5 p.m. – set up camp circa mile 8 (AZ Trail map
overestimates distances), on tributary of Telegraph Canyon, where 2 jeep trails
come together. Lots of water early in
the day, but after we dropped down into the central canyons, the only water was
running in the wash/jeep tracks.
Biggest problem of the morning – route-finding past a
riparian area and corral in the BLM wilderness area. The riparian area was impossible to tell, and
when the trail climbed out onto a ridge, the cairns were few and
irregular. Outside the wilderness area,
the jeep roads are like superhighways.
Here's the passage map: https://aztrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/16_GilaRiverCanyons.pdf
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