Bassett Peak

Basset Peak is a 7650' peak in Graham county that is renowned for its fall colors in November. Since we were in Phoenix last weekend I proposed to the hiking club that we hike this peak this Friday, once I knew I was off work for sure. I sent out a message Wednesday afternoon. Three others accepted the offer: John S, Rod, and a new member, Steve A. They were a nice bunch and the added plus is that we all hike at around the same pace.

We all carpooled in my Ford from Benson. Sadie wasn't too happy with sharing the backseat with two tall men. She whimpered and whined the entire route, once because she had to pee. Luckily the guys were used to dogs, and one, Steve, grew up with German Shepherd Dogs.

And what a gorgeous hike it is! I told the guys this was the prettiest hike I've done in Arizona this year. It starts out at Ash Creek with maples, oaks, sycamores, elms and ends in a high desert landscape of manzanita, pinyon pine and sotols. Usually the colorful trees are higher up than the cacti.

We were the only ones on the trail, too. Everyone else who had cancelled the hike from last weekend's rain out opted to do this tomorrow. We lucked out. It's hard to enjoy the beauty of nature when there are 20 other people on the trail.

We met at the Love's gas station in Benson and I drove us all in my vehicle. Sadie wasn't happy with the crowded conditions but she managed to keep her whimper to a dull whine. Once we got to the trailhead at 9am, though, she was ready to take off. She hadn't hiked a decent trail in three weeks.

There were plenty of hunters car camping along the lower creek but the trailhead parking was empty. We had the next 11 miles to ourselves as we practically frolicked up the trail that followed the seasonal Ash Creek in a northwesterly direction, taking plenty of photos of the fall foliage and also taking photos of eachother taking photos. The maples were red or orange, the elms were yellow, and the aspens further up were just beginning to change from green to yellow.

I had left Sadie's water bowl at home. The only water she got was from the two springs along the trail and from icy snow about 7000'. She didn't seem to be suffering in any way. The overcast sky and the cooler temperatures made this hike very manageable, but I had hoped to have the sun pop out from behind the clouds to bring out the colors. It never did.

Both springs had water in it. The Upper Ash Springs is 2.8 miles from the trailhead, a bit away from where the trail makes a sharp east at the higher aspen grove. I would have missed the springs had Rod not shown it to me.

We had now left the riparian area and were now hiking up through high desert landscape of sotols, agaves, pinyons and manzanitas as the panorama opened up around us. We started with a view to the southeast, with Mount Graham, the Dos Cabezas Wilderness and the San Rafael Valley below us. The craggy rocks around us resembled the rocks in the Chiricahua mountains, dominated with rhyolite. Here is where the trail became steeper, and climbed the rest of the way to Basset Peak.

Rod stopped 1.4 miles from the peak along the lower ridge. He didn't seem itnerested in hiking to the peak, but the rest of us wanted to bag it. Rod reluctantly came along. He led us along the shady ridgeline through rock formations, manzanitas and pinyons. It is a beautiful stretch of the trail! An old crash site from a B-52 lay on the side of an eastern cliff. We now had view of Mount Lemon, the Rincons with Mica Peak, the distant San Pedro River, the Santa Teresas and other distant ranges. To me this was unchartered territory, and I relished the remoteness of our location.

Bassett peak didn't look that far away, but it still took us an hour to reach the peak at 12:56pm as we pushed uphill through an inch of wet snow across some dubious sections of trail that looked like they were ready to fall down the mountains. I would not want to be caught on the peak during a snowstorm; one bad move and a hiker could tumble straight downhill. The last 300 feet were a bushwhack.

We didn't stay at the peak for long. We were getting cold. We took a few group photos and descended the same way we went up. The overcast sky seemed darker and my hands were cold from the snow around us. What saved us was that there was no wind.

I was glad to be back down in the creek area as the colors and the smell of the deciduous trees were very refreshing. It was back at the springs that I realized we hadn't seen much wildlife on this hike other than a few hawks and song birds. Bear and cow scat were on the trail, but no other signs of life.

We got back to the truck at 5:07pm. Several large car camp sites had been established while we were hiking. The Tucson MeetUp group that planned the hike for tomorrow will have a crowded trail to contend with! The full moon rose behind a thick layer of clouds. I think the rain will start falling in the afternoon and spoil many of these hiker's experience tomorrow.

We stopped at Salsa Fiesta in Wilcox for a decent Mexican meal. I got back home around 9pm. Sadie went straight to bed.