West Hunter Canyon Trail

West Hunter Trail starts at the end of Hunter Canyon Road, off State Road 92, and is the main forest road in the canyon. It travels uphill for two miles and ends at the Miller Peak Wilderness boundary. I usually go here to walk the dogs in the lower canyon, but with hunting season in full swing have been going higher up for everyone's safety. The West Hunter Canyon trail was built years ago by the local Girl Scout Troop, starting at the Miller Peak Wilderness trailhead parking area (a small area for three cars) and ending two miles up at an old homestead site where once apple trees grew. The Forest Service no longer maintains this trail (perhaps because Mother Nature keeps insisting on changing the water's course?) and also because it's a popular trail with illegals, who hike down Hunter from off the Crest Trail near Miller Peak and follow the creek bed as closely as possible. There is no sign indicating the name of this trail, either. The Forest Service would rather people not know about this trail. A hundred years ago this was the home of an unknown homesteader who had apple trees on his land. But how quickly the land changes. The apple trees are long gone and there isn't much left of civilization other than rusty water pipes laid down in the 1880s. The trail's still popular with hunters and target shooters, who leave their brass and trash along the road for others to clean up. A bullet-holed yellow "Burned Area" sign now marks the small trailhead parking. Sun-bleached backpacks and clothes line the treeline in parts.

I had wanted to hike up Brown Canyon today but didn't leave the house until past 1pm. I didn't do a very good job preparing my backpack for this hike; all the dogs wanted to go hiking with me and I couldn't say no. To keep Sara happy I opted for a shorter (but steeper!) hike up this canyon, and to hopefully see some fall foliage. It was overcast and I was already in the shade of the mountains, which made it easier on us all.

I hadn't been up here all year. Upper Hunter Canyon is badly burned from last summer's fire. Most of the trees have been destroyed. Even worse, though, is the severe water damage in the creek bed. When I took all the dogs up the trail west from the wilderness boundary, I failed to see the trail continue on the other side of the heavily-eroded creek bed and hiked up steep boulders instead.

Poor Sara struggled, and I stopped a lot for her. She's gotten too old to hike more than a mile at a time and today's hike was too much for her old body. I looked for side trails off the creek bed so that she didn't need to jump much over tall boulders. I had hiked the creek bed years ago and it was steep and rocky then, but today noted deeper crevices. Recent floods have done more damage to this area, and Mother Nature wants to cut a new creek down many smaller ravines.

The hike was a challenge to us all. Sammy did well and Sadie, Minnie and Zeke enjoyed getting out and running around. None of the dogs strayed far, though. Sara was getting tired from the boulder hopping and I had no water, but knew there was water near the old homestead area for her to cool off in.

Or had the spring been buried in the monsoonal floods? The higher we got up this steep ravine, the more worried I became about venturing so far away from the old trail, getting lost or getting injured. I didn't bring any water because usually the dogs water up at the end from the springs. It's a two-mile hike on a steep and rocky trail, but today's route made it a rock challenge.

I couldn't find the old homestead, either. Had it washed away in the monsoon? Weeds are taking over the area, and what once was a secret hiding spot for me in the shade is now a dead and overgrown rockslide. What a shame, as this was always such a nice hide-away, a steep but cool summer retreat close to home, with splendid views of the valley. Although I always came across illegal trash I never came across the people here. (They usually stay high as long as possible.)

When I found the original trail I was surprised to see more water damage here as well. The crevices were so bad that the dogs would stop and wait for me to show them the way.

Target shooters were busy shooting in the lower canyon. But what concerned me was seeing two USBP, an AZ Highway Patrol and two Sheriff Deputies parked near the cattle guard as I drove off. An agent told me not to stop and to drive on out, which is what I did. I'm really curious to see what that was all about. I see USBP on forest roads a lot, but seeing sheriff deputies and even Highway Patrol cars is rather odd.  (I later learned several illegals in the area called for help because they claimed a target shooter had fired on them and the deputies were out to investigate.)

The dogs were very tired once we got home. Sara slept well and I had to come to her later in the evening for her canned treat; she was too sore to walk. Tonight's meal included chicken legs and the dogs got some skin and bones. On another note, since I always think about current events while out in the wilderness, SD Senator George McGovern, a staunch Liberal who always opposed the Vietnam War, died early Sunday at the age of 90. He had been unresponsive for several days. His death was smooth and calm. Lance Armstrong, once the boy wonder of the cycling world and 7-times champ of the Tour De France, was stripped entirely of all his medals, banned for life and his name removed from all official race records in the Tour because of his proven record of cheating with biochemical supplements. Yikes. But he has only himself to blame.