Day 29, FR 422/Mazatzal Divide Road to Four Peaks Wilderness

A flame-red and orange sun was beginning to rise above a silhouette of mountains as I finished packing and prepared to leave my campsite. Roosevelt Lake shimmered just below.

When I started hiking this morning, I continued on the same road I followed for the last couple of miles yesterday, only now, it was much harder to walk. The route was filled with deep ruts and large rocks.

From the looks of it, the road is mostly is used by off-road enthusiasts. Perhaps they enjoy roads like this, but I didn’t.

The road wasn't just severely eroded. It went straight up the side of a ridge. In the first 7/10ths of a mile, the trail gained 800 feet in elevation.

Early in the morning, the trail passed in and out of shadows created by mountain slopes. The shadows held pockets of cool air. As I walked through them, I wished I had camped in some of that air last night.

As soon as the trail reached the top of the climb, it began a long descent. This was the start of a pattern that would be repeated several times today – up and down, up and down.

It took me nearly an hour to reach an area called Little Pine Flat. This was the spot where I had hoped to camp yesterday before realizing my late start made that impractical.

According to the FarOut app, a stream was near here, but it is usually dry this time of year. A wildlife tank was nearby and was a more reliable water source, though it was tricky to find.

When I arrived, I noticed a tent was pitched off to the side of an opening between trees. I didn't want to disturb the occupants, but still, I had to search for the water tank. Both problems were solved when a man came out of the tent. He confirmed I was heading in the correct direction to find the water.

The man told me his name was The Captain, and a moment later, I met his wife, Snugbug. They told me they had recently returned to the trail after taking a break from the heat.

Like me, The Captain and Snugbug were hiking southbound. The Captain had hiked the AT and CDT, and they’ve hiked a few other trails together.

I spent a long time at the water tank, probably too much. First, I had to wait for two hermit thrushes to finish their morning drink and bath. Then I ate breakfast.

The biggest reason for needing a lot of time, however, was filtering more than three liters of water. My filter kept clogging in the water that was thick with green algae. I flushed it two or three times, and the water still came out in a trickle.

Snugbug and The Captain were already packed and gone by the time I was finished at the water tank.

A short time after I returned to the trail, four fighter jets blasted low through a nearby canyon. One flew so low, it was lower than where I was walking. Another one performed a roll maneuver as it flew by. 

I don't have much knowledge about military aircraft, but I believe the jets were F/A-18E or F/A-18F Super Hornets. It’s common for them to fly at low altitude in areas like this to practice low-altitude tactical maneuvering. Super Hornets were the fighter jets flown by the U.S. Navy in the film Top Gun.

Road walking is almost always hot and tiresome. This road today was especially so. By mid-morning, the temperature had already climbed well into the 80s. In chaparral with no trees taller than eight or nine feet, shade was in short supply.

My shoes' nearly bare treads made traction poor on the dusty, rutted road with many rocks. My feet occasionally slid on steeper downhill sections. It felt almost like trying to walk on snow.

I caught up to The Captain and Snugbug, where they had stopped for a break. We chatted some more, then decided we should be hiking if we intended to go more than a couple of miles today.

We continued down the trail, walking mostly together, though the up-and-down terrain and rutted road didn’t make conversation easy. The trail didn't get much better after it left the rutted road and became a single track.

When I left Payson yesterday, I set a goal of reaching Roosevelt Lake tomorrow. Ever since I messed up my order for new shoes, I’ve been anxious to pick up the pair waiting for me at the marina. Unfortunately, the road and terrain made me wonder whether I could reach my goal.

At around noon, The Captain, Snugbug, and I reached a sign for Pigeon Spring, but we had trouble finding the water. It took some hunting around before we realized the sign stood on the opposite side of the trail from the spring. 

I filtered two liters of water, and we stayed at the spring to eat lunch. The spring was a vital water source to us. Ironically, it was also where one of the largest wildfires in Arizona history was started. The Lone Fire was ignited here in 1996 by a careless camper. It burned more than 61,000 acres, including a ponderosa pine forest surrounding Four Peaks. 

A half-mile past the spring, we entered Four Peaks Wilderness. As you can guess by the name, the wilderness surrounds Four Peaks. It stretches across 60,740 acres of land. Only 9.5 miles of the trail are within the wilderness.

The AZT doesn’t go over the peaks or close to their summits. I wished it did, even though it would have added a 2,000-foot climb. The mountain has a particularly unusual feature.

Between the third and fourth peaks is an amethyst mine. A prospector named Jim McDaniels was looking for gold in the early 1900s when he stumbled upon what has become one of the rarest gemstone deposits in the world. The only other mine that produces the type of amethyst found here is in Russia.

Because the mine is now within the wilderness boundary, it is entirely inaccessible by road. Mining supplies and equipment have to be brought in and out by foot, helicopter or pack animal.

The ups and downs eventually became shorter, staying between 5,600 and 5,900 feet, but they didn't end. Descents were usually longer, and on one, I could see Four Peaks. This was the first close-up view of the massif with four distinct summits.

The Yavapai-Apache people called the mountain Wi:khoba (wee-KO-ba). To them, it was a spiritual landmark. Indigenous tribes hunted game and harvested plants in the surrounding mountain flanks and valleys for thousands of years.

I fell behind Snugbug and The Captain while trying to avoid falling on the treacherously loose rocks and gravel. I didn’t catch up to them until I spotted their tent pitched among some manzanita. There was room for me to set up nearby in another small gap between manzanita.

Tonight was the first time since Day 5 that I had the pleasure of eating dinner with other hikers. While we chatted, I learned Snugbug and The Captain were celebrating their third wedding anniversary today.

I'll be hiking alone again tomorrow, and most likely, for many days to come. Snugbug and The Captain told me they weren't in a hurry to reach Roosevelt Lake and would slow down tomorrow. They plan to meet a friend there the day after tomorrow and will spend the weekend with him in Scottsdale.