Miller Peak

I survived the Zane Grey 50 mile race outside of Payson in late April - just barely. It took me over 14 hours to get the finish line about 3.5 hours slower than I was on this course 10 years ago. Now I am training for another 50 Miler coming up on May 17 in Los Alamos, NM. Should be a great course and I am looking forward to meeting my friends from Carson City NV for the race. I don't think I will go out fast from the start on this one - the trails might be much better than Zane Grey but the climbs and descents are longer and steeper.

I went up Miller Peak Friday afternoon - gets in 4000+ feet of climbing in a little over 6 miles. The aspen are greening up - there is a great section of trail that runs through the aspen. I decided to take illegal immigrant route for the descent. This route is more direct but being an immigrant route I knew there would be some brush and very steep sections involved. It was definitely steep but the route was very well used - even the trunks of the aspens were discolored from people grabbing on to keep from sliding down the hill. There was also a lot of trash - one pile just a 150 feet below the summit of Miller Peak - in an aspen grove and several others along the ridge line on the way down. I don't think I will get to these piles - out of site out of mind. It would be a tough haul to get the trash off the mountain.

Here is some of the trash - just below the summit is the pile seen on the right and further down is this pile on the left. About 2 months ago when I was up on the summit - I saw a few immigrants just below the summit. It is a long tough climb up Miller Peak from the south. I am guessing that the route is popular because the Forest Service land extends all the way to the highway within Hunter Canyon whereas some of the other canyons have a number of homes.

Below is a pic of the descent - note the aspens used as handholds for the steep descent. The Google Earth image shows the route up Miller Canyon and then back down the ridge line. The open space near the start is the Beatty property which has an apple orchard and at least one guest cabin - I would love to have this kind of running out of my back door. I guess I cannot complain too much about a 20 minute drive to the trail head.

Clean-Up Results In

The weather was fantastic and four of us made it to Bear Saddle - and what a bear it was. We started collecting some of the heavy trash - back packs and clothing - about a half-mile below the saddle. We got the bags to the saddle and filled some more. Bags were shuttled down to the spring and more bags packed on the way down and at the spring. In all 16 bags were left at the spring for latter pick-up by horses. The horse crew - led by Ron of Arizona Horse Back Experience in Sonoita spent a long day on Sunday packing the bags out. A few of ours were over stuffed so they ended up hauling about 20 bags out from the Spring.

Connie and Kevin collecting trash at the saddle. I think that Connie probably hiked two miles further than the rest of us - any bit of trash in sight was collected. Kevin found a number of unopened cans of tuna in back packs - as he put it the cats will be eating good for awhile.

Susan - my 98 pound sister making the saddle. She loaded up several more bags and then yoked two of the large green bags together across her shoulders for the trip down to the Spring.

Connie was the last out at 5:12 pm- not because she was hiking slower but rather because she filled one last bag on the way out and took some of the immigrant routes off the main trail on the way down. Here she is dumping that last bag.

Jeff, Pam, Jenny and Jeremy started out with us - they turned back before the saddle but did fill at least one bag with trash found around the Comfort Spring area.

Thanks everyone for you hard efforts - four of us did a great job cleaning up a remote area along the Arizona Trail. Getting the trash out of the spring will sure make it a more pleasant experience when I run by it next time. Please inform me of any future efforts by others- I will be happy to come out and to help get the word out.

Below is a picture Connie took of the bags at the Spring

Saturday April 5th Clean-Up

Meet at 7:00 am at the Lone Star Cafe 7216 S Hwy 92 -- it is located near the intersection of Hwy 92 and Hereford Rd. We will meet in the dirt lot just outside the Cafe. If you want breakfast at the cafe, you can arrive earlier - it opens at 6:00 am.

There will be a sign-in sheet and we will discuss the plan. After that we will drive (can carpool if you like) to the top of Carr Canyon - the Comfort Spring Trail Head. The hike in is just under 4 miles to the Saddle.

Updates:

• Trash Bags will be hauled out by horse at a later date - Great news for our backs!
• We will need to carry bags a half mile down to the spring - staging area for horses.
• Weather forecast looks great - bring some sunscreen it is exposed at the saddle.

Not everyone has to haul bags to Bear Spring so if you have a bad back or other concerns you can load the bags and others will hike them in to the spring. I am going to bring rope and a larger pack to try tying bags to the pack for the half-mile hike but you can also sling two tied bags over your shoulder if you prefer - I will have plenty of rope and duct tape!

Clean-Up Day

A few updates regarding April 5th:

• Meet at 7:00 am at the Lone Star Cafe on Hwy 92
• Drive up Carr Canyon to Comfort Spring Trail Head
• Hike down to Comfort Spring and then up Wisconsin Trail to Bear Saddle (about 4 miless)
• Clean-up area around saddle, Bear Spring, and another area just to north on Crest Trail
• There is a link to the new clean-up flyer on right side of this page

Some most excellent news is that arrangements are being made for someone to haul the bags out by horse. This will save us time - I was not looking forward to carrying the heavy bags out. I will post later this week when this arrangement is finalized. Looks like we will be able to leave the packed bags at Bear Saddle or a nearby location and the trash will be hauled out a day or two later.

Picture of Bear Saddle: The trash density is similar to this and extends a quarter of a mile down from the saddle. There is another area about three quarters of a mile north that has some piles of litter.

Flyer - click image to view full size

Trash at Bear Saddle

I am planning a clean-up day at Bear Saddle along the Crest Trail of the Huachucas in early April. I going to do my best to round up a few volunteers. I will get the word out among local trail runners, co-workers, and my church. This area has one of the higher concentrations of litter that I have seen on my trail runs. It is remote - over 4 tough miles and 3000 feet in elevation from the closest road.

There are a few other areas nearby with a high density of rubbish that will can be cleaned up on the same day. More info to come on this event. I have about 8 other littered areas tagged as high density - and I am sure that there must be many more as I have only run maybe half of the trails in these mountains.