11-16-2013          Today we took Mom Maybelle on a 4 hour tour that lasted 13 hours. We started looking for the Black Canyon Trail TH’s further north of Phoenix and was doing great till we got north of Bumble Bee and thought we could go by dirt road to Bloody Basin.  We did find Cleator but then lost my sense of direction to find the way point on Bloody Basin Rd. Must have been east. We ended up in Crown King thinking about a TH we saw  a few years ago at the lookout, Whoops, not it, Castle Creek Wilderness TH. OK, now that we are here do we want to go back the way we came, go to Wickenburg or Prescott? We chose Prescott down the Senator Hwy.  This proved to be a bad choice. 29 miles of bad, ugly and just ok dirt roads with 96 year old Mom in the back seat. What were we thinking! We should have went back the way we came. Oh well, next time.

We did find the trailhead on Table Mesa Rd. Along with more people totting guns than I ever wanted to be in the vicinity of.  One sign said there was a pumpkin shoot nearby but it could have been an old sign. We started thinking about how Phoenix has grown in the last 25 years so we guessed that this is where people practice handling their guns now.  Scary!

Many years ago we used to go down Table Mesa Rd to get to Lake Pleasant. Not any more unless you want to walk for a quite a distance. It’s gated off and now you have to pay a fee to use the area.  This is messed up!  Maybe when the lake is full the water will come back here.

We had already found the trailhead for Rock Springs several years ago so we drove on to the Bumble Bee exit off I17. It didn’t take long before we found the trailhead of Gloriana Mine TH. Pretty large parking lot.  Then on to find where the trail crosses Bumble Bee Rd. 34.15000N 112.15200W. Wasn’t hard to find as it is just over the bridge but if you pass the town of Bumble Bee you’ve gone too far. As we drove on we encountered some friendly beast who didn’t mind sharing the road with us.

This was the next sign we found on the BCT north of Bumble Bee. Way too funny. Is this for the cows or cyclist cuz I know I don’t hike fast enough to warrant a sign.

Well, the rest of the story rest on the road to Crown King, Senator Hwy., Prescott and home to Phoenix.  What a day.  200 miles long.

October-November 2013 Ronnie & I discovered E. Henderson TH on New River Rd. just west of I17.  The trail that leaves here is the Black Canyon Trail.  With some memory searching we remembered that this was the same name of the trail we had hiked last year in 2012 starting in Black Canyon City area. Only having a couple hours we hiked north and south from Henderson TH. Not much to see from here other than several places people have dumped trash and target practiced leaving all their trash.

We ventured down 42nd Ave. off New River Rd. heading north where we found the road that crosses the BCT and huge electrical system towers. Ran out of time so not sure where we would have ended up. When we got home I did a little research on the trail and found this trail was used to move sheep in Arizona history. The trail itself dates back to the 1600’s! Maybe someday we’ll have to put on a backpack and take a longer hike. Looking for waypoints now.

April 2012 Judy took us to this trail. It was an amazing day hike with lots of views, water and good looking cowboys on horseback. We hiked to the  river for lunch and then a little further to see what the trail was like further in. There was some amazing views and a few climbs but in all it was great.