ARIZONA TRAIL
Rogers Trough to Roosevelt Lake 11-15 to 11-18 2007
29.7 miles
Water Sources from trailhead:
Junction Fire Line trail small running in creek with watercress 7.5 mi
Reavis Creek near corral by Reavis Ranch 8 miles
Pine Creek 10.8 miles

Walnut Spring 12.5 miles
End of trail 119 20.2 mi beginning FR 83 water trough dry cached 1 gal
Beginning trail 120 21.2 mi cattle trough full, cached 1 gal water
Cottonwood Creek 22.7 miles running with watercress
Cottonwood Creek ran on & off the next 2 miles to FR 341
Junction Fr 341 24.5 mi large cattle tank filled with water
Hwy 88 29.7 mi Roosevelt Lake (visitor Center)
11-15 46 degrees rainy 10.8 mi

3 of us started on this 29.7 mi trek Connie Simmons, Nancy Vail, & I Judy Eidson. Ronnie Simmons shuttled us to Rogers Trough left Pnx at 6:15 am started hiking at 10am in 46 degrees & rain. Beautiful hiking weather, saw 1 tarantula, air very fresh, after 1 long hill had lunch & continued to our 1st water source at Fire Line Junction, but we did not stop till we reached Reavis Spring only a small hole filled with leaves so we filtered, a great spot with apple trees but no apples this year. We continued to hike till we reached Pine Creek 10.8 miles a nice campsite, but again had to filter water as very small & dirty, nice campfire, early evening.
11-16 56 degrees 6:30am, a rough 6.2 miles
We all woke up at 1:30am I had a hard time falling asleep after that. We left camp at 8am & reached Walnut Springs in 1 ½ miles. A delight to see a beautiful green spot with lots of birds no spiders as the book mentioned. The game plan was if no water was to turn back to Rogers Trough & try to get a cell site to call my husband to met us at a different location, so that worry was over for me. It took us a very long time to filter water as dirty & continued to clean filter, mine alone was 126 oz of water knowing we would most likely need to have a dry camp some place on the trail, as it was considered most difficult in the book. A wonderful surprise was 3 fighter pilots came zooming over our heads close to be upside down as we ever saw & very close to the ground! A conversation for much of the trip. The next 5 miles were slow going searching for cairns, very rocky & no shade. We got bite by many different kinds of cactus even with long pants & long sleeved shirt. We saw the canyon that was nicked name Beanie Burro Canyon, ( that sure footed animal, a burro that tumbled at this location)we all got our hiking poles or found sticks at this point. We saw more deer but not much else. Nancy was having blister problems on her feet that looked awful (I‘ve been there more times than I like to mentioned so know what she was going through! We reached the Pinion Pines area at 3:30pm, we carried enough water & decided to stop for the evening. Again a nice camp, we were ready to go to bed an alarming smoke was in the horizon. We watched it for another 40 min not sure what it was but disappeared. .
11-17 52 degrees 5.6 mi
Blue shies, warmer day for hiking. Left camp at 7:30am, going around Pinion Mt was a long rocky climb following a fence line on & off. Many times going to cairn to cairn as really no trail. Which paid off at one point as we accidentally found a Indian dwelling with Indian chards laying around, we only took pictures. We reached end of trail 119 & beginning FR83. We had cached 1 gal of water here about a month ago on a different trip, & was wondering at the time if that was not redundant as there was a large cattle trough filled with water & a float with good water. To our surprise it was turned off for the winter & was dry. We did the tin foil around the gal as we are finding out with the drought the animals are chewing through the bottles. We continued on down the steep road to trail 120 “Cotton Wood Canyon” The cattle trough at that location was full but we also cached a gal at this location also. We hiked to Cotton Wood Spring, a beautiful spot with Az Sycamore trees in full fall colors & cottonwood trees. We had our 1st bath but no camp fire as to many leaves & a breeze. We could of continued hiking farther but last known water source & husband meeting us at 1pm the next day on rd 341.
11-18 56 degrees 6.4 mi
Leisure a.m. started hiking at 10am, spring ran on & off for the next 2 miles. A beautiful canyon but now getting into saguaro’s & different types of cactus. Reached FR 341 with a water tank full of water & a good rd to hike on & only 2 atv’s we saw. Our shuttle (my Husband Possum) met us before we reached the main rd, so washed off & headed for food & beers at Jakes Corner.
A great trip, & a lot of worrying about water & terrain so was glad to knock off this leg of AZT.