Social climber: Fay Canyon and Doe Mtn.

The Fay Canyon trail, hiked end to end is, about a mile long and flat and wide enough to drive a jeep through without much trouble. However, as with many of the trails in this region, what recommends it are its "social" trails - unmaintained tracks that hikers have created in a mad scramble to get to interesting places.  In the case of Fay Canyon, these places are nothing short of spectacular. 

First social trail I climbed: up the canyon wall near the mouth, looking out

Views of the canyon 

Looking out again

The trail I was most interested to find was described to me as a trail well-marked with cairns, about 0.6 miles from the trailhead, leading to a stone arch.  If you'll pardon the overexposure, this is what that looks like...apparently. 

The way up

Arriving at the arch. From here you can see that the arch really is free-standing from the clif face.

Views out of the arch

And up!

Best vantage for a sketch I think! 

This marks the beginning of social trail #3 - up to the back of the box

Views out of the canyon

Views up the canyon 

Top of the box

Back down the canyon via the wash. This return route definitely has cool shade to recommend it! 

Hike 2: Doe Mtn

View of nearby Bear Mtn.

Lovely little cairn marking the end of the end of the maintained trail. From here a maze of social trails covers the top of the mountain. 

The view from the top looking out toward Sedona.

Morning routines

One of the most fun parts for me about staying for a few days in the same place is developing a few regular habits.

Every day, I wake up in a place that looks about like this. I break camp around 7 and head into town. 

All the dispersed camping areas are well outside Sodona. I have been camping to the south, so my morning commute to coffee and breakfast looks something like this. 

And this is coffee and breakfast. I work on the sketches I started on hikes, upload my photos from the previous day and plan the day's activities. 

Many rivers to cross: the West Fork Trail

The West Fork Trail snakes back up along the west fork of Oak Creek, crossing the creek over a dozen times on logs or stepping stones. 

The beginning...

My trusty friend, Stick, and I make the 5th crossing. 

View upstream from the 8th crossing. 

Hello to you too, tiny friend! 

The end of the road...for now. In warmer weather (and water!), you can wade up past this point and continue to follow the creek up stream. There is no maintained trail, but apparently the hike up the canyon is well worth it. But for now, it is time to turn around and head back.c

Farewell to Stick. I hope you serve many other hikers well!

Return to the Southwest

Something of an impulse decision, 5 days ago I booked a trip to Sedona, AZ. I flew into Phoenix on Sunday and yesterday drove up north. I spent the day getting reacquainted with the area: I got my Red Rocks pass, a map of trails, another of dispersed camping sites and found my morning (coffee) and evening (beer) wifi access hangout spots. 

Here are some photos from yesterday's hike 

Haha, check out those suckers down there...

#fullduck

Hah! And you thought, "thank goodness at least in the DESERT we will be free from Emily's endless mushroom photos". ;)

Return to the mountains: Bigelow Public Lands, Maine

After a year of smaller adventures, with Sean, around the Maritimes, I had grand plans this summer to hit the road. Originally these included a spring reprisal of last year's tour of the Southwest, but this was not to be. So instead, I picked up my four wheels and headed for the Western mountains of Maine. 

Map of the region courtesy of the ubiquitous DeLorme atlas

Camp on Flagstaff Lake, night one. Flagstaff in its current form is the massive result of the damming of the Dead River on its way north to join the Kennebec. It is not therefore nice for swimming, but it's resident loons are very majestic, late partiers.

An  unbeatable view from the top of Mt Bigelow's West Peak

The fire warden's trail up Mt Bigelow is described as a strenuous, steep ascent. It was in fact just that, but I preferred it to the way down, which, in addition to being hard on the knees, was lousy with slugs sprouted fresh from the rain. There is an undiscussed law in the world of slugs which states

                                                One should prefer to creep

                                                Where hikers must 

                                                Place hands or feet.

Suffice it to say that all parties suffered much from this state of affairs. 

The view from Stratton Pond of the Bigelows

I like to hike alone so that no one hears me talk to the mushrooms