Pine Flat is one of my favorite campgrounds—green trees with plenty of shade, the soothing sounds of the creek, the huge size of each lot, the birds singing in the morning, the golden light reflecting from the cliffs at sunrise and sunset, the stinking smell of skunks (yes, we smelled them every time we camped there), the cool breeze that danced past the tents. All of them made Pine Flats the most relaxing, calm place to stay for the summer. One hiking club, one RV, 10 sites, 12 cars, 16 tents, and 25 people will call this place home for the next three nights and four days.

Today is our first day of our three night and four day car camping trip. Some of us left earlier to try to beat the traffic, some of us had to work and tried to leave as early as possible. The drive to the Pine Flats Campground is easy, just take I-17, turn to SR 179, and merge into 89A north.

When we got to the Campground around 2 pm, there were many early birds who had already set up their tents, and were drinking the cool beer and enjoying the cool pine smell in the early afternoon.

As per usual, we used Rudy’s site as our get-together site. Without any announcement, we all picked up our chairs and settled in Rudy’s site after dinner and started our nightly gathering. The evening was very pleasurable, with John S playing guitar, Jade and Vanessa joining in to sing the songs, and the rest of us just cruising through the songs with few words we knew. A very relaxing night.

We scheduled one hike today—the Inner Basin hike. However, due to the closure of San Francisco Peaks area, we had to switch to Plan B: One group will do the "C" hike on the West Fork Trail; the other group will do the "B" hike on the Kendrick Peak Trail.

Chuck will lead the West Fork Trail hike, and I will lead the Kendrick Peak hike. There are six of us accepting the challenge of the Kendrick hike: Quy, Deidre, Jim, Darrel, Mohammed, and Lin.

Kendrick Peak is one of the highest peaks in the San Francisco volcanic field north of the city of Flagstaff. Kendrick Peak rises to a height of 10,425 feet (3,178 m), which makes it the 11th in Arizona. There are three maintained trails to the summit of Kendrick Peak - Kendrick Mountain Trail, Pumpkin Trail and Bull Basin Trail.

We left the campground at 7:30 AM to try to beat the crowd, since there were only a few trails left to hike for this long weekend in this area. We got there before 8:45 AM. There were quite few cars already at the trailhead. We wasted no time in starting hike before 9:00 AM. After a quick group picture, we were on our way for the 3000 feet elevation gain journey. This was not a tough hike. The trails itself was much wooded, soft with lots of pinecones. You did not need to scramble over the boulders, jump across rocks, but there were many really long switchbacks. Beginning of the trail was an old logging road. It was easy but not for long. It started going up, and up. For some of of the hikers it was sweet hike, such as Mohammed, He just ran all the way to the top.

However, for some of us, it was a tough hike because the high elevation. We started at 7700 feet, ended at the summit at 10,339 feet. It was only 5 mile miles one way, but it sure felt that was more than 20 miles. My head getting little lighter. I could felt my heart pumping faster, my legs getting heavier. Luckily, the views were very enjoyable.

When we arrived at the saddle, there was old lookout cabin in the open flat area. The cabin was built around 1911-1912 and was the lodging for the fire lookout stationed atop Kendrick Mountain. Last time when I was here the cabin door was unlocked, we can see a spring bed, a spring bunk bed, some camping supplies. Today the cabin was locked, the structure still standing.

While Mohammed was taking his second naps. Some of us continued to the summit to visit the fire lookout. We were very hungry and eating snack or quick lunch at the cabin.

Visiting the fire lookout is always fun. Every time you would see a different volunteer who work there. Most of time they were very happy to talk to you. It was a very lonely world out there. Today Michael Jordan was on duty. Yes, the one and only Michael Jordan. He was Tall, handsome, rich and cute—NOT.

OK, the volunteer’s name was Michael Jordan. He was recently retired and this was his very first time up there. And he told us his girlfriend was planning to visit him there soon. While Quy, Jim and I were there, Jim gave him a one-of-a-kind Arizona Trailblazer Hiking Club keychain.

After we left the fire lookout, we were all together at the front of the cabin to take one more group picture before hiking back to trailhead. Yes we did wake up Mohammed to be part of group picture. Going down from saddle and back to trailhead was easy. It was down, down, down all the way.

I hiked the Kendrick Peak trail a few years ago. It was very beautiful trail. Wildflowers were everywhere, the vegetation was very green, and the view was breathtaking. Today the trail is still beautiful, but the scars of a wildfire were visible. We only saw a few wildflowers. They need rain and lots of snow.

Hiking is an activity for discovering things, and this hike was no different. Crabs! Tadpoles! Century plants! New friendships! Old friendships! The last ham sandwich after a long trek up! My common sense! (Just kidding. I still have no idea where that one went.)

The Hangover Trail provided wonderful views and even better companionship and will (hopefully) go down in Arizona Trailblazer history as a trail to remember!

P.S.
While the 12 of us were hiking on the Hangover trail, some Arizona Trailblazer tourists were enjoying themselves in Sedona. Thank you for your support of the local businesses.

It is the last day of our trip, we should pack and leave early. But the weather was so beautiful, we decided that we would do one more hike before noon.

Originally we scheduled the Vultee Arch hike. Last night, however, Quy told me that the trail was not well maintained and that we would have to park along the 89A road. So we decided we would take Mark’s suggestions and hike the Soldier’s Trail at Fort Tuthill Park. What a wise decision!

Fort Tuthill County Park is 13 miles north of our campground, the drive was very scenic, and when we got in the park, there were not many people there. We parked behind the FLGX building, knowing we can use their restroom (another smart choice). Since none of us hiked this trail before, we had to stop and ask a few people before we found our trailhead. It is a very relaxing, quiet, and pretty trail. We did 5.34 Miles in less than 3 hours.

After the hike, we went back to our campground and wasted no time in packing our tent and all our belongings, trying to get out before 1 PM. We did it. We left at noon. The last people to leave the campground were Yanis and Vanessa, then John and Ann (who decided to stay an extra night).

It was a very peaceful and relaxing weekend. Thanks to everyone for all your help and support. Cannot wait to go camping with you again in the near future.

Thanks to everyone for joining me for the long weekend, welcoming our new members June, Robert and John B (yes, we add one more John. We need a system to separate them, such as John 1, John 2). It was a relaxing and fun trip. We did four trails within three days. The weather was almost perfect, the scenery was beautiful, the air was clean, the sky was blue, the food was yummy (always), the song of birds every morning was music in the air, and the night was a bit cold. The time we spent together is priceless. An awesome weekend!

Shortly after crossing the foot bridge and passing the remains of the old lodge, we make our first crossing over the creek that lends this canyon its name. The West Fork Trail traverses the West Fork of Oak Creek a total of 13 times along its three-mile passage, and each crossing seems to be more spectacular than the last. When the water surface is calm and perfectly still, the resulting reflections from the surrounding canyon walls and trees can transform an ordinary scene into an extraordinary scene. And extraordinary scenes are almost the norm on this hike.

For first-time hikers, visitors, and photographers, the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon can be a bit intimidating and almost overwhelming at times, saturating the senses with an astonishing array of some of the most spectacular and breathtaking scenery to be found anywhere in Arizona. And as we all know, Arizona certainly has no shortage of spectacular and breathtaking scenery. Nature’s handiwork and palette of colors knows no boundaries and accepts no limits in this scenic and extraordinary canyon of the Secret Mountain Wilderness.

As we make several additional creek crossings and penetrate deeper into the canyon, we come across occasional large tangled piles of debris up to 8 feet high, consisting of branches and tree limbs, entire logs, tree stumps, and various trash all mixed together with boulders and rocks of varying sizes. Then we start to see the first of several massive rock shelves overhanging the creek bed, creating an almost tunnel-like effect in some places. These so-called “wave caves” do look a bit like a huge ocean wave, caught and frozen in time as stone.

Although numerous advancing and retreating seas over millions of years did deposit the multiple sandstone layers that make up Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, this is actually even more evidence of the periodic massive flash floods that have ripped their way through these narrow canyons over eons of time, as they undercut and erode the soft sandstone underbellies of the canyon walls.

On a couple of previous hikes through this canyon we’ve heard the loud buzz of chain saws periodically breaking the silence and tranquility of the canyon, as crews are hard at work clearing the trail for hikers.

Stopping to talk with a Forest Service crew clearing away fallen timber across the trail, I asked a few questions. They paused in their work just long enough to tell us about the earlier heavy spring runoff or the torrential up-stream summer monsoon rains, both resulting in massive flash floods that swept through the canyon at an estimated depth of between ten and fifteen feet, ripping out trees up to two feet in diameter and effortlessly sweeping them and large boulders along the way downstream like so many small sticks and pebbles.

Although very hard to imagine on this sunny, peaceful day, as we walk through a creek bed only inches deep in most places, spring and mid-summer flash floods are the most dangerous aspect of hiking in these narrow canyons.

Since water cannot compress, flood waters confined to restricted spaces like narrow canyons can go nowhere but straight up. This tranquil and shallow stream can quickly transform in a matter of minutes into a raging torrent of muddy, debris-choked water up to ten or twenty feet deep, as it smashes its way through the canyon without mercy or remorse, obliterating almost everything in its path. If you look closely enough, you can occasionally see small tight clumps of dried grass, weeds, and twigs all matted together and lodged in branches 15 feet or more above the trail. You definitely don’t want to be caught in this canyon during those times. So hikers beware and be prepared at all times.

At several points along the last mile or so of the West Fork Trail, many hikers are deceived into believing they’re about to hit a dead-end box canyon with no way out but straight up or turning back for the trailhead, only to find that the trail does actually continue on for almost another mile.

After three miles of steady hiking, we round one last bend in the trail and the West Fork Trail comes to an abrupt end, literally dissolving into the creek bed. From here on, hikers must resort to wading and even swimming through some of the deeper pools to proceed any farther. The waters of the West Fork are now forced to flow within the narrow confines of Upper West Fork Canyon, which continues on for another ten miles from here.

This spot marks the turn-around point for the vast majority of hikers and is a great place to stop, admire the views, and enjoy lunch among the boulders and trees at water’s edge. And that is precisely our plan for today, as we stake out a place to sit down and enjoy a well-deserved lunch break before returning on the same trail.

Although the trailhead sign indicates a total of 6.6 miles round-trip to this point, at least two different GPS devices show a total of 8.8 miles round-trip. Since we usually go with the average mileage readings of at least two GPS devices for the purpose of tracking and recording individual mileage credits for our hikers, we’re going to show the official mileage for the West Fork Trail as 8.8 miles round-trip today.

Chuck