In Fish Creek Canyon “There are many boulders and obstacles to negotiate so you should estimate your hiking speed at 0.5 miles per hour.” advise Jack Carlson and Elizabeth Stewart on page 223 of Hiker’s Guide to the Superstition Wilderness.

Hmmm. Let’s see: there’s 3 miles of rough stuff in the canyon.

Now (3 miles) ÷ (0.5 miles/hour) = 6 hours to hike through the rough part of upper Fish Creek Canyon, not to mention the time it takes to get there from Tortilla Trailhead. But what if these authors were optimistic?

A dozen daring hikers start south on the road from Tortilla Trailhead. Although the weather forecast was for a hot day, it turns out to be pleasant, with high, thin clouds and a refreshing breeze.

The dirt road, FR 213, is an easy 3-mile walk down to Tortilla Ranch. The boundary is marked with a wooden arch. There’s hardly anything left of the ranch except a few concrete foundations and corrals. We follow the road until it approaches a fence with a trail sign.

Fish Creek Canyon is a mile east of the ranch. Although it’s off trail, the walking is easy as we parallel the fence. Soon we are standing at a pass with a fine view of the upper reaches of the canyon. Somebody has carefully put up cairns to mark the route down into the streambed. It’s an easy trail walk as we make our descent to the junction where Lost Dutch Spring flows into Fish Creek Canyon. We head north and find a nice shady spot for our picnic lunch.

Look, there’s an arch hidden behind that tree.

An arch graces our passage, hidden behind the trees and saguaros on the canyon’s east side.

From here on it’s no longer possible to just walk in the streambed. We have to make detours to get around boulders and big pools of water. Logs and tree trunks have washed downstream. Some of them help us get across the water, but most of them are just obstacles in our way. Little frogs hop in front of us.

Then we get our first major challenge: the Dunk Tank, a house-sized pool of water with no apparent way to get around it.

It seems to be a choice between a steep, uncertain boulder climb on the west side or a boulder climb with a steep, perilous descent on the east. Some of the Trailblazers go one way, some the other.

I choose the west side, climbing on a potato-shaped boulder. But the first step is too high. Another hiker helps me get started, and soon I’m boulder-scrambling to get around. Then my walking stick falls in, but it’s the shallow part of the pool.

At this point water is flowing in the streambed. It soon goes underground.

So what’ll it be – climb the boulders, or swim?

How much daylight do we have left?

Which will it be – climb an egg-shaped boulder and jump 10' down off the other side into the sand, or climb up the rock wall and traverse a narrow ledge with a high drop-off? After several false starts I choose the straight and narrow, somehow making it to the other end of the ledge.

Here we meet some young people hiking in the opposite direction.

By now it’s apparent that a few of our hikers are struggling. An older fellow has been consistently lagging behind the group. The leader can’t leave any hiker behind. Many times we’ve had to stop and wait for him to catch up with us.

But these wait times have been adding up. Not only does it slow our progress, but we have to keep drinking water to stay hydrated. The shadows are getting long, and some of our hikers have already run out of water.

“But we still have an hour of daylight,” a hiker estimates.

Can we get to the bridge in an hour? The one-lane bridge over Fish Creek Canyon marks the end of our off-trail adventure. But the bridge is out of sight, far ahead of us. Although the canyon is deep in shadows, the sun is shining on the rock formations high above us. Surely it will last.

As hike leader I have to make two decisions. First, I decide to stay with the struggling hikers and help them get out of the canyon. Then I discover that my water has run out, and so I become one of them.

Normally a leader tries to keep the group together, but this time is an exception. The fast hikers can make it to the bridge before nightfall. So I ask them to walk out ahead of us and drive their cars to the bridge.

The young people pass us again, heading back the way we are going.

Night falls quickly in Fish Creek Canyon. The walls are nearly vertical, and there is no moon. It’s tough climbing out to the bridge, even in daylight. Three of us Trailblazers are still down below. Cell phones don’t work in remote canyons. Even if they did, the rangers wouldn’t make any attempt to rescue us until morning. We’re going to have to walk out, tonight.

Stars shine brightly overhead. We look up and see Orion blazing in a pitch black sky. But most of the sky is hidden behind the canyon walls.

Ahead we can see the faint glow of reflected lights from cars on the bridge, and then a flashlight. The young people have climbed back down into the canyon to help us get out. They have grace and wisdom far beyond their years.

The canyon walls are so high and steep at the bridge that we have to climb high above it to get out. The hike ends with us looking down at cars on the bridge, with their headlights on.

We all get in our cars and begin our drive back to civilization. My cell phone doesn’t work until we are down from the mountains and almost to Apache Junction. My wife doesn’t answer. It turns out the other wives are desperately calling her to find out what became of their husbands. Finally I get through to my daughter’s cell phone. All is well.

Although two of us, including the leader, have hiked Fish Creek Canyon before, it has turned out to be a lot tougher than expected. There are lessons learned: