Ten tenacious Trailblazers set out from Crosscut Trailhead on a cool December morning. I got to the trailhead early, and chose to wait in my car for the others to arrive.

Jacob’s Crosscut Trail is named for Jacob Waltz, 1832-1891. He was called the Lost Dutchman, but he was actually German. “Friends” used to follow him when he would go dig up some more gold. He would let them follow him into the Superstitions, get them good and lost, and then go over to the Goldfields where the mine really was.

We stayed together, mostly, until we got to the Prospector’s View Trail and started uphill. Everyone was waiting for me at the bench at the top. Then Carl and Bettye went on with me, while everyone else went with John on the rough, off-trail climb to the Capstone Arch.

On the way back I got to pet a mule. His rider invited me to pet him. I’ve seen many mules on hikes, but this the first time I’ve been invited to pet one.

Everyone got back to the trailhead, safe and sound. I chose to sweep on the home stretch.

We pick one of the “trails” starting behind the bench at Prospector’s View that seemed to be heading for the part of the mountain where Ted said the arch would be found. None of the choices were actually trails. They all were just faint tracks where the golden straw-like grasses were a bit tramped down.

The trail was steep, and the loose rock surface was tricky, but we confidently climbed toward our objective at the top of this ridge in the skirts of the mountain.

As we drew nigh to the face of the mountain above the skirting ridges, it became obvious to me that we were heading to an area too far west of the arch. Instead of heading straight up the mountain, we should have gone further to the right on the next path over.

Upon reflection, I wish I had taken the time to climb on up with the rest of the group ahead of me to get a closer look at this feature, which I would call a pocket tank. It looks like it should hold a significant amount of water and may be the source of the name of the area, “First Water”.

As the rest of the group climbed on up to the pocket tank, I called out to them and told them that while they continued on up, I would scout west, to the right in this photo, to see if I could find a better approach to the arch.

As I got nearer to the arch, I realized that the path ahead to the left side of the arch wall was quite treacherous but passible. I saw that the safest approach appeared to be toward the east side.

It was about then that Lin called out to me to tell me that the rest of the cap-stoners were turning back, and that I should come on down. I reluctantly turned back, considering the risk of my path ahead to the west side of the arch wall and the danger of hiking alone. It would be gratifying to return some day and take the east side trail to get behind the arch.