Trip Report Form
Horse Camp Seep
Date of Trip: 11/1/2009
Leader of Trip: Kurt & Toni
It is a great fall Arizona morning and we all assembled at the Circle K in Fountain Hills. We are short a couple of member, one no show and one my fault due to not checking phones messages since Friday night (sorry Ron!!). We headed out about 9:30 and made out way to the turnoff from Beeline Hwy. The exit we use in now labeled as Sycamore Creek. To make the trailhead, we actually get to drive down a short section of the old Beeline Hwy from before the new alignment, pretty cool.
We picked a spot to air down the tires and headed up the old trail. It has been a while since we were here last, but it all comes back quickly. Not even a ¼ mile into the run and we came across a group of deer hunters in a Suburban that had managed to drop the rear tires off the edge in the area that we normally have to do some maintenance. It is very off camber and pretty tight turn. They had been there a while and done some………..interesting work in trying to extricate themselves. Pat and I surveyed the situation and decided it would be best to try and get a strap around something up the hill and attach a snatch block. At that point we could use my winch to pull the rear of his truck uphill while he drove forward. See pictures below for a better visual.
Our little Patrick was a big help is scaling the side of the bank to attach the snatch block and winch cable after big Pat found a suitable anchor point. Within just a few moments, we had them back on the road. They were pretty rattled by the whole deal, but we assured them the rest of the trail is much easier…….should be right?
We made our way to the first mine, where I noticed the hunters in front of us had taken a wrong turn up a dead end trail. Decided we would hang out and check out the mine while we waited for them to come back to the intersection. Patrick managed to scare a few bats out of the mine before we entered. Few moments later the hunters returned and we explained the correct direction and I offered to have them go ahead of us so we could make sure they were okay. They gladly accepted and we made the turn up the hill. They did well for a stock height suburban on tiny tires. By the time we stopped for lunch, we watched the hunters scale the big long uphill in the distance (oops, sort of forgot about that hill, bet those guys are cursing our name by now, sure they will not hunt on this road anymore). Had a great shady lunch, that was the last we would see the suburban, they must have made it out okay.
As we continued we all remembered what a great trail this is and how much fun! We climbed hills and got crossed up in cool washouts. It was a great time. We also remembered the other aspect of this trail………maintenance. Pat, Donna and Tom stayed a bit behind and worked with clipped to trim areas of the trail. Chuck and I used a saw to trim back some of the larger trees and branches that were in the way. We did make some progress, but we all agreed that we could use another trip with a couple of chainsaws to really get after all the brush. While we did make progress, there is a good section of the trail that we need to put in some more attention.
After we finished trimming, we took a short stop headed for the end of the trail. We stopped to air up tires and had some cool water. We all said our goodbyes and headed down the trail and back to the highway. Pat and I made a quick run down to the old areas we used to camp to see if there were still the same, and they were.
Thanks to all who attended, it was a great time. Look for me to suggest another trip on this trail early next year to do some more work and camp overnight as well.
