Trip to Willow Springs and back - 2008

[cubfan64]

It's gonna take me a little time to put this one together, but I've been meaning to add my own "true story" for awhile and just haven't made time to do it yet.

In the spring of 2008 I made my 2nd trip to the Superstitions from New Hampshire, and my first goal was to hike to Willow Springs and back to explore where Adolph Ruth supposedly was dropped off by Keenan and Purnell to camp prior to his disappearance in 1931.

I decided I wanted to hike in from the Carney Springs direction, so started out just after sunrise.



The hike up took a little while mostly because I was out of shape and it got pretty steep, but it was well worn and with a few little breaks it wasn't bad. The views along the way to the top were great and eventually I ended up in the little saddle where I took in the views and started down into West Boulder Canyon...












...
I'll continue the trip down into West Boulder Canyon and beyond tomorrow

[cubfan64]

After a short break above West Boulder Canyon, I started down and quickly discovered that either any trail that existed was now terribly overgrown, or I had no skill whatsoever in following one - probably more of the second than the first (hehe).

In my mind I remember thinking that if I could get all the way down into the canyon bottom, under all the overgrowth, there should be some kind of dry creekbed/wash that I could follow all the way to Willow Springs. Needless to say that was a big mistake! As a kid growing up in the Midwest, that always seemed like a smart rule to follow, but I quickly learned that doesn't necessarily translate to the Superstions at all.

As you can imagine, the bottom of West Boulder was choked to the hilt with every kind of cutting, snagging piece of vegation possible, and under that were layers of boulders that made it impossible to move at any rate of decent speed.

I ended up climbing out again and staying along the right side (NE) of the canyon above the real messy stuff and just bushwhacking ahead until it started getting too steep to easily traverse at which time I went down through the bottom again and up on the left side (SW) instead.

It was a long bushwhack trip of a couple miles, but I was really enjoying finding my slowly while also watching for rattlesnakes (at that time I had never seen or heard one and figured it would be smart to be slow and overly cautious).

When I get home, I'll upload some photos from that portion of my hike. I know most of this will not be of much interest to the audience, but it'll get me to put the hike to Willow Springs in print and maybe motivate me to post another hike or two later.

[Jim Hatt]

I know most of this will not be of much interest to the audience, but it'll get me to put the hike to Willow Springs in print and maybe motivate me to post another hike or two later.

Don't cut yourself short Paul. I think a big majority of our audience here, really enjoys these kind of stories!

Best,

Jim

[hikin_jim]

I'm enjoying it; do go on.

HJ

[cubfan64]

This is a photo showing roughly what the canyon bottom looked like and I'm not even down in it really yet. This is the main reason why you'll see that I headed back to the Peralta Trailhead by a different route rather than returning the way I came



This next photo was something that really caught my eye as being "out of place" looking, but a few other folks have seen it and think it's just a natural rock formation. I'm still not so sure, but I'm far from being an expert on that subject. The photo makes it look like it was close by, but I was using a zoom feature and it was pretty high up on the ridge - I wasn't gonna take the time to go up there that day and investigate further.



I was very lucky during my trip in that there was a real good amount of water flowing all over the place that spring and the canyon bottom leading to Willow Spring was no exception. By the time I was halfway to my destination, I could take nice cool breaks in the water whenever I wanted and was really refreshed by soaking my hat and towel that I wear on my head to protect my ears and neck from the sun as often as I wanted.

These next photos take you up to where there's a stone wall/corral not far from Willow Spring itself. I'll add the stone walls tomorrow sometime.

[Jim Hatt]

Great Photos Paul, and they show an area of the Superstition Mountains that many of our DUSA members have never seen before.

Thanks for starting this topic,

Jim

[Guz]

I concur.

[hikin_jim]

Nice stuff! I appreciate your taking the time to post it and narrate it.

HJ

[LDMGOLD]

Paul:

Great photos of West Boulder, especially the upper end above the stone corral. We spent a lot of time in West Boulder Canyon. Monte Edwards had a base camp in West Boulder above the old stone corral. If I can find the photos I will share them with you. Old Gus Barkley use to ride his horse through that country seventy years ago. Now that all the cattle are gone and the forest service don't maintain the trail anymore they have become useless. Good luck, if you continue exploring West Boulder. There is a lot to see in West Boulder.

Tom K.

[Vulture]

I think you can truthfully say we all like to read and see adventures like this. The pictures, as Jim said make it so much more realistic.