Posts Tagged With: White Mountains

Exploring the Mystery of the Aspen Grove

Early July 2020

 

It’s a first day of our retreat in The White Mountains of Arizona…”Let’s go for a walk, not too far. This thin air is 10000, feet above sea level. First day pushes can make a person quite ill.”

Curiosity beckons. Across the vast field bordering our chosen campsite, is a dark band across the bottom of the white bark trunks of a grove of white aspen. It is a dark line and we want to investigate its origin. What is causing such a consistent line?

We are in an alpine wilderness. We’re away from most anybody. We journeyed the rough little route that crosses another similar open space, then through a gate. Eventually, the Forest Service road turned into a 4×4 pile of chunky volcanic rock, where few will venture. Perhaps a fellow hiker, but more likely we’d be found by an errant quad or ATV and just a couple of times in a day. This is slightly further away from that shabby trail. We have camped in place with a vast sense of freedom.

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A Week in the White Mountains: Part 1

2016-07-23

DF had a sudden very disappointing schedule change. Her four day retreat in Slow Low with a friend turned into one day. This caused our four days together, to be after their retreat, to become a week. I had to shuffle to leave four days earlier and decide where to go and what to do. Nude vacations, hiking and camping, especially during monsoon season need planning and contingencies.

I spent hours researching to figure out what the actual conditions were at various locations. I used topo, internet information and Google satellite. I had previously put together a list of nearly all of the perineal water creeks in the White Mountains.  I went through 25. All but one was devastated by the Bear Wallow fire to some extent. It was very discouraging. If the percentage of Arizona Forests that have been consumed by fire and rancher alterations were to be applied to the Amazon forest, we would all be in trouble.  So much is gone, except for patches here and there.

There was one untouched area with a creek. The site of the 1998 Rainbow Gathering. That would be our first destination. Later, we might head out on a backpacking trip. Two creeks had potential. But first we had to get DF to her retreat in a nice mountain home on Saturday night. She would have a full day Sunday….

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