😎 Memorial Day weekend in the Chiricahua Wilderness, DIFFICULT! 🥵

Memorial Day weekend is coming up quick, we'll see if I took to long with posting this trip. Any takers? This trip WILL NOT be visiting the National Monument that everyone goes to but instead to the much higher, wilder and less visited wilderness area.

This range has had a series of major fires over the past 30 years which has burned away a lot of the old pine forest. However there are a few area's and trails that have escaped the flames for the most part. For this trip, we'll be backpacking a loop and seeing some of the best of the remaining forest that this range has left to offer but this will not be an easy trip 🥵

We will be starting from the western side of this range via the Turkey 🦃 Creek Road (FR 41). This road is somewhat passenger car friendly when dry but medium to high clearance vehicles are recommended for the last 9 miles. We'll head off sometime on Friday and make the long drive to the trail head. The sooner we leave the better off we'll be, this area is very DARK and driving through it at night let alone trying to find a campsite just sucks.

On Saturday morning we'll start from the Saulsbury Canyon TH and head up this trail. Most of this trail survived the fires and has had major trail work done 3 years ago. This trail will be a leg burner, we'll be gaining over 3000' of elevation over the trails 6.5 mile course. The trail ends at the junction of the Chiricahua Crest trail in the area around Fly's Peak. If we can find water in the nearby spring and the wind isn't whipping us, we'll camp in this area. If not, we'll head south on the Crest trail for about 2 more miles and make our way to Cima Cabin which is down the Greenhouse Trail to camp 🏕️ There's reliable water here.

In the morning we'll pack up and head to our second nights camp on Chiricahua Peak, the high point of this range (9800’ “ish”). The Crest trail has burned over and over from the past fires but the views can be big and the recovery is surprising accelerated IMO compared to most sky islands. Somehow the forest on this peak has survived the fires and although there are no views, this is a personal favorite place to camp. It won't take us long to hike to Chiricahua Peak on day 2 so we'll spend the rest of the day checking out springs (a.k.a. looking for water) and peak bagging. I have Sentinel Peak in mind, I haven't been on that one yet. Snowshed and Monte Vista are also in the area.

On Monday morning we'll pack up 😭 and head down the mountain on the Mormon Ridge and then Mormon Canyon trails. Both of these have fared well from fire damage. It'll be a 5-6 mile downhill hike depending on the route we take. A slightly longer version takes you through another area that the flames hadn't reached and shows what the Chiricahua Crest used to look like. Once back at the bottom in Turkey Creek, its about a 1 mile walk back to the vehicles.

I’m requiring a $5 deposit to signup for this trip. Send me the payment and then I’ll add you to the going list. It’s fully refundable and will be refunded to the attendee’s and people who change their RSVP if their plans change. Zelle $5 to whereveriroam@yahoo.com I'm not a fan of doing this but it does keep the no-shows away.

I'm by no means a professional guide but have spent hundreds of nights out on backpacking trips. I like to lead trips not for financial profit but instead to bring other backpackers and aspiring backpackers together. Most of the places that I venture to are remote with help being many hours and sometimes days away. I intend on using good judgement when leading but I will not be with you at all times and bad things can happen. In an event that something bad does happen I intend on getting help and/or helping out in addressing the situation as soon as its safely possible. I expect the same in return, I watch your back and you watch mine.