Arizona Treks

Last Saturday Richard (my son) and I finally took a hike in the Superstitions. These are my favorite mountains anywhere.  There is something about them that caught my interest at a young age and I have spent many days hiking various trails there and spent many nights sleeping in remote areas of the mountains.  In my youth I never carried a camera and regret that because they are no longer remote.  Areas that you could hike for several days and never see anyone are now crowded with people carrying soda cans and walking their dogs on leashes. It saddens me greatly that there are few places that are truly remote but accessible now.  My first hike in the Superstitions was a loop from Peralta trailhead to Geronimo Cave, Freemont Saddle, and down Peralta Canyon back to the trailhead.  With a side trip to the best Weavers Needle overlook anywhere it is about a 5 mile round trip.  The cave is about 800ft in elevation higher than the trailhead.

The trail to the cave is not for newbies, there are places where you can not see any trail, places where people have constructed cairns that lead you astray, placed where you must walk up very steep inclines, etc.  It is a difficult trail but I have always considered it to be a very rewarding trail.  The vies from the cave is spectacular, looking South across the desert to mountains far to the South.

I have desired to take this trip for a couple of months but the weather and life has not cooperated.  Although there were no clouds on Saturday, we went anyway.  The 4X5, 2 extra lenses, film, tripod, etc in the pack.  Not too heavy, about 30 pounds.  The going was slow because of the extra weight but we made it to the cave in about 3 hours.  Just as we were approaching the junction for the spur trail to the Weavers Needle lookout, I took a tumble.  Landed on my right side.  It appears that the only casualty was a rather large cut in my thumb, a few bruises and a little paint scraped off the 5D.

After the fall I left the pack there and went to the overlook with a couple of lenses.  Several of the people I shoot with consistently expose 2 sheets of film for every shot.  I rarely do that.  It doubles the film cost and also I think it forces me to pay better attention to what I am doing and thus to be more consistent.  This could be flawed reasoning but it is what it is.  This time however, the exposure was on the border between normal and plus processing.  I would normally just do the plus with a single sheet but decided in this case to expose 2 sheets identically, process one set and then decide what to do with the second.  The first set is drying now and it looks like the other set will probably be a plus development.

Yesterday, a friend and I went to The Agua Fria National Monument to shoot ruins and petroglyphs.  The film has not been developed yet but I am hopeful that there are some good photos.  First I wanted to complete the posts for the NM and Canyon de Chelly trip.  So for the next few days I will be posting from the journal I kept while there.

Wed. March 17, 2010

Today we drove from Farmington to Canyon de Chelly.  It was an uneventful drive.  We parked the trailer in the National Monument campground.  It is free but it seems there is no service.  No one is running a generator now so we are not running ours, low light and no microwave (we don’t use it much any way).

We took a drive along the South Rim today.  It is interesting but not many good spots for  photographs.  There is a single trail to the bottom that does not require a Navajo guide.  This is the trail to Whitehouse Ruin.  The trail is somewhere between 2 and 3 miles round trip and includes a 600’ drop into the canyon which turns into an inverse drop on the way out.  I always prefer the climb at the beginning when I have more energy.  but since I am accustomed to the 4 mile hike at the park with a 600’ altitude gain this should not be a big problem.  I will be carrying a camera, probably the 4X5 but I do sooooo want to have some 8X10 negatives of it as well.  For alt-process as well as the beautiful silver contact prints.  

The other location which may be nice is Spider Rock.  It seems this is exactly the wrong time of year to shoot it, but we plan to drive there in the morning to catch the sunrise and maybe get some interesting views of it backlit. 

Tomorrow the plan is to shoot Spider Rock in the morning, then back to the trailer for a bit and possibly arrange for a guide for Friday.  Then hike Whitehouse.  We should get out of the canyon about 6 or 7 so that will end the day for us.

We may stay here Friday and if so we will either hire a guide or try to hike Whitehouse with the 8X10.

I took a few digital today and a couple 4X5 but the real treat for me was to realize the 8X10 is worming it’s way into my heart.  My attitude toward it is totally different than at the beginning of the trip.  It must have been that time we spent bonding in Bisti that did it.