Aldo Leopold Wilderness - Bald Hill Trail 4081C, Gila National Forest

 

A couple of years ago, we parked at this same intersection ( FR 157 and FR 4081C) and hiked down the lower part of Dumm Canyon. The stream was flowing under blue skies and it was beautiful day. Back then, I made a mental note  to one day hike upstream from the same spot to see what we could see. This past Sunday ( 4/3/2022) we did just that. Conditions were a little different though. It has been brutally dry once again. The only real water we saw was crossing North Percha Creek. When I got out of the truck, I was immediately hit by how warm it was,  which made me think that now even the early Spring might not be  great time to visit anywhere but the highest elevations in Black Range.

 The trail is really an old road. A short way in we saw some walls and pieces of tin roofing, and then a side road that went steeply up a hillside to a mine. This, plus the cabin ruins to the east are all that is left of the tiny settlement of Danville, which is mentioned several times in James Mckenna's famous memoir "Black Range Tales."

 Metal headframe to the right of the pine

 We found a built up gravel platform which had stone foundations on the other side of the creek as well. There may have been some ore processing done here, but there were no artifacts to be found to confirm this. We continued on. It was actually a pretty little forested hike for about a mile that would have seemed much more pleasant but for the frighteningly dry state of the forest.

As we walked I kept looking up to the north side of the road for any sign of Bald Hill Spring. I was hoping to see an unusual density of vegetation, or perhaps some deciduous trees or shrubs just budding out, but I really saw nothing that gave it away. If it hadn't been so warm, and that given the conditions the spring might not even have any flow, I might've trudged up the hillside to find it. Another day.

 Eventually, the road ended and we followed a faint wildlife trail which quickly entered an area of dead trees and burnt snags. We could see green forest again about 1/3 of mile away, but from this point on it seemed that along the  boulders in the creek bed was probably  the only reasonable way of continuing on  given the density of low growing brush, coupled with the many unstable ravines on its rugged banks.  Too rough and too warm to tackle that day, especially with the dogs.

We stopped when we had gotten to a point with unobstructed views of a pointed mountain of brilliant white rock shimmering a half mile in the distance. We walked back and then went a short distance east and visited the cabin ruins we had found a couple of a years ago.

Found- 1 vintage Michelob bottle. 1 vintage Heineken bottle. 1 more recent can from the Bosque Brewery. Little else, which shows either the lack of visitors, or the general environmental awareness of those who do, or both.

 NOTE :  After about .60 miles the trail enters the Aldo Leopold Wilderness where vehicles of any kind are prohibited.