It has been many years since I have been backpacking. Back in 2011, when our house burned down, someone broke into the garage not long after and stole all of my gear. After that, with all the kids that came along, and my wife’s health problems, I never was able to get back into it. Until now. Recently, I was able to repurchase all of that gear.
I chose for my first outing the area surrounding Belmont Mine, west of the Phoenix area. This area is very remote, and is filled with lots of mines and prospects, which made it ideal.
When I backpacked, long ago, I was also an orienteer, which means I use a topo map and compass (not a GPS), and I do not require trails. With all of those mines and prospects out there, I figured I could find out if I still had my orienteering skills. I could simply pick a mine (those are on the topo map), and see if I could find it. This would be a binary question. I would find the mine of my choice, or I wouldn’t.
Turned out the “road” to Belmont mine was worse than I remembered it. I was already having an adventure, of the 4wd variety, before I even started backpacking! At one point, I had to pull off the road (see the picture) to let two side-by-sides past. They helpfully informed me that there was a bad spot just ahead, and that my Tacoma probably wouldn’t make it. They were correct in that it was a pretty tough spot, they were wrong about my Tacoma not being able to handle it!
I arrived at Belmont Mine, all excited and ready to backpack (see the picture of my parking spot while I was backpacking). The first mine you will see in the pictures is Belmont Mine. That is right next to where I parked, and was not the mine I was trying to find. Also near Belmont mine is that three tiered retaining wall, and what’s left of that shack.
Before I left my parking spot, I took out my map, shot a few bearings, oriented myself, and finally choose a mine to attempt to find. I elected to find Morning Star Mine, roughly south of my position. I was off (with a 41 pound pack on my back)!
I quickly learned that I had chosen an area in which orienteering would be difficult, and this for two reasons. First, all of the mountains around me were nondescript, and quite similar one to another. Second, the mountains were very close together. This makes for a topo map with lines everywhere, all looking much the same! Still, there was one distinctive mountain (Belmont Mountain), and I had a bearing from there to Morning Star Mine to follow. The problem was, given the ruggedness of the terrain, I could not follow a straight line (in fact, not even close). The following is the part of the topo map where I was. See what I mean?
While I was hiking along, I was re-reminded of several facts:
- I hate bajadas! They exhaust you.
- Trekking poles are very good. I was very tempted to not purchase these, but luckily, I came to my senses. It is very easy to fall when you are off trail, in rugged terrain, with a heavy pack on your back. I have my poles to thank for preventing many tumbles this weekend!
- Good orienteers recognize mistakes and recover.
- I ain’t as young as I used to be. As I write this, my 58 year old body is still pretty sore and I am walking funny. Going uphill was a lot slower than it used to be!
- MSR makes quality gear, and it is well worth the money!
After several hours of hiking (I did not think it would take me so long to cover that distance – oh yeah – I’m old), I finally came across what I initially thought was Morning Star Mine (it wasn’t). See the picture of the hole in the ground, and of all the trailings in the area. Around here, “mines” are often just holes in the ground, so I was correct to think of this as a mine (sometimes, holes in the ground are also called “prospects”). Even at the time, I was suspicious that this wasn’t really Morning Star Mine, but I knew I had to be close, so I kept looking. To my credit, Morning Star Mine was only about 500 meters from that hole in the ground (remember what I said about this being a difficult area for orienteering?), but there was a bit of a mountain between me and it.
I was really happy when I finally found it (see pictures). Finding that (with no GPS) meant that I still have at least some orienteering skills (and that was certainly in question).
After my find, it was getting late. I needed to get back to a place where I could camp for the night. I thought I found a pretty good spot! Unfortunately, the wind really picked up, and I had to fight a battle to get my tent pitched without it blowing away. My hat did blow away, causing me to chase it across the desert. I was tempted to say bad words. After fighting to get my tent up (now with four big rocks in it, to hold it down), it was time for supper. I do look forward to this moment. Tonight, it was pasta primavera. Unbeknownst to me, when I had previously prepared my stove, I inadvertently placed a little thing called the “shaker needle” in the stove up-side-down. This made the stove not work. I had to re-hydrate my pasta primavera with cold water. This meant eating very crunchy noodles. It also turned out to mean mostly skipping breakfast the next morning, because I was all frustrated and defeated. Happily, I did have some protein bars along.
I will say, that MSR tent of mine was fantastic! That wind was monstrous all night long, and it kept me completely out of it. It was a cool night (perhaps 50), and even with the wind, it was maybe 10 degrees warmer in the tent. I slept well, even though I was sleeping on rocks. That’s a shout-out to my Therm-a-Rest mat.
Turned out (I had no idea at the time, because I didn’t check) that I camped only about 1.5 miles, as the crow flies, from where I parked. Even though I didn’t hike “as the crow flies” (that route would have been disastrous), it was still a quick hike back.
I decided to take a different route home, because the road I used to get to Belmont Mountain was so bad. The alternate road was just as bad. I ended with another 4wd adventure.
For the record:
