It is probably about an hour drive to the parking lot for the Land of the Pioneers trail system. Here there are multiple loops possible with the longest one being around ten miles. We are planning to do the shortest and to perform maintenance on one of our caches, the first one we ever placed. This was a long time ago so we do not remember a lot about the trail so it is almost like a new trail for us.
The trail starts on a road and we wonder if that is how it is going to be but soon it veers off to the side and that is where we go following the well marked trail.
The trail is level and passes through some beautiful forest and we enjoy the cooler air and the beautiful nature. We are also certain that last time there were no numbered signs, they would be used when calling for help to pinpoint the location.
And with no one else around the birds are out in force. What we don’t expect is to see such special birds, Townsend’s and Hermit Warbler are some specialties of the Arizona forests.
With so much rain in the previous days there are stretches where the trail is a bit muddy but given the rarefied forest it is easy to avoid those spots.
For a stretch we have to pass through a meadow which is nice except that it can be too hot in the sun. Luckily we have cloud cover just for this stretch, even the weather is helping us enjoy this beautiful area.
We sit down to eat some snacks and that allows us both to observe a desert cottontail and also to find a very well hidden group of lobster mushrooms.
Next we arrive at our first cache, it is hidden near some ruins and in bad shape. But we are prepared and replace it and then it is time to explore the mysteriously named ruins. They are called Arab Cabin, not what you would expect.
Why Arab Cabin? There is a local legend of three “Arab” women homesteading in the area. These women were rumored to have a lot of money stashed on their property. Apparently, there was at least one person who believed the rumor, because the three women were murdered and their homestead torn apart. The only thing that remains are the foundations and parts of structures still remain, which is what explore for quite some time.
We also enjoy the beautiful flowers, supposedly the Arab women also planted lilac bushes but those cannot be found. Still it is an impressive homestead by size with five buildings at a minimum and fun to explore.
Now it is time to close the loop, this area for some reason has received more rain so we have to be careful to avoid the mini lakes that appeared on the trail and road.
In fact for a significant section here we follow the roads which are also quite used, not today, but that is not fun as we have to keep an eye out for ATVs that might come at high speed down the road. So we are happy when the trail splits again, even though it is longer we prefer the trail.
This area has suffered through a fire as evidenced by the burned trees. And also a burned trail sign, it really melted showing how hot it was during the fire.
And soon we are close to the car passing bridges and old juniper trees while the weather is turning minute by minute, it seems it will rain soon. But still we decide to try doing maintenance to another of our cache on the Los Burros Trail just a bit further down the road.
