Strawberry Stay

For our first longer trip after our big Europe trip we decide to visit the Pine/Strawberry area, there are a few trails here that we wanted to explore. We leave Friday afternoon after work and our first stop is to explore the Barnhardt Trail. There is a long dirt road drive to the trailhead and we stop a few times to find some geocaches along the way. In the parking lot there are two other cars which is surprising given the drive and soon we are on our way exploring.

We have less than one hour here so we explore the network of trails around the trailhead and find a new cache before starting back to the main road and our lodging.

The Airbnb we booked in Strawberry is in a mobile home type cabin with two bedrooms and after starting the heater in the main room we are back out to find something to eat. We really hope it will be warmer when we are back as we were shivering inside with all our clothes on.

While we are out, and also during the night, we have an interesting visitor, a skunk that seems to like the area around the cabin. For food we find one open restaurant that has some reasonably good burgers, we order takeout and eat them at the Airbnb which mercifully is warmer by the time we return.

In the morning we take some time to explore the area around our Airbnb. It is relatively small but sits on a nice plot with a few Ponderosa Pines that attract quite a few birds.

Inside there is a covered patio and a good sized kitchen, in short it has almost everything you would need for a short stay.

But soon we are on our way. Today our plan is to hike the Bearfoot Trail, one of the newer trails in the area. It leads from Strawberry skirting over Pine to arrive in Upper Pine Creek Canyon. It is about 6 miles long, we are planning to hike about five of them collecting quite a few caches along the way. Finding the starting point is already an adventure with multiple access points but no signs.

After entering deeper into the forest we find the first signs and the trail is clearly visible from here.

It is a nice mostly level trail with some ups and downs. In the first miles it mostly goes through junipers so we have some nice views of Pine and the mountains in the distance.

After a couple miles we find a makeshift bench and given that it is lunchtime and we are hungry we stop to eat some snacks while enjoying the views.

As we get closer to Pine the trail is more maintained with some interesting extras including a small buddha in a tree. It feels like we are in Japan not USA for a moment.

As the trail skirts Pine there are multiple access trails but none of them have parking spots in Pine. This is quite annoying as it means you cannot access Pine Creek Canyon easily if you don’t stay in Pine.

Wildlife wise we see quite a few birds including acorn woodpeckers and more exciting for us band-tailed pigeons at the beginning of the trail. When returning we also see a tarantula which is quite exciting also.

There are quite a few mansions in Pine that overlook the trail and the area. They look quite cool and would be fun to have as a second home or Airbnb for a few nights.

We still have a few miles to go when it is getting dark. We enjoy walking in the dark with headlights even though it is a bit unsettling when you suddenly see two eyes looking back at you in the dark. It is unsetting as we have seen bears in the area before, today it is only a deer who soon runs away. And then we are back at the car and our lodging where we eat dinner and watch TV before going to sleep.

In the morning we eat our last breakfast at the AirBnB while packing and loading the car. After a last check we are ready to leave towards Phoenix on a different route than we arrived though.

First we want to explore the Fossil Creek area which is close to the AirBnB. Unfortunately the gate is locked so we cannot access the trailhead so it is back to the main road for us to drive towards our second goal for the day.

After a short stop to pick up a new cache, which is in a horror movie type area with deer carcasses due to hunters, we arrive at the Mail Trail trailhead. There is an RV in the parking area proper so we park a bit further away and soon are on our way.

We have been here before so we know the drill, someone new might be a bit surprised on where the trail starts and where it is going. Well, the start is clearly marked but after that there really isn’t a trail worth mentioning.

What you need to do is to follow the cairns, if you don’t see one you look for it in the general direction you were going until you find it. Easy enough, no?

it is easy as long as the trail goes roughly in the same direction. If it veers off dramatically as it does after 1/2 mile you can be stuck continuing on the much better defined cow trail than on the actual mail trail.

There is limited wildlife today. We do not see any of the ubiquitous cows we always see in the area. The most common living thing are grasshoppers, they are everywhere really.

Our goal today is to replace one of the caches in the area that was broken and after doing that and picking up all pieces it is time to return to the car.

What is interesting as you are on this trail is that you can sometimes see faint traces of roads. We always wonder what is modern and what is part of the original Mail Trail. Either way with our previous knowledge of the trail we make good time back and soon arrive at the car. And then it is time to return to Phoenix after this nice weekend out in nature.