Alpine Arizona
Alpine Arizona
The first snow of the year set the stage for a spectacular weekend at Charley’s. In conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service, two non-profit organizations* hosted a service project to help maintain the Bear Wallow Trail. The attraction of the project was that the trail leads in to the heart of a wilderness area of the same name. It is also the name of something more widely known: The Wallow Fire. Yup, volunteers were going to get to see the exact ignition point of the largest fire in the history of Arizona.
Friend Pam and I played host at Charley’s to a couple from Oracle. They traveled to Charley’s to join the group of hearty volunteers to clear the Bear Wallow Trail of downed trees.
Winter weather was brewing Friday night. One of the project leaders, Don Hoffman, called to say even if we wake up to an all white landscape, we’d still be meeting at the rendezvous site, Hannagan Meadow Campground. Sho ‘nuff. First light exposed a snowy, windy day. We shouldn’t have been surprised ,as most of us lay awake for good chunks of the night. The lightning and howling of the freezing wind and rain, then snow, whipped loud against the house.
As trail workers from the desert, we got a late start for the rendezvous site. “Oh yeah, we have to un-stick the frozen car doors and scrape, scrape, scrape the frozen car windows before we can actually drive anywhere.” The unplowed, icy highway made us later. It was no surprise that by the time we arrived at the campground, our fellow workers had already headed for the trailhead. What was a surprise was that despite being 45 minutes late, we arrived at the trailhead just a few moments after the rest of the crew. Pesky trees had fallen across their path to the trailhead, the highway south of Hannagan. The downed trees took significant time to cut up and move. We chuckled “Thanks for clearing the path so we can go clear a path!”
Once we were all gathered at the trailhead, the Forest Service officially backed out of sponsoring the project. The high winds made for high-risk conditions. Burned trees fall at an alarming rate even without wind. They really couldn’t risk someone getting clobbered. Happily, the group decided to hike down to the ignition site without the official service part of the event and without Forest Service sponsorship.
In single file we snaked into the winter wonderland. The first section of trail follows a tributary to the Bear Wallow Creek. The trees in this section were bare and scorched. Nonetheless, the snow painted the scarred land with spectacular artistry, outlining alligator-skin patterns of charred tree trunks in white powder.
Eventually the tributary led us to the lush Bear Wallow Creek. The Creek water rippled through rocks topped with mounds of snow that looked like something out of a Dr. Suess illustration. The needles on the mixed conifer and leftover leaves on the Gambel Oak were mounded with the white powdery stuff. A new layer of snow fell in tiny, starchy balls.
Under a dark, gray winter sky we arrived at the campsite. The campfire ring was still in tact. My heart hushed. I’m not sure how to describe the emotional impact. It was definitive and intense. Maybe it was for privacy’s sake but most of my trail mates didn’t seem to share the feeling. They were busy gathering up the yellow crime scene tape and red, yellow and blue flags that mapped out the ignition path and burn patterns of the origin of the heartbreaking Wallow Fire.
We wandered the site for a bit, chewing over the bits of information we knew about that fateful day in May. In the cold but not unpleasant peace of the site, we gnawed on trail food. Then as unceremoniously as we had arrive, we gathered up bags of crime scene tape and headed back up the trail. We crunched through the winter wonderland of the Bear Wallow Wilderness., still some of the most beautiful landscape in Arizona.
Nine of us met back at Charley’s for warmth and dinner. We cemented new friendships as we broke bread together and shared stories of adventure - the perfect ending to a perfect day.
* Thanks to the Arizona Wilderness Coalition and the White Mountain Conservation League for organizing and co-hosting this wonderful opportunity.
Photos courtesy of Pam Posten
The Spectacular Bear Wallow
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Ground Zero - the campfire ring that contained the fire that started the Wallow Fire