Further Out: Packrafting Verde River with access through Mazatzal Mountains, Arizona

Overview:

This was a packrafting trip in the Mazatzal Mountains in central Arizona including a float on the Verde River between East Verde River and the landing strip. The trip was a loop from where I parked my car at the end of FR 406 from Doll Baby Ranch Rd, W out of Payson. I took two and a half days to cover 51 miles: 8 on trail, 7 off trail, 14 floating, and 20 hiking back on a "trail" (usually nothing more than deceiving cairns!). Below is a two-part Video Journal, followed by Trip Details, New Gear Systems, Natural History Highlights, and Photo Gallery.

Video journal: Packrafting the Verde River accessed by Mazatzal Mountains, Arizona.

Hike:

There is a good place to park the car and camp where the road is gated. Beyond that point the road continues, closed to public traffic but open to foot-travelers. The first ~5 miles follow this dirt road. Just before meeting the East Verde river, a sign points to Bull Spring trail to the left. Following that trail takes you up to the ridge line that parallels the East Verde on its South side all the way to the Verde River. Due to a bad case of trail blindness, I didn't pay careful enough attention and arrived at the ridge further East than intended - a fact I didn't realize until a couple of topographical surprises alerted me that I wasn't where I thought I was!

The Mazatzals are a very lumpy bunch of mountains in some places, requiring some very precise map reading at a small scale to keep on track. However, in general, the ridge is easy to follow even if you end up on the wrong hill a couple times. Mostly the brush is easily traveled - the biggest impediment being "Cat Claw" (Acacia greggii). In places there are some fun rocky high points requiring some clambering near a steep drop. The rock is occasionally limestone, which I found to be much more open with respect to brush than other substrates.

From the river, I followed trails leading to Bull Springs trail, and took Bull Springs trail back to the road. The trail was very difficult to find from the river. I saw no obvious beginning, but I just hiked up into the hills and found it pretty soon. The trails have several bifurcation points with sometimes-misleading signs requiring some accurate map assessment. I found hiking on these trails can be much harder than hiking off trail. When you are on the trail, the hiking is fast, but it quickly disappears into heavy brush while you wander around looking for cairns. Hiking off trail, I generally get onto ridge lines as quickly as possible where brush is less dense and navigation is easier. Bull Spring had plenty of water, although I made it the twenty miles on my five liters.

Float:

The Verde River was at about 350-500 cfs. (Camp Verde read 350 while Horseshoe Reservoir read 600). This flow was low for most boats, but optimal for a packraft. There were two rapids that might be called class III, though they were very easy to plow through. Mostly there were frequent wave trains and fun small channels to run through over sand bars, usually leading into a fun little section of rapids. Good fun without being scary. Paddling constantly I averaged 3mph, so it was not a fast river.

The flat sections were very slow. The takeout is easy to spot if you pay good attention to your progress on the river. On the right (W) bank there is a well traveled trail dropping into the water to ford across, connecting with the trail I ascended back through the mountains. There are two orange spray painted dots on the rock to mark this point.

A packraft could probably run this river down to 250cfs, although there would be some butt bruises. For the record, the East Verde was far too low for floating for those of you crazy enough to want to do so!

New Gear Systems:

Hobo Stove! The morning of the drive I butchered a tin can to pile twigs in and boil water with a small contained fire. It worked great! The design could use a better air-drawing system, but it proved that one need not carry fuel when there is fuel all around! (video of hobo stove below)

Natural History Highlights:

#1: Caterpillar Parasitoidy by Wasp!: This is a real treat! This wasp, about 4 cm long, has paralyzed a caterpillar and is carrying it beneath its body. The wasp belongs to a parasitic group in the Hymenoptera, the Apocrita (Hymenoptera = wasps, bees, ants). This one appears to be of the family Braconidae, most of which are endoparasitic--laying eggs inside the larvae of butterflies, beetles, and flies. This one appears to be lacking an ovipositor, a long apendage that drills into the body of the host to deposit eggs. So it may be one of the early lineages within the Braconidae that are ectoparasites, and it is carrying the caterpillar back to its hole where it will chop it up and feed it to it's own larvae!

#2: Flame Mariposa (Calochortus kennedyi): A very rare and beautiful Lily! (ID based on Cabeza Prieta Natural History Association - Sonoran Desert Plants page online.)

Photo Gallery:

Claret Cup Cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus): Species ID based on Google searches.

The Tarp set up using two trees

Beneath the cozy tarp with life vest as pillow

East Verde meeting some gorge

White and black heron (where the heck is my bird book!?)

Tarp set up using one tree and one bamboo stick

Glassy section of the Verde. Some rapids shown in the Trip Journal at top.

Flame Mariposa (Calochortus kennedyi): A very rare and beautiful Lily! (ID based on Cabeza Prieta Natural History Association - Sonoran Desert Plants page online.)