February 21-23, 2025

Background

On our last Superstitions trip I was hoping to hike Fish Creek Canyon from the beginning to the Hwy 88 bridge, but we only got to do part of it due to logistics and pace. Fortunately I found out that my brother Miles was also really interested in Fish Creek, and since we weren't getting any precipitation February seemed like a fine time to go back! I was suspicious that it would only take two of our three days to finish hiking upper Fish, so I was hoping to spend the third day hiking from the 88 bridge to the lake. Unfortunately this plan was derailed by a closed road and dwindling motivation to roadwalk the shuttle. Miles went home and I ended up doing another idea I've had sketched out - a linkup of the Peters and Tortilla boxes.

Day 1

Miles and I left our parent's house around 7:30am and made it to Fish Creek Bridge around 9:30. We left his car there and took mine onward to Reavis TH. The dirt sections of the 88 were passable by any car but rough and jarring in our Rav4s. The Reavis road, though, was perfectly smooth crushed granite. There is a great view of 4 Peaks and the lakes from the parking area.

At 10:15 we began cruising up the Reavis trail and I was quickly surprised that it was an old road grade. This made the climbing feel mellow and we held a good pace to the base of Castle Dome, a 5300ft summit. I was interested in going up Castle and down the backside and Miles was down, so the steepness of our route increased as dramatically as the brushiness.

We found an aesthetic passage through the short cliff band and were soon on the summit. It was a very cool position for such little extra effort - far enough east that we could see where the Wilderness ended, and of course all the other landmarks around. I took us down too far to the west but we stumbled upon a cool flat bench with beautiful oaks. After we corrected and neared the trail saddle, I spotted two helicopters to the south which appeared to be performing a rescue. One landed for about 10 minutes and then they both left. Presumably it was successful!

We continued on the nearly flat trail to Plow Saddle and dropped to the south, following the trail to the spring. We were both surprised to find the spring was pretty luxurious! It has a deep bedrock pool and was flowing with clean water. There are a lot of huge sycamores here, so it might dry up in the summer but I'd have a lot of faith in it in the winter.

Back on a major trail again, we dropped into the vast headwaters basin of Fish. I found it really pretty, unfortunately in part thanks to all the cheatgrass. 

Where the trail hits the wash is a huge rock structure. I wonder what it used to look like - it seems way too big to have a roof. The wash was bone dry but the presence of the structure made me wonder if water was once available nearby.

We followed the cobbly bed, finding no sign of water at Cimeron Spring but not looking super hard. We blew past the place where the trail goes up to Frog Spring but were soon glad because we found flowing water and nice sculpted rock. 

Just above  Rough Canyon was a pretty slot with a pool deep enough for a dip and some flat ground on the bench above. It was after 5 so we decided to stay here. The evening was warm, calm, and uneventful except for Miles realizing his 1.5L bottle had completely emptied in his pack! This was a big surprise to me because I assumed the pack would drip, but then I realized all the water was inside his pack liner.

Luckily his down sleeping bag was in a compression dry bag, but it still got a bit damp. A few other unimportant things were totally soaked but dried well in the evening air. 

As we lay down it was about 50° and decent stars were visible over the light of the city.

The water stayed for a bit, but the sculpted bedrock mostly disappeared. We enjoyed some nice spires around the confluence with Rogers and then some tall narrows shortly after.

Part of why I wanted to do this trip was scouting for a potential packraft descent of upper Fish. The section near the bridge would be an unmanageable mess of drops and sieves, but the section above Lost Dutch would be doable.

Overall, I was disappointed that it didn't have more bedrock features. The vegetation wasn't too terrible, but it just wouldn't be that aesthetic from a whitewater perspective. Better wilderness creeks exist, even in the Sonoran.

Miles and I made good time hopping along on the endless boulders. We were disappointed by the lack of water in the central 5 miles of our hike, but we made it to the first manure-free pools in the lower section before getting too thirsty.

We crawled our way through the classic mega boulders, and I relived fond memories of my time here with Joelle and Abbey a month ago.

We made it to the bridge and blasted back to Reavis TH to retrieve my car. The Apache trail was awfully busy on this beautiful Saturday but we still had a good time. Food, ice cream, and beer were all easily attainable at Tortilla Flat despite the hordes of tourists. For sunset we went over to a dock at Canyon Lake and I jumped in the water. Miles went home and I found a campsite nearby.

Day 3

It got really windy overnight and I slept in the car. I rolled up to my trailhead for the day, Tortilla Flat, which would be opening soon but I decided to make mashed potatoes for breakfast to save money. I added a nice red jalapeño from my mom's garden. One Prickly Pear remained and it wasn't getting any colder.

Today I was hoping to execute an off-trail linkup of the lowest boxes of Peter's Canyon and Tortilla Creek. I started walking up Tortilla Creek at about 8:30 and made good time on the small, brush-free boulders. I turned right up Peter's where the boulders quickly grew larger. I was moving pretty efficiently and having a great time. I took a short break in the cave which was neat but slightly trashed.

Soon I hit the proper Peter's narrows, which had nice bedrock drops and pools, some big. 

I picked up a liter and continued upcanyon, passing an exit option on canyon right to walk some more narrows and take a later exit. That climb dead-ended with sheer walls and a high chockstone, so I went back down to option A.

It was getting warm and I climbed steadily up the steep brushy slope, finding a decent deer trail. I became super extra glad I was here during rattlesnake hibernation, although with this weather that could end soon. No cliffs appeared in my path and I topped out at a rocky saddle at 11:45.

Dropping off the backside towards Tortilla Creek was really fun at first, and devolving to “kinda fun” and then “tolerable”. I hit the canyon floor and flowing water at 12:45. 

I had been moving pretty efficiently all day and listening to music off-and-on. Here I put on Kendrick Lamar, which ended up being pretty helpful to keep me psyched through about 15 minutes of dense brush. As the canyon narrowed and the walls got higher, the brush eased and the boulders got bigger. I was totally in the flow state and had a great time hopping through the most beautiful part of the canyon.

As the narrows ended, there was only a brief transitionary period of brush before the canyon dried and flattened completely. I had made it through the difficult parts in about 10 Kendrick songs and was super stoked.

I still had a couple miles of easy boulder hopping to the car and kept a fast pace, taking a nice cutoff trail at the final bend. 

This was a super fun day hike and embodied what I like to do on foot - continuous movement that's engaging, barely works at times, but decidedly non-technical.

I went to the lake and swam for a while before heading into the city to do some errands and pick up Joelle from the airport. Along the way I got a crazy fruit cup from a corner stand!