AZ > White Mountains > Mt Baldy, Greer, Black River hang options
Planning a backpacking trip to the White Mountains in East Central AZ this summer. This area was ravaged by a huge fire 10 years ago and is also dealing with an invasive beetle that's killing trees. With a tent I'd have no problem and some would say that this area is perfect tent terrain, but I'm hammock-addicted. I'm hoping that some members here are familiar with the area and can help me figure out whether or not I'm going to find healthy trees in the areas that I'm planning to camp.
I haven't planned my complete route yet, but so far it looks like this:
- Day 1 - Start in Greer and head up West Fork of Little Colorado toward the Baldy Wilderness. First night camp along the Crossover trail (should be no problem here as the wilderness was spared the fire)
- Day 2 - Hike south over Burro Mountain to hook up with the Thomson trail along the west fork of the Black River. Plan to camp somewhere along the river near Deadman's Crossing (I'm a bit concerned about this area as the most recent satellite imagery I can find shows some trees, but the forest was wiped out).
- Day 3 - Continue to follow the west fork and eventually hook up with the Indian Springs trail. I plan to hike that loop counter-clockwise and find a camping area south of Big Lake. There are a number of pay sites in this area which were defended from the fire. Hoping to find a place to hang in the area south of the campgrounds
- Day 4 - Hike back toward the Baldy Wilderness and camp along the East Baldy Trail (should be no problem here)
- Day 5 - Continue up the East Baldy trail and then down the West Baldy trail. Camp along the west fork of the Little Colorado (should be no problem here)
- Day 6 - Hike out
One option I'm considering is eliminating the Indian Spring loop which would then allow me to combine days 3 & 4 and eliminate one of the questionable nights.
It's an odd route, but I structured it this way to put most of the nights near the Baldy wilderness where the forest was spared the fire. The real questions are days 2 & 3 as I'm not sure how the hammock options are in those areas.
Anyone here familiar with the area and able to comment on hang options? I'm not married to my route, but would really like to do my trip in this area.
