Amazing, Spectacular Arizona Trail Thruhike: Mormon Lake-Shuff Tank

In the land of Arizona
Through desert heat or snow
Winds a trail for folks to follow
From Utah to Old Mexico

It’s the Arizona Trail
A pathway through the great Southwest
A diverse track through wood and stone
Your spirit it will test

Oh, sure you’ll sweat and blister
You’ll feel the miles every day
You’ll shiver at the loneliness
Your feet and seat will pay

But you’ll see moonlight on the borderlands
You’ll see stars on the Mogollon
You’ll feel the warmth of winter sun
And be thrilled straight through to bone

The aches and pains will fade away
You’ll feel renewed and whole
You’ll never be the same again
With Arizona in your soul

Along the Arizona Trail
A reverence and peace you’ll know
Through deserts, canyons, and mountains
From Utah to Old Mexico
-“The Arizona Trail,” Dale R. Shewalter

Navajo Spring-Alvin Teague Memorial

After spending yesterday on a zero in the town of Mormon Lake, it’s brutally cold this morning, notably because of the strong wind that whips across the clearing to the west. Not setting up the tent last night was a mistake. I ultimately fill up for the last time at Navajo Spring and run into a few dayhikers who have completed over 300 miles of the trail themselves. Two of them are the Grouper and the Oracle. I continue south, aiming for Gooseberry Springs TH and Passage 29, Happy Jack.

Alvin Teague Memorial-Van Deren Spring

The trail continues to pass evidence of the logging railroads that it follows in the area, particularly in the form of the grades that emerge. There is a memorial to someone by the name of Alvin Teague, adorned with horseshoes, atop one such grade. This seemed random at the time I passed, but such things rarely are, so I looked him up afterwards; apparently he was a World War II veteran who went on to work for the Forest Service for 34 years.

But railroad grades arent the only evidence of the past – at one area of rock outcrops where I stop to rest for a while, I find an immense collection of railroad artifacts. Please remember that all such items are protected by the Antiquities Act as part of our shared American heritage, so please leave them for others to enjoy as you do.

Van Deren Spring-Gooseberry Springs Trailhead

The trail passes Van Deren Spring – which, if it is what I thought it was, looked little more than a mudpit at present. Continuing on, the trail crosses Lake Mary Road once again and enters the Mogollon Rim District of the Coconino National Forest at a gate. It is 20 miles to the Blue Ridge Reservoir from this point, though I am not sure if that signage accounts for the new reroute that I know is coming up on this stretch.

Arizona Trail: Passage 29 (Happy Jack)
Gooseberry Springs-Shuff Tank

I arrive at Gooseberry Springs in the late afternoon. The trailhead has some great interpretive signage about the railroad and logging history in the area. Then it’s back into the ponderosas again.

The first stretch is similar to the area just finished; then, the trail takes a break from its meadow jaunts and decides to work in a hill, winding through a thicker forest and passing large ferns, reminders of how cold and wet the prior spring was, before one of the driest summers in northern Arizona recorded history dried them out. The trail passes Maxie Tank, then continues through flatter ponderosa terrain and rice grass meadows to Shuff Tank. I stop slightly beyond Shuff Tank for the evening as the sun sets.

Arizona Trail: Passages 28-29 Logistics