Weekend escape to Blue Ridge Reservoir

Bianca and I decided we'd give CC Cragin, nee Blue Ridge Reservoir, another crack this last weekend. We decided not to paddle camp, as we weren't familiar enough with the reservoir to know for sure that we'd be able to find a place to set up shop. The upside of that is that we would be car camping, and thus would be able to bring a larger cooler, as well as a few more niceties.

The plan was that we'd get on the road as soon as possible after work on Friday. We'd end up camping in one of the many dispersed sites off the forest road(s) leading into the reservoir. We'd wake up early and try to beat the hordes in to the launch area. On Sunday, we'd break out the mountain bikes and explore some of Passage 27 of the Arizona Trail. 

I didn't relish the thought of trying to find a place to camp in an unfamiliar place, late at night no less. Despite that little bit of trepidation, I was stoked for the paddling and the peddling. Additionally, the forecast was calling for temps in the upper 50s at night, with daytime highs in the 80s. Perfect!

I arrived from work and we began to pack Bianca's Ford Expedition in earnest. The Expedition is not a small vehicle, by any measure. It became apparent that our weekend was going to be very gear intensive, what with the camping, paddling, and mountain biking. In the aftermath of loading the vehicle, it was nearly bursting at the seams. 

We hit the road a tick after 5:00 and pointed the car towards Jersey Mike's in order to acquire our standard road trip fare. I got my usual #8 Club Sub, Mike's Way, hold the mayo, and add mustard please. It's a tasty product. Should you ever find yourself in a Jersey Mike's, I'd recommend it. 

After a short while, we made the approach to be the Beeline highway, State Route 87, for the trek North. We'd last been on the Beeline over a month previously. The contrast was stark. The devastation from the Bush fire was evident and somewhat sad to see. To see thousands of beautiful saguaros destroyed by the fire was a little upsetting.

Hard to see in the photos, but much of the landscape has been reduced to ash.

At about 9:15 PM or so, we reached the metropolis of Clint's Well and shortly thereafter made the turn off Beeline onto FR 751. By now, of course, it was pitch dark. We'd need to drive down the many forest roads that exit off of FR 751 in order to find a dispersed camping site. I was immediately glad that we were in a relatively high clearance vehicle, as these roads were kidney pounding tough. 

As we drove up and down these roads for about forty five minutes or so, we discovered that most sites that we could see were taken. I mentally began to ponder Plan B. Well, crud. There was no plan B. 

Eventually we found a forlorn little spot and backed the rig in. Bianca and I have set up camp together so many times, that we don't need to speak a word! Usually in about ten minutes, camp is set up. 

The temperature was a nice, cool 65! Within a few minutes I was comfortably deep inside my Big Agnes. My Big Agnes is my sleeping bag, FYI. Sleep came easy, as a wave of exhaustion overcame me. 

Seemingly minutes later, the alarm went off. I wanted to get moving as I knew that weekends at the reservoir are hectic and the parking lot fills up quick. Once that happens, you're stuck waiting in line. 

I sprang from my sleeping bag and fired up the coleman stove. With a few spits, hisses, pops, belches, and gurgles the percolator had percolated and we had coffee. After firing down a couple of Basha's Bakery cinnamon rolls, which frankly were better off left at Basha's, we began to prep our gear. 

Bianca inflated our boards using this beautiful, cigarette lighter powered air compressor. She had picked it up at NoSnow, our local SUP shop. I was dubious at first, but this little bad boy shined!! You can connect it to your board and then go about completing other tasks. It'll shut itself off when it reaches the preprogrammed PSI. It also has the added bonus of not getting you drenched in sweat, as is typical after using a manual air pump.

With everything ready to go, we departed camp around 7:15. Thankfully our timing was just right. We were able to pull right up to the launching area. We jettisoned our gear, and Bianca stayed to move our gear down to the water, while I went to park the vehicle. We were in and out in less than a minute.

We set sail and then watched as the area turned to chaos, a real Charlie Foxtrot. Folks inflating kayaks, SUPs, etc right in the middle of the launch ramp.

As soon as the cacophony from the launch area faded, and my tympanic membranes recovered, I was able to assess the splendor in front of me. It was quite spectacular, as it was reputed to be. Ponderosa pines abound. The water, a pretty shade of green. The sky, a, well, pretty sky blue! The surface of the water, glass like. Each paddle stroke as smooth as could be. 

After a few miles of paddling, those cinnamon rolls were burned off. Hallelujah! It was time to find a  nice place to have lunch. We pulled over to the side of the reservoir and hopped out.

What a nice place for lunch. Easy to pull the boards right out of the water onto large rock shelves.

Bianca putting together our lunch spread. We had PBJs, several salty snacks, cold water, a couple of sodas, and a beer apiece. We decided that we'd save these for closer to the end.

That's not mayo. That's my sunscreen.

We decided to poke around a bit after lunch. There was a trail leading up a small rise, away from the water. We decided to go hike it. To our surprise it revealed a sweet, primitive campsite. The site was expansive and had several chairs crafted from logs, a nice table crafted from wood, and over on the other side we could see a large, stone firepit. We walked up to the firepit and were immediately disgusted. Some scumbags had left their bags of used toilet paper and human waste in the firepit. It was one of the most sickening things I've seen in a while. I cannot imagine a human being doing that. Ugh. Evidently Leave No Trace doesn't apply to everyone. I'm sure that the three of you that read this blog weren't the perpetrators, but to quote old Hank, "I'd like to spit some beechnut in that dude's eye".

On that note, if you have to go, there are plenty of options that don't require openly leaving waste for the next person to find. In many areas it's legal to dig a cathole for your solid waste, following local guidelines. Have a plan before you get out there of how you're going to handle the situation. Shit happens.

I use Biffy bags, but there are countless other products. It includes TP and everything is contained in a deodorized liner and then sealed in a mylar-like Ziploc style bag for packing it out. Whenever I'm backpacking, bikepacking, or paddle camping, I have a few of these in my pack. Endeth the sermon.

After my olfactory sensory neurons began to recover from the absolute beating that they had just received, we returned to our boards and resumed our paddle. We observed some foreboding clouds moving in. It looked as though we could be in for some rain.

After five miles of paddling, we approached the Southwest end of the reservoir. It began to rain, which felt refreshing. It felt sort of anticlimactic. We turned around and began to head back. 

There was a campsite up on top of this formation. We didn't see a tremendous amount of places for tent campers. Maybe a half dozen or so. There may have been more that we just didn't see. On the other hand, if you are a hammock camper, you have tons of options. There are tons of trees, if not very many flat places. 

We got to within a mile or so of the launch area and decided to drink our adult beverages. Our original plan called for us to pass the launch area and head to the opposite end of the reservoir. This would equate to roughly 16 miles of paddling all together. In the end, we elected to just finish out the paddle to the launch area, as I was dying to get on the bike and sample some of the Arizona Trail, Passage 27. We'd have to settle for 10 miles on the board. That was enough, as it had been nearly 4.5 hours of paddling.

Biffy bag not needed.

We made it back to camp around 3:00 and had a quick snack. It was at that point that that new pump Bianca had picked up at NoSnow really shined and earned it's keep. Raise your hand if you operate inflatable rigs like we do. Yup, Ok, I see you. Nod your head if you can never seem to get enough air out of the board to be able to fit it back into the sausage casing that it came in!! Yup, I see you, and I hear you. No longer a problem!! The air pump will deflate the board for you. I'm talking down to the last molecule of air! Literally, the last nanometer of air. In fact, I'm worried that it'll implode due to the vacuum that surely must have been created in there! It literally makes it a snap to get a nice tight roll of the board in order to get it back into said casing. If you have the means, I'd highly recommend picking one up. I digress.

We quickly donned our riding togs. I just wanted to go for a quick ride and recon the trails that we'd be riding the next morning. Bianca seemed less then enthused, but gamely agreed to go along.

The trail was absolutely beautiful. A few sections of some chunky rock, but some nice smooth singletrack as well. 

We rode for an hour or so and returned to camp. We sat down for a beer and rehashed the day. It had been a good one. Eventually, the hunger pangs started panging en masse, and I fired up the stove. We had bacon and pineapple stuffed sausages that we'd picked up at Bashas in Payson, accompanied by some chips and salsa and some dynamite pesto pasta salad. It was a rather tasty denouement to the day. Soon enough, the toothpicks propping up my eyelids collapsed from the strain, and I made tracks for Big Agnes. We were wiped out and luckily had no need for an alarm to be set. It couldn't have been much past 8:00 PM. 

We awoke around 7:00 to a beautiful sunny day. After some coffee and a rather non-descript breakfast, we geared up, hopped on our bikes and rolled out of camp. 

We rode a little bit on some of the Forest Roads until we made it to the trailhead off of FR 751. The trail starts off nice and smooth and is a lot of fun.

Bianca getting ready to enter a rocky section

The trail to the right heads off towards Rock Crossing Campground, a really picturesque campground, which was regrettably closed.

The views seen from some of the outer campsites were spectacular.

After checking out the campground for a bit, we got back on the bikes, rode a few more miles and eventually worked our way back to camp. Within 30 minutes we had camp packed, and were on the road home!

All in all, it was an awesome trip! We got to paddle and pedal, two of my favorite things to do. We were able to escape the heat for a weekend, which is always nice! Can't wait to share another adventure with Bianca!