Blue Ridge -Jake

I was fortunate enough to share a splendid wilderness adventure with myyoungest son Jake.The Blue Range Primitive Area was simply awesome!! It is a good six hourdrivefrom Phoenix including 40 miles of backroads but was worth every minute.Wehadplenty of fun CDs to listen to. This is truly a remote area. Most of theBluerange is seldom visited by hikers and offers a real opportunity forseclusion. It was storming on Friday, we had hard rain all the way to Pinetop, soIthought we were in for a miserable weekend but the weather cleared and weonlyhad to deal with a few Thunder showers.Lamphier canyon is one of the prettiest areas that I have been to. Agurglingcreek, wildflowers everywhere in a shaded canyon with grapevine lacedtrees.It rivals the California lost coast.Both Jake and I developed some good blisters -We went 14 miles the firstdayin order to get off the Mogollon rim, where we would have been vulnerabletolightning. A good part of the hike after Lamphier canyon is steep to therimand the trails are feint and confusing. Did not see much Wildlife- AlpineKingsnake, a few frogs, but did run across very large pawprints well defined inthe mud. Mexican Wolf? Perhaps-Apparently the pack is roaming all over theBlue and doing well.Overall I rate this one a 9. It would have gotten a 10 if the trails weremaintained and not so difficult to find.