Every year I do a backpacking weekend to Reavis Ranch in the Eastern Superstition Mountains. Every year as I am trundling up the 5 Hills of Hell on the Insidious Mile I wonder why I do this. But that is on the way out. I call it the Insidious Mile because it is a deceivingly difficult stretch of trail and unfortunately the last thing you remember about the trail as it is the last mile. When you are hiking in on it, you don’t really notice just how much elevation you are losing. It starts at Trail 109, The Reavis Ranch Trail from the Roger’s Trough Trailhead in the Eastern Superstitions. From here you cross the junction with the Roger’s Canyon Trail number 110 and continue up another wall of hell called Graves Canyon, where there are switchbacks up a granite mountain to Reavis Saddle. Then it is smooth sailing into Reavis Valley across a grassy meadow past a Juniper of Unusual Size, through a swampy area and to the Ranch.

There were four of us, more had signed up but true to human nature, there are those who simply blow off commitments and choose to stand you up at the trail head by sleeping in. I have been leading hikes with Sierra Singles for a number of years and I am sick and tired of unreliable people. Any of you who sign up for a hike and decide to blow it off without notifying the outings coordinator (and you KNOW who you are), don’t bother signing up for any of MY outings as I will oust you from the list and dis-approve of you participating. Tough darts, flakester, go be unreliable somewhere else. The ScubaJedi has a very good sophisticated contact database and I track everything.

So my three GOOD friends and I headed off after stopping at my request at Denny’s to pig out on eggs and bac. We took two cars as the road leading to Roger’s Trough is rough and requires 4 wheel drive, or at the least, high clearance. Two cars are better than one in case one car doesn’t make it. Both vehicles were SUV’s and we made it fine. We geared up and headed in to begin the Insidious Mile to the junction of 110/109. We continued up the switchbacks stopping to pay our respects to Reavis at his grave. He was apparently found dead on the trail while hauling his fruits and veggies to market one fine day in 1896.

Reavis was known as the Old Hermit of the Superstitions. According to Tom Kollenborn (2000) Reavis was a well-educated man from back east who came out west to seek his fortune in the gold mines of California. He eventually ended up in Arizona and settled in what is now called Reavis Valley, an veritable oasis in the Supers where there is a year round artesian spring. This helps us backpackers of today in that we don’t have to schlep as much water to the site. How Reavis met his maker is a subject of discussion. Some say he died of natural causes, pushing 70 and hauling up and down those mountains all the time, some say a covetous neighbor who wanted the land caused him a mischief. Whatever the reason, his remains were found and he was buried on the spot where hikers today can stop and gawk.

I opted out of going up to the grave as I was just too tired. Besides, I’ve seen the grave many times and it never changes that much. There used to be clay letters spelling out Elisha Reavis but they have fallen by the wayside. You would have to go digging through he rocks piled on the grave to find them and that’s too ghoulish even for me.

We scaled the hill to the saddle, then cruised on down through the Very Grassy Meadow past the Juniper of Unusual Size to the Swamp. Once past the swamp you cross the creek and up to the valley. I was hoping for the Grand Skookums Campsite right there by the creek so no water schlepping would be needed but it was taken by a bunch of losers. Then we tried for Skookums Campsite number 2 and some young bozos had gotten there minutes before us and though started setting up camp in another location snagged the Skookums Site Number 2 before us. If some shithead hadn’t wanted to stop and waste time on breakfast at Denny’s, we’d have been there sooner and gotten at least the second good site. Needless to say we had to start hunting for a good site. I knew of one more quasi-skookums site where I’ve camped twice and cringed at the thought of having to schlep water from the creek. There is one really reliable spot to get water and that’s where Skookums Site 1 is located.

Luck was with us as no one had been the Quasi-Skookums for a while, it was a little overgrown but otherwise on good condition. The best news was not only was there a massive supply of firewood handy, but the creek was in high volume and right there by the site for filtering. No schlepping. I made a deal with my fellow campers if they would gather the wood, I would prepare the hearth. I friggin hate gathering firewood. I would rather schlep water.

We set up, got a cheerful fire going and hunkered down for the evening. I ate my usual hiker chow out of a bag, as did Willy and Will. What are the odds of two guys being on the trek and both being named Will? But there you have it. Nunya on the other hand brought steak and shrimp to sautee and savor as her evening meal. I just don’t have the wherewithal to cart that kind of weight in my pack. I am fine with meal in a bag from Mountain House. After dinner it wasn’t long before I was ready to snuff out for the night. I don’t know if it was the heat or that I am getting old or what, but I was very very tired. By 8:30 I was snug in my sleeping bag. It was cold at night and I zipped up all the way in.

I woke up to Will making a new cheerful fire at the hearth. We we back on the trail out by 10:30 after a leisurely breakfast and mellow breakdown of camp. We went back out the way we came in and it takes about the same amount of time to hike out as it does to hike in. We saw three tarantulas on the way out, including one on the road driving out.

No apples in the orchard this year, so maybe next year. I plan on a spring trip in April and hopefully anyone signing up will at least notify me that they are not going to show up!!Dirtbags.

Until next adventure,
The ScubaJedi