I felt slight pause about our backpacking trip into the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness. This wilderness is nothing like the Midwest. Even in the milder temperatures of late Winter, the dry air and the terrain still find a way to take their toll. The lesson is basically to research and prepare yourself for the environment. Like all trips, water was most important for this 3 day excursion because of the unsure state of the creek. Living pretty close by, basically under 2 hours and downhill from the snowy Flagstaff peaks, I was pretty confident that the recent snow melt was still feeding the creeks. If the creek wasn’t running, I had read of some pretty reliable springs in the canyon. Worst case, we were prepared with some extra water and the notion that we might need to cut our trip short.
The loop we intended to complete was roughly 20 miles. Though we did not complete the loop, we completed
the mileage by hiking to Taylor Cabin and back to the Dogie Trail trailhead. Our thought was our knowledge of the terrain to come, our pack weights, that this was Mater and Rachael’s first backpacking trip, the altitude change for Mike and Chad, it just seemed like a prudent decision not to push too hard on this trip.
The canyon was incredibly scenic, remarkably serene and quiet, filled with mystique.
Mike and Chad flew into Phoenix Friday night from Chicago to go on this hike. Impressive. Rachael, Mater and I were there to pick them up, head back up to the cabin and prep for heading out pretty early Saturday morning. The trailhead was roughly 2 hours from our place in Strawberry, AZ. Just shy of arriving in Sedona, we pulled off onto the National Forest (read: dirt) road toward the trailhead.
We arrived short of the trailhead around 10:30am, but an equestrian trail rider, Joel, set us straight that we needed to proceed another few hundred yards to the actual trailhead. Joel told us he and his fellow riders were headed to the Taylor Cabin for an overnighter. We were hoping to get to the cabin that evening as well, but we didn’t. We were sidetracked and stopped frequently to take in scenery.
We ended up at the creek mid afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised to see the water flowing quite strong, but then quickly realized we had to cross that icey cold, rushing, but thankfully not terribly deep, creek. Mike went a few times to help us with Rachael’s pack and Mater. I was not shirking my responsibility, Mike was just really ambitious about crossing. It felt great to get across…I conjured memories from the movie Into The Wild.
We didn’t get too far from the crossing before making camp on a flat spot. We had a good first nights rest, eliminated some of our weight and after some discussion, decided we would leave the camp and hike 4.5 miles to Taylor Cabin and back, rather than try the loop. 
The ascension from the canyon floor was roughly 2200 feet. We simply weren’t prepped for it. I consider this a good scouting trip for future multiday trips in this canyon. Mike and Chad had to return to Illinois on Tuesday morning and I didn’t want to cut anything too close.
I did feel much more confident being in the wilderness and having my WFR (Wilderness First Responder) certification. My practice this trip was removing a cactus needle and bandaging a blister. All on Mike, interestingly enough.
The hike back was pleasant but not without some concern and discomfort. We had just enough water to get to the car (where I had more waiting) and the air was dry and the 70-something felt like 90-something. It was a great workout, though.
On the trip, my water filter became clogged. Mike had a Steri-Pen, which I think I will actually consider using from now on. It’s small and light-weight and apparently quite effective. Oh, and less work. 
~20 Miles, 3 days/2 nights ~40lb pack
