For those of you planning to walk the Black Hills segment, (from outside of Oracle to Freeman Road) plan well, so you don’t find yourself unable to finish the Trail down Bloodsucker Wash and around Antelope Peak.
If heading North, when you come to Bloodsucker Wash, turn right, (the Trail route). Do not continue straight. The land North and West of the wash is private property.
Kingmancruiser
Any idea whether there is any new water at the water cache on Freeman Road? Last Spring it was down to about 2 gallons when we passed by. There were a lot of old and very corroded plastic jugs, but little that was usable.
Ginny
Yellowjacket Well is less than half a mile west of this junction, unposted as of 2004. Beehive Well is the next likely source, with a reliable spring in Camp Grant Wash near its confluence with Putnam Wash, east of Beehive Well, ~3 miles off-route.
The Freeman Road cache seems to be unreliable these days. I would not count on it, given its spotty track record over the last few years.
A windmill-fed tank at relict Ripsey Ranch is the next near-route water source northbound beyond the cache. The 100 gallon stock trough thereafter is not reliable, although the spring-fed trough in Ripsey Wash a couple of miles beyond appears to be reliable. Seek out the spring source in the low cliff face above if the trough is unusable.
The community of Kelvin, just north of where the AZT crosses the Gila River, has no services, but residents would likely offer water in an emergency.
blisterfree
Yellowjacket Well is less than half a mile west of this junction
By that I mean West in Bloodsucker Wash, where the AZT turns east off the gasline road.
blisterfree