Use Kelvin instead of the Gila

imported
#1

A recent journal entry mentioned hikers filtering water from the Gila River at the bridge in Kelvin. There’s no need to drink that filth. Instead, continue north one half mile along Florence-Kelvin Road to Wilson’s Trailer Park, which has a faucet on the side of the front yard, accessible through chain-link fencing from the adjacent public parking lot. The son of the owner (of the house you’re obtaining water from) has granted tacit permission for Arizona Trail thru-hikers to fill up here - no need to go to the door, but mention as much if anyone should ask. (No loitering please.)

In the future, perhaps a public cache could be maintained at the end of the dirt road west of Florence-Kelvin Road, which is to say the parking area for the east end of the finalized White Canyon segment, just north of the railroad grade. Many of us aren’t totally keen on caches, but the finalized AZT may one day offer nothing reliable between here and Hwy 60 near Superior, due to the eventual bypass of the artesian well in Walnut Canyon along the current de facto route. This would be a front-country cache at the edge of the community of Kelvin, so should be inoffensive enough while avoiding both the one mile detour and reliance on townsfolk.

blisterfree

#2

I think the key to making the Kelvin generosity hold will be:

  1. Don’t show up here in a vehicle, asking for water. Arrive on foot, otherwise drive out to the nearest store for water, which would be in Kearney.

  2. Along the same lines, section hikers should be able to set up their own cache in advance, then dismantle it afterward. Only unsupported long-distance hikers would be expected to (maybe) need assistance at Kelvin. And as is so often the case, I expect they’d sense that, and want to help.

blisterfree

#3

thanks Blisterfee for that info. I saw on A. Pies’ journal that they wre taking from the Gila. it sounded sketchy.

yappy

#4

wont water caches be stolen from illegals? Just a thought

???

#5

It’s sketchy because of contamination from the nearby Ray copper mine, along with the fact that the Gila has been flowing for hundreds of miles through developed valleys and rangeland by the time it gets here.

The migrants don’t use the Arizona Trail north of Tucson.

blisterfree