The north end of the Orohai Trail is easy to follow, marked with a sign where it dead ends at Forest Road 1356. But the south end is notoriously hard to follow, worst near Hackamore Trailhead. No signs, no cairns, no nothin’. People get lost there all the time. I’ve spoken with the rangers about it, to no avail. A few years ago the trail was re-routed.

Fortunately I know where the trail is. Fourteen fantastic Trailblazers started out from Hackamore Trailhead on a cool, breezy morning. I’d thought of taking the Green Thumb Trail, but with the wind blowing fiercely I decided to take the Orohai Trail instead, because part of it goes through a canyon.

After we got out of the canyon I took off my jacket at the junction with the connector trail, then pointed out Triple Trail Junction to everyone when we got there.

Yes, there is a sign marking the place where the Orohai Trail dead ends at FR 1356. It doesn’t identify the road or the trail, but has an arrow pointing west. That’s where we went.

On the Bulldog Canyon Trail I pointed out where the “long” hikers would climb up on Bulldog Wash Ridge. Then we turned south on the horse trail.

I discovered the horse trail in 2003, the first time I climbed hill 2685. It was the great shoot-out. Carrying both my last film camera and my first digital camera on that hike, I needed to be convinced that digital pictures were good enough. So I took the same pictures with both cameras. Afterwards I got my color negatives digitized, then looked at the pictures side by side on the computer screen. I never went back to film.

There’s something to see at the north end of the horse trail: the frog. For a long time it was a mystery to me why N.C. McFarland called Peak 3269 and Dome Mountain the “Frog Peaks” on his 1883 map of Arizona Territory. But there’s the frog, in stone.

The north half of the Wolverine Pass Trail is kind of like the south end of the Orohai Trail. Worst near the power line, it has a few cairns here and there. Sometimes you can see the trail for a little way, but admittedly I’ve lost the trail on several occasions.

We made it to the power line, then turned left on the easy Powerline Trail back to Dome Mountain Trailhead. The hike was over for us “short” hikers. I pointed out the Blue Ridge Trail to the “long” hikers, then I drove Laurie, Joe, Sally, and Karen back to Hackamore Trailhead.

Afterwards, Debbie Rowray led an exploratory hike on the Blue Ridge Trail, for another 2½ miles. Thanks, Debbie!