People just can’t find Horton Creek. In the 14 days or so I have been here off and on I have helped over 10 different groups of people find where the Horton Creek trail was. Some of which were even in the Horton Creek trail parking lot.
For some odd reason the forest service does not want to mark where the trail is. Which makes it difficult because the trail is actually across a bridge and across the road from its own parking lot. There are no signs pointing you the way from the parking lot. Only a top down sign that shows the general area.
The reason the parking lot is not closer is because it used to be a picnic area, but they have apparently torn out the barbecues and tables associated with it. When Horton Creek became popular in the ’90s as a hiking trail and fishing destination they repurposed the parking lot.
Part of me is sad about all of this, before the 90s when the pace and paper published the story about Horton Creek there was almost nobody up there. There were hikers in abundance after that. I had pretty much free run of the stream before that point. Then somewhere around 2014 game and fish made the stream catch and release only, and artificial lure and fly only. Which I suppose is a good thing because there are a few populations of wild trout in Arizona, but I say that grudgingly. I fondly recall the days of being able to eat some very delicious wild trout from that stream.
I guess partly I don’t like sport fishing. Sport fishing to me feels too much like a cat playing with its food instead of eating it. If I’m not going to eat it, I don’t usually fish for it. The exception would be when you’re engaging in population control, or removing invasive species. For example someone illegally stocked bass, sunfish, and catfish on the rim lakes in Arizona. Before that they only had trout in them. At this point game and fish has set no limit on those species because they want to get rid of them. And Washington State they also had a price on the head of Northern Pike, which are another illegally stocked invasive species. Money is a great way to get people to do something.
I’ve often wondered who did the illegal stocking of the Arizona Rim lakes. Because whoever it is they’ve done it over quite some time now. Back in the 90s I remember the first instance of this where they were bass in Willow springs Lake, it was inevitable that those bass would flow down stream to Chevelon Canyon Lake. However the illegal stockings were also later done in Woods Canyon Lake, Knoll Lake, and Bear Canyon Lake. Which do not share any breedable waterways with Willow springs Lake.
It seems at this point it would be a good idea to do a total fish kill on these lakes and restore only Gila trout and Apache trout to them, which are the two native species in the area. Especially to Bear Canyon Lake, This lake is rather remote by comparison to the others, and it’s water shed is much more secluded.
I did head back into Payson. Hanging out at Walmart. I will go check my mailbox in the morning and decide the next step from there.
Side note, wordpress does not like emojis, lol
