GENE PERRET'S WIT STOP

bikemanth Choose Between an EASY or DIFFICULT Trek Along an ALPINE STREAM

INGREDIENTS IN A GREAT fall hike recipe: yellowgold-red aspens at their late autumn peak; a trail that presents an easy or hard option; four adults, slightly aged, of reasonably matched outdoor abilities and inclinations. Assemble the ingredients at dawn at the Mexican Hay Lake trailhead near Eagar, combine them with an incomparably clear, crisp Arizona-fall morning and you're on your way. The Mexican Hay trailhead marks the downhill, or easy, option of the 7-mile South Fork Trail 97, which travels for much of its length along the South Fork of the Little Colorado River up in the alpine zone of Arizona's White Mountains. The more difficult reverse route starts at the primary trailhead in the South Fork Campground, some 7 miles and 1,500 feet down trail.

The trail begins on a plateau adjacent to Mexican Hay Lake, so named because pioneer settlers in the region annually drained the lake to harvest and bale the tall grasses growing there. There are lots of "hay" lakes in the White Mountains. But only this one bears the name "Mexican Hay." None of the locals we asked seemed to know why.

When the lake, a glacial basin, fills with water following spring runoff or periods of hard rain, it attracts an assortment of ducks, coots and Canada geese. Occasionally, even bald eagles are spotted there.

It's chilly when we set out, and frost crystals crunch underfoot with every step. Elk and deer droppings randomly litter the trail, and we catch a fleeting glimpse of a northern goshawk flying amid the trees.

For the first half of the hike, the trail goes nearly 4 miles across a parklike forest of 300-year-old ponderosa pine trees. One splintered giant lies shattered by a powerful blast of lightning. A few others show a "cat's face" scar, a remnant of ancient forest fires, near the base of their trunks.

The sky is clear and bright, and the openness of the plateau affords close-up and distant vistas of hillsides and peaks where myriad spears of flaming aspen trees thrust skyward amid the darker evergreens. By midmorning the sun has melted the frost and warmed our bodies, so we peel off layers of outerwear.

Leaving the plateau, the trail drops sharply toward the river. A sign warns of the short, steep patch with loose footing. Today, it's only a bit dicey, but in foul weather we might have questioned the safety of traversing this section. A couple of us scoot down on the seats of our pants.

Soon we skip on stepping-stones across the lovely South Fork of the Little Colorado to hike 3 miles at streamside toward trail's end at the South Fork Campground. The South Fork, one of the high country's truly great trout streams, is overgrown with thickets of red-osier dogwood-quite a tangle for anglers to plow through, we think.

But it's hiking we're after, not fishing, and as we approach the campground we all marvel at how quickly we've reached our destination. It's agreed: This has been one of the fastest, prettiest, easiest 7-mile hikes we'd all taken.