A traverse of the Superstitions and implications for LDM

As part of my failed Grand Enchantment Trail hike this fall, I backpacked from the First Water Trailhead to Superior, along the EW axis of the Superstitions. Along this route, I passed many of the “classic” sites where Lost Dutchman Mine hunters have claimed that Waltz’s mine is located. The only area where I found any credible geological evidence of epithermal mineralization was along the JF trail on the headwaters of Tortilla Creek, where there is a fairly extensive zone of brecciated volcanics cemented with banded chalcedonic quartz, and cut by veins of the same. I’ll definitely be back to this area for some geochemical sampling, later this winter.