The road to Deer Creek Cabin is gated and locked by the Forest Service. Oddly enough, there is a nice government outhouse at the cabin, so this reflects some inscrutable policy decision by the Forest Service. The trailhead is to the south near the point marked 4902 on the 7.5 minute USGS topo map. There is parking and evidence of heavy use by horse people.
We spent the night at the trailhead and began hiking the next day.
From here we followed a trail directly up the ridge (not contouring around to the north as shown on the 7.5). This took us to a saddle NW of 6436. From here we dropped SW into the drainage on the other side, and then followed the most heavily used trail down Sycamore Creek. Every mountain range in Southern Arizona has at least one Sycamore Creek. This trail follows the stream (dry) then contours north and west around point 5908, eventually reaching a saddle NW of 6587. None of this is shown on the 7.5 map, but it is the most heavily used trail, apparently by the horse people. The trail then descends steeply via switchbacks to what is marked as Horse Canyon Tank, then follows the canyon down to the junction with Rattlesnake Canyon. From here we hiked south down Rattlesnake Canyon, inspected the buildings at Powers Garden, and returned to near the Horse Canyon confluence to make camp.
These trails are easy to follow, but covered everywhere with loose rocks. There is no water at Powers Garden, but water is available at Powers Spring further to the south.
Powers Spring is probably always a reliable source of water.
We hiked out the way we came. We would have liked to have made this a loop trip, but were unsure of our other options. The trail up Corral Canyon may now be difficult due to the fire that burned along the crest a year or so before. An exit via Holdout Spring and upper Rattlesnake canyon was likewise appealing, but would have made for an extremely long day, no doubt ending with headlamp hiking. We got a late start on our exit, taking time to warm ourselves up and recover from our cold night. We made much better time on the way out. It would seem that our bodies need an easy first day to adjust to the demands of hiking over rough ground in cold weather. Whatever the case, we began hiking around 11 AM and got to the truck and trailhead around sunset (6 PM). We drove back to Tucson, getting back around 10 PM.
On the hike out, we discovered a note in a bottle near Mud Spring giving tips on trail conditions. It indicated that the writer had tried to follow the trail heading up canyon from Mud Springs towards Kennedy Peak (and presumably over the crest and down Corral canyon). They lost the trail and found themself facing cliffs that would require technical climbing and turned back.
We saw many side trails, and it is safe to say that a good map that shows the current state of the trails in these mountains does not exist. My partners had printed maps from "Caltopo" which had much better trail information than the USGS 7.5 minute maps I have.
Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org