Backpacking Up North

[sajor75]

Anyone brave enough to backpack up north or is it still to hot, when is a good time to backpack, i want to tackle the highline trail.

[chumley]

Ordinal directions have little to do with temperature in Arizona.

As @azbackpackr will happily tell you, the fantastically pleasant White Mountains are very much east of the greater Phoenix area. Some very pleasant cool-weather mountain hikes can be found in the southern half of the state.

As for the Highline Trail, I see seven triplogs posted in the past month. From reading them, it sounds like it may be warm for some people. But some people tolerate heat more than others.

[JoelHazelton]

There is some pretty good info on when to backpack the Highline Trail in this thread: http://hikearizona.com...

Not sure if you've seen it yet ;)

[FOTG]

@sajor75
From a quick search of the last time you posted this question I found the following...

There are a lot insects in May

its is a little toasty in June

and

July is the third most popular month for the Highline. It's also the hottest with temps on average in the mid 80's

[te_wa]

good time? late september. rains are gone, nights are cool.

[nonot]

It also depends what part of the highline. Some parts are OK, though warm in summer. Other parts are much worse because of the lack of shade (all the trees burned).

[sajor75]

@nonot
The whole thing

[The_N]

@sajor75
I don't know what you're waiting for. There are plenty of places to camp and truly the insects aren't bad compared to other parts of the state. Sure, it's warm (low to mid 90's for a high, mid 50s to low 60s for a low) but again, not bad compared to other parts of the state. There have been afternoon storms but you'd get water in the creeks in exchange. Come on up and get your trip started. Keep in mind, western Highline is a little more rocky and slightly warmer. The further east you go, the more opportunities for shade.

[nonot]

Right now is not ideal. As others have said, a bit later, around end of September is what I would consider perfect.

You can do it now, but you will sweat. If you are not adapted to warm weather hiking, you might run into heatstroke issues. Hiking the Highline in July was one of the few times in my life I've gotten heat exhaustion and had to carefully manage myself to avoid having it propagate into heatstroke, so know your limits. In particular the 2 miles around Pine TH, and the few miles east of Washington Park TH are the burned areas. Plan to hit these early in the day if possible if you intend to go during the summer.

By the way, I'm assuming you are referring to Highline #31 around Pine and Payson, and not Highline #47. Highline #31 sits about right in the middle of Arizona, and #47 is east. I don't know of a highline trail in northern AZ.

@nonot
The whole thing

[sajor75]

I'm referring to the highline trail #31, I did a loop to get a feeling for it at the beginning of may of this year, started at trail head #260 , passing Horton creek and back, 30 miles, 2 days one night, weather back the was 65f/40f.

I think I'll hold off till the beginning of September til the weather gets cooler.

In the mean time any suggestions for a day hike where the weather is below 80f .

[nonot]

Mt Graham hikes and maybe Mt Baldy might be what you are looking for.

[joebartels]

Baldy Loop is 4 hrs from PHX http://hikearizona.com/map.php?QX=5524
Storms highly possible daily but below 70 currently in the near future
( center the red crosshair on the map, right click, and select forecast for any spot )

Graham is 4 hrs from PHX http://hikearizona.com/map.php?QX=5523
about an equal chance of storms and temps up top

Jacinto is 5 hrs from PHX http://hikearizona.com/map.php?QX=5522
just under 80 degrees an hour up any trail from Idyllwild, half the chance of storms but you need a permit

[ljcygnet]

I do not recommend the Highline right now. It's too hot and the weather's too unpredictable. It is, right this minute, as I type, raining and hailing so hard that I can't see our back fence 200 feet away and it's 50 degrees. There's a ton of lightning.

It was about 90 degrees and humid as a sauna an hour ago.

We are half a mile from the Highline on Ellison Creek. This is typical of late summer weather.

Bottom line: if it's not raining, it will be too hot.

We (a neighbor, my father, and I) helped extract a teenager with heat exhaustion (and a bad sunburn) from the Highline east of Ellison Creek a couple weeks ago. He was fit and healthy, but the conditions were just too much. Temps were in the 90s and no shade and he was lugging a heavy pack and it didn't rain that day. He was fortunate in that he just got a learning experience and no lasting damage.

ETA: My major objection to the Highline in general this time of year is the hills, lack of shade on some stretches, and the distance between water. It's easy to overextend yourself and get into trouble on it.

There are other trails that are fine this time of year. For a beginner, Horton comes to mind, or See Canyon. They have ample water, which makes everything easier, and plenty of shade.

To give you an idea how bad the weather can get up here ... I just moved away from the windows because it's hailing so hard I'm worried they'll break. They just issued a flood advisary because several inches of rain has fallen. I am glad I'm not out on the Highline right now -- all the creek crossings are probably flooding!