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| Hiking | 11.40 Miles |
1,267 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.40 Miles | 5 Hrs 58 Mns | | 1.91 mph |
| 1,267 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | We didn't travel the loop as defined for this hike because we had a specific destination in mind based on a previous wandering hike over a year ago. We started from First Water TH, headed out the Dutchman, hung a left at the Boulder Canyon Trail until close to our off-trail destination when we took a 90 degree right to go up and over a ridge and down into a bowl. Although I knew roughly where the tall rock cairn (the object of our search) was and had been able to see if from the same viewpoint over a year ago, due to vegetation growth since then it was not visible. We descended in the general direction of the cairn until the bottom of the bowl, worked our way across and started up, quickly coming upon our goal.
I took a few photos to compare to my previous trip out here, then started to wander around a little, which I always do ever since the 3 gold-seekers went missing in July of this year. We came across a reasonably large piece which appeared to have been torn out of one side of a tent. Although it was of the newer, lighter material for tents, it appeared to have been out in the weather for some years so we quickly discounted it as having anything to do with the missing three.
Then we set out on our return trip by winding our way around and out of the bowl instead of climbing back over the ridge. I took a few photos of some rocks with what appeared to be neat topo lines. We spied a pile of rocks that looked to have been stacked reasonably rationally so I climbed up 50+ feet to check it out, only to find it was formed naturally by water pushing rocks down against one that was well anchored, simply stacking them up to appear man-made. From there it was just a matter of catching the Boulder Canyon Trail and head back, although we cut across to the end of the Black Mesa Loop Trail and over to the Dutchman rather than continue on the Boulder Canyon Trail until it rejoined the Dutchman near Aylor's Caballo Camp area. Once back on the Dutchman it was just a hop, skip and jump back to First Water TH.
Another great day of hiking! |
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