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| Hiking | 7.00 Miles |
2,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.00 Miles | | | |
| 2,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | We did Devil's Chasm on the Friday before Thanksgiving and it took us until Tuesday of last week (1/11/11) to try another of the Sierra Ancha ruins' hikes. Yes, by then the memories of the DC trail had faded enough to do the Cold Springs Canyon ruins last week. That went well in that it was more reasonable on this old body. Encouraged by last week's excursion, three of us set out for the Pueblo Canyon Ruins this week (1/18/11). After PC, we are going to have to wait another couple of months before the trail memories fade enough to do the 4th in the quad-fecta - Copper Forks .
Pueblo Canyon was no cake walk for me. My hiking partners are all considerably younger (try 20 years), and it was no cake walk for them either. This is probably the worst trail, conditionwise, we have hiked that we can remember, but the scenery is spectacular. Both factors contribute to making this a very memorable hike. I am glad I made it, but don't plan to got back any time soon.
As Randal Sshulhauser's master write-up says, the first mile is a reasonable hike, even if on ankle-killing, "baby-head" rocks on the old mining road. But you soon get in to an area of dense growth and faded paths. Suffice it to say that by the time you get your first glimpse of the ruins on the north canyon wall, you have been slowed, poked, scratched and grabbed by the dense underbrush. And it doesn't let up after that. And the number of fallen trees is large, necessitating hike-a-rounds, climb-overs, and roll-unders. Wallyfrack's GPS track will take you to where you can first spot the north ruins across the canyon. From then on you have to proceed cautiously and look for the few cairns that are there, since getting a GPS fix is very spotty with the tall canyon walls and cliffs over you. I suspect that no one has a good track beyond where wally's leaves off. I sure didn't.
One of my fears was ice at the falls. But, the unseasonably high temperatures this last week melted all but the deepest snow in the area. There was no ice hanging on the south wall of the canyon and absolutely none at the falls. That does not mean to imply that things were dry. A wide-brimmed hat was a good choice - it is useful for keeping water as well as sun off. There is water dripping off the high south wall in many places. It turns out going behind the falls to get to the north canyon wall was one of the easier parts of the hike. The falls were running very nicely - undoubtedly not as much as after a winter of heavy snows in the drainage area above, but enough to look spectacular. The view of the falls would be enough to take the hike, even if there were no ruins.
We only visited to the first set of ruins (really the second set if you are numbering from the south wall ruins) on the north canyon wall - time was moving on and we didn't want to chance having to complete the hike near dusk or later. We took lots of pictures and will post soon. Round trip was 6 1/2 hours - trailhead to trailhead. FYI, it takes about an hour to get from the first set of ruins on the south wall around to the first set of ruins (really the second set if you are numbering from the south wall ruins) on the north wall and back.
In addition to a picture set I will post, I have made a composite picture of the north wall taken from the south wall. If can be panned and zoomed to show details of the three sets of ruins on the north wall. You can view the composite (made up of 29 individual pictures) at
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=937 ... 920dd8c3ba |
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| To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace. -- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (56 AD – 117 AD) |
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