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| Hiking | 27.47 Miles |
4,872 AEG |
| | Hiking | 27.47 Miles | 10 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.62 mph |
| 4,872 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I've wanted to check this area out for a couple of years. My timing has always been off. Due to the road, you shouldn't go during the rainy season and with the lower elevations, mid to late spring doesn't work out. I finally found my window. Armed with GPSJoe's track I headed out. I left my house at 5:15am. I made to the FR24/FR269 intersection by ~7:15. Now I started the 12 mile rough road. About 9 miles in, I started to hear a new odd sound coming from my front passenger tire  . I jumped out and looked, but didn't see anything wrong. I went another mile before deciding to stop driving. I read reports that he last two miles of the road were the worst, I parked at mile 10 on FR269. This is where I started my hike. Without knowing what the road conditions were ahead, I didn't want to chance my Jeep breaking down. By this point I had driven 70 miles and it took me 3 hour to it.
I hoofed it down to the bridge. The remaining two miles on the road was OK. But still that new sound worried me. The views were awesome. I'm glad I brought my good camera. There was a bunch of people camping at the TH. There was one person camping on the beach. I headed over the bridge. The Verde River was flowing well. I started up the Willow Spring trail. It was cool looking at the eastern mountain range of the Mazatzal's. Typically I'm in the mountain ranges looking west at the Verde. I came across two backpackers getting water in the Horse Creek. As the morning heated up, I started to climb to the higher elevations and into the cooler temps. As I started my climb down, it started to get warm again. I pumped some water at the Sycamore creek. The Dutchman Grave had a couple of areas where I needed to refer to GPSJoes route. The trail gets obscured by grass and I wasn't paying 100% because I was taking in the views
At 4:30 I saw my first Gila monster for the year! I noticed that every Gila monster I've seen has been in the 4 o'clock hour. I also explored a little up the Verde River trail. I got back to the Jeep just at night fell. I took the drive back slow as to avoid that new dreaded sound. It took me four hours to get back hour.
This area is a new playground for me  It has numerous trails with a lot of connectors. There a lot of exploring to do! The only bad thing is the long slow drive out. |
| _____________________
"Everywhere is walking distance...If you have the time"
-Stephen Wright |
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