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| Hiking | 30.40 Miles |
5,214 AEG |
| | Hiking | 30.40 Miles | 12 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.43 mph |
| 5,214 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was my longest and one of the toughest hikes yet. That was not by design. If you plan on doing this loop, you must have good route finding skill and know how to read a map. I knew there be route finding issues, but not to this degree.
It was neat walking under the spillway. FR 479 was pretty flat and well maintained.
The Davenport trail is an old jeep road for the first 3 miles. The trail is not too hard to follow. The trail gets a little random by the dog spring. It stays north of the Davenport wash. At 13 miles, the Davenport trail intersects with the Sheep Creek trail. Two miles north of here is the Club Cabin.
Now the route finding gets interesting. I was on the trail about 90% of the time. The Sheep creek crosses two major creeks and it took some map reading to cross at the right spots. Then the sheep creek climbs to a high point of 4,120 and passes an old corral. I found the Sears trail pretty easily.
Now the intense route finding skills started. I was on the trail about 70% of the time. The first couple miles are on ridgelines; the trail gets very faint and disappears from time to time. My GPS had the trail preloaded, but it's still a challenge to stay on it. When the trail drops into a drainage, that's when I stopped having fun. The drainage was full of burs and thick vegetation. I got burs all over my cloths, pack and hair. There were a couple of trails to get around the springs, but I may have missed a couple of them. I was so happy when the 'trail' finally left the drainage and was well defined. Then the trail turned into an old jeep road. The sun was setting, but I was on a wide road. Then the jeep road crossed the davenport wash. I couldn't find the jeep road anymore as it got dark. I just followed the wash and keep on checking my GPS. I was getting closer to where I started on the Davenport trail. Eventually I got close enough to where I climb a couple of feet to FR479.
I probably spent a mile or two route finding throughout the day. I don't think I'll ever do the Sears trail again. That drainage drained me. At least I found another playground and it's only 80 minutes from my home! I'll come back to hike the western section of the copper camp and possibly find the burned out club cabin. |
| _____________________
"Everywhere is walking distance...If you have the time"
-Stephen Wright |
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Route Editor
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