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| Hiking | 10.08 Miles |
1,762 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.08 Miles | 4 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.88 mph |
| 1,762 ft AEG | 1 Hour Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Over the last decade I have watched as many people have ignored the rules and illegally entered the Red Squirrel Refugium and hiked up to Mt Graham (High Peak). Being a local resident and frequent user of the Pinalenos, I wanted to do this the right way and not get banned from the mountain. After almost 1 year of many phone calls, e-mails, 2 meetings & a little BSing, I was able to finally get the final signature I needed and was issued a one day only permit to hike to the top!
With great anticipation I drove up the Swift Trail through the Substantial autumn foliage and parked at the High Peak Rd #507 TH. Headed up the road and at mile 1.9, I arrived at the Red squirrel boundary warning signs. I was told by the FS that these notices are often torn down by hikers so if caught on top, they can say there were no warnings. With a smile and a permit in my pack, I continued on into the refugium. The next 1.5 miles took me through many small aspen patches & meadows with most of them bare, some golden & the rest still a little green. I then entered the Gibson burn area from several years ago and the rest of the hike up to the top was through total fire devastation, the worst I've ever seen on the Pinalenos. Although this whole area is gone and is not recovering well like many of the other burn areas, I found beauty in it as I continued up and soon saw the Large Binocular Telescope emerge to my left. I then came upon a small cairn that lead up a good spur trail that took me the last 300 feet to the top. On top I first walked out onto a big overlook which had the expected great views all around and down on the Gila valley below before climbing a little ways up to the 10,720ft peak where I found a register in a tree stump. Reading the logs that started on 5/18/10, there were at least 30 names in it with many stating how Pumpkin BS it was to make this an illegal area and they didn't care about being there. The funny thing about this to me was that they then signed their full names and where they were from making me think, why patrol this area? The mountain police should just get the names off the register and send out the citations. Only spent about 15 minutes on top as it was very windy & cold and headed back down at a fast pace as it started to get late and I arrived back at the TH just before sunset.
Driving back down the mountain I had bittersweet emotions about this trip. I was very happy to have finally summited the tallest mountain in AZ (base to peak), but then it hit me that I've now completed the "big one" on Graham, what now? |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Moderate
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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