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| Hiking | 8.50 Miles |
875 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.50 Miles | 7 Hrs 15 Mns | | 1.36 mph |
| 875 ft AEG | 1 Hour Break | | | |
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| partners | | I went out into the White Canyon Wilderness on an exploratory search with the Grasshopper (Hank) today to see if there was a way of connecting his previous trail from the lower trailhead with an upper (new) trailhead. On that earlier hike, Hank ran into an insurmountable waterfall in a narrow part of the canyon and was forced to retrace his trail to exit.
We drove South on Hwy 177 out of Superior until we reached FR319, a gravel exit on the West side of the road. We continued on FR319 which quickly turned into a trail requiring high clearance and FWD. At a junction in the trail just past an old rock building foundation, we were able to safely park at a wide turn around area. From this point, we hiked a bit more than a mile along the ATV/Jeep trail to it's end where we dropped into the beginnings of a canyon that would ultimately take us into the Wilderness Area.
The creek bed was wet with patches of green grass,pools of water, occasional running water and a good crop of Catsclaw to navigate through. Along the way, we came across narrow canyon sections that forced us to scramble up along poorly unmarked cattle and wildlife trails. This scrambling and dodging continued on until we reached a narrow canyon entrance that was dammed up by boulders creating a 15 foot drop into a large pool of water.
At this point, we still hadn't reached Hanks previous turn around point, but were nonetheless forced to climb the walls and look for a way to drop back down into the canyon. The area above the creek was beautiful solid rock and easy to get around. We kept leapfrogging each other going from one point to the next admiring the views and noticing that the small creek was becoming more distant at each viewpoint. Soon we even lost track of each other for several scary minutes.
Once reunited, we found some shelter from the winds, had lunch and discussed the results of the journey so far. Hank was a bit disappointed that we were unable to drop down into the canyon and connect with his earlier trail, but the hour was getting late and we still had more than three miles to return to the little red truck.
The return trip went fairly quick since we didn't have to stop quite as often for taking photos and admiring the scenery. Back at the truck, we changed out of our hiking gear, had some liquid refreshment and some of Pat's home made cookies (yum), then it was back to home.
Overall, it was a very interesting hike into some extremely beautiful and rugged country that sees very little use. The hike into the Wilderness area leaves a bit to be desired, but is fairly easy going and has interesting views along the way. The high country around the creek is spectacular with some great views of Battleaxe and other mountains both close and distant. If you plan on using this trailhead to access the Wilderness, you should leave enough time for exploring the high country and hopefully you can find that elusive route to the bottom of the canyon.
(T)hank(S) Hank for inviting me to accompany you on another interesting outing. |
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| On every trip into the Superstitions, I find another Gold Mine. Today the mine was filled with Memories. I can not wait for the next trip. |
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