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| Hiking | 7.84 Miles |
2,468 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.84 Miles | 4 Hrs 50 Mns | | 1.62 mph |
| 2,468 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I was planning on going to Tucson and hiking Oracle Ridge with UphillJunkie today. However, when I heard it snowed 8" in the last two days up on Lemmon I quickly scrapped that idea. Hiking up to the Pine Mountain Summit from the Cline TH off of Four Peaks road sounded like a great back up plan.
I found the trailhead and trail no problem. It starts right where the Cline cabin once stood. I read somewhere that it burned in the 80's from arson.  Anyway off I went and the trail is a bit rough and hard to follow at times. This is one you need to keep a close eye on or it would be easy to get off trail due to overgrowth. As I made my way further up the trail, the terrain changed to a Pine forest which was super cool. It was amazing how one minute it is desert and then bam pine cover. My GPS watch doesn't have a map nor can you input coordinates so at around the 2.75 mile mark I turned and headed up towards the high points. I hit a couple high boulder outcroppings before reaching the actual summit. Sure enough just like GPS Joe and Topohiker said the 3 survey markers where there. Views were superb in all directions!
On the way out I made the mistake of not following my path in. I figured I would short cut it to the trail but I didn't find it. So, I just started heading back in the direction I came but it is a manzanita nightmare in many places. This slowed my roll but I never lost sense of direction. I just didn't know if the trail was above or below me. I stayed high in hopes of seeing a cairn or even the trail. Eventually I was able to see one of the old water troughs off in the distance down below. I aimed for it and interestingly enough on the way down I ran into some bamboo or at least something similar to bamboo. This seemed really strange and then I heard water. I stopped and listened closely and down by my feet was a little seep. There was a spring on the side of the hill. Further investigation revealed an old pipe in the ground as well as some cement work that looked about a hundred years old. Kinda cool really!
So back down to the trail by the trough and I was on my way. If you want to go to the geodic markers you can use GPS Joes coordinates or follow my track in. Just don't follow it out! You will look like pigpen from the bushwhack and it will take 3 times as long.  |
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