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| Hiking | 4.50 Miles |
1,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.50 Miles | 5 Hrs 18 Mns | | 1.96 mph |
| 1,500 ft AEG | 3 Hrs Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | After our little warmup Hike around Riggs Lake, we went back down the Swift Trail to the Ash Creek TH. I was really looking forward to this Hike based on Chad's recommendations and the fact that you follow the Creek almost the entire way. 
We get started and it's a nice, well defined, fairly level trail. Hit a few snow patches and a little deadfall but not too bad. Then we start descending and hitting some switchbacks deeper in the pines and Chad points out a little Cabin type structure. We continue on and then Chad stops in amazement. The Trail is gone!!! It has been replaced with a fallen forest...  There is deadfall everywhere and the nicely defined Trail has disappeared without a trace. We resign ourselves to the fact that we are just going to have to make our way through the deadfall, down the hill, to pick up the Trail again at the bottom. And so we scramble, climb over, stoop under and try very hard to jab as many branches into our legs as possible....
We whined our way to the bottom and hooked back up with a real, defined trail and continue. I hear water and am getting excited, as it sounds wonderful!!! Let the picture taking begin in earnest.... The lighting was kind of bad in the beginning, but got better as the afternoon wore on. Turns out the first Creek we hit wasn't even Ash Creek, but it was flowing pretty well and I was happy...
Pretty much followed and crossed this Creek and Ash Creek the rest of the way to the Falls. Along the way, Chad shows me an old Sawmill site which was pretty cool. He tells me that from this point on, the Trail really gets scenic. And to think that I thought it was scenic up to now....
We came to a narrow area where some of the Slick Rock begins and Chad is leading. He starts yelling out exclamations about all of the Lizards on the rocks, but I didn't see hardly any...I think he scared them deep into the rocks, I'm thinking that they won't come out now for days....  But I give the Lizards the benefit of the doubt and let Chad get waaayyy ahead of me, so maybe they'll decide to venture out to see what all the screaming was about. Lucky for me, they did! And I got to get some shots of the few brave souls.  Really beautiful Spiny Lizards, the Lighting really brought their colors out!
We continue on and Chad wasn't lying. The Creek is now roaring and tumbling down the Canyon and it takes me awhile to get through this with a camera...I catch up with Chad at what I would call the Cascading area of the Slick Rock and it is gorgeous!! The rock is very slick here, so we had to be careful, but the scenery was awesome!
100 pictures later, we continue on and the BIG main attraction comes into view. The Falls. I can't even begin to write to describe how it was. It was amAZing!!! Chad decides that even though he has told me how dangerous it is to try to get better shots from there, he knows me well enough by now and he doesn't want to watch, so he continues down the Trail to try to find another Overlook he's heard about. I stay and manipulate, manuever, and climb, to try and get some good shots. It was fun!
I decided not to try and follow the Trail further and find Chad, as quite a bit of time has gone by, so I sit and enjoy a sandwich, soaking in the sights and sounds of the Falls. Chad was gone quite awhile, and I was starting to wonder, when he finally appears, looking like he just hiked 20 miles straight up the mountain....I guess it was quite the journey to that Overlook and back....  But after seeing his Photos, it was definitely worth the effort!! Good job Chad!!!!
We decide it's time to head back and we form a game plan since there will be several things factoring in on the way out. The Lighting is getting better by the moment, so we both know there will be frequent stops for photos, plus, the way out is all uphill, and with the elevation, I was not sure how slow I was going to be. The plan works perfectly, we take our time, sometimes separately, to get the Photos that we want and we meet up just before the switchback/disappearing Trail section.
We continue, on the well defined Trail that never disappeared on the way out. Oops!
We actually made pretty good time on the way out. I must have finally been adapting to the elevation.  Make it back to the car and rest a bit before heading out, back down the Mountain.
Fabulous Hike!!!! Thanks Chad for this one especially! You Rock as a Tour Guide!!! This one is going on my "annual" list. Another awesome day in the books in the Pinalenos.... |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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| Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty & well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, totally worn out & proclaiming, "Wow What a Ride!" |
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