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| Hiking | 6.40 Miles |
2,520 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.40 Miles | 5 Hrs | | 1.28 mph |
| 2,520 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Grandview Trail to Horseshoe Mesa was the second on my list of hikes I really wanted to do.
Started at 7am, made it down to the cabin on the mesa in two hours ... weather was nice on the way down, overcast, 70 degrees.
Spent an hour on the mesa exploring, resting, enjoying the views, and checking out the campsites. Nobody else there. I really like these campsites, but the toilets are ridiculous! 
Of course as soon as I started to climb out of there, the sun came out and the temperature rose to 80+.
As I approached Coconino Saddle, 1.1 miles from the top, a serious storm rolled in. At first it was just clouds and thunder, but soon after leaving the saddle, it was pouring rain -
I don't have a rain jacket yet, but I didn't mind being drenched too much because at least I was nice and cool.
Soon, however, scary lightning started up way too close and I was forced to huddle in a somewhat protected spot for awhile. The temp dropped to 60 degress with cold rain and I started to get chilly at this point, but I pulled out my trusty 6 year old Mountain Hardwear microfleece and it kept me warm and dry enough, as usual.
When the rain died down I started to dash for the top, but the lightning was not done yet. I adopted a strategy of crouching down and running up the exposed outer switchbacks as fast as I could, then crouching to rest for a moment at the more protected inner corners ... went on like that for 20 minutes or so.
By the time I reached the rim, the storm was pretty much done.
The hike out took me three and a half hours, but at least 30 minutes of that was spent in rain/lightning delays.
Other than right near the top, I only saw one other hiker - he was heading down as I was starting to climb back up from the mesa.
On my way home, I ran into a pretty big elk-related-traffic-jam (known hearafter as an elk-jam)at the Shoshone Point turnoff.
Great day - a little bit of everything! |
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