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| Hiking | 22.00 Miles |
5,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 22.00 Miles | 11 Hrs 11 Mns | | 1.97 mph |
| 5,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | After our Humphreys-Weatherford-Kachina Loop hike was foiled last month by a fundraiser walk that blocked off Snow Bowl Road, we decided to take another run at it this weekend. Perfect day for a hike in the Peaks--sunny skies, moderate temps and only a mild breeze on top of Humphreys.
We hit the summit trail at 8:00 a.m. and shared the trail with a rather large number of boy scout troops, as well as a couple dozen native americans making a pilgrimage of some sort. The latter, accompanied by a sheriff's deputy, cleared everyone off the summit for 20 min. or so to have a ceremony on top.
Even without the pilgrimage, we didn't have much time to rest on top as we still had a lot of miles to go, so we headed back to the saddle and right on up the Weatherford Trail. The views of the inner basin were spectacular, as usual, and we could see a few clusters of aspens starting to turn color.
Doyle saddle marked the halfway point in the hike and we realized we needed to put the pedal down if we wanted to finish before dark.
We successfully made the turn off from the Weatherford onto the Kachina trail but missed the junction where the Kachina Trail proper forks off from the Friedlein Prairie Rd. and ended up following the road down to the F.P. Rd. trailhead before we realized our error. This unplanned .8 mi. side trip put a a bit of damper on our spirits  and, as our pace slowed, we prepared to finish out the hike in the dark.  I concur with the others who have posted on this route that those last couple of miles seem like f-o-r-e-v-e-r. We were grateful to have packed the headlamps!
The only (human) soul we encountered on the Kachina was a hunter (archery) in full camoflauge. Not sure what he was hunting . . . Other than that, we heard some elk bugling and were surrounded by chipmunks/squirrels who seemed to be collecting their winter storage from the tops of the trees and raining down various bits of debris from above.
We hiked the last mile by headlamp, reaching the Kachina trailhead at 7:20 p.m. There was just a hint of light along the horizon at our car. Check out the "before" (8:00 am) and "after" (7:20 pm) photos of Hart Prairie with Kendrick in the distance.
An exhausting  , but beautiful  hike.
I posted the route here (http://hikearizona.com/map.php?QX=2112), but the GPS batteries died with about 2.5 mi. to go . . . .
I think that next time I tackle this loop, I'll take it in the opposite direction. I think the decision about whether to make the "side trip" to Humphreys summit or not is better made at mile 15, rather than mile 4  |
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