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| Backpack | 24.00 Miles |
200 AEG |
| | Backpack | 24.00 Miles | 3 Days | | |
| 200 ft AEG | | 42 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Johnnie, Joel, Randy, Drew and I had been planning this hike for 3 months. We obtained our permits in early August. We were trying to hit the fall colors...by researching past Aravaipa hikes and photologs we selected this weekend.
Camped @ the Aravaipa East End Kiosk Friday night. Randy cooked up a fine pepper steak dinner with some awesome Carrot Cake dessert!
Hit the trailhead @ Turkey Creek @ 8:00a the next morning. I wore my keens with no socks, and decided to grin and bear it, only stopping when the rocks became to obtrusive/painful. water was chilly on the feet but refreshing, probably in the mid 40s. I didn't stop nearly as many times as the 2 previous hikes, must be getting used to hiking in the creek!
Arrived @ Parsons Canyon around 9:30a. Decided to doff our packs change shoes and head up Parsons for a couple hours, a snake, several frogs and insects, other than that minimal wildlife. Weather perrrrfect! low 70s! Very dry! Pool we had to jump across/into last year was bone dry this year! we went about a mile up canyon to the major fork, tried out the 7mm wide angle a bit...headed back down to the junction of Deer Canyon and Aravaipa where we set up our base camp on the eastern rise just above Aravaipa Creek...awesome camp site.
Of course Johnnie wanted to try some more night photography, so I indulged him...we headed about a mile up Deer Canyon @ 8:00p, moonrise was 9:30p and we wanted some "starry skies" sans luna. Deer canyon is just as impressive at night!
45F that night...perfect tent sleeping weather!
Today we headed back up Deer Canyon. Lots of deer tracks, a few cat tracks...we went up Deer Canyon about 3 3/4 miles, we thought we were near the end, but when we hit the boulder field we decided to turn back as this was only supposed to be a 2 hour hike and we were 4 hours into it with no lunch  turns out we were still 1.3 miles from the end. We're going back in the spring! The Deer Canyon holds magnificent sites around every bend! Springs still pretty healthy! a bit of water in the canyon.
After a quick nap we headed west down Aravaipa Canyon, looking to get an hour or so of hiking in Paisano Canyon; however, we miscalculated the sunset and ran out of daylight without adequate illumination, so we turned back.
More night photography and campfire stories that night! What with 15 lbs of photography equipment, Johnnie and I discussed how to save a few ounces here and there...next year we're going all titanium!
Headed back out of the canyon the next day around 10:00a, we just wanted to prolong the departure as long as possible, arrived back @ Turkey Creek and the truck around 11:15a, 3 white tail greeted us! The largest mammal fauna we had seen all trip.
What a great time away from the hustle and bustle! |
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