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| Hiking | 15.00 Miles |
3,200 AEG |
| | Hiking | 15.00 Miles | 8 Hrs 15 Mns | | 1.82 mph |
| 3,200 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | I've been wanting to finish the big middle section of the Highline Trail between Washington Park and the Hatchery TH for a few years now. This seems to be the hardest section to arrange because there are no easy loop options, leaving either two 15-16 mile "out and back" trips or a shuttle hike, which makes for a long day in terms of driving. Wally agreed to provide the second car for a shuttle option, but the idea of getting home late on a Sunday before going to work didn't appeal to me much. We originally planned this in February, but that didn't work out. My wife told me she wouldn't be teaching this last Saturday, so suddenly that looked like a nicer option.
It seemed like a waste to have 2 vehicles make the trip for just 2 of us, so I asked my friends Robert and Rafael if they were interested. Robert recently ran in his first marathon and is training every day for his next one, as well as some more challenging ultra-marathon types of races. But he hasn't really done any hikes. So, while conditioning wasn't going to be an issue, I had some concerns with the inexperience factor that was bound to come up at some point. Rafael likes to hike, but he's never really done a hike much over 6 miles. The biggest hike I've done with him to date was last year when we took our wives and kids on the Peralta-Cave Trail loop, which turned to be a bit much for the kids. So, 15 miles along the Highline with 2 rookies, what could go wrong?
Early on in the planning, Rafael asked me what he would need to take. I sent him an email outlining the basics: water, enough food for a full day, and get to bed early the night before. I also forwarded this email to Robert. Both were very excited about the trip.
During the ride up the Beeline Hwy, I asked Robert how much sleep he got the night before. Not very much as it turned out. The 9pm bedtime I recommended ended up more like 11pm since they were visiting friends for dinner Friday night. Then, he got a 1:30am call from India as part of his on-call duties for his job. So already there was a bit of a fatigue factor at work.
As we dropped off my car at the Hatchery TH, we were in the initial start phase of making sure you have all you'll need. I asked Robert how much water he had. "Two, two and a half liters. That should be good, right?" Robert is a smaller guy than me, but that seemed a bit light. He does 15 miles runs when he trains, so his approach to this was pretty much as if he was going on a training run. I insisted he take an extra quart of Powerade that I had in my cooler. His Camelbak was pretty small. I asked him if he had packed a full lunch as I had recommended and he said he would be good with his energy bars.
We started from the Washington Park TH just after 8am, which was better time that I expected we would start. Right at the start there was a pretty big stream crossing. My waterproof boots handled it, but neither Robert nor Rafael had waterproof boots. Wally and I directed them to a crossing point, which was very good because Rafael was about to attempt to step on a floating log to get across, which would have potentially caused some problems for him to hike completely drenched.
As the hike progressed, we very quickly separated into two groups: Wally and Robert leading the pack (as usual), and me and Rafael lagging back. After about an hour, we caught up with them at the next stream. Robert's 2 liter Camelbak bladder had leaked all the water out and he didn't realize it until a mile or so in. Fortunately, Wally had his trusty iodine pills so Robert was able to get water from the streams when he needed it. Glad I didn't wait another month or so before we did this hike.
At about noon we took our lunch just less than halfway on the trail. Robert's energy bars weren't quite keeping up with the calories he was expending, so he was already getting a little tired and hungry. Rafael had packed an extra sandwich and offered it to him. Since this was a Saturday, I departed from my usual Taco Bell lunch in favor of a healthier Subway alternative.
The last few miles, even the whole 2nd half of the hike, seemed to go much faster. The day started cloudy but cleared up, giving some really nice views of the Rim lit up by the sun. The temp quickly warmed up enough to shed our sweatshirts but never got too hot. The breezes were very conveniently cooling us off once it got a little warm. Most descriptions I've read of this section list this as a 16 mile section, but in reality it's more like 15. Wally and Robert hiked closer to 16 since Wally had a tendency to wander off trail a bit more. At one point Rafael and I had even passed them as they wandered up towards the Rim. This section is very faint in a lot of spots, making it a challenge at times to stay on trail, but it's not too bad.
I did find and note the location of the junction with the Myrtle Trail, so it is still there, at least a few yards from the Highline. Wally had actually mistakenly taken it thinking it was the Highline, so it seems he went farther up it than I did. That could be a decent loop hike from the Hatchery TH one day.
Robert and Wally finished the hike a good hour before Rafael and I. Robert kept up with Wally almost the entire time until the last two miles (I'm told). At that point, the light packing of food and water and lack of sleep caught up with him and he hit the wall. Once he got back to the TH, he took a nap in the sun, only to be awakened by the shadow that soon crept over and dropped the temp. He still had half a bottle of iodine water from the stream. I gave him an extra Powerade, which helped to re-hydrate him and provide extra nutrients and electrolytes.
After picking up Wally's Jeep, we stopped in Payson at Cousin's Subs to get a quick dinner. No one was really familiar with it. Robert had mentioned the intent of getting a salad to keep with eating healthier and not loading up on bread carbs, for his marathon training. Once we got our food, suddenly he had the Big Daddy sandwich, which had double meat helpings of salami, pepperoni and cappacola, mayo, provolone, etc. I guess the long day of a light calorie intake on the trail finally took its toll.
We got back to my house after 8pm, over 12 hours after we started hiking. Thankfully, even with the learning curve in effect, no major catastrophes occurred. Both Robert and Rafael enjoyed the hike and are ready for the next one.
The next morning I was up bright and early jogging along the canals by my house, finishing up 7.5 miles just after 10am. |
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