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| Hiking | 13.00 Miles |
3,700 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.00 Miles | 5 Hrs | | 2.60 mph |
| 3,700 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Went on a long hike today on the Palisades trail..a pine to saguaro trail in the Catalinas. This is a long, difficult hike that descends on the way and thus climbs like mad on the way back.
The upper stretches of this trail are both wonderful and sad. This whole route follows a major corridor the fire ascended into the Catalina highcountry. There are areas in the pine forest that were spared and they are amazing. There are also areas that were heavily burned. It seems that this trail was probably an absolute jewel before the fire.
As the trail drops down to Mud Springs a nice, active riparian habitat is great to see. The trail gets pretty fuzzy through here though. If you wonder down the creek bed or just bushwhack on the left side of the canyon it will pick back up again. After this, though at times quite faint and obviously lightly traveled you will not lose it again.
The far reaches of this trail lead you into about the most remote and isolated place you can get in the Catalinas, and this is what ultimately won me over about this hike. You see Thimble and Cathedral like never before as you head on down to Pine Canyon, where another pleasant riparian oasis awaits.
Overall this hike is worth doing for it's own rather unique reasons, plus going from pine forest to saguaro desert is kind of neat. The totals I got were about 13 miles and 3625 feet of climbing...pretty worn out at the end. |
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