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| Hiking | 13.62 Miles |
3,548 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.62 Miles | 8 Hrs 48 Mns | | 1.82 mph |
| 3,548 ft AEG | 1 Hour 19 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I took the GPS Joe alternate 247A to the alternate alternate (see Mazatzal's http://hikearizona.com/trip=85489) to 247, then up the Skull Mesa Trail (248). My first time up there and I liked the route.
I came armed with some GPS waypoints courtesy of Alladinsane and I was planning a speculative descent off the west side of the mesa toward some more POIs provided by Oregon Hiker.
Seems like there's a lot to see on the mesa. Without a lot of searching I ran across 3 separate extensive areas of bedrock metates. There was scattered pottery but not a lot, and it surprised me that I didn't see anything that resembled a ruin - but with all that grinding people must have lived on this south end of the mesa. I'm curious how they got water...I don't know what the best source would be from that location.
Getting off the west edge of the mesa was a little harder than anticipated. I had to traverse a ways before seeing a route that didn't disappear into a likely cliff. This took me farther north than I wanted so I combined the steep loose descent with a traverse back to the south toward my targets. I took it careful and slow.
I passed a fort, some nice petroglyphs, and a ruin on my way down (thanks Larry). Glad my plan worked out but I won't be doing this one again. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
