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| Hiking | 12.90 Miles |
2,376 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.90 Miles | 7 Hrs 55 Mns | | 2.44 mph |
| 2,376 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 38 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | It’s been ten or fifteen years since I’ve been atop Black Top Mesa, and on that hike I started from Peralta TH. Well, this time I started from First Water TH, used the Dutchman Tr out and Black Mesa Tr/Second Water Tr back.
It was a fun hike and finding all the ‘glyphs’ again was an easy task. I don’t know much about ‘glyphs’, except I categorize them into hieroglyphs, petroglyphs and ‘graffiti-glyphs’. Sadly, most of the ones on Black Top Mesa fall under the ‘graffiti-glyph’ category.
I find it interesting that half way up the Black Top Mesa Trail, the trail surface abruptly transitions from normal desert rock and rock granules to black dirt. Without all those pesky (and huge) black rock plates and black boulders, this mesa would be called ‘Dirt Mesa’. That dirt makes it possible to have those lush ‘waving-in-the-breeze’ grass fields up there. The dirt also promotes enough prickly pear growth to make parts of the mesa look like a prickly pear nursery. All good stuff.
I spent most of my time atop the mesa just wandering around from end to end. I found at least three or four good flat areas, with no boulders, that would make good campsites.
Once done wandering, I descended the mesa and hiked out.
This was a bit of a nature hike also, as I saw a few flowers, swarms of bees, my second gila monster in a week, many other lizards, a couple non venomous snakes and two rattlesnakes. Oh, and I saw at least 200 caterpillars, most of them atop the mesa, in the tall grass. I cautiously ‘watched my step’ and didn’t harm even one caterpillar.  |
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Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
