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| Hiking | 9.50 Miles |
2,820 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.50 Miles | 9 Hrs | | 1.06 mph |
| 2,820 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Earlier this week I received a permit for Phantom Ranch and though 'hey, why not try out the Ridgeline Trail as a training hike!' We left a car in the Lost Dutchman State Park and shuttled over to Carney. The clouds were very low on the mountains. We were in the soup from West Boulder Saddle until an hour east of Flatiron. At one point on an acsent the trail loops up and around a peak (LaBarge?) and its hoodoos and I was so disoriented that we backtracked a little to find the a good cairn pile and to make sure we didn't miss a junction. It was so socked in that I though we were headed south but we were actually headed NW! I don't have a GPS but had map (of no use for bearings in the clouds) and compass and knew that the trail bears mostly NW. We followed the cairns the whole way, and with the 50yds of visibility we usually could only see to the next one. Many times we could not see the next cairns, but knowing that as long as we stayed on the ridges and kept bearing NW we would be OK. As we rounded Superstiion peak, we noted that the foliage had ice blown into the limbs of the pines and century plant stalks. There were a few snow 'flurries' up there, but nothing sticking. We got our first view of Weavers Needle about 6 hours into the hike. The clouds began to lift slightly about a mile east of Flatiron. Descending Siphon Draw at the end of this hike was BRUTAL. Next time we will do it from Lost Dutchman to Carney since the Carney descent is much easier by comparison. We were rewarded with an awesome sunset thru the clouds as we exited Siphon Draw.
GREAT HIKE! |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
