Kachina Trail #150 Photoset • OdinWiski • 2015-02-07 • HikeArizona.COM

Kachina Trail #150, AZ

	2015-02-07
	12 by OdinWiski

Kachina Trail #150

Flagstaff, AZ

Kachina Trail #150

Flagstaff, AZ

Hiking	9.00 Miles	700 AEG

Hiking	9.00 Miles	6 Hrs	1.50 mph
	700 ft AEG

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I drove up to Flag to get the wilderness permit in order to do the Humphreys summit on an upcoming Saturday and thought I would hike the Kachina Trail while I was up there. A trip report posted a week earlier showed a TON of snow and I thought at only 9,200 feet it would be just like their pictures had shown - a lot of accumulation and not hard pack and ice. So I only brought snowshoes and dismissed the idea of bringing crampons also. Turned out I was wrong. I guess the warm weather had melted a lot of snow. Only traction was needed at certain sections, but not flotation. The snowshoes did just fine in a pinch in giving good traction, but were unnecessarily cumbersome when flotation was not needed, even when I took the expandable tails off. Crampons would have been a lot more efficient. Should have brought them. The trail was pretty as always even when the gorgeous aspen leaves were gone and the weather was super nice. As other trip reports have suggested, the trails were used by very few at this time of the year. As expected, huge crowds were at the snow bowl, but fortunately they stuck to the snow bowl

I ran into only one backpacker in crampons. A mother and her daughter turned back 50 yards past the TH because of the icy conditions when they did not have any traction devices.

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