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| Hiking | 6.01 Miles |
2,467 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.01 Miles | 6 Hrs 5 Mns | | 1.41 mph |
| 2,467 ft AEG | 1 Hour 49 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Leslie, a friend from Joshua Tree, was in town, so we thought we'd show her some of Tucson's finest displays of peaks and flowers. We also invited our friend, Randi, who is new to hiking to give her a taste of bushwhacking, route finding, and scrambling.
We did an introduction to bushwhacking at the beginning of the hike by taking a non-standard approach to Safford. Randi did well so we continued on to the saddle and joined the normal route. When we got to the steep part we again gave Randi instructions on loose rocks, what to do if a rock starts to roll, watching for rock fall above, etc. She did great! When we got to the top of the ridge we noticed that there was a new route up to the top. Joel didn't want to miss the exposed section as part of his retraining, so we retraced our steps as we always have. Randi had a bit of problems crossing the narrow catwalk  but she finally convinced herself to go across - not bad for someone who had never encountered that kind of terrain before! 
We hung out on the peak and then started down. Instead of taking the ridgeline approach to Panther, we dropped down an extremely steep slope sprinkled with Brittlebush flowers and contoured over. By doing this, we went through some beautiful spots including a cholla filled saddle from which we dropped down into a pretty boulder strewn slope. Randi and Leslie had some fun with the cholla. It seemed like they were rotating having cholla stuck to them.  I got to use my comb 
We finally made it to the top of Panther and hung out for a bit. Then we completed our loop by walking through fields of poppies with blue skies full of puffy clouds. What a crummy day in the desert! |
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Wildflowers Observation Substantial
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