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| Hiking | 9.51 Miles |
1,531 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.51 Miles | 4 Hrs 54 Mns | | 2.49 mph |
| 1,531 ft AEG | 1 Hour 5 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Mike and I did an old standard in the Superstitions. We’ve done this loop many times over the years, and the loop never gets old.
This time we did it clockwise. We vary the direction each time we do the loop.
Most of my hikes are solo and almost always in ‘new territory’. I do alot of planning on those hikes, with alot of the planning spent on just how to get to the spot I’d like to call ‘the trailhead’.
This hike is like an old comfortable shoe. It feels good and has a relaxing aura about it. No planning - Just get to the trailhead and take off. A nice change of pace.
We started at 8:40 AM, with the trailhead parking lot having just a few cars. I assume they were all doing the Peralta Tr, as we saw no one on Bluff Spring Trail and only a few groups on the Dutchman. Temperatures were perfect and the only thing that interrupted the blue sky was an occasional contrail or two. Photos on this nice bright day were alot of fun to take.
Just for fun, I’ve included a photo of a “HAZ Pic Mimic” - Actually a Double Pic Mimic (or would that be a Pic Mimic inside a Pic mimic)?
Some water was still flowing in the various creeks and washes, but not enough to cause us to to get our boots wet. We did notice both trails had ‘new little rocks’ on them, probably caused by the recent rains eroding the desert and letting the rocks come to rest on the flat trails. We also noticed some horizontal saguaros that must have lost their footing, possibly due to erosion.
I showed Mike where I believe a pre-alignment of the Dutchman trail leaves the present alignment, and took up a course much closer to Miners Needle. Sometime in the 1960s the trail was modified to its present track, further east of Miners Needle. I discovered the existence of this previous alignment while researching the location of Circle Azimuth Mark a few years ago. I finally located the little disk in 2013. It was placed in a ‘level-with-the-ground’ boulder way back in 1946.
Future surveyors (1967) stated the azimuth disk was “in the center of the trail going up the west side of the draw and just east of miners needle”. Obviously that part of the Dutchman doesn’t exist anymore. The Dutchman now goes far east of the draw and has those switchbacks near Coffee Flat Mtn. The surveyors also mentioned the ‘new trail section’ far to the east, that we use now.
This trail change left the azimuth basically just ‘in the desert’ and obviously not in the the center of the trail.
Since Mike couldn’t care less about those little disks, I couldn’t convince him to go off trail and visit the azimuth.
Ha - I’m not surprised.
The trailhead was full when we got back, and the auxiliary lot was still getting cars.
It’s good to see people using the trails in the Superstitions. |
| _____________________
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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