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| Hiking | 5.41 Miles |
788 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.41 Miles | 3 Hrs 56 Mns | | 2.02 mph |
| 788 ft AEG | 1 Hour 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Not the smartest way to spend even a small part of an afternoon, getting up on the Ridgeline Tr with a crisp north wind coming at you. But I was dressed for the cool weather, 55 high in Phoenix. And later, hiking one of my favorite South Mountain Park trails, the Javelina, made up for it.
I planned to hike trekkin gecko's official route but didn't and started from another place. The parking lot nearest the Pima Canyon TH was full (always a bad sign), so I parked back a ways and took off on what appeared to be the the lightly-traveled "West Loop" trail. Passed no one until I got in the wind of the Ridgeline where I ran into two other fools. It was nice finally to get down into warmer climes and into Javelina Canyon out of the breeze. I hadn't done the Javelina in three years, but it all came back to me quickly. The water tanks on the E side of Javelina, the occasional side canyons, the stone bridges and the sign posts. Don't think I've ever been on a trail so posted as this one.
I was in such a good mood that I welcomed the Javelina's diverse traffic: 5 other hikers, several bikers, a jogger, a few dogs and coming up on the saddle, a couple on horseback. At one point, coming out of a ravine up a 5-foot high rock out-cropping, I switched my camera from a shoulder to around my neck so as to protect if I stumbled. Behind me were two men on bikes moving fast. I stopped to see how they would attack the rock "wall," figuring they would get off their bikes and carry them up. But, no, both shot up the rock with ease and as they zoomed away, I spoke to both of them, "Very nice."
This was the most ambitious hike I've done since spraining an ankle in mid-December. It's still slightly swollen and a little stiff, so coming down the steep Ridgeline hills on loose rock caused me concern. Not being able to always place the injured foot where I wanted led to inching down with my trekking pole gripped firmly. That accounts for the slow moving time. Otherwise I breezed through it, no pun intended, even though I did not enjoy the segment coming back to the TH via a small bit on the Mormon Loop, past the stone house and the flat National Tr. It would've perhaps been halfway interesting if I'd seen the owl that was hooting on the east, just below another ridgeline trail, the Marcos de Niza. Pulled out my glasses but no dice, no owl. Still, considering the coolness and even poking along the Ridgeline, it was my best hike of the year.
P.S. My GPS had a distance of 5.67 miles. |
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Route Editor
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