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| Backpack | 27.60 Miles |
4,702 AEG |
| | Backpack | 27.60 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 4,702 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Dropped the first car off at the Freeman Road Trailhead Thursday night and headed to Oro Valley to stay with my sister (who was kind enough to meet me to do the car drop). Then my hiking partner (Jamie) and I got started at sunrise at the start of the passage. The trail was in good shape the entire way, and mostly very well marked (thank you to the stewards and volunteers!). I was not thrilled that we have been having this early heat wave, and the afternoons did get pretty warm under that intense sun (I am NOT a fan of hot weather hikes) - I think it was "only" in the low 80's, but that always zaps my energy by the end of the day.
We did get to Camp Grant wash later in the afternoon, and even though we probably had another hour we could have hiked, we decided that was a good spot for camping. There were some off road vehicles racing around down in the wash as we were coming down the hill into it, so we hung back a little until they left the area, and then continued down and found a somewhat secluded place to set up tents and have a leisurely dinner. It was warm enough to sleep with out the fly on the tent, and the stars were lovely to look at!
Next morning (at 5:25 am - still dark) the most beautiful sounding song bird woke us up. I never did see it, but it was such a sweet song. That's my kind of alarm clock 
Day two was more of the same but with more roads at the end - it seemed weird that this remote passage had a fair amount of off road activity in that wash on a Friday, but we saw no one out on those roads on Saturday (glad for that). We did stop at Beehive well and there is water there (and there was water at the dirt pond about 7 miles from the beginning of the passage) - we did not go explore any other water sources since we had planned to carry enough. And for those that need to know, there IS public water still cached at both Tiger Mine road and Freeman Road trailheads. Hoping this helps the thru hikers coming soon. Wildflowers were not showing off much, but they are starting to come out in spots.
Finished up shortly after lunchtime and headed back to Oracle to get Jamie's car and grab a late lunch at the Oracle Patio Cafe (they were kind enough to get us lunch even though the kitchen was about to close for the day - so thank you to them - it is a cute place and lunch was very good). |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Globemallow, some poppies, lupine. |
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