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| Hiking | 4.27 Miles |
385 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.27 Miles | 3 Hrs 3 Mns | | 2.31 mph |
| 385 ft AEG | 1 Hour 12 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | A walk-about E of the Bobcat. The original idea was to hike out to Circle Tank or even farther to Dove Valley Rd. It was to be sort of a recon into this lightly-traveled area with a more ambitious hike in mind. That plan soon went awry when I missed a faint trail leading down into a rocky ravine. Reaching Circle Tank was never a goal etched in stone, so, with a narrow time window, I settled for a ramble in one of the most isolated spots in the Preserve. In three hours, I saw no one, not even the print of a shoe sole. Once or twice I ran into a single bike track, perhaps as old as the last rain in January.
It is not like this area is going to be serene for long. It lays just S of new construction for an extension of Sonoran Desert Dr. I believe this will connect to Dove Valley Rd. on the east. Although the new road has been scraped clean for at least a few miles, the hub of activity is for the moment around the Bobcat TH. So silence was the word of the day and utter bliss the result. Just a light breeze and me and a strong sun held mostly in check by gathering clouds.
The discovery of this warm afternoon proved to be the largest patch of Christmas Cholla I recall having ever seen. Plenty of red berries, which, I read, are edible like all cholla buds. Tweezers. Another thing to add to my pack for picking fruit amid the thorns. I also ran into what at first seemed the front end of a plane's fuselage. But, alas, it was only a large cement mixer tipped on its side, ruined by someone failing to clean it out. It would take dynamite to blow out the hardened cement and must weigh a few tons.
My GPS told me I came as close as a 1/2 mi from Circle Tank, but time was too short. No matter. I now know how to access the right trails to get where I want to get later in the spring. |
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