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| Peak 2546 - Florence Jct Quad, AZ | |
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| | Peak 2546 - Florence Jct Quad, AZ | | | |
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Peak 2546 - Florence Jct Quad, AZ
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| Hiking | 2.30 Miles |
948 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.30 Miles | 2 Hrs 37 Mns | | 0.88 mph |
| 948 ft AEG | | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | Fit-to-be-tied after too-long an injury-recovery layoff (the short Little Ord hike hardly counted) I didn't care how hot it was I needed some outdoor activity. So... not wanting to drive far what am I to do?
How about a few relatively easy (yeah, right!) peaks just off Peralta Road then follow it up with some mountain-biking? Sounds good to me!
With a somewhat late decision to do both it wasn't exactly early before I hit the road. Then I was delayed by not being able to find the road to my intended trailhead. I knew it began in a wash but the wash was such a mess with large boulders it didn't look like the correct one.
After driving back and forth a 1/4 mile each way I knew it HAD to be the one... so I proceeded to drive over a few boulders until a few hundred feet up the wash the road climbing up the side of the wash came into view. Although pretty rough it wasn't long and I was at the trailhead. So after all that it was almost 8 am before I hit the trail.
I figured, heck, even if it's already 92 how bad can a two-mile two easy peak hike be? I'll just take it slow and rest for 15-20 minutes at each summit. But with the humidity lingering nearly 60% in the .4 mile to reach the summit I wash drenched in sweat from head-to-toe. Hey, no big deal, just take a break and let the breeze do it's work.
That lasted for all of a few seconds at the summit... I was immediately swarmed by what appeared to be small flying ants. I guess they really liked the sweat on my clothes.
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
That meant no rest for the weary so I made a hasty descent. As I reached the bottom of the scramble I heard bees. When I looked up there was a small cave including a large honeycomb and a swarm of bees. Maybe they weren't quite as active when I had passed within a few feet of it on the ascent so I didn't notice it, but now there was plenty of activity. Instead of taking a close-up photo I stepped back a ways out of the line-of-fire so-to-speak to take a zoom photo of it.
Unfortunately, I was at home before realizing it was out of focus.
Ok, one peak down, it's time to take stock of how I feel. No pain from the prior injury, just some pain from using muscles I hadn't used in 2-3 weeks... mainly from going VERY slowly down the steep slope. Remembering the steeper and more treacherous slope of Peak 2753 it took me a while to decide whether to attempt it or just go back to the Jeep and begin my mountain-biking earlier than planned. I'll at least climb to the ridge and head toward the summit and decide at the saddle just south of the final ascent.
Once I got to the saddle and saw the amount of rockfall since I last climbed it a mere 1286 days ago I decided biking would be more fun and headed back to the Jeep. The descent turned out to be a bit of a route-finding chore to avoid a series of steep dry-falls. Just some extra backtracking up the slope.
Back at the Jeep I removed the sweat-drenched hiking clothes, exchanged them for clean & dry biking clothes and set off on the drive over to the mountain biking trails. |
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