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| Hiking | 11.49 Miles |
1,337 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.49 Miles | 9 Hrs 16 Mns | | 2.02 mph |
| 1,337 ft AEG | 3 Hrs 34 Mns Break | 25 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | This is one of those rare times when the planets, moon and stars aligned and everything feel into place perfectly.
I thought I had this place on my radar for awhile but my one year is nothing compared to Joel's six years of waiting to see this incredible beauty in its prime!
We were so focused on the more water the better that we almost didn't realize that our wish created a major obstacle to the start of our hike.
We had to cross the 30ft wide flooded waist deep Black Canyon Creek that was flowing with impressive force.
Joel and I stripped down to our chonies (Spanish slang for underwear for all your gringos out there) and crossed the creek while a group of 4x4 enthusiasts and their dogs watched in disbelief. 
Without the assistance of Joel's trekking poles (which he almost impaled me with twice while throwing them towards me) I would have easily been knocked over by the force of the flooded creek.
Needless to say it was a fun and exciting way to start our epic NYE hike!
A couple miles in it begin to sprinkle on us which at times started to pick up a bit but fortunately never dumped actual rain on us.
We had multiple creek crossings which were all rather wide and I was trying my absolute hardest to keep my feet dry since I was sporting a literally brand new pair of Merrell Moabs but after wasting so much time and energy I decided to just say screw it and went ahead and dunked them in to make travel more efficient.
Upon catching the first glimpse of the mighty falls I was downright amazed and almost had to do a double take and scratch the crust out of my eyes to make sure what I was seeing was real!
Once inside the creek bed you could feel the roar, rumble and power of the raging water. 
It was a necessity to get your feet wet to maneuver upstream and with a handful of 10-20 foot falls there were plenty of up and down climbing on wet slickrock.
Once at our desired vantage point is when it for some reason decided to consistently sprinkle for a solid 30 minutes, me not having a proper rain jacket and Joel having his handy dandy tent rain-fly made for the creation of a quick but effective hobo shelter, so we took refuge underneath and drank beer until it was safe to bust our cameras out.
Its great to have a friend that's on the same wave length as myself because as usual I lost all track of time and reality and found myself lost in the moment snapping photos well past sunset.
We of course had a long dark trek back with its fair share of obstacles not to mention the final and perhaps most challenging which of course was to cross the flooded BC Creek under the darkness of the night which ended up being so much fun!
All in all this was perhaps the best way to cap off an incredible year of back-country exploring throughout some of Arizona's most beautiful areas, it may sound super cheesy but HAZ certainly has changed my life in more ways imaginable and this past year of 2016 was one of the best!
Happy belated New Years Everyone!  |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
