Saddle Mountain 6535 - Mazatzals Photoset • chumley • 2017-03-18 • HikeArizona.COM

Saddle Mountain 6535 - Mazatzals, AZ

	2017-03-18
	14 by chumley

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Saddle Mountain 6535 - Mazatzals

Phoenix, AZ

Saddle Mountain 6535 - Mazatzals

Phoenix, AZ

Hiking		Mar 18 2017
		chumley

Hiking	5.96 Miles	1,975 AEG

Hiking	5.96 Miles	4 Hrs 20 Mns	1.64 mph

	1,975 ft AEG	42 Mns Break

Linked

linked

Saddle Mountain #91

Saddle Mountain Trail to Squaw Flat

Partners

partners

BobP

Blanco has been sending me PMs making fun of how far ahead of me he is on stats this year so I decided I should grab some AEG with a quick trip up Mt. Ord in the morning before it got too warm out.

Out of the blue I asked Bob if he wanted to go, and I was a bit surprised to find him at the Wendys on the way there. Not 5 minutes into the drive he asked if I had ever done Saddle Mtn. Nope. It was everything I wasn't looking to do today. Not much mileage. Definitely not much aeg. And not the nice wide trail experience I was looking for.

Somehow I agreed anyway.

Let's just say that HAZ and Route Scout failed me. I tried to get a new track, and didn't spend any time actually looking at what I was downloading while driving 80-something on the beeline. A mile or two into the hike I realized that the hike called "Saddle Mountain from Mormon" didn't go anywhere close to summiting Saddle Mountain! ](*,)

Not that we couldn't have figured it out, but I like a little research on my off-trail adventures. I got a signal and managed to spy a view at JJ3 and Fliver's posted routes. That was somewhat helpful.

Takeaway. Wear pants. Much blood was drawn without them. : rambo :

I didn't have my zip bottoms with me since the Mt. Ord hike isn't really overgrown. Oh well.

The Saddle Mtn Trail #91 portion is nice. Too nice. A trail crew was out there with dustbusters making the trail smooth enough to play bocce. Seriously. Volunteer trail crews are awesome, but the folks in charge need to pick some rougher sections of trail to work on. I could have driven my truck in 2wd without pinstriping for at least 2 miles from Mormon Grove, and there were still awesome volunteers making improvements!

Picked a different route down and then traversed over to Potato Patch which is a pretty cool area. Definitely a less boring hike than Ord. But not really comparable either. Fun day though. Wasn't ever even on my radar!

Culture

Benchmark Reference Mark Trail Signs and Markings

Named place

Potato Patch Saddle Mountain 6,535

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