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| Hiking | 8.00 Miles |
1,292 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.00 Miles | | | |
| 1,292 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Arizona Trail Passage 17 Alamo Canyon - November 26, 2016
The Housholder Family Hikers had an awesome time Four Wheeling and hiking this segment of Alamo Canyon during Thanksgiving Weekend of 2016. To start with we were warned by Arizona Trail steward Wendy that Forest Backroad 4 was one tough one! We bumped our way out in our 4X4 Sequoia to see how far we could slowly get, and we found a nice place by a ridge at a camping spot, just past raised cattle guard a mile or two in.
As we were getting our gear together we could hear some Jeepers coming. I said to the kids quick some Jeepers might be able to hitch us out to Telegraph Canyon, hurry hurry! Sure enough there was barley enough space to add a family of five, but they managed to squish us in! Our Happy Thanksgiving wishes and a big hats off to Bill and Becky Dunn owners of the General Kearney Inn. They not only knew exactly where we were going they also were very familiar with the Arizona Trail, because of their Gateway Program with the partner towns like Kearney. Bill and Becky are ranchers out in the Telegraph Canyon area south of Picketpost Mountain so they were on a business trip to check some water tanks for their cows! Thankfully they picked us up because our rather large Sequoia would have been really pin striped with desert Palo Verde varnish as "the Four" narrows upon entering Telegraph Wash. with barely enough space for smaller Jeeps to get through! Bill knew the road well and negotiated the hard boulder laden spots with expert precision! In no time at all we had arrived where the AZT crosses Telegraph Canyon backroad, as we shook hands and were off running!
It was already getting close to 13:00 so we needed to bust out the 8 or so miles before it got dark needless to say dad was a little worried we would be hiking in the dark! All in all we made great time. The trail rises out of Telegraph Canyon high above the backroad along ridge lines to the west. Just as Bianka was getting tired in the first couple miles, the trail topped out and started luckily downtown all the way towards Picketpost Mountain. Before long we got close to the Alamo Canyon Turnoff when I realized I left my iPad with GPS maps a mile behind up a ridge after taking some pictures with it and setting it down while eating a late lunch! Bryce really saved the day by running back cross country Roadrunner fast and retrieving it! Both Bryce and myself increased our pace almost double time in order to catch up to Karolien, Ben and Bianka. By the time we were west of Picketpost Mountain coming up out of Alamo Canyon, we had caught up to them! They said they were walking slower so we would catch up. The sun had already set by the time we had crossed over the Picketpost Summit Trail and we did have barely enough moonlight to make it back to the Picketpost Trailhead before it got really dark.
Hats off once more to the Dunn Family for getting us quickly out to the trail junction in good enough time for us to make it back to Picketpost safely! We hope you enjoyed your dinner in Florence and we look forward to visiting once again! Now that is the definition of Happy Trails!
The next day, Bill and Becky Dunn told us about a beautiful canyon off on a side backroad from where our Sequoia was parked. Bianka and I hiked in to get the vehicle and took time to drive out to an incredible viewpoint! Here is what I said about it in a post the following day!
With a 4X4 there are some majestic sights on the eastern slope of Picketpost Mountain. This is Telegraph Canyon as it merges into Arnett Creak just off Forest Route 4. The end of this spur route has a cliff side camping spot and an incredible view some 500 feet lower...down far below! Thanks too for the awesome tip Bill and Becky!
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Our next time here we will need to finish linking the section starting on the south side of the Telegraph Canyon backroad all the way towards Cochran Corner, where we have already hiked from before! Roughly 12 to 13 miles, which for us might include a very long day or better yet a fun overnight camp! |
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