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| Hiking | 22.50 Miles |
5,800 AEG |
| | Hiking | 22.50 Miles | 10 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.14 mph |
| 5,800 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Had Friday off. So I took advantage and drove up to Flagstaff to hit Kendrick Mountain. This had been on my radar for a couple months, but the fire had put me off until today. Started from the Kendrick TH around 6:30. Made decent time going up. Temps were cool and the trail, even though it was up up up up, was in good condition. I was disappointed and surprised to see the condition of the trees near the TH. Quite a few looked brown and withered. I'm not sure if that is the result of the recent fire or the nefarious bark beetle. This made for a slick trail because of all needles on the ground. The cabin was still standing and looked to be in good shape. It had a tin foil roof, I suppose to help with fire protection. They had the cabin locked up so I couldn't get inside. Reached the summit shortly after. It was awesome!! Unexpectedly, clouds had been rolling in during the morning and this made for a great experience. Actually had clouds drifting below me. Enjoyed the view for a bit, but I didn't spend too much time as I planned on doing the loop and I had a lot more mile that I wanted to cover.
Started down the Pumpkin Trail and within the first 100ft there was a "downed" tree and I thought "uh oh is this what I should expect for this trail". As it turned out, the answer was no. There was only one other spot where the trail was blocked and I had to do a slight reroute to connect to the trail. The trail though faint in spots was evident for almost the entire length. I did have to pull out my Garmin on 4 occasions to help find the trail. The first time I was led astray by (what I think was) a blue grouse as I tried to get a good photo of it. The other 3 times the trail just became too faint for a few yards. Once I picked it up again it became pretty clear again. For me the worst spot was a little over a mile from the Pumpkin TH. The trail had become more of an eroded drainage channel and the weeds and flowers did a good job of obscuring it as it turned to the north and headed down to the Pumpkin TH.
From the peak the first 1.5 miles of the Pumpkin was a mixture of burned and living trees. From 1.5 to 3.5 miles I was hiking in a barren landscape. There was very little vegetation that rose to my knees with the occasional burnt trunk that stood as testament to what once was. This allowed for some decent distance views, but anything in close proximity was a wasteland. The lone exception was a grove of very sad looking aspens. Some showed signs of fire damage, but many looked to be over exposed to heat (most likely from the fire). Whether these guys can recover, only time will tell. At about 3.5 miles (from the peak) I reached the valley of the flowers. This was suppose to be where the Bull Basin Trail connector was, but there was no sign of it. I was fortunate it enough that on my return for the Pumpkin TH I ran into ToddNK, a veteran hiker of these trails. He was actually doing the same hike, in reverse, and had just done the connector trail. He said we were actually standing where the juncture use to be....but there was no sign of it.
Toddler got me going the right way for the connector trail, which was a good thing because I had not downloaded the track for the connector trail and may have headed straight across the valley otherwise. The track was faint but followable until I reached the next valley. At the saddle that separated the valleys, there were 2 giant cairns that became the trade mark for the next part of the hike. For a good .5 miles there was no evident trail, but there were giant cairns (3-4ft high) that dotted the landscape. It was a simple matter of playing "connect the cairns."
When I reached Bull Basin I turned east to check out the Bull Basin TH. (I hadn't planned on doing Bull Basin TH, but when I heard that Toddak was doing both, I felt compelled to do so as well...got to keep up with the Jones's). This was actually a pretty nice side trip. It was nicely forested, so it had quite a bit of shade and there was minimal elevation change. It was about .94 miles one way. This contrasts with the Pumpkin side trip that was about 1.25 miles one way, had a decent amount of elevation change (probably close to 300ft) and was exposed, except for the first .5 miles from the TH.
From the connector trail the Bull Basin begins to climb steadily. Objectively, I don't think it was that bad, but 16 miles in, it felt bad. Then, throw in the obstacle course, that is now synonymous (or should be) with Bull Basin, it was a long climb. I easily hiked over (or under) a hundred downed trees. I lost count in the 50's. The trail was easy enough to "see", but the downs trees made it a challenge to "follow." I had to pull out my Garmin twice. Once when I reached the bare ridgeline. The trail turned north and continued up the ridgeline. There are some cairns to mark the way, if you know where to look. The other time was near the cabin, when I reached a "glade" of downed trees. It looked like a meteorite crashed here. By far the worst devastation in appearance. Downed, charred blackened trees everywhere. Like haphazardly, discarded burnt matchsticks. I was very happy when I reached the cabin, because I knew it was all downhill from there. Ironically, with about .75 miles to go, I ran into Toddak again and we finished the final stretch together.
The wildlife was fantastic and really added another dimension to the hike. Besides the blue grouse, I saw squirrels, chipmunks and the highlight of the hike were the elk. I didn't get many clear views of them, but the elks were bugling loudly and proudly. This was my first time hearing elk bugle and it was not what I expected. How those bull elks gets mates off that bugling I have no idea. All I can say is that I'm glad I had not recently watched the Blair Witch Project and that it was light out when I started hearing their call. Spooooky! I heard their trumpeting for a good hour as I went down the Pumpkin Trail. Very nice hike, though I can only imagine what it was like before the fire. |
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