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| Hiking | 4.80 Miles |
1,444 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.80 Miles | 3 Hrs 3 Mns | | 1.57 mph |
| 1,444 ft AEG | | 12 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | I hadn't been in Martinez Canyon since the day before the BLM closed the access road in November 2012, but with most of the ATV-owning winter-visitors gone and a bit of cool weather we decided it was a worthy destination.
The drive? One word... NASTY!
If I still had the Cherokee the drive would not have presented an issue at all, but with the 4Runner having much less clearance and no front locker it presented many issues... one even had Tracey saying enough and bailing out for a few hundred yards.
I'll admit I was in almost the same panic mode, backing down the hill was not an option!
What made it even worse, even though the Vehicle Stability Control is supposedly disabled (dash light even shows it disabled) when nearing the top of a steep hill and the front wheels got light, the VSC decided began applying brakes seemingly incoherently to different wheels, which slowed the 4Runner down so much I wasn't sure I'd top the hill.
So it was pretty much full throttle in low-range to make it. Only after I was down the other side was Tracey willing to be co-pilot again.
The hike: My main interest was to see how the road had fared in 5+ 5 years with no vehicle traffic,just natural erosion. We can attest it is in as bad a shape as one could expect... even hiking the old loop route above the mines was nasty, especially since falling is absolutely not an option for me.
Even without any near-misses my back was giving warning signs before the halfway point so we did no exploring up top and didn't set foot in either of the mines I had explored in-depth back in early-2012.
Of course even if did go in, Tracey wouldn't have any part of that.
So, we just continued along the long-unused road past the Silver Bell, Columbia & Martinez mines and a very short stop at the mill.
Not much has changed at the mill, probably the number of visitors has dropped significantly due to the longer hike in.
As dry as it's been in general this year, we were a bit surprised by how much green we found.
Once our mission was accomplished, we agreed it was unlikely we'll be out here again... unless we win the lottery and can afford to buy an ATV or another more modified vehicle.
Fat chance of that happening!
Because of the astronomical odds you say? Nope! Cuz ya gotta play before you can win. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
