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| Hiking | 11.10 Miles |
2,830 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.10 Miles | 7 Hrs | | 1.59 mph |
| 2,830 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | My original plan for this hike was to do a lasso loop hike and include Heliograph Peak. by the time I got to the saddle/high point of the Arcadia Trail, however, it was apparent that time (i.e. my slow hiking), would not allow for this. but more on this later...
Things started out great....until we got to the half mile mark. Suddenly, Wally was walking back down the trail from around a bend. Denny asked, "what happened, did you run into some bears?" Wally's instinctive first answer was, "Yeah." Wait a minute, WHAT??!!! Then Wally immediately followed up with something about a washed out trail. And go ahead to the very end and check it out, even though it looks really dangerous. I let Denny do all the reconnaissance in the danger zone and was already figuring out alternate route plans. It's important to note that at this area, the trail was about 50' above the creek and directly to our right was a very vertical drop off. The track showed that the trail made a switchback to the right nearly exactly where it disappeared in real life. the solution to this seemed simple since the rest of the trail had to be right across the ravine.
We headed back down the trail until we found a spot where it transitioned from nearly vertical to extremely steep with loose footing. Fortunately we were able to find a route down to the creek bed that not only wasn't vertical, but also had some rather dangerous tree deadfall that we had to crawl under. Good times.
that took some extra time and added some extra mileage, which justifies my added mileage from the official mileage for this hike. After that, the trail was a steady stream of switchbacks up to where it headed up to a saddle. All of that was pretty rough, loose rock, overgrowth, etc. Nothing too steep, but the 8K' elevation made it really rough to hike. by the time we got to the saddle, which is also the junction for the trail to Heliograph Peak, it was obvious that this would just be the out and back as described in the 100 Classic Hikes in AZ book. The closer I got to the saddle, the worse I felt. Several time I had to really stop and catch my breath.
From the saddle down to Shannon CG, it was very easy. We expected it being bad getting back up on the way back, but it really wasn't that bad. Must have been the rest, food, water, less weight in our packs, not to mention the way better condition of the trail on the east side of the saddle.
Coming the other way on the way up to the saddle, we glimpsed up the trail to Heliograph Peak and not only was it very steep, but it also seemed overgrown. Between that and the extra mileage and AEG to the peak along the dirt road from Shannon CG on our first planned route, it became very obvious that our decision to forego all of that was the right one.
Just before the Shannon CG we saw a backpacker hiking the other direction. He's hiking the GET and had to reroute due to bad conditions at Ash Creek. I warned him of the trail washout just before the Arcadia CG and tried to give him decent directions to reroute around that. It seems as though my eloquence ended at "go into the creek bed". On our way back, Wally and Denny ran into him at the bottom of the creek bed and also at the bottom of an extremely steep slope wondering how he could get back to the trail. He got stuck, decided to have lunch and waited for us to get back to show him how to get there without dying. 
When I showed up, they were all along the trail waiting for me, right at the top of a very steep part. I had looked at the map and had a feeling of how veering to my left would be an easier slope and hit the trail with less effort. After that we were all on our way. |
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