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| Hiking | 13.40 Miles |
2,920 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.40 Miles | 7 Hrs 40 Mns | | 1.90 mph |
| 2,920 ft AEG | 37 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I started at 6am from trailhead. Forecast in Phoenix was for 100. Temperature was pleasant the whole trip and even cool feeling at top, other than the final few miles when the heat and lower elevation made it a bit warm.
Gold ridge was as advertised, easy to follow and well maintained for the most part. Steep in many sections, with few switchbacks.
South Fork has three different sections from my experience.
Mile 0-2 from Hwy 87 trailhead: This is mostly open desert and fairly level. Some parts of trail are faint, but route finding and bush whacking is minimal.
Mile 2-4 from Hwy 87 trailhead: The trail gets more difficult as elevation increases and there are a number of up and down sections that rise above the stream and back down to it. Route finding is fairly straight forward still and trails not really over grown.
Mile 4-6 from Hwy 87 trailhead until the junction with forest road: This section sucks. Lots of up and down. There is no trail at all for about the first half mile from the forest road. It is very easy to miss where the “trail’ takes up one bank or another and then comes back down. Some sections are very steep and the trail is washed away, making for a few treacherous steps here and there. Surprisingly I didn’t have to do a lot of bush whacking, but route finding was very slow going. The trail varies between very faint and gone in this section. Still some decent shade though. I started with Gold Ridge and came back this way. Thankfully only the first 2 or so miles were this bad, or I would have gotten back much later than I had planned.
Thankfully, not many catclaw or other thorny plants.
Overall, i thought the views on Gold Ridge were awesome and the adventure through South Fork was pretty fun. Still a decent amount of vegetation and trees along South Fork. I’d recommend the hike, just make sure to plan extra time for South Fork. |
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