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| Hiking | 29.08 Miles |
3,484 AEG |
| | Hiking | 29.08 Miles | 14 Hrs | | 2.08 mph |
| 3,484 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This had been on my radar since April of last year. Back then, I got about 5 miles in and got distracted by trail maintainence and didn't even reach Rock Tank. My plan was to do an and out and having a good idea of what to expect I came prepared: I wore beat up shoes and socks, tattered shorts and shirt, jacket, backpack with headlamp, water, clippers....and a saw! Got started around 5:30 and had to use the light for the first hour. I took the south option of the Pine Cabin Loop and continued on the Ballantine at the junction. With the lighting, the trail was very easy to follow and I was happy with the time I made. I hit Boulder Flat around 7:30 and the first corral around 8:30. I went off trail at the corral because some one had set up camp just off the the trail (with horses) and I didn't want to disturb the still sleeping campsite. Up until this point, it had been a clear, easy hike. But this is where the fun began!!
Last year, I had "clipped" the day away on my way to the second corral. Today, I ignored the "speed bumps" that are the cat's claw and charged up the wash and then up the side of the canyon to reach the ridgeline. I was surprised to see that the water was just barely flowing in the wash. On my previous visit, it had been flowing quite nicely and had presented some rock hopping-water avoiding opportunities. The trail was easy enough to follow, but with my "charge" up the canyon my legs earned quite a bit of pin stripping. I went from a private to a major general very quickly. I reached the second corral around 9:30 and was still feeling optimistic about my planned hike. However, the manzanita along the ridgeline and up to the timberline is incredibly thick. At first, I tried the path of least resistance, but found myself straying further from the trail. Besides, I'm kind of a "trail homer" and wanted to do the trail. So I "quickly" navigated my way to the GPS route I had downloaded and did my best to stay on trail. This resulted in the emergence of my clippers and saw. Mainly my saw, because much of the manzanita was too thick for hand held clippers. This lead to a couple of hours of me " picking my battles" (though, it was a war that could not be won). I ended up getting off trail once and trimming part of the hillside  ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")  (I fealt all that at once). It might seem weird to read, but getting back on trail from this point was one of the hardest things I've ever done on a hike. The "trail" was so close, but the manzanita was so thick, I felt like I was trying to wade up the Colorado River. Luckily, the snakes were not in season and the cat's claw were minimal, so it was just a matter of literally pushing through. Having experienced this though, it really put into perspective of being "off trail and on trail"
By the time I hit the timberline it was approaching noon. There was a dry stream crossing, with some pools, where I basically left the manzanita behind and entered the openness of the forest. At first the trail was easy to follow as it hugged the bank of the stream. This brought me to an old campsite.and then to an hour of me trying to stay on trail as I made my way to the saddle. I would be on what appeared to be an obvious trail, have it fade away, pull out my garmin to discover which way I needed to zig, only having to repeat that 10 minutes later. That being said, the forest wasn't that bad. From previous write-ups I had expected there to be burnt, fallen trees all over the place (i.e. like on Kendrick). But that was not the case. However in part, because of my zigzagging I didn't reach the saddle until a little after 1pm. To be honest the descent down the southern side was longer and more "down" than I anticipated. At first the trail utilized a semi dry stream bed with trees giving way to manzanita (again)! The trail cleared the canyon and began switchbacking down the hill. The manzanita was thick but not as tall as what I had experienced on the northern side and cat's claw, though not heavy, was present and provided occasional reminders to keep my eyes on the trail. About half way down I came upon a cement trough that was more a trash receptacle than a potential water source. From here the trail widened quite a bit (I believe this had been a road at some time), though the trail/road was lost in the waist high grass. The trail still descended from this trough, but at a much more gradual rate. The trail ended, rather unspectacularly, at FR 143 at another cement trough. There was no signage and not much of a cairn to indicate the beginning/end of the trail. It was just shy of 3pm. My plan to hike back on the same trail did not seem at all appealing considering the time and terrain I had just ventured through.
I had read that Jacob had done a loop via the Ballantine connector trail so I reevaluated my plan and decided to walk the road and see if could stumble across where the connector trail tied into the road. I figured this would be a few miles considering how many miles east I had journeyed. At first I explored the pull offs, figuring that the connector trail might start from one of these locations. But the further west I traveled the more these pull offs were occupied by campers or shooters. Long story short, I didn't stumble on the connector trail and ended up walking roads all the way back to the Ballantine TH: FR 143 to FR 11 to FR 1854 which got me to Mesquite Wash....a TH for ATV enthusiasts. From there I hiked along the Beeline for a couple of miles. A very anticlimactic ending to a very challenging hike. The weather was awesome! Cloudy and cool the entire day. I got sprinkled on a little, but it didn't last long. Didn't see anyone on the trail (except the camper). Saw a decent amount of cars/ATV's on FR 143, but not on the other forest roads. No wildlife to speak of.
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