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| Four Peaks Mini-Mother Lode, AZ | |
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| | Four Peaks Mini-Mother Lode, AZ | | | |
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Four Peaks Mini-Mother Lode, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.40 Miles |
2,618 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.40 Miles | | | |
| 2,618 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I had been wanting to hike to Brown's Brother, and I managed to persuade Tracie, my intrepid hiking partner, to join me on this hike. We decided to do a Mini-Mother Lode by hiking from the Lone Pine TH up to Brown's Peak, and then continue on to Brown's Brother. After that we reversed course by going back to Brown's Peak and then back to the TH.
We drove to the TH by going up Highway 87 to Highway 188, and then to El Oso Road. This was much longer mileage-wise as opposed to taking the signed exit off of Highway 87 to Four Peaks, but time-wise it wasn't too much longer. El Oso Road is in decent shape and most any vehicle can drive on it to the TH.
Brown's Trail #133 is in good shape and it is nice to hike on. This was my fifth trip to Brown's Peak, and I pretty much have the route up the scree chute down pat. It isn't THAT bad, all the human erosion in the chute notwithstanding.
The trek from Brown's Peak to Brown's Brother and back was plowing new ground for me. I had read a lot of triplogs and downloaded some GPS tracks, and I thought my route for the descent down from Brown's Peak and the ascent up to Brown's Brother were both pretty good. I can't say the same thing for my route along the saddle between the two peaks. There is a rock outcropping in the saddle, and I first tried going over it, and wound up having backtrack and go around the west side of the outcropping. I'm sure that there are much better ways to go than what I did; but we did make our way to the Brown's Brother summit, and made our way back to Brown's Peak.
It was a fun hike and the weather was perfect. I've now hiked to 3 of the Four Peaks, with Brown's Sister yet to go. It remains to be seen if that one is in the cards for me!
Counting breaks, it took us 7.5 hours to do the hike. My GPS said that we were moving for around 2 hours 45 minutes, and were stopped for around 4 hours 45 minutes. That wasn't close to being right -- if anything the numbers should have been reversed. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
there are still quite a few wildflowers along Brown's Trail -- lupine and western wallflower are most notable, but there are others as well. On the drive on El Oso Rd, at lower elevations there were lots of prickly pear blooming |
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| May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. -- Edward Abbey |
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