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| Hiking | 9.00 Miles |
2,800 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.00 Miles | 4 Hrs 7 Mns | | 2.19 mph |
| 2,800 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | This hike was more of an adventure on the ride in than the hike itself. FR1704 fades away to more of an impassable road about 1.8 miles before any maps say that the trail actually begins. Once you get to the trail, it seems no different than the "road" from where we parked. We took the road then the trail out to Ballantine Cabin and made our way back. My GPS said 9 miles exactly, and the AEG seems to be about 2800', give or take. Nice views of the Mazatzals and boulders. Naturally, since I decided not to wear my snake gaiters, we ran into a rattlesnake. Joe at first thought it was a Mohave and was ready to run 4.3 miles back to the car, but then he saw that it was a Blacktail.
FR1704 (i.e., No Forest Road for Old Men) is definitely a challenge. My Xterra got pushed pretty much to its limits. I decided to park it after I made it over a particularly bad set of rocks and could smell what I thought was probably transmission fluid, my clutch, or both. It turned out to be the correct decision because the road after where we parked got more and more gnarly. Hiking uphill to the "trailhead" was enough of a challenge, and it probably took the same amount of time as if we would have driven it. Once we got back, I checked under my vehicle and the front skid plate got mangled pretty good.
I reset my GPS mileage before we started hiking but didnt erase the track, so the track I uploaded here includes all of FR1704. If you zoom in on it you can see where we overlap on our hike back to the car. Where the overlapping tracks end is the extent of our hike. The mileage on this track shows the hike to be 8.5 miles, but I'll go with the 9 mile reading the GPS gave me. |
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Route Editor
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