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| Hiking | 11.50 Miles |
4,480 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.50 Miles | | | |
| 4,480 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | After years of eyeing this route, I decided to night hike it to the Flatiron Saddle last night, then down to Lost Dutchman in the morning. I'd done Heiro-Sup Peak-Carney before, as well as Flatiron, but never the stretch between Heiro and Flatiron. Well, here was my chance!
My wife dropped me off near Carney about 7pm. I passed 3 hikers coming out the final stretch to Carney as I went in. There was enough moonlight (waxing gibbous) I didn't need any artificial light the first half of the route. I love hiking this way when I can get away with it. This changed when I hit LaBarge Mountain, and the combination of shadows, remote solitude, and vertical chutes made me turn on a lamp. The night was near-windless, and comfortable for hiking in just pants and a tee. I wore gloves up Carney, but stowed them once the trail leveled off.
I heavily relied on the GPX track from this page on a max-level-detail Gaia map, and it was astonishingly accurate. If I felt like the trail was faint, I could pull it out. If it said I was 30' off, it was basically right every time. Big thanks to whoever submitted that! Also, the trail is ferociously cairned almost the entire route. Early on, I thought it was a bit much, but as the night darkened and I had to pick my way around the pinnacles mid-hike, spotting a cairn made me smile and feel a little less lonely. The other thing that was unexpectedly cool was coming over a ridge somewhere near the middle and seeing a broad sweep of city lights in the distance. I hike to get away from cities, but in the night, the sight was a lot more loveable.
There was water all over the place. At points, I could hear a running stream - a strange sound up in that desert. There were owls calling, crickets, and a lot of time to think. After realizing that a lone guy wandering in the dark could be interesting to a mountain lion, I was a little startled to see a pair of big yellow eyes reflecting back at me from behind a bush. I threw a rock, and was relieved when it bounded away, sounding positively like a sheep or deer (and I felt a little bad for chasing it out of its bed).
I reached the Flatiron Saddle about 2:30am. Stopping for pictures and nav prolonged it by an hour or so. By then , the sky had cleared, and city light on the pinnacles was incredible. I was surprised to see several hikers moving around with lights on the Flatiron until about 3am, when the moon set. I crashed for four hours in a bivy sack, till the sound of a hiker playing music went by me (maybe someone doing the same route the other direction). Sunrise was almost as beautiful as moonset had been. More pics, breakfast, then a descent to Hwy 88 that felt like going against rush hour as a lot of happy Saturday hikers came up the trail. I love the general friendliness of AZ hikers! I love that I almost never see a single piece of garbage out in this state!
This is a fairly strenuous trip, but the views up through the middle were absolutely worth the admission price. |
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