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| Hiking | 5.30 Miles |
1,307 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.30 Miles | 3 Hrs 18 Mns | | 1.69 mph |
| 1,307 ft AEG | 10 Mns Break | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | We reached the Green Gulch TH around 7:30 a.m. and headed up the trail. The first part of the trail had zero shade, but before long we were in trees and walking on ground that was littered with leaves. It felt like a fall day! We went through one gate before climbing up on a steep trail with loose rock. We reached a second gate and this is where we left the official trail to reach the summit of the peak just to the north of us. This part was really just bushwhacking and scrambling, keeping an eye to the path that looked to be the least filled with obstacles. We turned around a few times but made our way to top safely(ish).
The views from the summit were great! Prescott to the NW and mountains to the south - the rocks were fun to play around on and made for great photo backdrops. After getting our photos and resting a bit, we headed back down and ended up taking a completely different path back to the official trail. Once back on trail, we were reminded of how steep the trail is, and were cursing the fact that neither of us had brought our trekking poles. I would recommend bringing at least one pole on this hike!
We came across a group of 4 people riding motorcycles up the trail - I can't recall ever seeing dirtbikes on a hiking trail, but they were very nice. They stopped to chat and mentioned that they'd never seen hikers here before. When we got back to the TH and reviewed the trail map, we realized that most of the trails in this system are actually designed for off-road vehicles.  Which explained a LOT. Good hike not far from the valley of the sun, and the scramble to the summit was fun.
We saw one murky puddle of water in the wash close to the TH. |
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