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| Hiking | 9.26 Miles |
2,460 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.26 Miles | 3 Hrs 51 Mns | | 2.42 mph |
| 2,460 ft AEG | 1 Min Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Escaping to Flagstaff for a few days with my youngest son. He isn’t a hiker so I’ll hike early and spend the rest of the time doing stuff with him. Win win.
Day one I chose to hike the Inner Basin trail up to its conclusion at Weatherford, then back. The drive in was much easier than anticipated. I saw a couple of sedans up there as testimonial. I’m sure it’s not always that way, but it’s good right now.
I’ve read that this trail is among the nicest in Arizona. I don’t doubt it; I certainly enjoyed it. It wasn’t the beauty that inspired me though. I want to get acclimated for something bigger on Friday. 2400 feet of gain above 8600 feet should help.
I don’t do well above 7,000 feet, so I had no delusions that this would be easy. My only goal was to keep moving. I started getting a mild headache after 10,000 feet so I slowed up a bit and started drinking more water. The headache passed.
I kept going, surprised at the pace I was able to maintain. When I reached the four mile mark I actually began to believe I was going to make it. When I finally reached the Weatherford junction, there was a young lady sitting on a rock having a snack. All I could do in way of greeting was bend over and gasp for air. After a few seconds I was finally able to say something.
She was contemplating whether to do a loop or an out and back. I was looking for a vista point, which she said I could find a few hundred feet east on Weatherford. Off I went. Then I remembered a hike with @The_Eagle and @Tortoise_Hiker where they mentioned continuing on the Weatherford trail to the Inner Basin trail to check out some views. I declined because I felt ill. Now I know. Besides today, that was the only other time near or above 11,000 feet on a hike.
Now the down part. Ugh. Wasn’t bad though. No heavy breathing certainly helps. I made better time going down. The trails/road are very good with just a couple of exceptions where the trail gets rocky.
I didn’t see anyone on the trek up until Weatherford. I didn’t see anyone else until I reached the cabins on the way down, then it started to pick up. With under 2 miles to go, the trail became crowded. Yielding to the uphill crowd slowed things down, but before long I was done, literally and figuratively.
Awesome hike. |
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