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| Hiking | 6.41 Miles |
1,098 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.41 Miles | 5 Hrs 23 Mns | | 1.29 mph |
| 1,098 ft AEG | 25 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Eric (@ssk44) is a Google Earth ninja. He's found a lot of cool ruins through the years, many of them posted as triplogs by Larry, Hank, and himself. Now and then he tells me about a "find" and last week it was a really cool one. I was surprised by it because 1) its in a pretty obvious place in a pretty popular area 2) it shows up fairly clearly in satellite pictures, 3) I couldn't find any information on it all - so it's apparently not well known. These are all good reasons to go have a look.
My trip did not start well. My carefully thought out route info didn't appear on my gps. (User error: I copied a .kml file instead of a .gpx). But I had stared at the map closely enough that it was burned in my memory so the main problem was finding the right roads to the start. A couple wrong turns, probably cost me 30 min.
I could drive within a couple miles of the ruin and had a couple mile bushwack through the junipers to the edge where I could see the spur. I passed a small ruin (pottery and low walls) along the way.
The first view of the "target" was about as expected - intimidating. Steep down and no obvious way up. With my superzoom camera I could clearly see walls on top - the location on top of a spur protruding into a big canyon makes me think it is more likely a fort or lookout rather than a habitation site. But it looked like a lot of walls so maybe a penthouse apartment.
It was tedious getting there but once I got to the bottom the best way to get closer went past a man-made wall (probably to keep bad guys from coming in the back door). A way up was not obvious and the most likely spot was just too sketchy for me. I decided to retreat but made one more try on the other side, passing another wall, but again was stopped by steep rock.
I think a braver climber could do this without too much trouble (obviously there was a standard route 700-800 yrs ago) and maybe I could have with some knowledge that a particular route really goes without barriers. |
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