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| JF-Randolph- Red Tanks, AZ | |
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| | JF-Randolph- Red Tanks, AZ | | | |
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JF-Randolph- Red Tanks, AZ
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| Hiking | 11.35 Miles |
1,301 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.35 Miles | 7 Hrs 37 Mns | | 1.82 mph |
| 1,301 ft AEG | 1 Hour 23 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Wanted a less traveled hike in the Supes so I chose JF trail to Randolph Canyon to Red Tanks as an out and back. I did a loop in this area last year with Fraser canyon and the second half was a catclaw nightmare so figured we’d skip that part this time. Road to Woodbury TH was in decent shape, with just some sections that required a bit of maneuvering. (High clearance definitely still required).
It was very cold & windy in the morning but we were wearing our ugly Christmas sweaters over our gear so stayed warm enough! The hike in was pretty pleasant but the beginning of JF trail is very overgrown with catclaw that I apparently forgot about… oops! You drop into a wash area and it’s a nice hike without any major obstacles, just some small downclimbs and rock hopping. We explored some cool caves and rock formations along the way and even enjoyed some pops of fall on the trail!
Red tanks canyon was our destination/turn around point and I figured we’d just explore around as much as we wanted to in that area. We took a long lunch break while admiring the beauty of the red rocks around us. I had a random burst of energy and decided to bushwhack through a thick brushy section to see what we could find further down the canyon. I saw what looked like a very pretty area around the corner then headed back to convince the girls to explore with me! It was a brutal bushwhack, but we slowly made it over to the intersection of another side canyon that looked beautiful! After a bit of exploring, we decided to climb back out of the canyon to loop back to the trail instead of backtracking. This took a good chunk of time to navigate a good path because it was really overgrown. Alas, we made it back to the trail in one piece!
Time for the hike out, which was a bit of a slog in the canyon/wash with climbing up over all the rocks with tired legs. We were all pretty happy when we finally reached the actual trail and were out of the wash. There was a steady climb to get back to Tessa and my healing ankle was fairly unhappy with me, but there was a beautiful glow over the entire mountain range that made things more pleasant. Longest day hike single my injury and I’m really happy about that progress! We didn’t see a soul all day so that was awesome!
Side note: On the drive out, we had a very scary encounter with a white truck. It was close to sunset and we somehow got behind a white truck that was going 3 mph (literally) in an area that was not very difficult driving. I do not care for off roading in the dark and really wanted to be going faster. I was definitely tailgating and he wasn’t getting the message, so when we came to an area that the road was wide, I passed on the left. Now I understand that you should wait until someone pulls over to pass, but he was not pulling over at all… so when I passed (there was zero danger to this vehicle when I passed by the way), he apparently got very angry and gave the middle finger, etc. So I started driving at a normal speed and the white truck became very aggressive with tailgating and erratic driving right behind me. I was honestly afraid he was going to shoot at us, so I drove faster hoping to lose him. There are some tricky/rocky sections that his vehicle just couldn’t handle like mine could, so we would gain distance, but he kept catching up on the nicer road sections. This continued for a while until he must have finally calmed down or needed to slow down, and we ultimately lost him but wow lesson learned there, I guess I shouldn’t have passed on the left…. We didn’t have too much of the drive in the dark, which was my original concern so it ended up working out, but it was definitely a scary for a while there. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation None
Pops of fall in Randolph canyon. |
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| Restless between adventures... |
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