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| Hiking | 11.86 Miles |
2,331 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.86 Miles | 7 Hrs 49 Mns | | 1.99 mph |
| 2,331 ft AEG | 1 Hour 51 Mns Break | | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | It had been almost five years since I'd hiked from Cave Creek Trailhead, and today the plan was to hike up to Quien Sabe Peak, a new one for both of us. It was a chilly morning, in the mid-30s when we arrived. There were three or four other cars in the parking lot, and two other hikers started out on the trail ahead of us.
We brought water shoes in case we needed to wade through Cave Creek at the first crossing, but the water was low enough that it was easy to walk across on the rocks, which was good news with the frigid temperature. As we made our way toward the Cottonwood/Skunk Tank intersection, the two hikers who'd started before us ended up behind us...they must have gotten turned around and had to backtrack.
It was a steady incline going up Skunk Tank #247, and we noticed the tailings from Quien Sabe Mine on the south side of the trail. There was a large, upside-down steel basin in the drainage below Quien Sabe Spring...looks like that's been there for at least a few years [ photo ] , but it's now in the drainage and not on the trail anymore.
We turned onto Quien Sabe #250 and left the trail ~ four miles in. It was relatively tame off-trail hiking...a little rocky, but the brush is mostly of the non-sharp variety. The first half mile of off-trail was steeper as we made our way along the west side of the ridge before getting up on top, where it flattened out. The final stretch approaching the peak was very similar to hiking across Skull Mesa--flat ground, dry grass, and prickly pear mixed in with the rocks.
The views from the peak were very nice...the Superstition ridgeline and Weaver's Needle, Four Peaks, Skull Mesa, and downtown Phoenix visible to the SW through the haze. The summit register jar had two notebooks inside...looking back at comments on old triplogs, the now rodent-chewed notebook that @KingSnake placed a few years ago was one of them [ photoset ] [ image ]  . There was a second, newer notebook, and both had quite a few familiar HAZ names, with the most recent signature from almost a year ago, in February 2021. It sounds like the register and a summit cairn used to be located on the slightly lower peak just east of Quien Sabe, but the register is now on the actual peak, and there's no cairn on the other one.
[ youtube video ]
We ate lunch at the top and started back down. Instead of following the same route, we ended up descending straight down the steep hillside off the ridge to intercept Quien Sabe Trail a little earlier and avoid some of the off-trail. By late morning/early afternoon, the weather had warmed up and become very pleasant, and aside from those two hikers earlier in the day, we didn't see anyone again until we were within a quarter mile of the trailhead. After finishing up the hike, we stopped at Sears-Kay Ruins on the drive back--a nice bonus to finish the day. |
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