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| Hiking | 4.40 Miles |
872 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.40 Miles | 4 Hrs 48 Mns | | 0.92 mph |
| 872 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This seemed like a nice choice for an afternoon hike with my grandson, Michael. The access is off of the Horseshoe Reservoir Rd about 1.8 miles mile from its intersection with the Bartlett Dam Road and before the pavement ends. There is no formal trail but following the official gps track takes you along old 4x4 tracks which eventually degenerate into a single trail leading to the saddle between St Clair Peak and a lesser unnamed peak on its northwest side. From there to the peak it is very steep and close to being a scramble over loose granite gravel and scattered rocks while avoiding the occasional catclaw. This reduced my rate to a crawl while my grandson scampered ahead unimpeded with plenty of time to do some extra exploring while waiting for me.
We proceeded from the saddle more or less traversing around to the northeast side of the peak to find a less steep approach. Although the approach was not quite as steep, getting there required crossing or going around several steep sided ravines. We followed a faint trail on which I was surprised to see a fairly recent dirt bike track in and out of those ravines. I now realize that what appear to be numerous hiking trails in this area when viewed from the peak are most likely dirt bike trails.
Reaching the peak we took time to take in the views and to eat a late lunch. Then a short visit to the ruins The ruins are similar to many hilltop ruins with what may have been a surrounding wall with only two rooms inside. Perhaps a lookout or maybe a site for religious type ceremonies with no one living there. In explaining this to Michael I said maybe the ruin was like a church to the ancients - perhaps it was St Clair's Church. He wasn't buying it. From the ruins we proceeded to search for a shorter and hopefully less hazardous route for the descent partially guided by the official HAZ gps track. I managed to make the descent without resorting to butt sliding. With Michael scampering ahead and doing some route finding for a safe route for his grandpa we were shortly back on the trail at the northwest base of the peak. This took some direction from me because Michael's normal idea of route finding is to pick the most challenging route requiring the most rock climbing. |
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