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| Hiking | 6.53 Miles |
2,354 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.53 Miles | 5 Hrs 28 Mns | | 1.39 mph |
| 2,354 ft AEG | 47 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This one has been on my radar screen for a while, and with the nice weather I figured that I would give this one a go today.
I drove in to the junction with 8015C and parked, as 8015 supposedly deteriorated from there. Actually, it didn't seem all that bad, although you'd definitely need a high clearance 4WD vehicle to go out of Bender Wash, which was a short distance from where I parked. I didn't mind the short road walk, so all was good.
After walking up the road, I went off trail and made my way to a ridgeline, which I followed to the summit. It was actually an enjoyable ridgeline to hike on: there was very little brush and the footing was good. It was mostly easy class 1 hiking, although there was a bit of class 2 scrambling in a place or two. I mostly stayed right on the ridgeline, which had a bit of up-and-down as opposed to trying to do some side-hilling.
There were some nice views at the summit, so I hung out there for a while. I signed the Lilley-Macleod logbook, which dated back to 1983. I saw a height of light at the summit, but I was unable to locate any flivers.
On the way back I intended just to go back the way that I came up, but as I was following the ridgeline I looked down and could see Bender Wash, which I knew would take me back within 100 feet or so of where I parked. I could see a good path to the wash that was brush-free, and since I couldn't come up with a good reason not to descend down to the wash, I decided to go for it. It was a little bit steep, but the footing was good so there was no problem going down. Once in the wash, it was an easy mile or so walking back to where I parked. It was actually nice to finish the hike walking on flat ground.
I saw 2 javelina, one deer, and no humans on the hike -- that is the kind of ratio that I can live with!
This turned out to be a very enjoyable hike. Even though the hike was totally off-trail, route finding was fairly easy and the footing was generally good. It was nice not to have to deal with the ankle-busting rock that characterizes some of the off-trail hikes that I have done lately. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
I saw a few poppies blooming but that was it. This area seems much drier than the places I typically hike in the Phoenix area, so I would not expect much of a wildflower show here. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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