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| Hiking | 16.58 Miles |
4,299 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.58 Miles | 10 Hrs 13 Mns | | 1.85 mph |
| 4,299 ft AEG | 1 Hour 15 Mns Break | 14 LBS Pack | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Joe had been tossing this one out as an option for quite some time now. I always found an excuse to nix the idea.
Fears of hiking across torched landscape and fields of catclaw always took a back seat to blood free trails.
In a weak moment, I decided to stop this one coming up as an option.
We started at the parking spot 2 miles in at the turn to Cottonwood Camp. The weekend Four Peaks crowds had not yet awakened.
The lots were filling up with ORV rental trailers loaded to the brim. There was every bit of 12 trucks/trailers carrying 10 to 20 quads each parked or on their way in.
We saw or heard none of this on our 16 mile loop until we returned.
Overcast, cool and moist to start. With all off trail climbing we had in front of us, this was perfect. We made our way over to the first real climb of the day, starting out of Cottonwood Creek. Getting there was relatively easy, except for the slow going boulder hopping decent into Cottonwood Creek.
From here it was 4 miles and 2500+ feet of gain. Sometimes very steeply and bouldery, sometimes a smooth and gentle. There was evidence of the burn, but it never really distracted from the views and feel of the hike. There was catclaw, but it was never extremely bad. (If you paid attention).
At out turnaround point the winds got pretty strong and it was cold at 5,000 feet. Our planned excellent views of Four Peaks never happened with the current cloud ceiling hiding them.
Video -> [ youtube video ]
We descended to the North Wata Ridge and looked for some shelter from the wind to eat some lunch. A shortened lunch had us putting on hats, gloves, and all the shirts we were carrying.
The promised "smooth sailing" down the north ridge, was not as smooth as promised. There were a couple of steep down climbs, the steepest dropping into Cottonwood Creek.
I spied a wash on Sat. view the basically made our return from here a cake walk. It involved a couple of smooth hard packed washes and a bit of cross country.
Joe's planning an annual return to the area. Get your reservations in now to hike this with "HIM". This was nowhere as bad as I thought it's would be and the views were pretty incredible. Also on a side note, there were a dozen or more varieties of wild flowers in bloom. |
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Wildflowers Observation None
spotty blooms throughout the hike but I was totally surprised at the variety of flowers blooming |
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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry  |
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