Deer Creek - Shake Ridge & Shake Tree Cyn Loop Photoset • The

Deer Creek - Shake Ridge & Shake Tree Cyn Loop, AZ

	2022-04-02
	20 by The_Eagle

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Deer Creek - Shake Ridge & Shake Tree Cyn Loop, AZ

Hiking	12.17 Miles	2,128 AEG

Hiking	12.17 Miles	8 Hrs 28 Mns		1.73 mph
	2,128 ft AEG	1 Hour 26 Mns Break	14 LBS Pack

Linked

linked

Deer Creek Trail #45

Shake Tree Canyon

Partners

partners

joebartels

Route Recorded on Route Scout | Pop | Map | Popup | MapDEX

I through out 2 options this week. One stuck to trails, and had an abundance of flowers the last time we did it. Option 2, either covered all new ground off trail or from the last reports, on a trail that was reported severely overgrown the end of last year. Joe responded, "Option 2", I responded "Oh Crap".

The original Option 2 was 18+ miles and 4000+ feet of AEG. Unless the canyon hiking was quick, there would be no chance of completing, so there were bail points.

We hit Deer Creek and were surprised by how heavy the flow was. Shortly thereafter, it was time to start the 5 mile climb up Shake Ridge, to our drop in point. It used a combination of old FR's to their end, and a surprisingly good use/game trail started. We took this to our drop in to Shake Tree Canyon.

This was the first area of concern. The lines were tight on the TOPO, but looked doable. But you never know if you are going to get cliffed out. We picked a spot and dropped in. It started as a steep, loose, agave and prickly pear dodgeball track. We got lucky a part of the way down and hooked up on some sort of an old use trail off and on that took us to the bottom.

There was a good deal of water running in the creek. My goal was to go find the falls, which I find out later, were 165' tall. After fighting the tangled brush from past floods, for no more than 150', I gave up. We started our exit from Shake Tree Canyon fighting the same sorts of things, sometimes hopping out momentarily to bypass some of the thicker areas.

It became evident at lunch, that we were going to be cutting the planned track short. The last 3 miles had taken almost 4 hours. We headed through the catclaw towards an actual trail, Deer Creek #45. The last triplog I read from Oct 2021 from @hikerdw, stated that the trail was severely overgrown. I'm happy to report, from the point we got on the trail at the Davey Gowan gravesite, to the TH, the trail had seen lots-o-work. It's now a super highway.

It was a good day hitting some new areas. Shake Ridge was better than expected. Shake Tree Canyon, Bars Canyon and Deer Creek were all running very nicely. We still have some unfinished business in the area.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Ashen milkvetch Miners Lettuce

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] David D. Gowan