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| Hiking | 5.00 Miles |
829 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.00 Miles | | | |
| 829 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | It had been a couple weeks and I was itching to get some hiking in so I headed up to the Pinaleno's past the turnoff for Riggs Lake and parked at the Clark Peak TH. Never lost the trail but the first section has some Locust and a ton of raspberry bush hanging over the trail, not horrible (I wear shorts) just a couple minor scratches. About a half mile in, I came to an area that was full of raspberry's when I noticed a bear had spotted me and was running full steam downhill through the berry bushes, I guess I ruined his/her lunch. I decided to try to hike up Clark Peak (my mistake was trying it from the TH side) and found what I thought was the trail to the top. That trail soon disappeared and after a little bit of bushwhacking through some heavy brush, I gave up and headed back down to the regular trail. As I started down some switchbacks, I got a whiff of what I thought was a campfire and thought who the hell is having a campfire out here. About 100 yards down trail I came across the origin of the smell. A tree had been struck by lightning the night before, had caught fire, toppled over across the trail and was still burning. I dropped my pack and spent about 30 minutes clearing the brush around it, covering what I could with dirt and put all the water I had on it. The flames were gone, however, it still had some smoke. Now without water, I decided to cut my original goal short and only hike down to the fern valley and head back, which was fine. The elevation and high humidity made it a grind especially without water. I checked on it again on the way out (still just a bit of smoke) and stopped by the visitor center to report it. She had no phone, internet and the radio didn't work so I drove a few miles downhill, called 911 and a few minutes later the FS called me. I gave them the exact coordinates and he stated he was sending up a crew to check it out (they passed by me as I was heading down). Beautiful area with a ton of deer, a bear, no people and 63 degrees, can't beat that (just a little less humidity and no fires next time please). 
Video of what I came across [ youtube video ] , [ youtube video ] |
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Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee.  |
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