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| Highline - AZT #26 Geronimo East, AZ | | -
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| | Highline - AZT #26 Geronimo East, AZ | | | |
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Highline - AZT #26 Geronimo East, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.10 Miles |
1,594 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.10 Miles | 4 Hrs 58 Mns | | 1.48 mph |
| 1,594 ft AEG | 10 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | With my lower back issues requiring extra 'gear' to sleep on the ground it's not feasible to backpack, yet wanting to accompany Tracey on as many of her backpacking trips as possible we have to get a bit creative. The plan is for me to drop her off at the start, drive to somewhere roughly halfway and setup camp, hike out to meet her and hike together back to camp. For the second day Tracey begins the hike while I drive to Pine TH then hike out to meet her.
The only glitch became the tentative campsite within .25 mile of the AZT on FR 1138, about 3/4 mile from the Control Road. And while a supposedly current satellite view (within 30 days) showed evidence of vehicular travel to the planned site, upon reaching the Control Road/FR 1138 junction it was obvious that plan just went out-the-window, of the 4Runner anyway... if I still had the Cherokee I would have gone for it.
Change of plan... I'll drive to Geronimo TH then hike toward Pine while seeking a campsite close enough to make several trips from/to the car with my extra sleeping gear. Thankfully I met a through hiker crossing Webber Creek who told me where he had camped the night before, practically within site of the TH.
I made a few quick trips to the campsite before heading east to meet Tracey, only two hours later than when I dropped her off, which quickly absorbed my mental faculties working the [/i]problem[/i], how far will I need to hike before we meet up? Of course the big unknown is how fast each of us are hiking. Hiking lighter (not really, my daypack weighs 2-3 lbs more than Tracey's backpack) it's likely I'll be hiking faster, but then when she isn't held back by slower backpacking buddy she tends to move at a pretty good clip.
But as usual, all bets are off when my mind wanders. More like wandering off trail to check out something which demanded my attention... which I will do more than once.
Ok, ok... the trail conditions...
With all the recent work on the trail the tread was in great shape so it was pretty easy going. Four trail workers had left the TH before I set up camp so I wondered how far out they were working and when I'd catch up to them.
Shortly into the hike, wouldn't you know it but there's an old concrete 'square' maybe 50 yards off the trail begging for me to check it out. Could it be a quick-and-easy detour? No way! The massive blackberry briar patch in between posed a serious challenge (HAZard?) But wait, it appears an elk had made a path through the brambles somewhat in the direction I needed to go. So... challenge offered, challenge accepted!
Good thing I was wearing my thick long-sleeve shirt and long pants or I'd have either donated plenty of blood or given up. As it was, the thorns just slid off the rip-stop material and I waded through the brambles. Waded is the right word, as at one point I stepped onto a wet spot of brush which turned out to be covering an ankle-deep mud-hole. In my boot went... and when I pulled it out, it appeared I had lathered my boot with a 2" thick mass of soft-serve ice-cream, except baby-poop tan in color. Yup, NASTY!
Well I'm not going to hike with an extra couple pounds of weight on one foot so I quickly found the wettest part of the brambles and kept wiping my boot back-and-forth until the original color of my boot re-appeared and the sole was clean, albeit the boot was wet. Ooooh, that feels cool! Oh well, I don't feel any sloshing so it's back to the task-at-hand.
And what was that task you ask? Oh yeah, the concrete square!
When I reached it I found it was just an old long-unused water tank. Ok, now what? Head back through the briar patch and get a second dose of baby-poop ice-cream? Nope! When I scanned the terrain I noticed an elk-trail heading up out of the briar patch into an open area which would make for a wide detour, but it would keep me from the briar-and-mud hazard. And as usual when I get off-trail and end up farther off=trail I tend to find more interesting items, and this time it was a larger concrete tank with a locked cover. After checking out the tank as I looked back toward the trail there was remnants of an old road leading directly back to the trail.
Back on the trail it felt like I'd wasted an hour so I picked up the pace... I wouldn't want to only hike a mile or two with Tracey. (After-the-fact I found it had barely been 10 minutes.)
Time flies when you're having fun so was I not having fun?
Although I took a few more short off-trail detours, they came to naught. However, at one point, sitting just off the trail was a Yardmax Track Barrow, with the 'barrow' part filled with assorted trail-working tools. Yup, when I got home I just had to dig up the 'Yardmax' info. It turns out to be quite the nifty vehicle. With the hydraulic-assist bucket-lift it runs around $3800.
I've been hiking over two hours with some extracurricular activity so I'm not only wondering where the trail workers are now I'm thinking I should meet Tracey soon. And sure enough within 5 minutes I passed by where the crew was re-routing the trail (off in another direction) and not 2 minutes later met up with Tracey.
All that's left now is the hike back to our campsite west of Webber Creek, with a short lunch-break along the way. Back at the Geronimo trailhead we grabbed the last few items we'd need from the car, including food for tonight and breakfast in the morning.
Driving, setting up camp & hiking made for a full day for me. Thankfully the drive to Pine in the morning will be short so I should be on-the-trail sooner. |
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