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| Hiking | 11.10 Miles |
3,550 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.10 Miles | | | |
| 3,550 ft AEG | | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| Partners |
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| partners | | A counter-clockwise loop hike with Preston, Brian, and myself. Brian drove his van, and we did just fine accessing the trailhead with RWD. It does have good clearance, but a skilled Honda Civic driver could likely get there, too. Creek crossings were nothing, this day.
Cave Canyon Trail is nice, but not one I would want to hike in summer. It was great in the shade, yet quite hot with the sun on that south slope. Despite what I read on a certain omni site for trails, at no point is Cave Canyon over grown or remotely thick. The trail east of Florida Saddle had a lot of asters with seed and that brickle bush with thorns, or whatever it is called, but going to the hill to the east of the saddle was still fine. We did clear a down tree from the trail, but it is gone.
Preston and I checked out the hill to the east of Florida Saddle and then the Apache Pine just to the east of that. Both look nice. That hill really is a nice backpack or resting spot.
After lunch at the saddle, we proceeded up the Crest Trail. All of the down trees have now been cleared from the trail! One hopes this winter does not produce a new cohort for next year. Virtually all of the down trees this year were not dead when they blew over in a wind. As always, the views are excellent. Great to rest at the top of the trail just below Mt Ian.
After Baldy Saddle we started down the Super Trail where the shade was quite cold and some trail side frost was present. It looked to be soil moisture that froze overnight on detritus and remained frozen all day, on that north aspect. We observed no bears on the Super Trail, but one may have observed us.
The Upper Gardner Canyon Trail was the highlight of the day. Starting down the trail, the mix of remaining large old Arizona pines with some ponderosa pine and mostly Arizona pine reproduction, is quite nice. We stopped on a ridge in a mature pine grove to relax and enjoy the view. I counted some pine leaves and made an interesting "discovery" of 6 leaves per fascicle. So, while Arizona Pine can have it's leaves in bundles of 3, 4, and 5, it turns out that rare specimens of this species can also have 6 leaves per fascicle. I don't think I have ever read about that, before! Brian and Preston also counted this, and I took a photo of one of them as held open, by Preston. Most probably aren't super into that, but it excited me!
More people would probably be excited by the bear! We certainly were. While chatting, I happened to be looking back up towards Wrightson and noticed a good sized black bear traversing the slope not too far above us, and potentially he was walking right along the trail, most likely the Super Trail. We were able to get some fuzzy photos. He walked up over the hill and probably went towards the slopes of the Old Baldy Trail as it starts up to the summit. Ironically, we observed no poop in that area, while there was a ton of it lower down on both Cave and Gardner Canyon trails.
It was then great views and an increasingly cold hike down as dark approached. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Light
Left over ash and aspen. With the wind forecast this Tuesday, they won't last. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
