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| Sunflower Trail #344 Arizona, AZ | | -
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| | Sunflower Trail #344 Arizona, AZ | | | |
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Sunflower Trail #344 Arizona, AZ
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| Backpack | 6.09 Miles |
933 AEG |
| | Backpack | 6.09 Miles | 3 Hrs 2 Mns | | 2.67 mph |
| 933 ft AEG | | 22 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | This is 2 of 3 triplogs from my In and Out from the Cross F TH to Sunflower along TR #344. It is an Official Route, starting on the east side of the culvert under the Beeline (which looks to be the junction between the Sunflower Trail and the Pine Mountain Trail) to the Cross F Trailhead via a marked Connector.
Important points:
- Water along the Connector to the Cross F TH.
- The Connector can be a little treacherous at times when coming back/downhill to the Cross F TH, because it's sometimes steep with crumbly rock.
- Saw a pair of pair of deer and a pair of cows on the return trip.
- Met a sobo Thru-hiker.
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This was my return, nobo, to my vehicle at the Cross F TH.
It was 2 pm and the temp had been a consistent 65 F most of the afternoon. I thought I would need my light jacket for the return. But the sometimes frigid breeze had stopped. So I took it off about 15 minutes into the return.
I had been wearing an airy overshirt (unbuttoned) and an airy tee-shirt. I can't imagine the weather being more comfortable for backpacking. Yet, to my surprise, I was super wet and stinky upon arrival the Cross F TH at 5 pm. Maybe it's because I was moving faster than I've ever moved before while backpacking?
Speaking of which, this was my personal best for speed. I covered this trail in the same 3 hours that it took to hike sobo. Except that going nobo is more uphill (I kept thinking about that long 4-mile climb while driving on the Beeline from Sunflower to the Mt. Ord exit). And I hiked a little further than my sobo trip, going past the FR 393 shortcut, to the Connector at the junction of this trail and the LSM Trail. My speed on RS calculates to about 2 mph. But I stopped to take photos, text, talk. It seemed to me that I was striding out at 3 mph at some points.
Obviously the trip was a reversal of my sobo trip. After exiting the culvert, you're quickly into the Burn Area.
On this pass, I stopped at a gate that I had read about on the AZ Trail Org's online Water Reports. There was a big black hose/tube leading downhill on the east side of the gate. (Photo.) There might have been water there. But I remember reading a caution about how steep it was down to the potential water (it was) and that it might be better to come at the water from the middle of three gates to the south, that I had passed a few minutes ago.
So I didn't try.
Later I met a 30-something Thru-hiker. (Trail name "Lichen.") He wasn't a local. (Didn't know how to pronounce Mazatzal.) He had come at least as far as Bear Spring this day (he gathered water there). That's 20 miles!
He was going to walk until dark and camp wherever. As it was 3:30 ish, he would see a 26 mile day! Ah... youth is wasted on the young. (IIRC, he had hiked other famous trails before the AZT.)
I should have asked him when he expected to complete his Thru-hike, since he had passed the half way point that day and would have about another 20 to 30 days to go at his speed. That would put him into mid-December. Doesn't it snow down south by then?
After this, I saw a pair of deer. But they ran before I could pull my camera out.
And I saw a pair of cows again near a Cow Pond. They also ran. (Amazing how those big animals can climb uphill so effortlessly.)
I wish that Black Bears were as timid as cows and deer.
By this time, I had finally figured out how to pin a Route on RS so that it would alert me when/if I went off trail.
I arrived at the junction of the Sunflower Trail and the Little Saddle Mountain Trail. I made a right turn (east) and wound my way down back to the Cross F TH. To my surprise, RS started buzzing at me. Apparently it doesn't consider Connectors as part of a trail.
Arrived at the Cross F TH around 5. I still had the TH all to myself.
As the sun dropped, so did the temperature. Rapidly! 30 degrees! Yikes! The forecast low was only 45. (I barely remembered that I had to protect my water filters from freezing.)
Pulled out a hand warmer, made a fire, had dinner and crawled into my tent around 8 ish.
Then a strong, blustery west wind rose up around 10 pm and to my surprise, the temp rose to the mid-40's.
My typically over-zealous plan had been to hike the LSM trail the next day, search for Marion Spring, and camp out on my little mesa there.
But I was beat from 13 miles of hiking this day. And that blustery wind was still blustering in the morning.
So I threw everything into the Blazer the next morning and drove back to Phoenix. |
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Lower 244 Creekbed |
Pools to trickle |
Pools to trickle |
| | | Several pools, deep enough to draw good water from. | | _____________________
| Be careful. It really is "a jungle out there." |
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