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| Run/Jog | 11.73 Miles |
2,129 AEG |
| | Run/Jog | 11.73 Miles | 4 Hrs 54 Mns | | 2.39 mph |
| 2,129 ft AEG | | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | Parked at one of the 2 dirt spaces at the end of 12th street, easily reachable by any vehicle. Planned to do a CCW loop, aiming to arrive at the east ruins for sunrise first. Included the route since this one is well documented enough already. Followed a primitive road for 3 or 4 miles east to the southeast base of the crescent shaped mountain. Here there was a well trodden and clear path heading up to the mountain, and it was easy to follow most of the way. In spots where I lost it briefly, it was easy enough to tell the general direction to ascend, eventually getting funneled into a chute that was the steepest part and reminded me of doing Camelback. A couple small false summits appear with the objective visible out on the ridge. The ruins were nice, well defined low walls all around, and in back a higher section of wall around 6 feet tall. There were a few pieces of pottery gathered in 1 spot but they didn't look very old to me, the color and shape, but what do I know, maybe someone else can chime in. Took a lot of time exploring and taking pictures.
Coming back down I finally took on an infamous cholla ball which had to be dislodged with a hair comb. Got some smaller needles that required stripping off past the sock and tweezing out. Highly recommend a comb and tweezers. At another point, felt my big toe getting scraped and took off my shoe and sock but couldn't find anything. Then discovered 2 giant cactus needles that had pierced through the sole of my shoe from underneath.
Reaching the base, I added a quick and easy diversion to the small hill just to the south. There was a nice petroglyph field there with lots of them scattered around
To complete the loop required going off trail for about a mile on the northeast section. This was the worst part. Very thorny brush and cacti everywhere. Also high grass made me nervous, I wouldn't personally want to try it in any warmer weather than it already was. Circling around eventually picked up a large open wash that I followed for about another mile or two on the north side, here I found a bone that looked like maybe the base of a spine. Then I found lots of trash, bottles, plastic caps, straws, blown up golf balls in the wash on the north, took what I could and packed it out.
Picked up the primitive road again and followed it to the west ruins. The road pretty much goes straight up to them. It's not a lot of elevation gain but it's VERY steep, quite a leg workout. Zigzagging will help. The west ruins were not quite as impressive as the east, which I expected, but I was still quite happy with them. Particularly one wall with a divider that remained in a "T" shape. |
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