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| Hiking | 21.77 Miles |
2,768 AEG |
| | Hiking | 21.77 Miles | 8 Hrs 59 Mns | | 2.80 mph |
| 2,768 ft AEG | 1 Hour 12 Mns Break | 12 LBS Pack | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | It'd been 9 years since the last time I was up in this area. I hadn't hiked out of the Juniper Springs TH before. I drew up some options for the motley crew, and once we were all in agreement with what we were going to hike, we were off like a herd of @tortise_Hiker s (Side note: Denny was in until he learned the proper use of decimal points).
Old Military Trail #1
We opted for the CCW loop, taking us around the back of the Mesa and gently climbing 1900' in 11ish miles. The first 4 miles were less than cool, in full sunlight and no breeze. Once in the junipers and then the pines, it actually was quite comfortable. We checked out the skeleton of an old wagon and some other artifacts. The Pine Springs area had troughs full of water and what appeared to be a covered well.
Oaks and Willows Trail #3
At the end of FR#7, we started the Trail. The wilderness actually started a bit after the large wilderness sign. We climbed through the oaks and conifers, desperately searching for the namesake willows. None were seen on this hike. After 11 miles before noon, we opted for lunch next to the trail. The last bit to the rim from here was the steepest we'd encountered so far on the day.
Juniper Mesa Trail #20
Making the turn onto the Juniper Mesa Trail, we were rewarded with some flat-ish ground for a while. The trail was in decent shape until we passed the intersection with the Bull Spring Trail. After that, the trail could use some maintenance. Thin trail and downed trees kept us searching for the track. All well worth the views a short distance off the trail from the top of the mesa rim. We could see the storms around us that we would have enjoyed getting a bit closer to. It seemed the cloud cover was never above but was all around us.
Juniper Springs Trail #2
We took a break at Juniper Spring, and I went down to check it out. Dry as a bone. We continued downhill, which actually was uphill for 1/2 mile. At this point, we had some nice storms to the east and to the north, and we benefited from the outflow breezes from them. There were a few really nice sections of trail here with sporadic pockets of the only catclaw encountered on the day.
Good times with a fun group of hikers. If this area were not so far away, I'd be up here more often. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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Pine Springs |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | Not sure of the flow, but the 2 troughs were full | | _____________________
There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry  |
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