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| Monte Vista Lookout via Morse Canyon, AZ | |
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| | Monte Vista Lookout via Morse Canyon, AZ | | | |
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Monte Vista Lookout via Morse Canyon, AZ
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| Hiking | 8.54 Miles |
2,782 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.54 Miles | 8 Hrs 2 Mns | | 1.43 mph |
| 2,782 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 3 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | On a family camping trip to West Turkey Creek, wifey and I set off to the fire lookout on Monte Vista peak. She was pretty nervous since it would be the most challenging hike she’d ever done. Unfortunately all the hikes out of Turkey Creek aren’t particularly easy, and Morse seemed the least among evils.
We got away a little later than we wanted, but made Morse Saddle by lunchtime. Morse Canyon was in beautiful shape. The sign at the saddle was back up, too. Still a lot of deadfall at the saddle, including a big one across the trail for anyone headed west on Turtle Mountain. Easier to go around it than over it.
It was a windy day, too, with most of southern AZ under red flag conditions.
Trail conditions declined somewhat headed east to the lookout, mostly due to occasional deadfall across the trail in burn scars. The worst of it was on the slopes below Monte Vista peak, where the burn was particularly bad.
Wifey was pretty exhausted just below the peak and she contemplated turning around, but I showed her how close she was and she decided to press on.
We made it to the lookout and set up our chairs on the porch out of the wind to relax a bit and eat some calories. The view up there is great, especially into Rucker Canyon.
On the way down wifey rolled her ankle and banged her knee on a rock. Ow! No injury thankfully, she was able to press on. We found a patch of snow on Morse and she iced her knee a bit. It hurt but she could hike without a hobble.
As far as wifey was concerned, I was fairly certain this hike had moved from Type 2 fun straight out of the fun category altogether. But within a couple days she was bragging about her stats and asking to hike again the next weekend.  |
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