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| Humphreys - Fremont - B24, AZ | |
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| | Humphreys - Fremont - B24, AZ | | | |
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Humphreys - Fremont - B24, AZ
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| Hiking | 16.84 Miles |
5,654 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.84 Miles | 7 Hrs 6 Mns | | 2.62 mph |
| 5,654 ft AEG | 40 Mns Break | | | |
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none
[ show ]
| no partners | | For day three, I decided to tolerate the crowds and hike Humphreys, one I'd done a few times before but not in the past 5+ years. I started from Snowbowl ~7:30AM, and it was swarming with people...not surprising, but the sight still had me questioning my decision. The trail was much as I remembered it--lots of rocks and tree roots, and the views don't open up much until clearing the trees near the saddle. There were brief stretches when I had the trail to myself but many more when I was trying to navigate through traffic.
It got up to the peak in about two hours and was pleased that there were only five other people on top when I arrived. Lots of bees, but the weather was much nicer than any of my previous visits, with comfortable temperatures and virtually no wind. I'd planned to hike to Fremont Peak tomorrow as part of a longer loop but decided to head over there now since it was only ~9:30AM and there was plenty of day left. I hung out on the peak for a while, then started down as more and more people arrived. Some places looked like a solid line of hikers coming up as I hiked back to the saddle, then immediate relief once I was on Weatherford.
I passed a few groups as I rounded Agassiz and followed the switchbacks down to Fremont Saddle, where I took a quick break for food/sunscreen. I left the trail there and made the climb up to Peak 11673, which the guide accurately describes as merely a bump on the road to Fremont. The off-trail up to the summit wasn't too bad--some pine branches to push through and a steep and rocky final ascent up to the peak, which has a rock wall windbreak with a wooden post sticking up.
[ youtube video ]
The summit provides a good perspective of the Pipeline burn scar that covers the south/east sides of Fremont, runs along the ridgeline of Doyle and covers much of the area to the south, dividing the mountain into green and brown halves. I took another food break at the top, which the gnats and bees did their best to make it tough to enjoy. The summit register had a lot of familiar HAZ names, and I added mine and then returned to Weatherford Trail via the same route and hiked back to the crowded Humphreys intersection and started down.
Along the way, I left the trail to check out the B-24 crash site. I visited it six years ago but had forgotten just how many large and recognizable airplane parts this site has--much more interesting than the B-17 site on Rees I visited yesterday. This site has become more popular--I saw at least three other people wandering around the scree slope with the wreckage. One of the guys I saw returned to the trail around the same time as me and showed his waiting friends his bloody arm--he'd apparently suffered a fall on the boulders.
The last few miles were easy downhill that practically hiked themselves, and I was back at Snowbowl around 2:30PM. The crowds on Humphreys were predictably annoying but not as bad I expected, and it was nice seeing some new parts of the SF Peaks. After a break in the shade, I decided to hike part of Kachina Trail before driving back to Flagstaff since it was still early. |
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