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| Hiking | 12.85 Miles |
2,053 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.85 Miles | 7 Hrs 50 Mns | | 1.74 mph |
| 2,053 ft AEG | 27 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Rounded out the long weekend with a trip out to the Blue Range. The drive in was uneventful, and we lucked out with timing. Forecasts were calling for a decent chance of rain and thundershowers. It looked like the worst of it had passed before we got to Alpine. There were a decent number of others camped out...with many sporting camouflage apparel - turns out we were intercepting the beginning of hunting season. If folks weren't out for archery hunting, they may have been out scouting the location of herds in preparation for upcoming hunts. On our way in, we came across a large herd of elk with a bull in attendance - they slipped away before we were able to get our phones out for photos. After driving around for a bit, we found a spot to set up camp and make dinner before the sun went down.
The next morning, we struck camp and headed to the trailhead. While the temps were nice and cool in the mid to upper 50s, the air was humid from the recent rains. The Blue Range seems to have been getting a decent amount of rains from the monsoons - there was a lot of fresh green grass and a decent array of wildflowers along the path. The trail was easy to follow - mostly well packed dirt, but also some very decent stretches of rocky sections and deadfall that required negotiation (all had bypasses or were easily stepped over). We decided to detour over towards Hinkle Spring to have a look, but did not anticipate having to drop into the canyon to find it. When it became apparent that we'd have to lose a bunch of elevation only to turn back around to gain it all back again, we decided not to proceed with checking the spring and headed back to continue on towards Franz Spring.
After taking a break at the junction with the Cow Flat trail, with thunder in the distance and realizing that Franz Spring was still two miles out, we decided to make our way back. Total mileage would have been closer to 17 miles had we continued to our originally planned turnaround point. As we were hiking back, we saw the storm clouds building and heard plenty of thunder rumbling. Lightning strikes were visible in the distance as we dropped into and climbed back out of Steeple Canyon. We managed to get lucky with the weather since we only got a little bit of intermittent sprinkles while out on the trail.
We got back to the truck, cleaned up, and scarfed down a snack before heading back towards the valley. On our way out, we saw a gang of wild turkeys - though they scattered before we were able to capture them with a photo. Not long afterwards, the skies opened up as the rains finally caught us.
It was nice to get some miles logged on trail this weekend, and even better to have been so lucky with the weather given the forecast with high likelihood of precipitation. Always nice to visit the Blue - thanks for the invite, J! |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
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Happier when hiking....I may not move fast (and I'm often distracted by wildflowers), but I'll get there eventually  |
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