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| Hiking | 7.00 Miles |
368 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.00 Miles | 3 Hrs 15 Mns | | 2.15 mph |
| 368 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This was my first hike in the Superstitions in many years and unfortunately, my friend Barb & I got a later start than I had hoped, arriving at the First Water TH at 7 AM. (Thanks Kelli Pearl for excellent directions to the TH and description of the Garden Valley Trail). When we arrived at the TH, it was already 93 degrees and imagine that there were no other cars in the parking lot! I guess we were the only crazy ones to do this in August. We started on the trail and crossed over the First Water Creek bed (of course, it was dry) and continued through to Garden Valley arriving there by 8:00 AM. All along the way we had some beautiful vistas of the surrounding mountains and saguaro, cholla and prickly pears everywhere. We saw no one else on the trail except a few quail, jackrabbits, lizards, ants and some massive horseflies. Horseback riders must use this trail often because there were payloads all along the way!
The trail through Garden Valley was wide, flat and more of a stroll but very serene & peaceful. A virtual sea of mesquite trees & cholla cacti. I can only imagine this trail in the spring. At the junction of Black Mesa Trail we encountered the Indian ruins that I've read others notes on. Off to our left was Hackberry Mesa and the trail became much narrower and rockier as we exited the "garden" and covered with these black rocks. Black rocks lined the sides of the hills also. We continued into part of Boulder Canyon with Battleship Mtn (I think) to our left. By this time it was in the high 90's & 9:00 and we decided to make this an "out & back" hike instead of doing a loop and returning via Black Mesa Trail. There is very little cover on this trail and the August sun was relentless, even at this hour of the morning. We headed back and arrived back at the TH at 10:15 & I felt pretty much overheated even though I drank the 70oz of H2O from my camelbak along the trail. All said & done, it was about 7 mile roundtrip in 3.25 hours.
At this time, we encountered a small group of hikers visting from Illinois just going in (are they nuts?!) at that hour and stopped to chat with them for a few minutes. One had a 50 oz camelbak, the others each had a 16 oz bottle of water. I wonder how far they were planning on going?
I'm sure I would enjoy this hike more in season, especially in the spring or at least at an earlier start time and then do the full loop hike taking Black Mesa Trail back. Despite it all, I still really liked this trail and want to definitely do it again. |
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Trish-Kabob
"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds" Ed Abbey |
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