Pine Mountain loop Photoset • pseudalpine • 2025-11-30 • HikeArizona.COM

Pine Mountain loop, AZ

	2025-11-30
	8 by pseudalpine

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Pine Mountain loop, AZ

Hiking

Hiking

no routes

Linked

linked

Ballantine Trail #283

Pine Mountain 6236 - Mazatzals

Pine Connect Trail #80 - Tonto NF

Ballantine Connector Trail to FR143

Partners

none

no partners

Essentially followed LJW's tough route from Jan 11 2022 except I hiked it CCW and didn't spur to the Ballantine Cabin (already been there many times). I did tack on the Pine Connect to the Pigeon Springs Road just to check it out for a possible future hike. As others have mentioned in previous TLs, fortunately the Bush Fire didn't burn everything. The trail up to Pine Mountain from Cline TH was better than expected with signs that some pruning has occurred. Also surprised that elk seem to like the area. Still some nice Ponderosa groves and everything was squishy and flowing still, including the neat Rock Tank. Ballantine Canyon goes on forever and really doesn't have a trail anymore. The Ballantine Connector seemed more maddening and monotonous because it's basically an expert motorcycle route. I completed quite a few FR 143 miles and determined that Michelob Ultra is the sissy beer of choice for dicky do side-by-siders.

Route Scout stopped working just before mile twelve when it annoyingly informed me that no more points could be logged. Perhaps just going with the default settings isn't optimal for longer hikes. As usual, Allfails worked perfectly.

May have to re-up the subscription.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] California Flannelbush

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Ballantine Canyon Rock Tank The Boulders

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