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| Hiking | 11.47 Miles |
3,612 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.47 Miles | 6 Hrs 58 Mns | | 1.65 mph |
| 3,612 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Chris invited Wally and myself to a Goldfield meander. He had identified some potential trails that he thought might be interesting from aerial maps and sent me a gps route so I kind of knew what I was getting into, but I didn’t upload the trails and instead put my faith in Chris’s leadership. I ended up following Chris to our designated “trailhead”. We were on the trail a little after 6. As is the norm for the Goldfields, the trails are unnamed and there seems to be a myriad of trails going everywhere. Starting before sunrise I wasn’t aware of of potential trails we might be passing or, for that matter, the astounding beauty that is synonymous with the Goldfields. Ironically, (supporting the above statement), we had hiked in about a mile when we discovered that we were off our gps route. Not a big deal. All trails have a good chance of interconnecting. Chris had been out here a few weeks earlier and thought the trail we were on would tie into our desired route. It did.
By this time the skies had started to lighten and we were able to see the beauty of the Goldfields and the trails flowing around us. We had already done most of the serious climbing that we needed (heading in), so we next hiked along some ridgelines with some minor ups and downs offering fantastic views of the surrounding areas. The deeper we went, the better the views got and eventually we started getting teasing glimpses of the Salt River, Saguaro and Canyon Lake. The trails had been well defined and easy to follow….the trick was just knowing which trail you needed to be on. Case in point, Wally and I had gotten ahead of Chris and come to high point providing a beautiful vista of the surrounding area only to discover that we had passed out turn off for the next trail.
Honestly, the trails didn’t really connect. They were more like two trails passing in the night, separated by 10 yards of desert vegetation. This next trail was not nearly as well defined, especially early on. The trail did become more obvious as we continued. The down hill sections were at time very steep and not much fun . In fact, I think it was universally agreed upon that we all preferred going up rather than down. That is saying something. There were two major down climbs separated by a nice flat section providing fantastic views of the nearby water. The second down climb got us pretty close to the water and the trail may have eventually got us to water’s edge. But the trail kept meandering along the upper river banks and we reached our designated turn around spot before the trail ended. I walked to a spot to where the trail dropped down to Bagley Flat. Not sure what the trail did when it reached the Flat.
The return hike was uneventful though a little taxing at times. Surprisingly, the first major climb was the more taxing of the two. On the way out, I revisited the “high point” and enjoyed the views once again. Lucky enough to have a cell signal so I was able to have a video chat with the wife and share the views. On the way out we took the route we meant to take on our way in. There were some beautiful gold colored rock monolith views but it was steep at times. Not bad going down, but it would have been a  going up. We might have gotten lucky by mistakenly stumbling on that alternate route going in.
Really awesome hike…almost as good as the Supes.  Great company. Nice to touch base with Chris and Wally again. No wildlife, though Wally and I saw a couple of eagles playing in the distance when we got back to the TH. Pretty much had the trails to ourselves though I did come upon 3 horse riders when I revisited the “high point”. They moved on when I arrived. Never saw them again. Thanks again Chris for the invite and putting together this route. |
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