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| Hiking | 7.78 Miles |
1,183 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.78 Miles | 2 Hrs 35 Mns | | 3.01 mph |
| 1,183 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Early morning hike in the Estrellas. The Desert Rose can be a challenging trail to do during NASCAR season. I believe they close off this TH when PIR is active and they are already getting prepped for the March 7th race. Got to the TH around 6am. Beautiful breezy, somewhat chilly morning. Clouds made for some interesting, but muted colors. Took the trail out to where it ends with the Gadsden. Then got somewhat sidetracked. First, with the giant X on top of a nearby hill off the Gadsden trail. I swear it is growing. And then, thinking about a use trail I had stumbled upon years ago, I started an off trail meander on the mountain slope just to the south. I’m not sure if there are a lot of old use trails out there or I just got lucky, but I came across one fairly quickly. I followed it for a ways until it reached a second saddle. The trail was overgrown (primarily with weeds from last years late season rains), but still followable with occasional cairns. It seemed somewhat similar to what I remember from years ago. Not sure. The trail had a split prior to reaching the second saddle. So instead of following it past the saddle (it seemed to drop down into a valley….which didn’t jive with my memory), I returned to the split and followed split as it headed back toward the Desert Rose Trail. Curious to see if and where it connected. It did. But the connection was pretty faint. Now I have an idea of where to pick up this trail if I want to explore it further. From this intersection I followed the Desert Rose back to the TH.
Beautiful morning for a hike, though the air quality wasn’t great. No wildlife, but I encountered one lone hiker and then a group of 17(?) hikers as I was heading out. That’s one of the larger groups I’ve seen. Surprised to see them (or anyone) on what I consider to be a somewhat forgotten part of the Estrella trail system. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
