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| Hiking | 10.45 Miles |
1,368 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.45 Miles | 5 Hrs 10 Mns | | 2.08 mph |
| 1,368 ft AEG | 9 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | With extremely high winds in the forecast for the day we originally planned to hike, we had to switch up our plans to pick another day which meant settling for a day where we had some time constraints to work around. J suggested the Fraser Randolph loop, and since I hadn't hiked the loop before, it was new terrain for me. Made the drive out to the Woodbury trailhead early-ish, starting our hike a little after sunrise. The drive was uneventful - the big washout that we saw on 172 is still not repaired, with the cattle guard still stranded, and all of the traffic routing to the creekbed as a bypass. Surprisingly (or not), the road to the Woodbury seems better off than the main road.
With temps in the 40s, we headed on down towards the JF ranch, then hopped onto the Coffee Flat trail. Sections of the trail were covered in dew covered grass, resulting in my feet getting throughly drenched. For the most part, the trail is in decent shape with cairns marking the way. As the trail winds its way along Fraser Creek, there are often sections of trail on either side...though in some cases, I suspect I may have been better off staying in the creekbed, if for no other reason than my feet may have stayed drier rock hopping vs wading through the grasses.
Hit the confluence, and noted that the trees are leafing out before making our way up Randolph with a brief detour to enjoy the views up Red Tanks Canyon. We stayed in the creek bed heading up Randolph - much of it seemed to have been filled in with sand, so while there is some rock hopping, I suspect it might have been worse before all the sand washed in. As we continued up canyon, both J and I had some unfortunate missteps with quicksand resulting in waterlogged footwear for both of us.
The views were beautiful. We heard plenty of birds and saw a number of butterflies flitting about. Lots of deer tracks but no wildlife sightings. It was a wonderful visit to a beautiful area of the Superstitions that I hadn't spent time in previously. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
Plenty of seep monkey flower in the creekbeds, along with lupine and a few poppies. The hillsides on the drive in/out are festooned in brittle bush and some slopes are blanketed in poppies. |
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Randolph Spring |
Quart per minute |
Quart per minute |
| | | decent flow over the dam that goes across the creekbed. |
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Whetstone Spring |
Dripping |
Dripping |
| | | Didn't spy the actual spring, but Fraser has light flow in this area. | | _____________________
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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