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| Hiking | 12.80 Miles |
2,263 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.80 Miles | 6 Hrs 35 Mns | | 2.13 mph |
| 2,263 ft AEG | 34 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Kelly and I pulled together some old tracks we’d each done over the years and decided to hit a few destinations in the Goldfields. Then, for unknown reasons, we decided to do it the dumbest way possible.
Met at the Wolverine gate at 0630 and walked in. First was Twin Arches. Our ascent route was awful, but we finally made it to the arches. Took a few pics up there, then headed down a much better route. Much much better. As soon as we got back to the road, I tripped over absolutely nothing and fell kind of hard. Despite my watch being convinced I was dead, I did survive.
We headed over towards Top Hat. On the way up, we both commented we didn’t remember the route looking like this. Sure enough, the correct route to Palo Verde Arch was below us to our left. Undeterred, we continued uphill on the west side of the summit. Very steep. At the base of the final cliff band, just below the summit, I decided any further ascending was a no from me. Kelly continued ahead to see if the route got any better. The last words I head from her were “this is bad” as she crawled uphill and around a corner disappearing from view. Five minutes later, she hadn’t reappeared. A couple minutes after that, I was starting to get concerned and took my phone out of airplane mode and started rehearsing what to tell rescuers if she didn’t make an appearance soon. Just as I was deciding whether to continue uphill into the unknown, or make a phone call, Kelly appeared above me at the summit. She said the route was bad, but doable. Nope. I told her I was heading back downhill to circle around to the correct trail to the arch and to meet me there.
We met at the arch, then continued on the rest of our planned hike. East on Horse with no Name, and explored around that area a bit—fun walking through the rocks and formations. Saw a turtle, or tortoise, I don’t know the difference. After that, we dropped down to Cottonwood Wash. We opted to skip Anniversary Arch and headed south on Cottonwood. Quick stop at the spring, which had plenty of water, but a little murky.
Some road walking over to Blue Ridge to finish out the hike. Good breeze most of the morning, but a little warm for the last mile. Not too bad though. Fun hike, and it was kind of entertaining to laugh at our mistakes as we reacted on the fly. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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