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| Hiking | 5.85 Miles |
890 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.85 Miles | 3 Hrs 1 Min | | 2.13 mph |
| 890 ft AEG | 16 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | A dawn start out at First Water Trailhead to beat the heat and sneak in this quick loop - found one car there when we arrived. The lots for crosscut had a lot of cars as we drove in, and it looked like there might have been a few vehicles at the horse lot as we passed. Gathered up our things and headed off to do the loop in a counter-clockwise direction.
Much of the green that I saw when I was out this way last has dried and is dying back. Unfortunately, loads of saharan mustard (all dried at this point) and stinknet are prevalent along the way. Beautiful scenery as always, along this loop. We didn't detour to check Hackberry Spring as we passed.
Wildlife: Loads of grasshoppers, several other insects, an overly friendly blister beetle (discovered it when I looked to see what might have chomped me and found it hitching a ride on my shoulder - I don't think it deposited any cantharidin, but I guess I'll find out in a couple hours), some butterflies, various birds and lizards, a bunny, a chipmunk, a pair of noisy noodles, and a road runner.
Other people: a pair of backpackers at the large campsite near the spring, and I lost count of how many day hikers we saw coming the other direction along the trail. There was a large group that looked like they were getting ready to begin hiking as we were getting ready to leave.
Both the horse lot and the first water lot had about a dozen vehicles each when we got back. Temps had risen from the low 70s to the mid to upper 80s by the time we were done. A good chunk of the hike was in shade - sun first hit us as we gained the top of garden mesa, then again as we climbed out from the spring area to finish off the hike. It was definitely toasty as we climbed out and finished off the loop. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
The cholla are budding out, saw one prickly pear bloom about to pop, several hedgehog cactuses blooming. I don't generally associate March with cactus blooms...
Most other things are dying back rapidly with this record breaking heatwave. |
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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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