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| Poking around Pinal Peak, AZ | |
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| | Poking around Pinal Peak, AZ | | | |
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Poking around Pinal Peak, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.85 Miles |
1,573 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.85 Miles | 3 Hrs 35 Mns | | 1.87 mph |
| 1,573 ft AEG | 27 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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| partners | | With the heat in the lower elevations, we headed up into the Pinals to try to catch a break. The drive out was uneventful - the road up is well graded, with ample turnouts to allow traffic heading in the opposite direction to pass. As we drove up, there were a few cars heading out, and the campgrounds looked to have a high percentage of occupation.
Temps at Pinal Campground were comfortably cool - we gathered our things and headed off to pick up the trail not far from the road. The sensor in my pack tells me it was in the low 70s when we began, though the car reported a considerably lower value. 
The campground itself is nicely treed, though as we ambled onward, we quickly found ourselves in a region of burn. That section of the trail didn't last too long though, and eventually we were back into the trees (a delightful mixed forest of pine, oak, and maple) and non-burned regions - though there is a LOT of fuel on the ground. There are a few deadfall - most are easily negotiated - one large one had us scrambling uphill to find a spot where we could more easily get over it.
Once we hit the junction with Sixshooter, the trail headed steadily downhill. At the intersection with the Ferndell Trail, we could hear the pumphouse running before we caught sight of it, fenced off nearby. We didn't go looking for the spring while we were in the area - instead, we continued onward down towards Trail Junction Mine Spring. As we hiked we were accompanied by the steady hum of flying insects, and often had to try to shoo them away from our faces. They were extremely persistent - and I'm sure given how itchy I am, some of them were of the biting variety.
Eventually we made it down to the junction with the Telephone Trail. The trough for Trail Junction Mine Spring was full, though quite tannic. Six shooter creek is flowing with clear water at the junction and was burbling along nicely. We stopped for a quick snack break, and I took the opportunity to slather myself with picaridin in hopes of deterring the bugs on the climb back up. After taking some photos of a friendly butterfly, we made our way back up Sixshooter, and headed up the Ferndell trail, passing the upper campground to head up to the top of Pinal Peak, to view the communications towers and the mostly empty unnamed tank. After a few photos up top, we headed back down to the Upper Pinal Campground to walk the road and pick up the Middle Trail and make our way back.
The day heated up, and things felt warm in the sun, especially when there wasn't any breeze. My temperature sensor put us just below 80F when we got back to the car to clean up before heading back down the mountain. We stopped for a bit at La Casita in Globe before making our way back to the valley.
Wildlife: Plenty of birdsong, some lizards, grasshoppers, and butterflies.
Other People: none on the trail, though we saw a number of folk at the campgrounds as we walked through. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
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Six Shooter Canyon |
Light flow |
Light flow |
| | | Light flow (easily stepped over) at the junction of sixshooter and telephone, near the trail junction spring. | | _____________________
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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