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| Hiking | 8.61 Miles |
1,996 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.61 Miles | 4 Hrs 15 Mns | | 2.03 mph |
| 1,996 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | O'Leary Peak
With Hannah, Dom, Pauli and Skippy.
Wanted to escape the valley heat and get a little altitude in preparation for tackling Mt. Whitney later this summer. Hannah and others have been reporting that T-storms have been a daily occurrence this May in the Flagstaff area. With recent trip reports to Humphreys and Kendrick Peak indicated many washouts (snow-outs?), so we opted for something we thought would be in rain shadow - O'Leary Peak.
Got on the road by 6am and we got to the TH before 10am. Only a couple of small cotton balls in the sky at 10 o'clock...
Need to report that the HAZ Hike Description is no longer accurate. TH parking is just past the camp ground on FR545A - driving up to the saddle between Darton Dome and O'Leary Peak is no longer an option. I think the road closure creates some isolation on the hike as we only encountered a mountain biker and 2 other couples making the trek.
The forest road path initially hugs the extreme western boundary of Sunset Crater National Monument and the surreal Bonita Lava Flow. We soon passed the side trail to Robinson Mountain (will leave that for some future adventure) and on to the saddle between Darton Dome and O'Leary Peak. As we took a break at the saddle to give the dogs some water, a menacing front passed over Sunset Crater complete with major sound effects. We pushed on further up the peak towards the lookout tower.
When we reached the next-to-last switchback near the O'Leary "twin peaks" saddle it started to rain. With the constant rumble of thunder and a lightning flash that traversed the peak, Hannah commented that we should be turning back. I could see that Dom wanted to push on to the summit with it being so close. Looking to the west I could see another dark front pushed towards us. Seems we were in the weather collision zone with rain clouds coming in from the east, south, and west. Time to turn around...
We easily flew down the mountain with intermittent rain hitting us off and on. Cracks of thunder were making the dogs VERY concerned. When we load ourselves into my truck, the sky let loose with mega-drops hitting the windshield with +2 inch diameters - good call Hannah! |
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