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| Hiking | 3.90 Miles |
2,489 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.90 Miles | 6 Hrs | | 0.65 mph |
| 2,489 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | This turned out to be a very cool hike, both for the destination and the crew we had for it. My neighbor Marty has his two friends Mark (Sarge) and Tom, and 6 HAZ members showed, for a total of 9 guys. We crammed 9 of us into 2 4x4s and made our way to the TH.
Once we got to the TH, we had a little bit of a scare as armorlock's pack bounced out of the bed of Marty's pickup on the way in due to the bumpy road. Thankfully, it was only around the corner, and he returned a scant 30 seconds after jogging down the road to look for it. Joe, vaporman and Jim had already retreated to the Stillermobile for warmth as armorlock took off, expecting him to take much longer. I opened the door, shut off the ignition and said, "Ok ladies, let's go.", and we were off.
Sarge and Dave were the first to reach the ruins. Joe and Vaporman would have been the next group, but they took a "shortcut". Jim was the only guy who was bright enough to actually download the route from this website into his (mom's) GPS before this hike, so I made sure to not get too far ahead of him and ask him for directions once the trail got squirrelly. The last 1/4 mile is all of the slog that the triplogs say it is. The steepness isn't quite as bad as the fact that the ground was soft and muddy, making traction a total luxury. At least the thin branches you could use to pull yourself up had thorns in them, or else who knows what we would have done.
We spent a good 45 minutes at the ruins, taking the obligatory pics. The weather this day was mostly cloudy, which didn't really make for great pics, but we held our own. Notable points of interest were the metates, shards, fingerprints in the mud/mortar for the stones, and the federal offenses committed by those climbing higher for better pics.
Stopped in the cave on the way down at the cave for a peek, where I tripped and I think finally killed my camera. still a cool jaunt into a cave, probably the furthest I've ever been into one that wasn't already a tourist site. I did have to point out the exit to Dave as he passed me at the first intersection on the way in (on his way out).
Making our way down the waterfalls made for some funs pics and videos. The drive out on FR203 was a bit of a slog, almost worse than the mud surfing down the upper portion of the trail (if you're the driver). Stopped in Miami for a nice Mexican food dinner while we huddled around Joe's cell phone for updates on the Cards game. Got back to my house in Mesa just after 7pm, making for quite a long, but very cool, day. |
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Route Editor
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