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| Hiking | 7.32 Miles |
3,020 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.32 Miles | 5 Hrs 14 Mns | | 1.63 mph |
| 3,020 ft AEG | 45 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | A colleague from my old firm reached out earlier in the week with an invite to hike up to Peak 5057 from the "south" route, beginning at the Hieroglyphic Trailhead. I've hiked 5057 up Hieroglyphic Canyon itself, as well as the traditional Carney Springs route, but was intrigued by what he referred to as the "south" route. He was referring to the description on another app, and when I compared that app's map to HAZ, I figured out it was the Balanced Rock Loop. The official HAZ route peels off from the Hieroglyphic trail sooner than the route my friend was using, and when I looked at alternate routes posted on HAZ, I found several that followed the other route, so I uploaded one of those to RS instead.
I'm supposed to be "tapering" for an upcoming half marathon next week, so doing a 3000+ AEG hike was probably not the best training move, but I went with my YOLO instinct and decided to do it anyway. And I'm glad I did. It was a gorgeous day to be outside, with fantastic visibility across the entire valley.
I met my colleague (Steve) and a couple of his friends (Tim and another Steve) at the TH around 7:15, and we got on the trail shortly after that. Still plenty of room in the parking lot at that time. We only passed a couple of people over the first 1.5 miles to the glyph area, and along the way enjoyed a nice sunrise and distant views up the ridgeline of the balanced rock, which would be a visual guidepost for our off-trail route.
Approaching the glyph area, we saw a group of hikers up ahead. Shortly after veering off trail and beginning the route-finding adventure, we caught up to the group, and I immediately recognized @LindaAnn. It's always nice to see a fellow HAZ member out in the "real world," and after introductions, it turned out we were all on the same itinerary.
Continuing up, the route predictably spiders, and sometimes we were following cairns, and other times just winging it, generally heading towards the balanced rock.
When we reached the knife-ridge on which the balanced rock sits, we had the option of staying on the west side of the ridge or crossing over to the east at a point where a short scramble leads to a little pass. Our group of 4 split, and I ended up crossing over to the east side, and made my way up to the balanced rock itself. Cool views from there and fun to reach this unique landmark that can be seen essentially from the TH.
We looked down on the rest of our group, trying to plod along below on the west side of the ridge. We convinced them to backtrack and follow our line on the east--which if not the only route, I think is the better one.
From that point, we followed easterly ridge all the way up to Peak 5057, which included some fun sections of scrambling and route finding. Cairns were pretty good, but it was nice to have the gps route on RS as well, as there are a handful of places where the route is not entirely clear, and we avoided some potential backtracking by consulting the GPS.
Reaching 5057, we were treated to great 360 degree views, and with the haze-free skies, visibility was fantastic.
We had the summit to ourselves (and hadn't seen another soul since crossing paths with Linda's group).
Descending back to the ridgeline trail, we passed a few more groups going both directions. The route between the steep downclimb NW of 5057 and the Hieroglyphic canyon turn off has become significantly more well-defined since the last time I did this section of the ridgeline.
The climb down Hieroglyphic Canyon was steep and fun. Still some water flowing through, but nothing like I'm sure it was a couple of weeks ago.
Once we reached the glyph area, it was the expected zoo of mass humanity. Lots of folks enjoying this easily accessible gem. Back at the TH by 12:30, with cars circling the now overflowing lot. Our exit made at least a couple of cars happy.
Another great day in the Supes and fun to try this new-to-me route! |
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