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| Backpack | 22.35 Miles |
5,186 AEG |
| | Backpack | 22.35 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 5,186 ft AEG | | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | My buddy Keith suggested a loop starting at Esperero, going over Cathedral Saddle to West Fork, and returning to the Sabino parking lot via Phoneline. We'd stay the night above Bridal Veil somewhere. So we set out on Friday morning, only to have Keith bow out 30 minutes into the trip for medical reasons. He handed me his Garmin communicator and wished me well while he returned to the car.
On my own, I pressed on. Made it to the falls before noon and had lunch, and replenished water. Mostly had the falls to myself; shortly before I left another hiker showed up and left about as quickly as he arrived. He was the last person I'd see till Hutch's Pool the following day.
Esperero above the falls is not my favorite. It's exposed and hot, very steep, and still pretty crispy from the Bighorn fire. I embraced the suck and attained Cathedral Rock Trail. I'd never been on it so didn't know what to expect. It's actually a pretty nice trail. Not as steep, not as crispy (until you get to the saddle), and there were actually flowing drainages and great views.
Cathedral Saddle wasn't much to write home about. Never having been there I was entertaining the idea of settling for the night, but it was basically a lightly crispified snarl of scrub oak. There were nice views of Cathedral Rock though, so I took some pictures and rested a bit before heading down to West Fork. I knew there were great campsites around the junction there, so that was my plan.
I hadn't seen any snow on the trail till Cathedral Saddle, and there was still quite a bit up high. I had to pick my way down but only slipped once. The downhill is very steep and my feet weren't happy with me, especially since I had already put about eight miles on them to get to the saddle. The trail was at least recently maintained, brushed, and totally clear.
Made camp at the junction around 4:30. Briefly entertained the thought of pressing on to Hutch's Pool since there was enough daylight left, but I was tired and didn't know if other campers would be at the Pool or not.
It was a warm night so I didn't bother with the fly. My only super light sleeping bag is a 15-degree, so that's what I packed, and I was worried it would be too hot. I unzipped it and used it as a blanket and it was definitely toasty but not bad. I hoped for stars but the sky had a thin haze and there was a full moon staring into my tent all night, so oh well.
Slept reasonably well, got up at 6:30 and was packed up by 8. Without any appreciable uphill, and very well used trails, I made much better time the second day.
I made it to Hutch's Pool, which had heavy flow coming through, and sure enough there was a camper there. Though he was packing up to leave when I arrived. I stopped to filter more water and hung out for a bit before moving on. I was dreading the first crossing after Hutch's, as it's always a bit dicey, and the creek flow was more than I've ever experienced. It took a while but I managed to bushwhack my way around to where I could sort of safely rock-hop across.
As I got closer to the junction with Sabino, I saw more and more hikers. Some had very wet feet. The last crossing before the junction was also impassable without a bushwhack workaround, but I was able to manage and keep my feet dry.
I hadn't been on the trail through Sabino before, except for part of Phoneline probably twenty years ago, and the views are great. I made it back to the car at 2pm, and Keith was there waiting for me with a cooler full of IBC root beer! (He had been tracking my progress using his Garmin.) |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
Getting better. More kinds of flowers. I have no idea what half of them are, but they are pretty. |
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Esperero Canyon |
Heavy flow |
Heavy flow |
| | | Good flow throughout with lots of falls and side drainages running. |
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Hutch's Pool |
76-100% full |
76-100% full |
| | | Tons of flow running through. | | | |
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! The final section of Esperero between the falls and window rock/cathedral rock junction is definitely the steepest portion of the trail and much more difficult than Cardial Gap.
I've hiked it before, but that was a totally different experience with the trails being in poor maintenance back then and the summer heat since I did it in June. Being my third time on Esperero, it was much easier to follow it this time and when the trail got thin or tough to follow from Geronimo Meadow to Mormon Spring, I was able to remember where the trail went from memory. Bridalviel Falls was flowing rather nicely with snow around the pool. That Cathedral trail is still a tad tough to follow, but its better than before. Above 6000ft on the southside, small patches of snow were on the trail but when I got to the saddle and looked down the north facing side it looked like it got a good foot or so of snow. 
It was noon by then, which is too late IMHO to make a sidetrip up Cathedral not to mention the patches of snow & ice everywhere. I didn't want to go back since I did that last year after a failed attempt on Cathedral... I met a woman who's been slowly maintaining the backside of Cathedral trail up from West Fork and she said that if I made it down a quarter mile or so, I'd run into her pink tape and the trail would be in good shape after that. The trail from the saddle to her pink tape is pretty tough to follow and now there's a foot of snow covering it, so I just found a drainage relatively clear of bushes & tress and 'postholed' my way down the slope. My feet had to have been sinking in a good 6-9 inches with sometimes going in all the way to my knee, causing me to fall and I'd throw my hands out to brace myself and 'find' some sticker bush buried in the snow. 
Total loop ended up taking 10 hours and covered about 21 miles.
