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| | | Sierra Ancha FR 2325 & 142, AZ | | | |
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Sierra Ancha FR 2325 & 142, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.80 Miles |
1,524 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.80 Miles | 3 Hrs 31 Mns | | 1.69 mph |
| 1,524 ft AEG | 5 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Looking for somewhat cooler temps the Sierra Ancha area held promise, but where?
East, Middle or Western Sierras?
East or Middle means the US 60 (construction by Superior) to Globe, so, being a Saturday, let's just head up AZ 288 and plan on something from there.
Seems most that came to mind were the usual suspects so I looked back into my archives for something different, and what I came up with was a hike to cover ground which we originally traveled in my Samurai over 13 years ago.
It was interesting way back when because Forest Road 2325 was unmarked where it left AZ 288, and in fact I never knew exactly where it was until doing a full loop, first on Forest Road 142 and driving out UP Forest Road 2325, popping onto AZ 288 seemingly out of nowhere. Even again today, on foot it wasn't very obvious so the waypoint led the way.
As rough as the drive was in 2012, it was far more brutal on foot!
Leaving AZ 288 to go onto FR 2325 gave no warning of what was ahead, dropping 600 feet in .6 mile... sure, that's only down 100 feet for every 500 feet forward, but the worst of it was the never-ending threat of loose rocks, varying from golf balls to baby-heads, requiring constant vigilance with every footstep to keep from falling, something neither of us cared to deal with... especially at three-quarters-of-a-century.
Also, as steep and jarring as it was my hips were complaining loudly within a hundred feet of descent... and would pretty much continue with every ascent or descent, as other than one somewhat flat tenth-mile along a ridge, everything else was steep.
Actually the hike was kind of weird because almost nothing seemed familiar... likely due to the fact almost everywhere we hiked this time, I had driven it in 2012, so there were no 'memories' of hiking it.
Once back to the car we weren't totally burned out so we hiked up some semblance of road up to the ridge South of the corner on AZ 288 where we had parked.
(Which as I post this I see that has received the moniker Misdirection Hill... which although it appears it might go down into Conner Canyon, it does not. But FR 2325 does.)
A tough hike for sure, but I survived. Tracey did too, but it's definitely a 'never-again' hike. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
) we were on our way at 6:50am, TH Hike Start at 9:25am, back to TH Park at 3:20pm..then after an afternoon of more off road driving to scout out more new (ancient) HAZ- ssk44 Sierra Ancha GE found ruin locations 
