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| Hiking | 10.10 Miles |
2,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.10 Miles | 5 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.84 mph |
| 2,500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | This hike probably has some of the best views of any hike I've done in the Sierra Anchases. Ted and Alex joined me for this one. I used to hike with Ted a lot more back in the days before I discovered HAZ and GPS, and subsequently our old hiking stories involve getting lost and other various misadventures that could have easily resulted in either one of our deaths. But I digress....
We started from the beginning of the McFadden Horse Trail off 288 just before 8am. This starts off the bat very steep. There are a few semi-less steep spots, but soon enough the loose rock keeps it interesting. We reached the trail junction quickly enough, and in fact almost walked past it since it's a little offset from the steady vegetative wall along the McFadden Horse/Cienega Trails.
After the trail junction we continued up McFadden Horse trail and it only gets steeper and looser, which brought back some PTSD memories of Leisure Canyon http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=17543. We pretend to take quick breaks to take pictures of the scenery as we ascended, but soon enough, we all stopped to breathe after awhile without pretenses of youth and physical fitness. We were all drenched in sweat and when we checked our thermometers thinking it would show how hot it already was even at this elevation, we saw that it was only 74 degrees.
Soon enough it leveled off and the hike became much more pleasant. We had a level trail, shade, and a breeze. Things swung in the opposite direction very quickly. After a little while, the trial started to descend quite a bit until it leveled off again until we reached the endpoint, which was spectacular. We spent a good 20 minutes there taking pictures and taking in the scenery. I took out my NatGeo map at one point and we tried to identify some of the peaks we saw. A breeze almost blew my map away, so that didn't last too long. The rock outcroppings and cliffs at this point are many, and it's kind of dicey making your way around. a lot of the rocks have big cracks in them, making us all very apprehensive to not pull a Wile E. Coyote while trying to get that magic picture. At one point I wedged my walking stick into a crack in the rock and actually moved the one part of the rock, so while it looks pretty solid for the most part, we weren't taking anything for granted.
Our original plan was to try to also hike the Cienega Spring Trail, depending on time, temp, etc. Once we got back to the trail junction, Ted told us he was definitely not trying the extra 5 miles. I had the idea of giving him my car keys and having him meet us at the other TH. We had it all worked out until he informed us that he hasn't driven a standard transmission for over 30 years. oh well. instead, we decided to hike about a mile in on the Cienega Trail and head back. we got to the first uranium mine when Ted decided he was done. Alex and I hiked a mile in according to our odometers, which underestimate mileage. The final mileage for the hike was 10.1. Alex and I saw 3 mines total. After the extra "mile" mark, we both felt the heat kicking in and I could tell I was running low on water. We made it back to the car without incident and headed home. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Starts out with ponderosa pines and then climbs to the top of Center Mtn, giving really nice views of Cherry Creek. We saw the trail to Murphy Ranch on the way to the top. Funny that there's a trail marker there and no trail is shown on any maps. Looks like a plan for a hike for another day. 
. alex recognized a spot he was sure we walked thru. Once I got home and downloaded the track, we were 9 yards short of completing the whole trail 
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
Oh well 
. Close enough.
. temps were nice, hotter than the forecast, but still cooler than Phoenix. Shade and breezes helped out alot.
