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| Hiking | 2.81 Miles |
950 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.81 Miles | 1 Hour 50 Mns | | 1.53 mph |
| 950 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Funny. This was suppose to be a write up describing a hike of Estrella's Quartz Peak Trail. However, fate had other plans.  Met up with Chris at 4am to get an early start. On driving out to the TH we discovered that Bullard Rd was closed at Riggs Rd because all the recent rain had created a major wash. Undaunted, we returned to what I believe was Rainbow Valley Rd and went further south and took the next rd ( not sure what the name was) over to Bullard. We then took Bullard north to get to the turn off as described in the trail description. We were back on track and looking good  . It is here I should note that though Chris has a nice high clearance vehicle it's 4 wheel drive is currently out of commission  . As we drove on the soil became more and more sandier. Finally, we reached a point where we thought it was getting a little too thick. So we turned around. As we were driving back along Bullard, we saw another dirt road heading in the direction of the Estrella's. We thought why not give it a try. We reaaallly wanted to do this hike. The road looked good and was. It eventually "T" ed into another, sandier road. We took this road south for a few miles and determined that it was taking us away from our TH. So we turned around and tried the other direction. This direction seemed to be more promising, but it never turned toward the mountain. It just paralleled it. Finally, we stopped to turn around and as we were doing that..... Yep, you guessed it. QUICKSAND  Or the equivalent to a 2 ton truck without 4 wheel drive. Chris's truck has big tires and I want to say that at one time, one of his wheels was buried up to 14 inches of sand. It took us 2+ hours, numerous jackings, and repeated use of sticks and kindling for traction to move 30 feet back to the road. (we eventually found some good sized branches that helped immensely. There was not a rock to be seen out there). Not sure how close we got to the TH, but we decided that today wasn't the day. So........
Hello peak 2212! Chris had to work tonight so he couldn't do this hike. But I had taken today off to go hiking so I thought I would do this short hike which had been on my radar for awhile. It was all off trail for the most part. Though, for a time, I did follow an old, overgrown path that I believe was used in the installation of telephone poles back in the day. A couple of the poles are still standing on the northern slope and the route is still barely visible. As a I got closer to the top, that track became harder to follow, until at the end I was just bushwhacking. Views were nice from the top. Found a phone pole lying near the summit. And there looked to be a possible trail heading down the eastern ridge oft the mountain. But since headed towards homes I went down on north slope western side. It was all off trail, but not too bad. Startled a couple deer on the way down. Decent hike. Nice to get it off my list 
One of these days Quartz Peak. One of these days.... |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Steady winds all the way down.
After a few minutes, I continued west along the ridge to an unnamed peak/hill. About this time, I had some cholla leap onto the back of my leg; my knife and tweezers finally payed off. Started heading back to the car via one of the many roads/trails in the area, but opted to follow a wash instead.
