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| | | Hellsgate Exploration, AZ | | | |
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Hellsgate Exploration, AZ
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| Hiking | 17.79 Miles |
4,256 AEG |
| | Hiking | 17.79 Miles | 10 Hrs 55 Mns | | 1.92 mph |
| 4,256 ft AEG | 1 Hour 40 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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| partners | | I've knocked out more than a few miles in the Hellsgate Wilderness with Joel. Most have involved slow, but spectacularly scenic miles in Haigler Creek, negotiating pools, waterfalls, cascades, bypasses, and most everything an Arizona wilderness area can serve up.
When he suggested this one recently, I was quickly on board. Having never hiked the actual #37 trail, I was happy to try it out on this day/night schedule. The hike in was pleasant, the temperature warm and the cool spring water refreshing to get into at the bottom. We ventured separate ways at the confluence, where I headed up Haigler to finish off the only mile of the creek I hadn't previously covered. This section provided surprisingly nice scenery, and unanticipated slow going, including 5 deep swimmers that I didn't expect.
With time a concern, I didn't want to retrace my steps and then fight the upstream current going up Tonto to where I'd expect to find Joel, so I took the cross-country route, climbing ~600 feet to cross the peninsula between the two creeks and then headed down Tonto toward Hellsgate.
I've been impressed with Haigler since my early introduction in the 90s. Tonto down near Hellsgate is even more impressive. The Hellsgate to Gisela trip remains on my to-do list, and now I'm certain that I'd like to do the whole Tonto from Bear Flat too. It looks like it could have some special places.
Eventually, I got far enough downstream that I found Joel. I kept going to the confluence and changed into dry clothes. Joel returned a while later and after a short fire to dry out and warm up, we headed out at 8pm for the 7+ miles back to the trailhead. The temperature was cool and there was occasionally a nice breeze that made for a perfect startlit evening for this hike. We hadn't been talking much on the steep climb, so as we passed El Grande Tank, I decided to talk loudly, knowing that this would be a prime spot for a predator to keep watch. As Joel remarked that it was almost certain a cat was keeping an eye on the tank, he panned his headlamp up the slope and caught the eyes of a lion that just sat and observed us as we hiked by. Sometimes it's nice to be hiking with two people!
A bit later I caught glimpse of what might have been another lion, but seemed smaller so I'm going to say it was a bobcat, and I also got to within a couple of feet of an owl in the trail that waited until the last second to fly away and absolutely scared the poop out of me. My headlamp made it clear that I had scared the poop out of it too. Literally.
A couple of cats down, and a crazy-close owl experience had us on alert, but the remaining glowing eyes belonged to cows. Still those future burgers managed to grab our attention for a split second too!
Good times in the wilderness. It was a long day, and I was happy to crawl into bed after 0100. |
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El Grande Tank |
76-100% full |
76-100% full |
| | | ugly looking but prob 80% or so | | _____________________
| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
) and in the end we settled on Hell's Gate Trail that we wanted to follow till the wilderness boundary. Well we were wrong on the social distancing part at least on the first mile of the trail - parking lot was more or less full and we met a lot of people returning (we had a late start) but for the rest of the trail we met only two more people. The trail sometimes follows the old road (which is still driven as we met an ATV along the way) and sometimes deviates from it cutting some of the sections of the road. The deviations are mostly well marked as long as you keep an eye out for the cairns/signs. There are quite a few up and downs but we enjoyed the trail, walking by the flowing creek was a highlight with birds singing and butterflies everywhere (buckeyes mostly) and then the great views as we were approaching the boundary. We had a snack near the boundary marker enjoying the views before returning back to the car just as the sun was setting.
