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| Hiking | 11.54 Miles |
3,230 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.54 Miles | 7 Hrs 58 Mns | | 2.01 mph |
| 3,230 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 13 Mns Break | 14 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | This was the filler hike, before the 1pm - 4pm Plan A that took us North.
We dropped into Pine Canyon from the Northern TH off 87, between the 260 and the Rim Road.
Chums and Toughboots got an eye full first thing in the morning, giving Kyle ideas on how to make some extra money, which he tried to sell me and Chums on.
Beautiful views of the Canyon dropping in. The sun was warm, but under the shade of the tall pines, it was nice. Pine Creek had a nice flow to it and everything was green. We followed the BSA signs to checkout Darling Rocks (Waste of time) and further to find the Deep Pools. We are not exactly sure what constituted the Deep Pools. If it's something obvious, we did not see them.
We passed a couple of runners and dog walkers, before we made the turn up the East Rim Trail. This is as steep as I remember it. The rock climbing part at the top is my favorite section.
We chose a path across Milk Ranch Point to the North to try and take advantage of the old forest roads. There are a couple of nice (and unused on a Labor Day weekend) camping sites, with views into Pine Canyon. We dropped into Pine canyon again at the spot I'd drawn up. Chums led the charge downhill over the steep, loose terrain. Kyle was having a BLAST! The lower third of the down climb was through soft maples that will be in their glory soon.
We took lunch at the creek and then made our way up Stradling Canyon. I'd seen signs for this one before (As well as Cinch Hook Canyon) and was curious as to what it was all about.
Pretty tame elevation gain for the first part, which turned into some areas of rock climbing and most notably, Poison Ivy (Yes the Boy Scouts had a sign for that also). I took my time in the areas of Poison Ivy, not wanting to add to the that which I'd acquired from the Sierra Ancha the prior week. So far, so good.
A short FR road walk and we were back to the Chumsmobile. At this point we'd blown past the window of opportunity for the original reason we'd come this way, so we enjoyed a couple of Barley Pops and called it a day!
A little excitement on the way home after we passed the Mt Ord turnoff around MM 216. There were 6 separate fires, about 30' x 8', right next to the guardrail, that had just been set by some yahoo in front of us. More than likely from their car while driving. We saw no responding vehicles coming up from Fountain Hills, so they must have responded from Payson.
Good hike gentlemen, thanks for driving Todd! |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Dave Barry  |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
