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| Hiking | 13.53 Miles |
3,815 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.53 Miles | 7 Hrs 44 Mns | | 1.84 mph |
| 3,815 ft AEG | 23 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | I can barely believe that it's been a solid 15 years since I've hiked in the Pinals. Time flies and we'll all be dead soon enough, so better get at it. With the weather heating up and needing to continue with the bigger AEG hikes, this was the perfect spot in early June.
We started from the Icehouse campground/THand started the loop counter clockwise, going up Icehouse. Along the way we missed the turn and ended up going up Telephone Ridge, which is why I've included it in my triplog linked trails. Luckily Wally caught it quickly so we didn't go up too far.
The first 2 miles up Icehouse were a slog. The trail starts as a wide road, then gets steep, loose and rocky, and it's in the sun. Even with a 6:30ish start, it was getting hot going uphill. At the 2 mile mark, we made our way to the ponderosas and shade. Soon after we caught some breezes and there was more lush vegetation. The trail leveled a bit before getting steeper again and then turned into switchbacks, but by then even though it was strenuous, it didn't seem too hard. Even with my recent trend of more strenuous hikes, it was interesting and a bit disappointing to note how in the really steep parts of the trail, I'm stuck in slow motion going up. Wally claimed to have the same feeling, but I'm pretty sure he was just being polite.
On the roads we went over to Pinal Peak. Before we got there we could hear a big racket, sounded like maybe dirt bikes. Upon getting to the peak, we found a work crew that were demolishing several antenna dishes.
On the way back down we took the Ferndell Trail over to the Sixshooter. Along Ferndell, we took a detour to the upper rec area in search of a picnic table for lunch, which we found. However, it was in full sunlight. We tried to find another one, but there were limited campgrounds in that area and they all seemed to be occupied, so we didn't want to bother anyone.
Sixshooter was steep on the way down at first, which almost made it rough after a strenuous ascent. Then it leveled out and even climbed before descending to the TH. the pattern was the same as Icehouse only in reverse, shady at first, then exposed and sunny.
The last mile was a slog. Missed the turn to stay on Sixshooter. Wally did the same thing before me and tried to mark the ground by drawing an arrow, which I naturally missed. the temps got hot, but not too bad, and while it wasn't exactly level at that point, it wasn't crazy steep.
It was really interesting remembering past hikes here with HAZ crews and trying to remember parts of the trails. It was very much like a totally new hike in most spots since it's been so long. It was also surreal realizing how long it's been since those past hikes happened.
on the way home 60 was closed due to an accident. We took 188 to 87 as a detour. 10+ miles up 188, I looked online and realized a better option was 77 to 177 back to Superior. It probably cost us an extra hour, but we lived. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Steady flow from the pipe 
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What wasn't explained is why 10 people were using brooms to clear the first half mile of trail when the next two miles were littered with deadfall, rocks, and erosion. They did say they don't ride or hike back up the hill so it made no sense to me why they would spend so much time manicuring a tiny part of a trail that was largely impassable by bikes anyway. Give it a year or three and they should have the whole thing looking like a bocce court for your hiking pleasure!
. After reaching the ridge it cleared up nicely and climbing back up toward sixshooter was enjoyable.
