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| | | Parsons Virgus Negro Henry, AZ | | | |
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Parsons Virgus Negro Henry, AZ
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| Hiking | 9.66 Miles |
1,736 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.66 Miles | 4 Hrs 42 Mns | | 2.32 mph |
| 1,736 ft AEG | 32 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | If we hadn't had to postpone the trip two weeks we may have hit some peak fall colors, but it sure didn't dampen our spirits on a beautiful fall day. In fact, just the opposite... seeing a new area for the first time has simply whetted my appetite for more hikes in an area much larger than I realized.
We started off where Hank and Erik began their hikes back in May 2009, began our loop hike clockwise, first following Parson's Canyon south to the cabin at the spring, then returning northward past Cement Tank Spring in Virgus Canyon back to the TH, where we simply continued north as far as where Negro Henry Canyon connects to Virgus Canyon, taking a side-trip partway up Negro Henry Canyon.
Almost all the way on the second part of our hike north in Virgus Canyon I had noticed JJ constantly casting eyes upward to the cliffs and ridge on the east side of the canyon, so on the return I suggested he go ahead and climb up to the ridge and I would climb up the next drainage and meet him then continue along the ridge for a view on Virgus Canyon from above. Of course rocket-man JJ had no trouble beating me to the overlook. That's when JJ said "Hey, we missed that cabin completely!" Sure enough, we had been so focused on continuing down the canyon we didn't notice it up the hill.
Well we can't let that opportunity go now, can we? So JJ immediately starts down the cliff while I, being the old guy becoming more wary with advancing age, sought a slightly less threatening route. So, JJ took the straight route and I took the angled route which meant I had to backtrack a few hundred yards, which by that time JJ had found the small chain-link-fenced cemetery with a solitary gravestone for Joseph G. Bleak. After checking out the grave-site and Bleak Cabin (at Bleak Spring, naturally) we headed back to the Jeep.
Having set a deadline of 3 pm to be heading back out to Mammoth (I didn't want to be on Carpet Hill after sundown) and it was just after 2 pm, we decided to take the long way out, again with the plan to be off the worst of the road near Turkey Creek before sunset.
It was too bad we didn't have a 48 hour day to hike to some of the destinations in the vicinity, Boulder Mountain, Table Mountain, Little Table Mountain, Holy Joe Peak, Zapata Mountain, Bluebird Peak, Sixtysix Peak and Turquoise Peak have all been on my to-do list for way too long... waiting until I had a chance to drive Rug Road all the way through. Now that I found the section of Rug Road from Mammoth to Parson's Grove to be almost a piece-of-cake I'm already planning a number of multi-peak hiking days.
See my soon-to-be-posted Rug Road 4x4 triplog for details but suffice to say, Carpet Hill was nowhere near the terrible condition it was in 2012 when we aborted the trip with my Samurai. Truth be told, the drive between Parson's Grove and Turkey Creek was way worse than the Carpet Hill to Parson's Grove. |
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