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| | | Snowshed Herb Martyr Loop, AZ | | | |
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Snowshed Herb Martyr Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 11.07 Miles |
2,691 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.07 Miles | 7 Hrs 17 Mns | | 2.03 mph |
| 2,691 ft AEG | 1 Hour 50 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | On day 2 of my hiking trip to the Chiricahua Mountains I Hiked the Snowshed Trail and Herb Martyr Trail returning via the Snowshed Basin Trail. This was an 11.1 mile hike with 2700 feet of accumulated elevation gain. Wasn't sure if I was up to this hike today with being worn out from yesterday and having to do damage control on both of my heals. Once I got started I was determined to finish up this loop hike.
The lower part of the Snowshed trail up to Cypress Saddle was steep and require a lot of standing breaks to to allow my legs a rest. Good views all along this trail down lower Cave Creek and Silver peak, Mount Sceloporus and Cathedral Rock. The trail is in good condition and easy to follow but I could see that at times the grass and brush could obscure the trail. Once past Cypress Saddle the trail follows along the north side of the ridge and appears to level off a bit and the walking easier. Fossil Saddle is 5 miles in and at 5.2 the Junction with the Herb Martyr Trail and Pine Park. This intersection is signed. I took a half hour break here. While resting here a very low flying jet screamed by and buzzed Chiricahua Peak. The forest is so quiet and then all of a sudden a defining roar of a jet that that took maybe 3 second to disappear over the mountain. then after the echo's died away the forest was back to quiet like nothing happened. That must be a kick in the pants doing that. I would of liked to video it but it was so fast it was over before I could even think about getting my camera. I wanted to contact the pilot and tell him I wanted a do over. Probably wouldn't do it anyway because I'm sure it was a marginally legal stunt. Reminded me of when I was in my early 20s along with a friend of mine, we were dangling our feet off the east cliff of Mount Whitney when two F4 Phantoms flew just hundreds of feet over the top of the peek with AB burning. Me and my friends both looked at each other and at the same time just said a very slow "WOW" (we were doing some of mother natures stuff). Before we could finish the elongated wow those jets flew over Owens Valley, past Inyo Mountains and were heading down Panament Valley. Very impressive. Well enough of memory lane.
The hike down the Herb Martyr trail was beautiful, The pillowy clouds with the shadows cast across the landscape made for some pretty scenery. The Trail is in excellent condition and appears to get a lot more use than the lower Snowshed Trail. Actually if I was going to go up to the crest via the Snowshed Trail I would use the Herb Martyr instead of the lower Snowshed Trail. There are some nice views of the upper Cave Creek Canyon along this trail.
The temperatures were in the mid 70's for most of the trail but at the high elevation the sun was intense (never seemed to be behind one of the many clouds in the sky). On the Snowshed Basin trail for the last 2 miles the temps were in the mid 80's with a high humidity. I was glad to get back to the jeep where I had some salty pretzel sticks and a root beer. I almost gave up on this hike as I was heading up the lower Snowshed Trail, I'm glad I stuck it out. |
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