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| Hiking | 8.71 Miles |
405 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.71 Miles | 3 Hrs 37 Mns | | 2.41 mph |
| 405 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I considered possible lower Miller Canyon routes every Spring and Fall, when I do my general hike planning for the next six months (when and where to hike, if not yet the exact route). After four years, I finally got it on my calendar for this week, but only came up with a practical route the day before. I changed it 10 minutes after I started hiking.
Because my wife is so supportive of my hobby, I thought it would be nice, after I was done hiking, to show her something cool as well. So, before I started hiking, I drove down FR 123 and FR 123A to where I wanted her to pick me up, to save time. She was comfortable: Both roads are in great shape. (As is FR 300 -- the best it's been since the resurfacing in 2020.)
With the assistance of a fair amount of butt scootching, and Matrix vine dodging, I made it almost all the way into the canyon without disaster. (Getting up from taking a photo, I slipped on a mossy rock, bruising my left butt cheek.) Speaking of vines, there very well may be poisonous varieties in there, but all I got was slight itch on my wrist. Can you be immune to that stuff?
I started hiking north. The canyon was exactly what I expected, but with audibly flowing water, a couple of inches deep, and pools up two feet deep. I crossed the creek dozens of times, and was able to keep my feet dry for an hour, but eventually gave up. Ironically, I lost 30% of my pack water, so I was under-hydrating to conserve resources. (I don’t carry a filter.) I resorted to dipping my do-rag in the cool creek water to moderate my body temperature. 
I’d been walking for several miles with a pebble in my shoe. Around 1:20 p.m., I sat down on a shady, grassy, shelf to remove the pebble, air out my wet feet, and have a bit of lunch.
From my lunch spot, it was only another half mile to ECC. My worry the reservoir would be backed up to Miller Canyon was unfounded. ECC was wide and also gravelly.
The AZT crossing is marked with a fiberglass post, but I missed it and had to double back. From there, I climbed out to meet my wife by the FR 123A “no motor vehicles” sign. Together, we drove to the Battle of Big Dry Wash memorial on FR 123E, which was quite bumpy. (I bottomed out my SUV once.) She enjoyed that. The memorial that is. 
Rumble Video: https://rumble.com/v4w4rrw-hiking-lower ... n-rim.html
Vimeo Video: https://vimeo.com/948017100 |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
I spotted creeping barberry, alpine pennycress, dandelion, Canada violet, bog violet, rough whitlowgrass, some sort of strawberry, northern rockjasmine, ashen milkvetch, and spreadfruit goldenbanner. |
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| http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored. |
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