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| Hiking | 19.29 Miles |
4,447 AEG |
| | Hiking | 19.29 Miles | 8 Hrs 26 Mns | | 2.60 mph |
| 4,447 ft AEG | 1 Hour Break | 12 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Fresh off vacation on the East Coast, I got an invite from Chums to escape to cooler country in Flagstaff. For various reasons, I'd had hikes with nothing but minimal mileage, elevation gain, or actual elevation for over a month. So, when he threw out a hike with 5,200+ feet of gain, I politely poo-pooed the invite. He came back with a more reasonable 11-mile, 3,200-foot gain hike, and I was in.
The plan was to drive into Friedlein Prairie to cut a bit more mileage off, but we quickly found a locked gate. So, back to the original idea to start at Schultz Tank, only to find another locked gate. Later searching showed that these areas close during the current Stage 2 fire restrictions. On to Plan C.
Neither of us are fans of the trail leaving the Elden Trailhead to the tower, so we headed over to the less busy Sandy Seep Trailhead, with plans to start up the Heart Trail and wing it from there. The burn is still quite evident up here, but you still get sections of unburned forest. We fashioned a loop, mostly of things I'd done before. On Brookbank #2, we smartly off-trailed and short-cutted Hill 8747 to save some mileage. It worked out. We were now starting our climb back up. The Oldham Trail has been completely rerouted going back uphill. It only touches the old trail in a couple of spots. Chums thought there were too many switchbacks. Me, being just a few years older, found them to be appropriate.
We bypassed the Elden Tower and hiked through the aspen thickness of the Sunset Trail to the Elden Lookout Trail. For me, this trail makes tired legs even more tired with all the rocks to negotiate.
Reaching the Fatman's Loop, we made the decision to go cross-country/follow use trails to get our way back to the start.
So much for taking it easy. Temperatures were mostly nice all day, especially in the shade or when the wind decided to blow. Thanks for driving, Chums. Good catching up. |
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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
Route 
: as many have mentioned, we noticed the aromas of reclaimed water and the nearby Purina dogfood factory...maybe it's worse in the canyon/waterfall area, but the smells weren't overpowering where we were. There were dark clouds around for most of the hike, but it didn't rain, and I was happy we were able to at least reach one of the points of interest in the ~90 minutes we had before we needed to head back to Phoenix.
