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| Hiking | 11.32 Miles |
2,750 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.32 Miles | 6 Hrs 1 Min | | 2.37 mph |
| 2,750 ft AEG | 1 Hour 14 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | For Day 3 of my 10 day mountain getaway, I joined some fellow hiking buds from the TLC Hiking Meetup Group for a trip to Maple Peak. We car-camped the night before about a quarter mile up the road from the Charlie Moore TH. The road to the TH is dirt but in good condition; however, the quarter mile stretch beyond that to where we car-camped would be about a 7 on pumpkin factor scale [for having just under 9” of ground clearance]. The next morning, I drove my Forester back down to the official TH and launched from there... I’ve driven MUCH worse [Sedona’s Schnebly Hill Road immediately comes to mind…!]; but given my luck this year [or lack of it], I wanted to enjoy the hike without worrying about potentially doing damage to my vehicle on the way out.
From the Charlie Moore TH, the first 2.25 miles or so of the “trail” is actually jeep road. It was a beautiful area, [and my mileage goal for the day was to log around10-13], so I didn’t mind the extra distance. However, the rest of the TLC gang jumped in the club leader’s Avalanche and drove another 1+ miles down the jeep road to start the hike; with over 5 hours of driving back to the PHX area ahead of them, they were delighted to shave off some extra mileage. Given that I’d be walking an extra 1+ miles each way, [and that they tend to haul pumpkin], I launched about 30 minutes before them.
When the jeep road turns to actual trail, the ‘route finding factor’ appears to be a 1 at first glance; however, within the first 1/2 mile or so, that changes very quickly and the trail looks more like a well-defined route than an actual trail. En route to Maple Peak, I had fun hitting up a bunch of the UN Peaks along the ridgeline of Charlie Moore Mountain. From the looks of the topo, the official summit of Charlie Moore Mountain is by peak 7619’. I found a medium-sized cairn very near 7619’, as well as what appeared to have once been the register [ photo ] , nestled under some of the rocks that form the cairn. The lid of the jar was screwed on tightly, and the page inside was drenched, so I returned it to where I found without even attempting to open it.
By now, I half expected the TLC gang to be way ahead of me, given all of the picture stops I’d taken, [and knowing just how fast they can fly on the trails]… needless to say, when I was about two-thirds of a mile from the summit of Maple Peak and starting the final push, [by around UN 7543’], I was very surprised to hear them, [and then catch sight of the leader’s fluorescent shirt], about 1/4 mile behind me, [around UN 7483’].
At this point, ‘summit fever’ took hold and I turned the jets on; [but went that happens, the blinders tend to go on as well…!]. For the next half mile, I made great time as I spotted routes, used the topography to my advantage, and struck the perfect balance of ascending & contouring. However, with just over 1/10th mile to the summit, the nice route I’d found suddenly seemed to peter out amongst the surrounding brush and I opted for an ‘as the crow flies’ final approach…
…let’s just say, that final .14 miles of full-out bushwhacking, [from where I’d left the nice route to where I finally stumbled out of the brushy abyss and onto the peak], was rather treacherous. In fact, only a handful of other bushwhacks come to mind that involved battling through thicker brush… don’t worry Peter, your bushwhacks to Bear Down & Mt. Elliot, [along with my horrific approach to a prominent point on Sanders Peak in the Chiricahuas], all still take top honors. 
To top off an amazingly fun and beautiful hike/bushwhack, the views from Maple Peak were just stunning! I couldn’t wait to do more hiking and bag more peaks in the area. About 5-10 minutes after making summit, the TLC gang arrived, and they weren’t exactly smiling… apparently they ran into some “very thick brush” as well, [although without having seen it, I can’t judge just how “bad” it was]…
…all I knew is that the side of the summit they came from was completely absent of brush for the final 50-60+ feet if I had to estimate… [while the side I approached from was insanely brushy with virtually NO maneuverability right up until I popped out on the highpoint / by the rock with the register]. Despite the pained looks on their faces, you better believe I was descending the mountain in the exact direction they’d come from! Had it not been for Route Scout topo, [showing me just how close I was to the peak every step of the way], I definitely would’ve felt a little more panicked, thinking I’d landed myself in a mess of never-ending brush… there was no way in hell I was heading down the way I came up!
The guys from TLC told me not to get my hopes up in term of having an easy descent. Despite the nice patch of brush-free ground in the direction they’d come from, they guaranteed that battling some amount of thick brush was unavoidable in order to make it down. I just smiled and said, “We’ll see… not to sound arrogant, but I’m really good when it comes to finding smooth descents…” [Though as for my ascents, the opposite tends to hold true…].
Right at the moment where I thought to myself, ‘Perhaps the brush can be avoided; we’ve dropped in elevation to about the point where I started my bushwhack ascent…’ the TLC gang proceeded downward in the direction they had been going, [which was now headed toward a thick patch of brush]. However, I noticed that if we stopped descending and started contouring, the coast was clear. That’s not to say it couldn’t get nasty… but I figured, why head toward brush when the way I spotted had a chance of being better? I even spot-checked my topo, which confirmed that I’d been right about having dropped in elevation to about the point where I began my bushwhack on the ascent…
...it wasn’t more than a few seconds after splitting from the TLC gang when the route I was on started to contour straight towards what appeared to be a thick patch of brush. But as I got closer, I noticed that the bush was not nearly as bad as it seemed from a distance. Although growing up to face level in some places, the ground underfoot was perfect; all it took was an occasional parting of the non-thorny brush. I shouted “trail” to the TLC gang, [but as per the usual, they typically needed to ‘see it to believe it’] and continued to battle through brush in the direction they had gone. Meanwhile, I was cruising along a sweet route.
Not more than a minute or so after having split from the TLC gang, I parted some brush and suddenly found myself on the NICE segment of route I’d taken on while approaching the summit, [right at the point where I decided to bushwhack]… the route hadn’t petered out as I had originally thought; rather, the brush on either side, [which was overlapping the trail from about knee to face level], just made it appear that way. If I had a little more patience on the way up, I just might have noticed.
Having already hit up the other prominent points / UN Peaks on the way to Maple Peak, I didn’t make many stops as I headed back toward the TH; however, I still took my time to enjoy the views and ‘smell the roses.’ I was wondering when the TLC gang would blow by me… despite my awesomely smooth descent and the resulting “lead” I had on them, the patch of brush they had to fight through wouldn’t cost them that much time; they also tend to haul pumpkin double time on the way down from summits, [oftentimes full out trail running]; and to top things off, they’d be cruising in the Avalanche for the final 1.5 miles of jeep road, while I’d be on foot. Needles to say, it shouldn’t have been a question of if they would pass me but at what moment…
…oddly enough, I was the first to arrive back to the Charlie Moore TH. Perhaps they ended up in a really nasty patch of brush [I definitely know how that can go!]. I kicked off my hiking gear and spread one of my sleeping bags on the ground next to my Forester while I waited to make sure they made it back okay. With beautiful surroundings and a gorgeous sunny day, I suddenly got nervous when I looked at the time and saw that 50 minutes had passed since my return, and still no TLC gang. This time, however, they answered the phone, informing me that they were fine and that I’d missed out on a ‘searching expedition’ for the leader’s cell phone, which was lost just after we split ways on the descent. |
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| God save the Prom Queen, cuz [reality check!] AEG's King...! |
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