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| | | Wind Cave Lone Peak Combo, AZ | | | |
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Wind Cave Lone Peak Combo, AZ
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| Hiking | 13.18 Miles |
2,508 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.18 Miles | 5 Hrs 51 Mns | | 2.41 mph |
| 2,508 ft AEG | 23 Mns Break | | | |
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none
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| no partners | | Taking a few days off this week so decided to do two hikes today! Parked near the exercise equipment Ramada by the Merkle Trail, cool and breezy had a quick warmup by taking the Vista Trail and then over to the Wind Cave trailhead. Not too busy yet about average for a weekday but much busier with a full lot on my second pass, kept a steady pace all the way to the cave . There was about a dozen older kids and a couple of adults in the now noisy cave so I didn’t enter so no break here. Having the idea I was heading over to Lone Peak later decided not to head up to the south summit. Passed by a friendly young lady running  up the trail and back down while I was descending. After the Merkle Trail had a snack break back at my vehicle and then headed back to the Wind Cave trailhead. Took Pass Mountain loop trail to the junction with Maricopa Trail. Starting down that I was passed by the only biker I saw today. Once I spied the route to go up Lone Peak I made a diagonal over to it vegetation was not that bad, helped by using some of the ATV tracks. Once heading up passed two young girls headed down having stopped to take pictures at the shade tree with the semicircle of rocks arranged for sitting. Once at the summit took a prolonged break ,even laid down on the bench. There was a young lady sitting off on her own enjoying the views , I guess she decided I didn’t look too scary and she came over to the summit area. Saw no one else until all the way back on pass mountain loop trail. Fortunately mostly downhill from here so was able to finish up quickly . What a nice day to be outside to enjoy the beautiful desert despite minimal wildflowers. Again only a few paltry poppies and lupine not photo worthy on these trails that are usually teeming with them, hope 2022 is better. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Mexican poppies, lupine,chuparosa |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
, city folk. We left a little early as there was a big group that wanted to use our firepit and they kept eyeing us. We had to leave a little early anyway cuz we had to be at Discount Tire up by my house before 6.
