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| Hiking | 8.44 Miles |
3,215 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.44 Miles | 7 Hrs 8 Mns | | 1.33 mph |
| 3,215 ft AEG | 48 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I'd been curious about how this area fared in last year's Bush Fire, knowing that parts of the Mazzies were completely decimated while others were more mildly affected. It's not an area I would typically hike at this time of year. Heat isn't really my thing. But the weather has been remarkably cool, and yesterday's rain made it seem like today would be a good opportunity to enjoy moderate temperatures and perhaps find some running water.
Surface flow is a tricky thing here in the desert. Inches of monsoon rain can get a quick burst to flow, but often ends nearly as quickly as it started. It's unlike those late winter storms that fall on saturated ground and can run for weeks. I saw many disappointed reports from hikers hoping to find water where there was little or none. For me, I made the call on checking out this trail after radar estimates showed a good swath of the southern Mazzies had received between 5-7 inches of rain yesterday . An easy stroll up Barnhardt was out of the question as the rain band hadn't gotten that far north. So I decided to stay south.
Morning was cool and humid. As thick as oatmeal. Fire damage was evident but not catastrophic. What was once already a pretty primitive trail has been obliterated by fire, erosion, and now regrowth. A keen eye kept me close to the old track through the rutted, rocky, catclawy lower reaches with only a couple of short missteps.
The climb was relentless (as always) but the scenery was worth it. Low clouds formed around the peaks as warming daytime air blew across the cool rain-soaked hillsides. A few weeks of rain has really greened things up. The route became less and less obvious and I lost the route on several occasions. Switchbacks are either well-built and a great landmark, or they're unnoticeable and the easiest source of losing the route. Can we call this one is an AZT access route and get a team on it? 
The knee-high grass had me at alert level 456. I carried trekking poles, but wouldn't have seen a snake if I stepped on one. Which I probably did. I'm just happy none of them decided to alert me or feel threatened enough to act. I've never owned snake gaiters, but hiking this trail, in this condition, at this time of year, would make them a judicious decision.
After losing 1/3 of my body weight in sweat on the humid climb, I crested the hill and heard the sound of running water. From here to Edwards Park was an overgrown thicket before the fire, and I was actually hoping that it had burned the trail clear. Well, only sort of. It wasn't as thick as before because the fire had definitely burned through this hillside. But it wasn't moonscape either, and there were plenty of new thick and prickly things. The tread was lost to post-fire erosion where it traversed moderate slopes, now covered in grass and desert scrub.
When I reached the park, I was surprised to see a clear mountain stream and not the sooty black water I had expected. I headed down in the drainage, enjoying the sights. Some remained unchanged, while others have been scarred by what was clearly some significant post-fire flooding.
I was able to downclimb double parked, but didn't venture out to see the main event. There was pretty severe burn at the top of the falls and both sides were saturated with slippery ashen soil. I was already exhausted and didn't have the energy to safely continue downstream from here. So I enjoyed a snack break before making my way back up the canyoneers route (also now nonexistent) to the 66 cut.
Down, down, down. Usually a relief, now so much more work. Grass, erosion, route-finding, uneven footing, etc. Eventually I reached the trailhead, fully defeated. I took my shoes off and sat on a rock, soaking my feet in the creek. The end to a long day. |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
The views of Tonto Basin were amazing, but we were so glad to be done climbing up the mountainside and dropping into the lightly flowing canyon. 
Geared up, rock hopped a bit downstream, and made the first 40ft drop. A little further downstream is the amazingly HUGE ~250ft waterfall. 
The creek oddly went underground here and came out a crack in the wall about 100ft from the bottom. This is a mulit-stage rappel and the first drop is about 150ft down that slick angled chute and then head to a midway ledge on the right (looking up canyon). Once all down on the ledge, we pulled the ropes while soaking in this super sweet waterfall & rigged the anchors for another ~100ft drop into the hallway below. From this amazing waterfall, we again pulled the ropes, and made another 20ft drop into a chilly swimmer. Wow, that was flipping amazing! 
The canyon slowly opened up and eventually we popped out of the mountains and into the flat Tonto Basin where we got out of the rocky canyon and bushwhacked back to the TH. 
