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| Hiking | 9.00 Miles |
2,400 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.00 Miles | 11 Hrs 5 Mns | | 0.81 mph |
| 2,400 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Plan: Park at the Peeley TH & hike the 4.3ml Davey Gowan Loop counter-clockwise by starting east on FR201 for 1.5mls to the official start of the Davey Gowan TH/TR#48. Hike the Davey Gowan TR to its end (~1.5mls) at the intersection of Deer Creek TR#45. Hike NE on DC#45 through Gowan Camp and continue "on trail" down DC#45 for ~2.0mls to where Ken, James Lyding, & I ended our 11/8/08 hike (coming in from the Hwy 87 DC#45 TH Start). Then hike back this ~2.0ml section to the above DG#48 intersection, then continue up DC#45 for 1.5mls (following nonot's JE'08 posted GPS Route) to end back at the Peeley TH... Such a solid, well thought-out plan for hiking in our Mazatzal Wilderness which would also provide an official HAZ-GPS Route for all but nonot's 1.5mls of this total days hike! 
Actual: Mother Nature & the Mazatzal's win again!! but still an amAZing day.. We started hiking on schedule at 8:35am from the Peeley TH. The 1.5ml hike on FR201 was uneventful until we reached the Davey Gowen TH/Trail Start which was not signed and had numerous down trees around the TH area. We spent a good 10 minutes trying to determine how to get started on this TR#48. Once we figured it out, then the fun really began (see my attached pic set/log for a "blow by blow" of all the action, some quite scenic). I had spent a considerable amount of time trying to prepare correctly for this hike. We were geared to spend the night if need be unexpectedly. I had read and re-read Preston's hike description and viewed his pic set. We had three GPS units and a copy of Preston's topo map from his pic set. I also had nonot's corrected GPS Route for the known difficult upper 1.5ml segment of the Deer Crk TR#45 downloaded in my Garmin 60CSx. Also, having hiked the Mazatzal's many times before, Ken and I are OK with doing some route finding, but we have learned to never take the Mazatzal Wilderness for granted!
Eventhough we had the Davey Gowan TR#48 on Ken's new DeLorme GPS Basemap, we still lost the trail less than .5mls in from the TH. Due to trail overgrowth, numerous down trees from the Aug'04 Willow Fire, and washouts, we saw no cairns and very few signs of any previous trail. We ended up trying to parallel the trail on the DeLorme as best we could, but ended up dropping into a steep drainage off trail that we knew flowed into Deer Creek. We arrived Deer Creek/Canyon NE of Gowan Camp at around 12noon. We decided to first hike the lower 2ml segment of Deer Creek, hoping to stay on trail, but it was not to be. We only located about .1ml of trail (we placed cairns at both ends) then continued the slow, time consuming trip down the creek boulder/rock hopping and down tree hopping. At 2:45pm (not yet having a lunch break), and only .24mls from our planned stopping point, we reached a difficult area to proceed with down trees/brush(see pic), and a two waterfall drop area that was probably doable, but would just be too time consuming for an additional 2mls back up creek "plus" 1.5 difficult miles up DC#45 from Gowan Camp to reach our start at the Peeley TH. We arrived together safely the Peeley TH at 7:40pm (dark at 7:50pm). I arrived without my Camelbak hose mouthpiece and without my $$$ Garmin GPS-60CSx.  (lost somewhere in the first .50mls down the DC#45 in from the Peeley TH). My contact info is on the boot-up first screen IF anyone finds it.. I need to go back & look for it, but I have not yet done so. |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
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| (Outside.. "there is No Place Like It!!") |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
. I knew it was gonna be rough but not that rough. The wet ground combined with all the re growth from the monsoons created natures muddy slip and slide with thorns prodding at you as you slid down. It was borderline impossible to locate the trail at times.
. Guess we are crazy. Saw 2 deer as well and some bear crap so lots of wildlife here!
Bear Springs)
