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| | | Peak 2881 - Horns - Keyhole - Massif - Willow, AZ | | | |
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Peak 2881 - Horns - Keyhole - Massif - Willow, AZ
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| Hiking | 11.56 Miles |
2,479 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.56 Miles | 9 Hrs 39 Mns | | 1.51 mph |
| 2,479 ft AEG | 2 Hrs Break | | | |
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| partners | | We headed to the northeast Goldfields to check out some new areas, and I cobbled together a few different points of interest from various routes and triplogs, mostly centered around the 2881 Consensus Loop, knowing we wouldn't have time to see them all today. We parked at the small pullout along SR 88 where the Consensus Loop starts and followed the route clockwise toward 2881 on a windy morning. The route leading toward the peak was extremely well-cairned...I recognized @Yoder's handiwork from hiking Sunset Arch a few months ago, and some of the cairns along the route today were as much artwork as they were trail markers  .
We circled around to the east side and then up to the peak, and the wind was almost unbearable on top, with gusts that must have been up to 40-50 mph. The views were great, but we didn't spend much time up there before heading down the more gradual slope on the north side.
[ youtube video ]
The traverse to Horns was a very scenic area, with a small arch along the route and a good size cave up in the formations behind us. I'd added the Little Keyhole Saddle route among the other points of interest, and after hiking down from Horns, @TBoneKathy waited while I took a quick detour to see if I could find the keyhole. I didn't have a specific location and didn't know what it looked like, but when I reached the spot where I thought it might be located, I did see a tiny, keyhole-shaped arch on top of a rock formation. The description said it was small, but this was only a few inches tall...someone who's been there will have to confirm if what I saw was actually Little Keyhole. If so, that's the smallest named rock formation I've encountered...if not, I guess I found Really Little Keyhole.
We detoured off the main loop again and explored north toward Peaks 2178 and 2135 and saw a few arches, but I didn't have time to go up to the peaks. Next up was Canyon Lake Massif 2276. Hiking along SR 88 with all the road noise wasn't exactly a highlight today, but the views from the massif made it a worthwhile stop, and the wind had calmed down some by afternoon.
[ youtube video ]
We hiked back to the loop and headed south following Willow Creek. It was a lot more rugged than a lot of the other Goldfield creek beds, and we had to bypass multiple deep pools on the hike out. The official route has two of the pools marked, but we there were 4-5 that we ended up navigating around--all of them surprisingly deep given the dry conditions, though it looked like at least one was fed from a spring upstream. The final large pool had a lot of debris nearby...old irrigation tubing, buckets, rusty pipe, and other random stuff. That final section of the loop ended up being a lot and interesting than anticipated...there's a lot more going on down along the spring than you'd ever see just driving by on 88.
As expected, we didn't get to everything I'd mapped out, but it was a good day with a lot of variety in the terrain and scenery. In typical Goldfield fashion, we saw ~3x the number of arches as we saw other hikers today . And I found a Leatherman multi-tool in the dirt on the way to Horns of Dilemma, which was a nice bonus. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
he shared some stories about hikes and interesting post hike rides. Nice meeting his grandson Gavin on leave from the Army, thank you for your service young man and for taking time to join us today. Shout out to bartender Ray whose generous bar tending made the next hike up to the Horns of Dilemma most interesting. On arriving to the “dining” area with gorgeous views there was an HAZ in rocks to greet us, source remains a mystery 
. As usual the cookies and chocolate covered strawberries were tasty. Nice to finally meet Wally and seeing Terry ,Christina , Larry ,the official photographer ,and of course the chief videographer Angela again.Thanks Pam 
for organizing this and providing goodies and dutifully waiting for everyone to return safely.
And thanks to his Grandson, Gavin, Owen would join us this year for the first time. He and his Grandson started an hour earlier and met us at the top. It was Amazing and Wonderful. Great to see you again Owen and a big hug to Gavin for helping you join the Party! And you made amazing time going down, I didn't catch you until you were at your car! So cool that you could make this Hike! 
and made sure everyone's glass was always full but even more impressive; not a drop got spilled 
from what I saw. Pam graciously made us all a baggie full of treats and seriously, I know this is why I like this hike the most 
. Owen regaled us with a few good stories too. Honestly I don't know where the time goes except it goes too fast when we're all together on top of a beautiful peak with views for miles. We had a nice toast and the group photo which is always fun for Pam to orchestrate with Larry's guidance as the photographer.
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