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| | | Shake Ridge FR 1438 & 1437, AZ | | | |
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Shake Ridge FR 1438 & 1437, AZ
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| Hiking | 7.50 Miles |
1,288 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.50 Miles | 3 Hrs 41 Mns | | 2.18 mph |
| 1,288 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Last night we began planning with thoughts of a hike on or just below the rim, which then morphed into maybe the Pine/Strawberry Trail. But we don't want to drive that far, so how about Barnhardt? Sounds good.
But this morning, for whatever as yet undetermined reason, neither of us had any enthusiasm for Barnhardt. So what now?
After quick thought, the first thing that came to mind was what we had done a few times before... start at Clover Well and follow Forest Road 1438 with Shake Ridge Tank as the tentative destination. If we change our mind along the way, so be it.
And for once, we did exactly that. But on the return, instead of the boring road-walk down loose-rocky inclines we decided to descend along the most moderate slope into Clover Wash and head for Table Top Tank, hoping to pick up a cattle trail along the way. Unfortunately cattle had not been in the area in quite some time so the few we encountered were so thorny-vegetation clogged we stayed in the open (and rockiest) part of Clover Wash.
By time I started scanning for a trail to ascend out of Clover Wash toward Table Top Tank, I found we had gone a half-mile past where we should have ascended.
Ok, so that means either backtrack along the wash a half-mile before ascending, or take a bee-line up the slope directly to the two-track and have a clear path to the tank. We (I) chose the latter, even though required trimming a bit of thorny brush to leave the wash. Once past the cat's-claw, we caught a couple game trails switch-backing up the slope there we were, at the two-track.
Unfortunately, after all that effort, all there was along the ridge was an old corral. Yup, I had forgotten the tank was NOT at the end of the two-track on the ridge, but some distance down the other side... and not easily reachable from the ridge.
(Only now back home, I realized that out of the three prior attempts, only once did we actually reach Table Top Tank... NOT by following the two-track, but going cross-country along well-beaten cattle trails directly to the tank along the bottom of the unnamed wash.)
Whatever... for now we'll take the two-track back to FR 1438 and head back toward Clover Well. Upon reaching the FR 1438/1437 junction we weren't ready to wrap up the hike... we had yet to stop for lunch. So we followed FR 1437 just far enough to locate a half-way decent spot for our picnic lunch. All we found was one rock barely large enough to seat two, but it sufficed.
After lunch it was now just a matter of a one mile road-walk back to the car. In that short distance we would pass a campsite which while no longer occupied, it had been at the start of the hike. And as expected, they left soiled toilet paper and a bag of trash.
People! ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") |
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