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| Hiking | 6.40 Miles |
1,511 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.40 Miles | 4 Hrs 17 Mns | | 1.55 mph |
| 1,511 ft AEG | 10 Mns Break | 18 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | If the details of the planning are boring, by all means, feel free to scroll down to THE HIKE:
It's a Sunday, which means no road closures East of Superior on the US 60, so where should we hike?
Somewhere in the Pinals?
Hmmm, let's see, are there any trails that aren't just a steep out-and-back ascent with a ton of AEG, or even a loop of sorts with the same LONG climb at the start?
Although not long ago none of those options would have been out-of-the-question, I now face the reality that hikes of a dozen or more miles along with 2-3K AEG no longer have the 'fun' factor as in the past, to say nothing of the A&P constant companions... aches and pains.
After digging back into my archives I found East Mountain Trail #214 just might fit the bill... I'd hiked the full loop (returning along FR #112) three times before, so I knew the miles, AEG and best-of-all for Tracey, temps in the 60's to 70's would work out just right.
Just hold on a minute their pard'ner!
Will it be a wasteland in the aftermath of the Telegraph Fire of 2021?
With no more recent triplogs than @rayhuston posted barely 3 weeks BEFORE the fire, I guess we will be flying blind.
But then again, my first trip was just over a week AFTER the Pioneer Fire of 2009 (unknown until meeting a fire-cleanup crew along the road after the hike) in which all was nice and green until a half-mile in where we came face-to-face with the after-fire wasteland. Being predominantly East of the ridge at least half of the hike was NOT in the wasteland.
Ok, enough of the blast from the past... what was it like this trip?
Although the freshly graded Forest Road #112 was in the best and smoothest condition I'd experienced over almost 2 decades, the constant winding around the blind-corners was a bit stressful for Tracey, enough so that her watch let her know... but she survived.
THE HIKE:
As in the past we began from what used to be a pull-out (which has now become the Wagon Wheel area) along Forest Road #112 a half-mile South of the actual trailhead at: 33.27975 -110.79728
Once on the actual trail we had an optimism that it might turn out to be a great hike due to some VERY recent trail maintenance. But it was not to last... it appears the part that was wide and smooth was due to gain access for erecting a new fence winding its way along the length of East Mountain ridge.
Shortly thereafter, the only trail maintenance appeared to be of the bovine variety... as in cattle just happening to push back the thorny brush while wandering along the trail. In some cases, the cattle knew where the trail should be more than we did, even with a GPS track. But once through the first gate (actually under it... the wire was so tight it was impossible to open it) there were no more cattle tracks and route-finding became the main theme.
While much has greened up over 4 years, a TON of the burnt/dead trees have become deadfall, which became a never-ending issues throughout the hike. (The photoset is rife with examples... yet maybe .05% of what we encountered.)
Thankfully the second gate (on the Eastern contour of 6760) was just BARELY loose enough to open as this one offered no chance for me to slide under... as back issues prevent partaking in such fun. As we continued North along the ridge there was an obvious fork in the trail, the right of which was heading for the East Mountain summit. Since the plan was to hit the summit this looked like it may provide a reasonable route to it. But like a ton of times while peak-bagging, the 'summit' was just a bump along the ridge and there was a pretty steep ascent yet to go. Tracey was still up for it so we kept going... for maybe 50 feet when I realized, IF we were to reach the summit we would need to cross the fence where there are NO gates, and of course cross it back later. With even the lowest wire being barbed, that was not gonna happen!
Ok, so we'll just drop the 400' (150' in elevation) back to the actual trail #214 again. It only took15 minutes to do that, incurring a number minor injuries to both of us. Several times it appeared we reached the trail only to realize it was not, and when we finally did reconnect with it, it was not much better. But we're back on the trail again, along with the requisite climbing over and/or detouring the never-ending deadfall. By this point we swore off a side-trip to the summit, even though I knew from history the approach from the North was the easier route.
Once on the ridge just North of the summit, after a gander back to a mountain of green I couldn't resist a photo. Continuing along the ridge became a never-ending game of lose-the-trail, wander around, find-the-trail ad infinitum. Frankly the thickets of thorny brush made it a real pain. If I had my brushing shears it would have been quick work but with just my hand clipper it would take more time and effort than it would save so it was just a matter of rolling sideways to minimize getting hooked on the thorns as we passed through.
Eventually we reached the big tree with a seat of sorts for the obligatory photo... sans a human this time. (The seat is a bit too high for comfort so we never sit on it.)
Nearing the spot where the trail begins its zig-zag descent to the West, the trail disappeared into a mass of deadfall, which took quite some time and back-tracking to re-locate the trail, not that it was much of anything by then. For practically the full descent we would constantly lose the trail in masses of deadfall, try to keep the detours as short as possible and re-locate the trail again. Eventually we began to follow game trails reasonably close to the track. At some points we were hundreds of feet from the trail yet tried to reconnect whenever possible. Only when we were almost down to reaching Toll Road Trail #200 (not that there is much of it) before we knew we were actually back on Trail #214, yup, when it ended.
Following Toll Road Trail #200 was easy at times, full width flat and clear, and terrible at times, with so much deadfall at one point it looked like a ladder of trees across the trail... and I can attest there was no fun in climbing the ladder. Eventually we reconnected with Forest Road #112 and commenced the 1.2 mile road-walk back to the start.
While this hike definitely tested both of us far more than we bargained for, including numerous cuts & scratches from thorny vegetation, an agave stab and a minor fall or two for Tracey (I only stumbled once) it was great to be outdoors.
Final Note: The drive back down Forest Road #112 was nowhere near as stressful as the drive up, thanks to a guy ahead of us driving an old pickup 10-15 mph pretty much all the way to the CCC TH junction. We were in no hurry so by staying just far enough behind we would have plenty of warning of any uphill traffic, of which there was none.
One FINAL Note: We are DONE with East Mountain... never to return. |
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