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| Hiking | 4.80 Miles |
2,780 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.80 Miles | 6 Hrs | | 0.80 mph |
| 2,780 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Made my 1st attempt on 8/29/04 both unprepared (No Water!) and out of shape. Made it to the parks turn around point and went right before reaching the mini fall and then up. Entered a densely brushed canyon and fought my way up 700' or so. Became exhausted and dehydrated. Took some pictures and started down. Had a pretty good case of heat stroke by the time I got back to the car. Why am I telling you this? Because you should be smarter than this and always bring water!! And the first time you do a hike follow the trail!!
Made my 2nd attempt 9/03/04. There were some great clouds forming and quite a bit of moisture in the air - perfect for some dramatic pictures. This time I had 3 liters of water, some food, and even a snake bite kit. Started up about 2pm. Still not in the best of shape, so I took my time in order to make it to the top. Saw about three people ahead of me on the trail and passed 2 people coming down. Climbed up the mini water fall and shortly after followed the trail out of the canyon to the right - this is a bypass for the 10' waterfall you have to climb further up the canyon. As I reached the top of this segment of the trail, there was the option to descend back into the canyon and to the trail or climb up to the ridge that leads up to the base of Flatiron. I took the scramble up towards the ridge. As I crested the ridge, I descended slightly down the south side and traversed towards the base of Flatiron. This provided some more dramatic photo ops for Flatiron and a really good view of the valley towards the San Tan mtns. Continued to the base of Flatiron and saw a fairly large dust storm building toward the south by the San Tans. Traversed the base of Flatiron back towards the canyon and the trail. Ascended the trail and turned left to go to the very top of the mountain. Finished the ascent in about 3 hrs including the detour.
Others have commented on the great 360 degree view - it is fantastic especially with very large thunderheads and quite a bit of rain almost all the way around but not on the top of the mtn. A really large thunderhead was dowsing the valley to the west. I called my wife and she confirmed it was really coming down. Stayed on the top for about 1hr. Clouds building right above me but moving of to the North fairly quickly.
Started the descent about 6pm. As I approached the base of Flatiron on the trail, it started to rain just enough to cool things off and, unfortunately, get the rocks wet. This made me more cautious and slowed the descent quite a bit. Along the way I came face to face with a swallowtail and got a great picture. When I was about 400' above the waterfall, I put my foot down on a rock and immediately heard the rattle of a snake and saw it about 4' from my foot. I was wearing Tevas and my big toe was an easy target. I instinctively quite literally leapt backwards about 6' and watched the snake go back into the rock before I got the camera out and trained on it. Apparently the rain and dusk had drawn the snake out of the rocks - a caution to climbers blindly putting their hands in the rocks on the way up. I walked by the rock and took a few sunset pictures. I took the waterfall bypass trail and got to the mini fall just as the rain picked up a bit. The fall was slippery and in some sections I literally had to use my sandals as a sled while squatting and steadying myself with my hands to slide down sections of the fall. It was very dark when I got to the fence line and I had some trouble locating the trail back to the day use parking lot. Arrived at the car about 8pm tired but satisfied - what a great day! 2 days later as I write this I am reasonably sore...
Cheers,
Paul |
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