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Hiking | 10.60 Miles |
1,820 AEG |
| Hiking | 10.60 Miles | 6 Hrs 45 Mns | | 2.12 mph |
1,820 ft AEG | 1 Hour 45 Mns Break | 11 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | This triplog is only for the portion of Highline from Webber Creek(Geronimo) to Washington Park. 10.5 miles
When we retired and moved down to Arizona for the winters we discovered that our new subdivision had a modest hiking club, which, while not something we had ever done, the price was reasonable and over time, we met up with Phil and Brian, two much younger retirees, and began stretching our legs a bit more. Then, having hiked many of the local trails, in the Fall of 2019, we decided to branch out to the Arizona Trail, and I, in particular, looked for day-hiking segments of under 10 miles and 2000 feet of AEG. But many of the trail heads proved almost inaccessible for the family car. No problem for Phil and Brian. I had no room in my garage but they each bought red jeeps and loaded up on crampons, ice axes, and camping equipment. Phil became a summit-bagger, Brian an orienteer, and I kept looking for those easy segments. We soon ran out of eligible segments within easy driving distance, but by incorporating Airbnb, we were able to carve up passages 4-6 down around Patagonia and turned our attention towards Pine. Phil and Brian, in the meantime, with no length or elevation limitations, knocked off passages 1-3 and three nearby summits for over 20,000 feet of AEG and have now surpassed 200 miles on the AZT, about double my own efforts.
The Pine through Webber Creek and Washington Park on passage 26 looked segmentable, omitting the short trek over Mogollon Rim since access road 300 up there was still closed. I should have added another variable to my search, that being temperatures below 70 degrees, as the trail from Geronimo Springs to Washington Park, despite claiming to be less than nine miles and 1700 feet of AEG, actually turned out to be 11.03 miles and 2200 feet of AEG on my gps which takes readings every 5 seconds, not twelve and we finished with mid-70’s on the thermometer. While there are a sufficient number of dead falls blocking the trail, the new portion of that passage was quite beautiful and the trail in excellent shape. Even the fire damaged sections from the Dude fire of 1990 have regrown with the many fire–blackened trees standing as ghostly reminders. In at least one place, new contour hugging trail has been built replacing the older, shorter, eroded portion. We learned that the copper–colored alligator juniper trees were pollen–laden males and the green females had berries about the size of small tomatoes. There was more running water and springs on this trail than any other passage we’ve hiked, probably something to do with its proximity to the Mogollon Rim. I took advantage of some of this in the hot afternoon by dunking my floppy hat in the streams before replacing it. With water temps in the very low 40’s, it was quite refreshing. As usual, Phil took most of the Photos.
We met only two pairs of fellow hikers, a father/son duo that promised to meet us at That Brewery after the hike and a female pair, one trailnamed “Hobbit,” who told us, I think, that she had done both the PCT and the AZT, which would be over 3450 miles. In apparent deference to our age, she asked if we had any kids. Not with us, we said |
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Wildflowers Observation None Some wildflowers but nothing to compare with those around Phoenix. |
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