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| Hiking | 5.52 Miles |
1,332 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.52 Miles | 4 Hrs 31 Mns | | 1.28 mph |
| 1,332 ft AEG | 12 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Andy invited me for this one, which he had done 4 years earlier. I knew it was mostly off trail, but he said there was a faint trail along the ridgeline, and the wash hiking wash typical wash hiking.
We did the loop clockwise, making the climb up to 2881 in the dark, first along the jeep road. Once we were up on the ridgeline up to 2881, it got light enough to turn off the headlamps, which was well enough since my batteries were dying and the light I was getting was kind of faint.
It wasn't that hard to hike up to 2881, but it was slow going, as I expected. I had an errand to run in the afternoon, so the slow pace was more of a concern for me. We made it up to 2881 ok, and then headed down the ridgeline on the north side. That ridgeline was rough to walk down because there wasn't even a faint trail, there was quite a lot of loose rocks to negotiate, and the vegetation had grown from recent rains. Between that and the warmer weather and humidity, this didn't seem at all like a winter hike in AZ.
Once we got to the saddle of the ridgeline, there was a well defined horse trail that went up the next ascent, and another that went up an over the saddle, now into the valleys on either side. We decided to bail on the rest of the loop and follow the horse trail that seemed to lead back down to Willow Creek. That trail soon split and we took the left fork, which went by what seemed like a cave but was just more of an alcove. It looked like both trails went down the drainage towards Willow Creek, but the one we took started to head back up to the ridgeline again over to the Horns. We bushwhacked our way to the drainage, which wasn't all that easy to hike since it was narrow in some spots and overgrown in others. luckily we found the trail we didn't take and took that all the way down to Willow creek.
Willow Creek started ok, then it got overgrown in some spots. then we got to a pool that was nearly impossible to get around. I got around, just barely. I was gassed once I got passed it, doing my best Alex Honnold impersonation at one point clinging onto the side of the wall. I told Andy I didn't recommend what I just did and he didn't argue. He found an alternate way around, which took some time. I continued up Willow Creek to find another very tall cliff. I headed up the left side which looked like the best way around. it went quite a ways to the left, and we had to cut back to the right (even more uphill) to get back near the wash.
Once we got past the waterfall/cliff, we were so far above the wash it didn't seem worth the effort to go back into it and have to climb back out yet again. We had to descend into another drainage and climb back up to 88, and then we hiked about a quarter mile along the road to where we parked.
5.5 miles for the day, but quite a lot of effort put in. Got done just after 11, which was my target time, so overall a good hike. I'm interested now to check out the track and aerials to find where the other horse trails go and try to find a way to get to them again. Maybe one day I'll try the Horns of Dilemma, we'll see. The views up top were nice, especially once the sun came out. Weather was humid, which was only noticeable when the sun was out. |
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](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
Once the ground was dry, that issue went away. 
It started with seeing 2 doe near the trailhead, then near the Pine Grove campground I saw a small herd of deer. Shortly after that, there was a herd of antelope. A mile or so after that I spotted some elk running across a meadow, about 3 or 4 cows and a bull. Not long after that I could hear bulls on either side of the meadow in the trees bugling at each other. All the animals I saw were too far away to get decent pictures with on my phone. I was able to get one picture of an elk cow as it ran out of the trees. On the way out I even saw two tarantulas to add to the wildlife. I don’t think I’ve seen more than one on any given hike. 
