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| Hiking | 8.32 Miles |
2,000 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.32 Miles | 4 Hrs 10 Mns | | 2.29 mph |
| 2,000 ft AEG | 32 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Started a little before 10am. It was partly cloudy and about 60, perfect hiking weather. The first 2.5 miles are steep and the long sleeve shirt felt like it was going to be too hot.
On the way up there were lots of people coming down the trail. I am guessing they had hiked up on Saturday, camped overnight, and were heading home.
As we reached the top we could see some dark clouds forming. Walking through the forest we could hear thunder running overhead. That was concerning since I forgot to bring a jacket - oops. But no rain, at least not initially. About a mile from the lake we started feeling some drops. Kept walking because what else was there to do. The rain didn't amount to much for the rest of the walk to the lake. That was good.
We got to the lake -- or where the lake was supposed to be at least. There was no water! At least none at the South end of the lake. We walked across what used to be the end of the lake to get a better view. Turns out there was some water at the far end of the lake, but the level was way way low. The beautiful lake in the forest I saw last time is no more. Crazy.
After a leisurely lunch at the lake we started back. The temperature had dropped and it felt very cold when we started. We walked quickly to try to warm up, and that worked. About a mile from the lake we heard and felt something like rain, but it wasn't rain.
It was graupel, little round balls of frozen snow. At first it wasn't much, but then it came down pretty fast turning the ground white in places.
I was a little worried that the walk down from the rim would be wet and cold and windy, but luckily there was no wind or rain. We tried to go fast, and I ended up wiping out when my foot slipped and I went down. Ouch. I hate falling! No major damage. I was much more careful after that. The ground was wet, but thankfully not so much as to be muddy. There were a lot of bushes growing into the trail that we had to push through, and they were all wet and made out pants legs wet. It also started raining lightly for a while, but not enough to get us very wet.
Once back at the car we saw that the outside temperature was 47 degrees. We were surprised because it didn't feel could to us. It was much warmer at the bottom than on the rim. Don't know how cold it was up there.
We definitely got lucky with the rain situation. After pizza in Payson we encountered some serious torrential downpours on the drive back to the Valley. It was so loud in the car I thought there had to have been hail mixed on with the huge drops of water, but we saw no hail. It would have really sucked to be on the trail (with no jacket) in that kind rain. I'm not going to forget to pack a rain jacket next time! |
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Route Editor
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Route 
- not fun). Ate my lunch at the San Juan lookout, then headed north to Ma Ha Tuak Perimeter trail. There was a nice breeze that kept it cool and comfortable. As the trail got closer to the 202 freeway that breeze turned into a stiff headwind that tried to take my hat. All day there were times with no wind when it was hot, and strong wind when it felt cold. On average it was pretty comfortable. 
