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| Hiking | 11.77 Miles |
1,309 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.77 Miles | 5 Hrs 36 Mns | | 2.38 mph |
| 1,309 ft AEG | 39 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | A couple of days after a hike, we start looking for the next one. Log onto hikearizona, look at hikes others’ did or input our parameters into the search to find the perfect hike and we’re usually right on with the perfect hike each week. This Sunday, (which was two weeks ago now), we hit the jackpot. The Fred Haught Trail is now one of my top 5 favorite hikes. We didn’t even make it to the Pinchot cabin. At about 5-1/2 miles in, we called it quits as we’re still working on our hiking stamina after our long sabbatical.
We of course didn’t leave as early as one of us wanted, but the other one had a nice un-rushed morning…:) The beauty of leaving later and coming back later is that you miss traffic and you get to see the animals near dusk, rather than busting your *** to get in a 2-1/2 hour drive before sunrise. The suggested route took us up I-17 to the general crook turnoff and east to 87, circumventing the Payson traffic. It was a beautiful drive. Neither of us had been that way before, which made the adventure all that much better!
We arrived at the FH trailhead around 1130 & the weather was perfect. Just on the edge of a little too warm at times, but blue skies and puffy clouds and at most 83 degrees. There is a stream running by the trail much of the way, and at times it’s a trickle and at times had some deeper pools. We even saw a little trout.
This is a beautiful trail in the middle of a beautiful forest. The trees were very big in circumference as well as tall and some of the ferns were over 4’ tall. We saw some Columbine blooming & black raspberry bushes that hadn’t been picked over by birds nor eaten by bears. Some of the raspberries were ripe and we partook of a few. There is more uphill on the way back and by that time it was a little warm and sunny, but not horrible. Once we got to the car, we were glad we hadn’t pushed it to the cabin. I thought we should stay around the area to see if we could see some animals at sunset, but due to the 2-1/2 hr. drive home, we decided to head back. On the first road out, around 5-530, we saw a herd of Elk – 3 babies, 3 cows and one bull. This could not have been a better day! So….we decided to backpack in this weekend and see some more! We will not go as far and plan to camp a ways off the trail, but I hope to report many more animal sightings, though hopefully nothing that disturbs our food in the middle of the night!
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Route Editor
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. We climbed the tower and were able to see great views of Humphreys and the surrounding areas including a view of smoke in the distance. Hopefully this was a controlled burn. The hike was closer to 9 miles than 7, and was perfect for our first hike in a long while. The weather was perfect, and the route 60% shaded, but the sunny areas in the altitude were pretty hot. Overall, it was a beautiful day with big pines, a fenced-off Aspen grove and beautiful views. We saw 2 eagles & heard them call to us - most likely this was ‘stay out of here, we are hunting.’ The only other wildlife were a couple of horny toads. Finished off the day with dinner in Flag & a crowded drive back to town.
