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| Backpack | 29.20 Miles |
5,112 AEG |
| | Backpack | 29.20 Miles | 1 Day 9 Hrs | | |
| 5,112 ft AEG | | 24 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | In my continuing quest to visit every wilderness area in Arizona, I decided to take this one on as an overnight by hiking the length of GET segment #3 from east to west. For much of its length, the boring bits as it turns out, it follows the AZT segment 16. So, I'm taking credit for both segments.
I parked my car at the Picketpost Trailhead. I had seen that there is a gate at that trailhead that is closed overnight. Since I would be leaving my car there early, I called the forest service to see what time the gate was opened. The individual I talked to seemed to think the gate wasn't in use any more. When I arrived there well before sunrise to leave my car, the gate was closed, and there were a number of cars pulled off on the road just short of the gate. I had just parked my car along with them, and was climbing in the other car with my wife, when one of them came to life, and the driver went over and opened the gate. Go figure. I got back in my car, drove into the parking lot and parked.
My wife then shuttled me over to Florence-Kelvin Road where she dropped me off at the BLM parking lot just off of Centurian Lane. I headed off west, messing about a bit to find the preferred "official" track, but eventually decided I was on it and carried on. A short distance in, I came across a trail register and an chemical toilet, painted in huge letters "No TP".
My goal was the heart of the White Canyon Wilderness to spend the night, about 16 miles away. The trail follows along above the Gila River, climbing to viewpoints, and descending back to near river level a few times. At the high points, the vistas are pretty good, but not too much I could get my camera excited about.
I seemed to be the first person heading west from that trailhead that Saturday morning, but after a few miles, I began to hear voices. Eventually, a couple of AZT segment 16 hikers caught up with me, and I chatted with them from a distance. I teased them with the idea that my route was several miles shorter than theirs, and they thought about it, but then thought better of it, and continued on their way. I was glad to have them in front of me, because their voices carried well from behind, and disrupted some of my serenity.
A little later, I stopped for a snack break on a vista overlooking the river, and was passed by 3 horses with 2 people, and a very fast moving couple. A quick "Hi" to each, and I went on with my snack. I was pretty sure that I would not see any of them again, given our relative speeds.
The trail drops down to the Gila River level, and follows it at river level for several miles along two-track. It really wasn't that nice in that area, and I was looking forward to getting off of the AZT. I have seen that in the short time between my trip and this writing, the AZT Association has just put up some new gates in that area to keep stray ATVs off the trail. This makes me happy, as the trail was obviously heavily used by ATVs in that section.
The first 10 or so miles of the trip are on the section that is both AZT and GET, and frankly, I got pretty tired of this section.
At the point of turnoff from the AZT, I ran into the couple that had passed me some time earlier. They were taking a long break. It turned out they were headed the same way I was. We chatted a bit about our respective adventures. This was their third attempt to hike to the White Canyon Wilderness apparently, and they hoped to be successful this time. I headed up toward the wilderness, and it wasn't too long before "Cake" and "Sogood" passed me again.
We converged again at "The Narrows", the place where the water flows in Walnut Canyon. There were many pools, and at the lower end of them, the pools were quite clean. We all rested a spell, exchanged photo-taking opportunities, and tanked up, then I sent them on their way, so I could get pictures of the empty canyon. That was the last I would see of them, except from a great distance. This was the only good water on the entire route that day. I should have taken another liter, but the extra 2 pounds can be counter-productive for me. Better to be a little lighter and thirstier.
Emerging from the canyon, the trail begins to follow a drivable 4WD road, which I hated. I hated it because I could have driven it. instead of walking to the wilderness had I realized it was open, and I hated it because it was steep, slippery walking with fine gravel like ball bearings. I slipped once and went down pretty hard.
As I approached the place where the GET leaves the road and dives into the wilderness, I heard really LOUD music. I had contemplated camping just short of entering the wilderness, as it is flat and meadowy there, but the loud music ended all thoughts of that. I chatted briefly with the owner of the loud music, who insisted I was headed on the wrong trail, and left him, his dog, his beer, and his music behind. I climbed up the trail, away from the road, and it soon became quiet and beautiful again. The trail climbs steadily, and at the first little pass, there was a decent tent spot, which seemed to be free of cowpies and mostly free of cholla burrs. I watched a pretty sunset, and spent a windy night under my Gatewood Cape.
In the morning, I was back on the trail by 7. As the trail goes deeper and deeper into the wilderness, it becomes sketchier and sketchier. An occasional cairn, marking faint tread, was all I could count on. Fortunately, I had the detailed GET GPS track loaded, so I never was far off the trail. At times though, it seemed to disappear in the brush, and I did have some routefinding challenges. It was beautiful, though, in the early morning light. At one point a spooked javalina ran across the trail ahead of me. Those things look like cartoon characters when they run!
All in all, I loved the solitude, and I loved the beauty of the White Canyon Wilderness.
Eventually, the trail starts descending from the wilderness, and again meets up with the AZT. From there, it was another 11 miles or so of Sonoran desert. Pleasant enough, with easy, wide singletrack, but it was pretty boring as well. By the end of that I concluded I would never be a "through hiker," as so much of the epic trails require you to spend time on those boring bits.
I finished at Picketpost trailhead just a little ahead of a group of cyclists, and was glad I was off the trail before they passed me. I used up the remainder of my fuel to make some hot coffee, a nice treat for the way home. I stashed a couple gallons of water in the AZT cache box there, and headed on my way. |
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Wildflowers Observation Isolated
Not much, yet. Ocatillo was just starting to bloom in places. |
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