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| Hiking | 17.20 Miles |
2,789 AEG |
| | Hiking | 17.20 Miles | 10 Hrs 11 Mns | | 1.76 mph |
| 2,789 ft AEG | 25 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | The trail conditions on this weren't nearly as bad as I was afraid they might be. It was actually very pleasant at the start, but a slog by the end, mainly due to fatigue.
We started at the Bear Wally TH and headed down in. The trail as the start is very faint and barely there, but you can find it. As we headed down, the treefall wasn't too bad, mainly because we were going downhill. After our off trail excursions the day before, this was a cakewalk. The section a mile or more just before the junction of the Reno Trail was one of the best parts. Where the trail faded away, it was possible to find it easily if you followed the track, which is very accurate. Wally didn't download any track, so a few times he got off the trail and kept wanting to head right down into the stream. At one point I stopped, and after checking the GPS, spotted the trail way above the stream. I called to Wally but he couldn't hear me. I assumed he was way downstream already and I wasn't about to chase him down that rabbit hole. Turns out he was just around the bend and didn't hear me because of the sound of the water (his story). 
About halfway down we saw a black bear. Wally spotted him and waited for me to catch up. I got the one pic, but a branch was in the way and my camera focused on that. By the time I moved to get a clear shot, he spotted up and took off. First bear I saw in AZ, in Bear Wallow of all places.
It took a solid 5 hours to get to the boundary of the reservation, which is where we stopped and had lunch. Even going downhill I had drank nearly 3 liters of water. The time spent in the heat was taking a toll.
We planned to go up Gobbler Point Trail and walk the road back to the Bear Wallow TH. We each drove our own vehicles to Alpine the day before since I was headed directly to Flagstaff on Sunday for a work conference. For some reason, the common sense idea of utilizing our 2 vehicles to do a shuttle hike only dawned on my as the very bottom of the Gobbler Point Trail as we started our slog of an ascent ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall") .
Gobbler Point Trail wasn't so bad at the start. There is some tree fall to deal with in spots. At the very end it seems like it won't end. The trail fades away a lot at the top and also gets steeper. I found Wally taking a quick nap at the top. His first words as I arrived were, "Well, that was wonderful."
The hike back on the roads was a slog, even though it felt like it shouldn't be. We saved probably close to a mile by bypassing the hairpin switchbacks on FR8154 just before it junctions with FR25. The bushwhack up to FR25 really isn't bad. It was very much worth it to do that. The last mile before the Bear Wallow TH was the worst. My feet were burning and I was just drained, especially after the hike the day before. There was no trouble sleeping that night, although getting up out of bed had its challenges. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
