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| Hiking | 16.80 Miles |
1,382 AEG |
| | Hiking | 16.80 Miles | 6 Hrs 55 Mns | | 2.43 mph |
| 1,382 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | I was in the mood to do another hike out of the summer heat of Phoenix. The monsoon has been dying down a bit, so this section of the AZT seemed like a good bet as the weather forecast wasn't predicting much in the way of storms. The trail profile looked mostly level and through the ponderosa pines, so that seemed to be the ticket.
Wally and I started just before 7:30am. The weather was cool, and there was plenty of shade with the sun still low on the horizon. I quickly found out that my batteries had died for my camera, so I would be using the phone camera again. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
The first 5 miles of this segment of the trail heading north is fantastic. Mostly level, easy to hike, and shady. Very peaceful with a few breezes. We made very good time, barely 2 hours. Then at the 5 mile mark, the trail becomes very rocky and it's slower going. It's hard on the feet, and hard to get a good footing sometimes. At a certain point the trail just follows and old jeep road, but it was still harder to walk on than the first section we hiked.
After 8 miles in, we decided to have lunch and call it a day and head back. The rocky section on the way back seemed a little easier after a rest, but still a pain to deal with. Then I looked up and saw Wally walking briskly back on the trail towards me. "We missed a turn. Is there a shortcut?" I looked at my GPS and verified that the last half mile we hiked was in fact not on the AZT. Not sure where we missed or what we were hiking in the meantime. The quickest way to the trail was to head directly south, which meant up a slight hill. Strangely enough, this "bushwhack" was easier to hike than the 3 mile rocky section of the AZT we had just completed. when we found the AZT again, we were happy to be on the quickest track back to the car, but not so happy about the short section of rocks to deal with. Our mistake added an extra 0.8 miles to our hike.
Nearly 3 miles out, I killed my Camelbak bladder. I have 2 more bottles of Gatorade in my pack, but with the weather still somewhat cool compared to Phoenix and an easy grade to hike, I decided to push through the rest of the hike rather than stop to pull out the bottles. By the time I was back to the car, I was spent. I felt like I needed to take a nap, very weak and thirsty. I took my time changing my shirt and shoes, and got an ibuprofen, liquids, and caffeine in my bloodstream. About a half hour later, I was feeling much better with the AC cooling things down and having some well earned rest.
From where we stopped, it looks like it's possible to drive in on FR93 from Lake Mary Road and pick up where we left off. Looks like a long drive to do that, but no rush on when I might plan that. Nice to be up in the high country in mostly cooler weather. |
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