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| Hiking | 12.19 Miles |
2,249 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.19 Miles | 5 Hrs 40 Mns | | 2.53 mph |
| 2,249 ft AEG | 51 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Decided to check out yet another way around the Fossil Springs permit system, and at the same time check out a historic route. Limited triplogs on here, so I was expecting the worst as far as brush and route finding goes. Drove to where the Mail Trail crosses FR 9D (wasn't super interested in trekking across an extra few miles of flat Juniper forest), which is an undertaking in itself, and requires a good amount of clearance.
Until we got to Mail Trail Tank #2, it was a mix of jeep road and cross country, following caged cairns, some of which had custom Mail Trail signs made of metal. These had varying designs, and clearly someone put some work and creativity into marking this route.
Once past the tank, there is actual single track most of the way down to Mud Tanks Draw, some of which is overgrown. Route finding was actually not very difficult until you approach the draw. Once there, it gets much more overgrown and scratchy, and it's probably most pleasant to just get in the creek bed and follow it down. I tried to follow the actual Mail Trail as much as possible, and while a little more painful, it was definitely faster than taking the creek bed down (I beat my friends to where the routes converge).
Spent an hour or so at Fossil Creek, ate some apples (there is an apple tree on the south side of the creek apparently), and soaked in the same pool we had last week. A helicopter arrived on the scene, and on our way out, we stopped at the spring just as they were about to extract a lady who had broken her ankle in the creek (although she may have struggled to exit the canyon with two good ankles).
The hike out was pleasant on account of an arriving storm, and while we didn't get much more than sprinkles (it looked like it was pouring on Bob Bear trail), there was a cool breeze. |
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