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| Canyoneering | 17.69 Miles |
2,082 AEG |
| | Canyoneering | 17.69 Miles | 6 Hrs 55 Mns | | 2.70 mph |
| 2,082 ft AEG | 22 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Hit the trail from the First Water TH at about 6:50 a.m. There were about 10 other cars in the parking lot by that time. The sun was not up yet, but it was fine to hike without headlamp. Lots of cloud cover in the morning, and a brief sprinkle of rain right out of the gate.
I peeled off on the Dutchman Trail and was mostly alone, other than one more hiker who leapfrogged with me a time of two, as I stopped to take photos. Passed another backpacker or two and a group of trail runners before arriving at the junction with Little Boulder Canyon.
I know some don't like the Dutchman, but I'm a fan, especially since there was water flowing along the creek.
Turning down Boulder Canyon, the scenery and water features improved. The trail was sometimes hit and miss, but the direction/path was clear. Sometimes I skipped the path and just followed the creekbed anyway since there were some nice pools and flowing water.
The highlight was the route up Needle Canyon. Lots of water, but not so much as to make it too difficult to navigate. I enjoyed complete solitude along this stretch.
At the turn up to Bull Pass, I decided to continue on to the reconnection point with Dutchman a little further south, as I wanted to do the portion of the trail around Black Top Mesa. After circling the Mesa, I decided to climb up Bull Pass to see what I had missed and to hopefully get some good views. Nice little climb. Two tents on top of the pass, but the occupants were apparently out exploring. I decided to scramble up the nearby high point for more panoramic views, and was rewarded with a nice vista towards the Battleship. Next time I'm up here, I'll bag the peak of Black Top Mesa. It looked like there was a route heading up most of the way, and the vegetation didn't seem too gnarly. But I was already bumping up against a 17-miler and didn't want to add that much more work today. But, I bet the view from the top is very nice.
I backtracked down the Bull Pass Trail and then finished out the hike on Dutchman.
When I got back to the TH around 2 pm, the lot was full.
A solid day in the Supes and bonus to check of some trail I hadn't been on before. |
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