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| Hiking | 12.86 Miles |
2,260 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.86 Miles | 7 Hrs 4 Mns | | 1.89 mph |
| 2,260 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | With all the rains, I was curious to see how things were greening up along this loop. Additionally, the last time I did it, I wasn't aware of the Spanish Heiroglyphs on top of Black Top Mesa, so I figured I'd go have another look-see in hopes that I could find them (TL;DR: no, no I did not. *sigh*).
Headed out later than was ideal, thanks to a bout of insomnia and the decision at about 3am to turn off my alarm clock in hopes that I could get more than a few hours of sleep before waking up. With the later start, I suspected I'd have to scrap my plan to do the super loop that would have brought me around the far side of Black Top Mesa after summiting via the Bull Pass Trail and back down the Dutchman.
The road out to First Water Trailhead has definitely seen a bit of water damage with the recent rains, but it remains in relatively good shape. There were plenty of cars parked at the Crosscut/Massacre Falls Trailheads, a handful of cars were at both the First Water Trailhead and the overflow lot. I saw one person and their pup headed onto the trails while I gathered my gear.
Everything is greening up, and the burn areas are starting to repopulate. A bunch of the shrubs that had crisped have a decent amount of new growth evident. With the sun warm on the trail, there were plenty of butterflies and grasshoppers all around. In addition to all the green growth, there was plenty of water flowing. As I was hiking along, I mused that I somehow managed to block out of my memory how rocky the trails are in the western superstitions 
When I hit the junction with the Dutchman Trail, I spied a large backpack (apparently abandoned during a rescue?). Made my way up the surprisingly damp trail to Bull Pass and on to the summit of Black Top Mesa, wandering all the way past the rock marked "The End" to peer over the south eastern end and looked at various rocks in that area, hoping to find the Spanish Heiroglyphs - but only succeeded in spying a very large chuckwalla, who was not happy to see me.
As I made my way down from the top of the mesa, I was surprised by another hiker on their way up. When I got back to Bull Pass, I pulled out my map and tried to gauge the additional mileage that would be added if I decided to try the super-loop after all. After a bit of dithering and rough math, I figured I'd likely be rolling into the trailhead at least an hour after sunset if I opted for the longer route. Since my feet were slightly annoyed with the rocky terrain, I decided to play it safe and stick with the shorter, more traditional route.
The hike out along the Dutchman Trail went by quickly enough, and I made it back to my car in time to drive out with the setting sun proving to be an absolute menace as I headed back out First Water Road. Looks like I'll need to see if anyone has conveniently marked the hieroglyphs should I decide to summit the mesa yet again  |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
originally I was going to class this as "light" but given how much time it took me to label everything, I figure it warranted an upgrade  |
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| Happier when hiking....I may not move fast (and I'm often distracted by wildflowers), but I'll get there eventually |
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