{"id":16035,"date":"2022-03-14T13:07:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-14T19:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=16035"},"modified":"2022-03-16T20:36:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T02:36:47","slug":"good-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=16035","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes a Pleasant Hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Apologies to my loyal readers for the long hiatus between hiking Dispatches! No surprises \u2013 life’s been a little challenging lately, and an earlier attempt to resume my hiking routine was kind of a bust.<\/p>\n

This Sunday morning, the time change confused me, because I rely on my iPad’s alarm to wake me, and the iPad was set on Phoenix time from a flight I made months ago. The time change makes New Mexico an hour later than Arizona, so I was sure I’d lost an hour of hiking until a mile or so up the trail when I realized the sun \u2013 and my body \u2013 was still on the old time, and despite what my watch said, I had a full 8 hours to do a serious hike.<\/p>\n

The hike I’d chosen was actually my third choice for the day, because I’d done it before and it had ended inconclusively, short of a ridge top, at a logjam of wildfire deadfall. But the important thing, after a hiking hiatus, was that it gained me plenty of elevation. It was a real workout.<\/p>\n

The day started just below freezing but temperatures were expected in the 50s by afternoon, under clear skies. The creek in the canyon bottom was running strong from continuing snowmelt. Small butterflies were everywhere.<\/p>\n

This is the canyon whose middle stretch is choked with debris flows and deadfall, twisting between sheer bluffs and giant boulders that require constant detours. The trailhead logbook featured a recent entry from a couple who’d continued over into the next canyon, to the remote creek junction I’d bushwhacked to last year. They’d done it as an overnight and complained about the bad trail condition \u2013 I’d done it as a day hike.<\/p>\n

One thing that surprised me in the canyon was the large number of seemingly healthy firs and alders which had fallen recently. I don’t think of a narrow canyon with sheer walls as supporting the kind of wind that could bring healthy trees down, but it’s hard to imagine a hidden disease that would weaken such different species, and drought shouldn’t be an issue in this well-watered canyon.<\/p>\n

\"Hiking <\/a>
Hiking down into the canyon. The farther peak is the one I bushwhacked to last summer, on dangerous talus slopes. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Checkerspot <\/a>
Checkerspot butterfly on the trail. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Southwestern <\/a>
Southwestern orangetip on an early flower. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Alder <\/a>
Alder buds in the canyon. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Plenty <\/a>
Plenty of snowmelt still coming down, between deciduous trees still bare of leaves. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Middle <\/a>
Middle stretch of canyon shaded by rock formations and choked with wildfire debris. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lots <\/a>
Lots of healthy-looking firs mysteriously brought to the ground. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The trail traverses steeply out of the canyon to a pass where the trail into the next canyon begins. But from there, I continue up and across the west wall of the first canyon, snaking around massive rock outcrops and following a scarcely visible but well-remembered route which is now only maintained by elk. In fact, elk love this trail so much their scat and tracks were all over it. There was no sign of human use since my last visit here \u2013 this route is generally believed impassable.<\/p>\n

Like before, I was able to follow the elk trail all the way to the deadfall logjam near the ridge top. Whereas my first visit had been frustrating \u2013 the top is tantalizingly close \u2013 this time I was just glad to be back hiking and reaching my highest elevation since last summer \u2013 9,750′.<\/p>\n

\"Climbing <\/a>
Climbing beyond the pass, with a view of the bald peak I bushwhacked to last year, up the knife-edge ridge at right <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Elk <\/a>
Elk love this route <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ridge <\/a>
Ridge I’m aiming for. I will make it to the right-hand edge of the stand of forest at right of the tallest-looking peak. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Probably <\/a>
Probably some species of sulfur butterfly, huddling in a gust of wind on an exposed shoulder. <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_5717\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking down a long talus slope. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"New <\/a>
New Mexico locust, one of many that grabbed or scratched me along the elk trail. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Getting <\/a>
Getting close to that ridge, really wish I could make it up there! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Elk <\/a>
Elk trail crossing talus slope <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Elk <\/a>
Elk trail requires pushing through brush and climbing over logs. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Getting <\/a>
Getting really close to that ridge! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"End <\/a>
End of the road for me! <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

I’d tweaked my back, which remains on the edge of severe pain, climbing over a big log in the trail, so the first thing I was looking for on the way down was a clear, level spot to stretch. It took me nearly a mile to reach that, because the upper trail traverses and switchbacks across steep and rough ground, including talus slopes. Finally stretching on a grassy saddle high in the sky, in the warmth of the sun, felt wonderful.<\/p>\n

I reached the vehicle exactly 8 hours after starting. No adventures, and at this point that’s a good thing!<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
A higher view of that bald peak. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Zoomed <\/a>
Zoomed in through a hazy sky on dim, snow-blanketed Mt. Graham, more than a hundred miles west in Arizona. I’ll be hiking there again when the days get long enough to make the drive worthwhile. <\/div> <\/div>
\"You <\/a>
You can see my return trail, a thousand feet lower, cutting diagonally below those rock outcrops. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Approaching <\/a>
Approaching the canyon bottom and looking back at the ridge to see the moon rising. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_5753\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A lot of fungus in the canyon from last year’s wet monsoon. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apologies to my loyal readers for the long hiatus between hiking Dispatches! No surprises \u2013 life’s been a little challenging lately, and an earlier attempt to resume my hiking routine was kind of a bust. This Sunday morning, the time change confused me, because I rely on my iPad’s alarm to wake me, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,67,60,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hikes","category-little-dry","category-mogollon-mountains","category-southwest-new-mexico"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/IMG_5753.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16035"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16075,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16035\/revisions\/16075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}