{"id":9501,"date":"2020-01-20T10:52:51","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T17:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=9501"},"modified":"2023-08-24T14:24:04","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T20:24:04","slug":"first-steps-in-the-first-wilderness-part-8-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=9501","title":{"rendered":"First Steps in the First Wilderness Part 9: January"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Above 8,000′, the snow was too deep to hike my favorite trails. And my 4wd was in the shop so I couldn’t drive muddy and\/or icy roads to most of the other trailheads. After trying and failing to drive an unfamiliar backroad an hour from home, I was forced to fall back on a low-elevation trail into a popular canyon, a trail much shorter than I usually hike on a Sunday.<\/p>\n

But it was worth it! I’d forgotten how beautiful the landscape is from this trail. The side canyons had rushing water, and the main creek was raging with snowmelt.<\/p>\n

\"Approaching <\/a>
Approaching the snowcovered crest from the southeast <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Ascending <\/a>
Ascending the first ridge above the canyon, looking back down at the canyon’s mouth <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking up-canyon toward the snowcovered crest of the range <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Crossing <\/a>
Crossing the first side canyon, which is normally dry <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Discovering <\/a>
Discovering a “window rock” above the trail that I hadn’t noticed before <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Cliff <\/a>
Cliff overhanging the canyon bottom <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Volcanic <\/a>
Volcanic breccia along the trail <\/div> <\/div>
\"Down <\/a>
Down in the canyon, looking up to its head <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7773\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This small stretch of canyon is perpetually in the shade and retains freezing temps despite its low elevation <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7784\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A new patch of the very destructive invasive plant Vinca, commonly known as periwinkle <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Vinca <\/a>
Vinca smother all native vegetation <\/div> <\/div>
\"Pinnacles <\/a>
Pinnacles above the trail <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The creek is about 15′ wide, carrying up to 8 times its normal volume <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7798\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"This <\/a>
This “weeping” bunchgrass is one of my favorites <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"In <\/a>
In patches of sun I was swarmed by clouds of leafhoppers that were massing on trailside oak shrubs <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7817\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Graphocephala <\/a>
Graphocephala atropunctata, commonly know as the blue-green sharpshooter <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

After reaching the canyon bottom trail, working my way up along the raging creek, and fighting my way through clouds of leafhoppers that rose from trailside shrubs in the few sunny patches, I was finally stopped when the trail ended in an impassable rockslide. None of these trails has been maintained since the 2012 wildfire.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
A giant sycamore leaning over the creek <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7823\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_7824\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A stretch of trail reinforced with flatrocks by long-ago volunteers <\/div> <\/div>
\"Vinca <\/a>
Vinca smothering two yucca <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7831\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7834\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7847\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I climbed above the trail to the window rock for some closeups <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7870\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7878\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I love the strata in this cliff <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7883\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7884Pano\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"At <\/a>
At center, in the far distance, the Mogollon Rim of Arizona can just barely be seen behind the peak of the Blue Range <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Above 8,000′, the snow was too deep to hike my favorite trails. And my 4wd was in the shop so I couldn’t drive muddy and\/or icy roads to most of the other trailheads. After trying and failing to drive an unfamiliar backroad an hour from home, I was forced to fall back on a low-elevation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,60,58,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hikes","category-mogollon-mountains","category-southwest-new-mexico","category-whitewater"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/IMG_7796.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501","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=9501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10522,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9501\/revisions\/10522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}