GHOTM February 22 (Sunday), Hells Canyon Wilderness

UPDATE 1/4/09

The desert is looking great with the recent rains-green abounds! The mountains along the route are quite impressive.

Where we need to leave the cars is in the Regional Park, and they want $5 / car. The first park entrance is said to be open by 7 so we can decide who's going to leave cars in the park and they will have to get a sticker, or risk the ticket.

The GPS software I've been playing with changes its mind on distance. If a couple miles more or less matters, I'd plan on as much as 12 miles. We'll only know for sure after we walk and track the actual hike, rather than scribing the line on the computer map.

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The polls are closed, sorry if your date didn't prevail; there is no greater tyanny than democracy. Maybe some of the Saturday workers can make this one!

Those coming from the east, let's meet at Denny's parking lot on the SW corner of Bell and I-17. I'm open to suggestions for those of you living in East LA; if there is a better meet-up spot speak up, no sense in you driving east to get west.

The Hells Canyon Wilderness is located northwest of Lake Pleasant. If you've driven past Castle Hot Springs, the Wilderness is the pile of mountains to the west. This hike celebrates the BLM acquisition of the last private land in-holding in this designated Wilderness Area. We may have some of the BLM people who made this happen with us.

This will be a through-hike so we'll need car tricks. We'll leave a car or two on the east end where Garfias Wash flows into Lake Pleasant, then pile into others and drive around to the west end. Regular street cars are OK for the east end, the west end takes high clearance.

We need a recommendation for Mexican food place in the northwest end of town for afterwards. I'm fine with Te-Wa's recommendation but open to local preference.

http://www.arizonahikers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7609

The route is down Garfias Wash from North Castle Hot Srings Road almost to Lake Pleasant. If you go to Google Maps , click "Terrain," and search for "Garfias Mountain" the wash is just north (up) from there and this will start to make sense. Scroll around and you'll see the route down the wash.

And thanks to Todd, a TOPO map is in the gallery:
http://www.arizonahikers.com/forum/modules.php?set_albumName=albwb11&id=Hell_s_Canyon_Hike_001&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

Come on everybody, this is not quite an amble but it's not a butt kicker either, and it's on the west side!

Al_HikesAZ · Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 263 Location: Scottsdale, AZ

Hikngrl · Posted: 2/21/2009, 4:56 pm Post subject:

For those of you taking bets, Todd and I aren't going to be able to make it to this Embarassed

We are in the middle of the remodle of the master bedroom and it's entire contents are spread all over the house and out on the back porch while we paint and stain and lay a wood floor. Had a new outside door put in yesterday and the rest has to proceed in as quick a fashion as possible in order to get it livabable again before Todd's Mom gets here on Thursday. Timing is every thing and for us that means we loose the chance to hike this weekend....I cant say how disappointed we are not to be hiking with you all tomorrow but we gotta do what we gotta do. If we had gotten more done faster we would still be out there with you all and finish the rest through the week but we just aren't far enough for that....
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~~~Diane~~~

I want to shine!

evenstar · Joined: 03 Jan 2003 Posts: 5548 Location: SCW by way of CA

Boy, just be thankful the entire corp of AZH Engineers don't show up, then you'd have your pool in the kitchen and who knows wherever the rest of your stuff might have ended up! But if it turns out nearly as nice as your kitchen You have it made. sorry I wasn't there like the first ( or was I?) big move to supervise Razz

but priorities are always second or in the vicinity of as always helping do heavy work.

PS, Please give GTG a big hug, or whatever and sorry I wasn't there to properly supervise.
Razz

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John Richardson and Richie Rich, El Perro de Playero
http://members.tripod.com/~evenstar/index.html
http://www.arizonahikers.com
When the Man waked up he said, "What is Wild Dog doing here?" And the Woman said, "His name is not Wild Dog anymore, but the First Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him with you when you go hunting."
--Rudyard Kipling, from Just So Stories, 1902

oliverr99 · Joined: 04 Jul 2006 Posts: 632 Location: Glendale

Thanks Shawn for a wonderful hike!! Perfect day for it.
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Anne
"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" -- Dr. Seuss

beckett · Joined: 14 Feb 2005 Posts: 1066

What a great GHOTM! Thanks Shawn for putting this together! I had a blast! So nice to be with all of you!
Linda
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"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

-- Walter Winchell, American newspaper commentator

RedRoxx44 · Queen of the Walkabout Joined: 15 Jan 2004 Posts: 1167

Sorry I missed you guys, I did stop off at the restaurant but ate and went on to Tucson. Wasn't sure when ya'll would show up and if, glad you had a good hike. I had a good "discovery" weekend also.
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You can rest when you're dead

azhiker96 · Joined: 05 Jan 2003 Posts: 1419

Sorry we missed you Letty. It was a pretty cool hike. Saw some awesome rocks, a few lizards, and one sleepy rattler who posed and stuck out his tongue at us. Hopefully we'll get some photos in the gallery soon. It was a good group and we had a fun time.
Thanks for Shawn for organizing this hike!
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It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. -- Carl Sagan

wanderingsoul · Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 2285 Location: Gilbert AZ

Sorry to have missed you Letty. Thought maybe you'd catch up or come from opposite, but no Letty siting. Sounds like you had a wonder day yourself anyway.

Thanks Shawn for organizing this. This was a beautiful area, some bouldering, down through water, some climbing for those so inclined/adventurous and just an all out nice day and hike. Started a bit cool and the clouds seemed to threaten and spit at us, but for a minute or two. The cloud cover kept it perfect and the sun did peak it's head and keep us warm. Saw my 2nd Rattlesnake. Two Group hikes this year... wonder if this is to be a trend with me? Trish did you rub off some of your Snakecharmer vibes on Me when we were in UT ??? But it seemed to be very passive as far a rattlesnakes go (I guess) and let quite a few stop to take it's picture or several. I didn't happen to be one of those. I'll get better with them one of these days. Really nice hike today. Enough to stretch myself (since I've not been able to hike consistently for a while lately). Saw the most beautiful Purple, Lavendar & Turquoise rocks with shimmery elements to them along the hike. I've never seen such beautiful colored rocks. Too pretty. Tried to keep feet dry but after my short legs just got tired of trying to jump to dry stones, I took the plunge and just got them wet (what the hay?). Water was cool but not too and really clean & clear..saw bottom of most all pools. It felt pretty good to get my feet and pants wet...they did dry quickly. Nice to meet everyone (Al_HikesAZ, moodrets, Dan and Joel) and enjoyed your company along the way and good to see everyone else too.

Oliver or maybe Linda... someone left Pink AZ sweatshirt and a Grey Fleece jacket with Colorado logo on it in my vehicle. I'll bring it along next weekend in case I run into one of you... Don't think it belongs to anyone else. Wasn't Deanda's.
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Wanderingsoul (Michelle)

Positive Thinking Is the Spark that Makes Dreams Happen~~~Unknown

Shawn · Posted: 2/22/2009, 9:57 pm Post subject:

We looked for you Letty, but alas, no FJ at the TH.

Thank you everyone for coming for this exploration. I found the first 4-5 miles especially interesting. I'd sure like to know more about the geology of this area: purple rocks, green rock, red ones, red and white mixed, huge quartz seam, a cliff made of slate. . . The eagle nests up on the cliff were pretty interesting as well, I wonder if the G&F knows of these. Wish there was a way to avoid car tricks.

It was great meeting new (for me) poeple--Nick, Alan, Noel, nice meeting you, hope you'll come on along next time.
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The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

moodrets · Joined: 20 Oct 2008 Posts: 18 Location: Phoenix

T'was quite a nice hike, yes, and it was very nice meeting all of you. Thank you Shawn for organizing it!

Al_HikesAZ · Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 263 Location: Scottsdale, AZ

Thanks Shawn for organizing and leading this hike. Nice to be able to put faces with names. The initiation ceremony wasn't so bad Smile

But I don't think I got the secret handshake.
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Anyone can make a hike harder. The skill comes in making it easier. Dosatéhigo nasádo

joelh · Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 7 Location: phoenix

It was a great hike and wonderful to meet everyone! Thanks for organizing, Shawn, I had a blast. I may have to start hiking with people now. Every once in a while, at least.

Suz · Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 3186

This is the kind of hike that I love. It was pretty flat, a few boulders to climb, a little mandatory water, some scrambling and a nice distance.

It was so nice to see everyone and to meet some new folks, glad everyone could join in.

I'm looking foward to seeing any pictures you guys might have gotten. I'm having a little trouble getting my pictures Embarassed

, I'm sure none of us are surprised about that.

Thanks Shawn for organizing this and buying the land for us!

A special thanks to Al for his emergency kit/towel and Ambika for her emergency/recovery skills. Rolling Eyes

Shawn · Posted: 2/23/2009, 11:35 am Post subject:

Any luck with the camera yet? Or is it still drying out?
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The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

Suz · Joined: 27 Nov 2005 Posts: 3186

Well I'm seeing damage to the card. Most of the pictures are messed up....multiple blue stripes in the images and nearly half of those show the file as being damaged.....so I'm figuring that the camera is likely to be in worse shape than the card. I'm afraid to try the camera...maybe I'll have more courage tomorrow. Crying or Very sad