March 22 Barnhardt Trail Hike

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

Eleven AzHkrs members met at MacDonalds on Shea near The Beeline highway at 7:30 Saturday morning. Golfdork (aka Hooli) GTG, Mike, Daddee, DennisBench, MtnMan, Paintninaz (with her new pup, Rocky) Grouphiker, Kurthzone, Kristyn, and JmzBlond. Up the Beeline highway to the Trailhead road that was rutted, but in otherwise good condition. Most family sedans could have made the drive with little trouble.
After several group photos we were on the trail. My photos are available at: http://photos.yahoo.com/bodew and Jaimi's at: http://photos.yahoo.com/jmzblond . Not far from the trailhead the first of many small waterfalls was sighted and benefits of recent rain and snow was evident by all the welcome greenery. Before long we came across the first small patches of snow. Snow on the distant Mogollon Rim was clearly seen and small snowmelt streams crossed the trail and at times ran down the trail. About 2.9 miles into the hike we came across a major waterfall that was the highlight of the hike (After Jaimi's "Comment" that is Diablo

)
Took some fairly easy climbing to get to the base of the falls where we stopped for photos and a snack. Back on the trail and more snow. Most had melted, but it was clear that there had been heavy snowfall in the recent past. Four miles into the hike and just below 6,000 feet, we came to what appeared to be an abandoned Boy Scout camp with a large and ugly fire ring. Here we stopped for lunch and the first shots were fired in the snowball wars, with many to follow, most initiated by our resident brat, JmzBlond Bang

it was one O'clock and it was decided to head back to the trailhead. On the way the snowball wars continued with Brat....Oops, I mean JmzBlond, being the major aggressor
Silly

Stopping briefly we heard a yell for "Help" from behind us and found Grouphiker needing some serious first aid for a bad cut on her lip caused by a fall. A PM from her this a.m. told me she had six stitches in the lip "and some awesome purple badges of courage on my left upper arm and both of my quads" but was otherwise fine, which was good news.
Back at the trailhead we had to wait an interminable amount of time for GTG to show with the keys to the beer Evil or Very Mad

but he did eventually show and save us from terrible thirst Beer

It was a gorgeous day with moderate temps making shorts and tees the best uniform of the day.
Thanks to all for making my first return to hiking since Thanksgiving such a great one Very Happy

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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

plummer150 · Posted: 3/24/2003, 12:07 pm Post subject: re:

Awesome pics! Looks to be like a nice turn out for the hike. Sounds like it was interesting. I'll make one of these hikes one of these days.....
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"IRONMAN" cometh, hiketh, destroyeth

jmzblond · Posted: 3/24/2003, 12:40 pm Post subject:

Well said Hooli... loved the hike and the companions were even better!! Has anyone heard from Paintninaz, Mtnman, or Rocky yet??
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Blond, James Blond... double "O", uh oh!!

"The romantic lifestyle of goats leaves a lot of time for digesting books" Charlotte La Chevre, (taken from "Conversations With A Goat" by Robert Shekter)

kurthzone · Posted: 3/24/2003, 12:50 pm Post subject:

paintninaz · Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 3515

We all made it!!!

We apparently walked right past y'all at the waterfall, we kept moving trying to keep Rocky from going balistic on the backpackers that were hanging out there and didn't even see that everyone had stopped! Rolling Eyes

We kept hiking Hiking

, figuring you guys were all way ahead of us Confused

, and looked to meet up with you at Chilson Spring...once we got there, we realized we had lost ya Chin Scratching

so we had lunch and then turned around and headed back.
Made for a LONG hike for poor Rocky on his first trip, he was one tired pup! Sleeping

but he handled it quite well! Yes

Discovered he really likes to follow closely behind someone (which seems to have been the cause of all his barking whenever you guys would take off and start walking...he just wanted to make sure he wasn't getting left behind! Laughing

)

We caught up with GTG, Kurthzone, and Mike chowing down on some pizza & sodas on our way home, and stopped and had a soda with them (since you guys drank all the beer and didn't leave any for us! Wink

)
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~Tracy

“Friends make the bad times good — and the good times unforgettable.”

Arizonaheat · Posted: 3/24/2003, 3:28 pm Post subject:

Thank you guys for the great trip reports and the pictures, now if we could only get more people writing trip reports.

Grouphiker, hope u get feeling better soon. A good example of why we should always go prepared with the necessary gear.
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Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life.

dennisbench · Joined: 04 Jan 2003 Posts: 275 Location: El Mirage

Great hike with some great people, can't ask for anything more.
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"In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees...When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something, maybe."
-Ed Abbey