Today's hike was our most strenuous to date. It wasn't just the distance (8.5 miles, respectable but not great) or elevation gain (although it was our largest to date, 2900 feet!). Instead, it was the steep climb at the end where, after hiking 3.3 miles and ascending 1900 feet (a quite challenging 600 feet per mile), we ascended the final 1000 feet in only .7 of a mile. At an altitude beginning at 8300 feet and ending at 9300 feet.
The first mile of the hike went along the Three Rivers Trail. We tried to fill out a registration form at the trail head, but the registration box apparently has another use now.
The trail was dirt, for the most part, and an easy climb.
Then the hike turned serious. For about two miles we climbed up Dry Canyon, crossing the stream bed at several spots. It was dry, with only an occasional small pool of water.
The climb was steep in places, and the footing was not always secure. It was also often rocky, which requires a significantly greater amount of physical and mental effort. One can step on a rock only to have it give way. Plus, for me, with my foot operations, a rocky trail means a lot more torquing of my ankle. So we had to be very careful because of the trail.
Then, approximately three miles into the hike, we reached the end if the canyon and began the climb to the rim. The first quarter of mile or so wasn't too bad. We could look up (way up!) and see how far we had to go. Yikes!
And then this already steep hike became unreal. For half a mile or so it was like straight up. We kept saying "where are the switchbacks?"
And then we got switchbacks, and they were worse. Be careful what you wish for.
Then we finally got close to the rim.
And we were there.....or so we thought.
We reached a saddle, with an open meadow. Very beautiful.
But were we at the crest? We were supposed to run into another trail, which we didn't see. However, there was a camping spot there, and the distance was exactly the three miles that the hiking guides and signs indicated.
There was a trail heading off to the east, so even though we at first thought we had reached our goal, we decided to go a little farther to see if we could see a sign indicating we had reached the Crest Trail. We went an additional .3 of a mile until we were at a point where we could get great views of the north side of the mountain.
At that point we could see the trail continuing far into the distance, but we didn't know if we were still on the Dry Canyon trail or had reached the Crest Trail and didn't know it because there was not a sign. Since we had traveled 3.30 miles and the Red Canyon trail was supposedly 3 miles after the cut-off to it, we assumed the latter.
We also knew we had 4.25 miles left of hard hiking left today, so returned to the beautiful meadow and enjoyed the views while we had lunch.
So we hiked back out, carefully because of the steepness of the trail and because it was often either loose rock or loose dirt. Trekking poles should be the Mountaineer's 11th hiking essential because it would have been treacherous without them.
We returned, 6 1/2 hours after we headed off this morning, tired and dirty.
We decided that after a few days of hiking we deserved showers. Don't you think?
Well, this was our second campground in a row without water, but being the clever people we are, we had filled our solar-powered shower bag a week ago and left it out today to warm up.
We took showers. Fast. Felt sooooo good.
The shower bag wasn't hung high enough for me, so I had to hunch over to use it. Then I got soap in my eyes, so between hunching over and having my eyes closed I kept losing my balance. Vicky laughed her head off at me, but I, of course, showed much more restraint when her turn came.
Hike Report: Dry Canyon Trail at Three Rivers Campground in the White Mountains, NM
(Note that the elevation gain changes a bit when one disables the elevation correction. Note also that, as is typical with both my hiking and biking Garmins, elevation gain does not equal elevation loss, even though we always start and stop in the same exact location; I basically take an average of all of these figures to arrive at what I believe to be the best estimate of elevation gain. It is probably accurate to within 50 feet or so, which is pretty good. Usually it is within a few feet of elevation gains provided on the occasional trail map that reports elevation gains of hikes, which makes us feel confident in what we estimate when this information is not provided by trail maps.)
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