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| Griffith Peak rising behind La Madre Mountain Range |
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| Escarpment Peaks from Skull Canyon |
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| Starting Echo Canyon |
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| Climbing into Echo Canyon |
Twelve hikers arrived at the Cowboy Trails Trailhead parking lot for a 7 mile hike that started by hiking up Echo Canyon, continued across the top of the hill on the SARS Trail and descended Skull Canyon for the big finale. Just to make the hike a little more interesting, we were all prepared to lay it all out on the trail with a fast pace and very few stops. I think, in the end, we averaged around 2.5 mph for our moving speed. Not too shabby! However, a hike at this speed does not lend itself to great photos and pointing out great stuff along the way. The hikers that joined me today didn't mind. They came for the workout!
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| 3rd Class Scramble in Echo Canyon |
We left the parking lot and headed straight up to the entrance of Echo Canyon. Without stopping, we climbed into the canyon. Our first lull came at the first 3rd class climb.
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| Steady Climb |
There may have been one or two pauses within the canyon for water and wardrobe adjustments, but our first real break came at the top of the canyon at the junction of the SARS Trail.
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| 3rd Class Step Up |
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| Nearing the SARS Trail Junction |
We turned onto the old mining road and climbed on up to the trail that turned to the left. This is when we began seeing snow patches on the sides of the hills. We passed through the right fork of Cave Canyon and on over through the left fork. At the Boneshaker sign, we stopped for another small break. The SARS Trail overlaps the Boneshaker Trail for around a quarter mile so we headed down the trail to find the junction. The junction that was previously very difficult to spot now has a large cairn to point it out. We turned to our right and hiked down to cross Mystery Woman Canyon and climb a steep hill. This hill was the most difficult part of the hike since it came during the fourth mile of the fast paced hike.
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| Snow Patches on the SARS Trail |
Just as we began dropping down to the top of Skull Canyon, we stopped among the rocks to take our snack break. It was nice to rest but we didn't want to get too chilled.
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| Climbing over the Cave Canyon Fork |
We got up and started down to Skull Canyon where the views of the escarpment peaks are really nice within the V of the canyon.
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| Starting down Skull Canyon |
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| Skull Canyon Trail |
The pace of the descent probably didn't match the ascent since there is always the roll-y rocks to contend with. But, we did a good job trying to keep up the pace ... carefully. It helped that the ground was quite damp. Finally, we reached the bottom of the canyon and we hiked on over past the corrals without stopping. What a fun hike on a beautiful day! Fantastic group! Let's do this again sometime!
7 miles; 1300 feet elevation gain; 3 hours; average moving speed 2.5 mph
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| Passing the Mystery Woman Canyon Fork |
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| Exiting Skull Canyon |
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| Back into Civilization! |
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