Sunday, June 12, 2011

A Loop in the San Francisco Peaks


Scott Bajer put out the call.  It was time to loop the Peaks for the first time this year.  Emily Harrison, Zoroaster and I answered the call.  Today we ran the 22-mile jaunt clock-wise (don't let Bajer tell you otherwise).  We started at Schultz Tank and ran the lower portion of the Weatherford Trail, which was used as a fire line during last year's Schultz Fire.  Then it was on to the Kachina Trail and into the Kachina Peaks Wilderness.  After a short water stop at the Snowbowl, we proceeded up the steep, root strewn and rocky Humphrey's Trail and down the Weatherford Trail back to Schultz Tank.  We found plenty of snow and downed trees to make things plenty exciting on the top portion of Weatherford (below Fremont Saddle) as you'll see in the photos below.

Starting out on lower Weatherford.

Emily and Scott catch their breath as we briefly discuss where we truly want to go.

Classic Kachina

Kachina views to the right.

Kachina views to the left.

Kachina straight ahead.

Kachina from behind.

Z patiently waits for Scott to pass before one of Kachina's small rock scrambles.

Looking into the Inner Basin from Humphrey's Saddle.  The smoke on the horizon line is a result of the devastating Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona and, now, western New Mexico.

The quartet:  Bajer, Harrison, Torrence and Zoroaster.

Ice axe and crampons anyone?

Big snow for mid-June.

Anyone have a fence, because there are plenty of post-holes here!

What trail?

Scott thought my expletives on the snow section were entertaining...

Finally out of the snow and around the downed timber on the way back to Schultz Tank.

Your Moment of Zen

After 22 miles, let sleeping dogs lie.

7 comments:

Olga said...

OMG, it all brings memories now...but it seems you had warmer weather:)

Unknown said...

Welcome back Ian! Nice run, actually thought about doing that one today myself, so thanks for the trail beta. Hope to see you out there!

Shad said...

Sweet man, I'm a bit surprised you were able to make it all the way up. Must be melting fast.

Jana said...

Looks like a beautiful run, snow and all. Amazing how diverse your the trails are by you.

LK said...

A few weeks ago when Olga and I were doing that loop, I think I said more expletives between Freemont and Doyle than at any other time in my life. Still looks like the snow is hanging on...

Jess Miller said...

Looks so beautiful! Good crowd to hang with, too! And, I still love the Z-Dog! FUN!

Andrew said...

Nice post. In the 'quartet' photo, it looks like you are giving secret Jedi hand signs to Zoraster. Just sayin'...