AZ Adventure Hike 4

Day 3 – AZ Adventure Peaks 5 and 6. This day began with an almost two hour drive to the Kendrick Mountain Trailhead. I stepped off at 0735 and hiked 9.37 miles in 4 hours 37 minutes with 2,686 feet in elevation gain. The snow patches began at about 8,500 feet and were very prominent above 9,500 feet. There was easily 8 to 10 inches still at the summit, but that was melting fast. I didn’t need to use any traction devices and felt very comfortable going up and down using just my trail runners and trekking poles.

After completing Kendrick, I drove about 1.5 hours to the North Mount Wilson trailhead.

I started this hike right around 1408 (2:08pm). This was a 7.97 mile hike with 2,544 feet in elevation gain. Temps were right around 86 degrees when I stepped off. I only saw two hikers on the trail near the plateau once I climbed out of the canyon. They were headed down. Once I got up to the Wilson Mountain Overlook Trail, I was unsure of which Wilson Mountain was the summit. So, I headed to the right looking for a footpath up to the 7,100-foot summit. I was unable to find a footpath, so I headed around the back side and up the gentle slope busting brush to the summit. Once I was done there I decided to also head over to the Wilson Mountain at 7,000 feet. Easy to get to it but again I didn’t see any foot path to the summit, so I just went off trail until I found the Cairn at the summit. I knew as I was heading down that sunset was going to come just I was entering the canyon, so my final 2.5 miles or so were in the dark. Once I made it back down to the parking area I heard some rusting in the bushes to my right. I briefly caught the image of what I thought was a bear running up the hill. Turns out, there were two of them and they were Boars. Very large Boars. First time I’ve ever seen Boar in a hike. I also saw 3 deer in this final hike of the AZ Six Pack of Peaks Challenge.