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Picketpost Mountain, Superior, AZ

12/11/2014

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This was a very fun hike, comparable to Flat Iron but with more exposure, thus a few nervous spots.  At the start, the sun was at an angle that made pic taking impossible so I lifted the above image from someone's web site, with thanks.  I usually start these hikes, look at the destination and try to figure how the trail will approach the summit.  Rarely do I guess correctly because things change so dramatically as you climb into the mountains. 
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I was to make a left off the main trail at a cairn and did so.  The walking was typical Sonoran Desert with nice views to the east.  The trail was soft, loose all was going well until after 1/2 mile on this trail, I realized, hey, I have not seen any foot prints.  I looked behind me and saw my prints were deep, defined, well defined.  Dang, I had got on to a trail that circumvented the mountain so backtracked and got back on to the main trail.  Soon.....
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....I came to this.  Now this is a no brainer message for people like me who don't read on-line hike reports carefully enough and don't bring a gps device. So, I hung a left on this old road and the trail soon left the road and began climbing.
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Lot of yellowish rock around here and the mountain drew closer.
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I came to a nice, steep rock wall and scrambled up.
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I reached a break in the stone face where the trail followed a side canyon.  Looking along the base of the wall, there was a cave with a noticeable game trail leading into it.  Would be fun to sit until nightfall and see what exited from it....not.
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Whoa, a large and long expanse of slick rock not too much different from the Siphon Draw on the Flat Iron hike.  I stood here for a minute, trying to figure how to climb it without tumbling back down. I got through that, through some other neat sections, reached the top of the canyon, crossed over the top of it with some serious exposure, climbed around large boulders and....
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....began closing on the summit with these large hoodoos.
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Unfortunately, what I thought was the summit was not.  The trail kept going up, reached another false summit, went up again and.....
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.....wow, what an incongruent sight.  Amongst all this natural beauty and jaw dropping scenes was a red mail box, a bench some hikers carried up here several years ago and for some reason, someone tied a hat to the box.  Inside, I found a notebook and pen and signed my name to it.
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Looking to the east was the town of Superior, AZ. 
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I began the long climb down but not finding this crack in the rocks that framed some dramatic views to the south.
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Down I went, eventually going through that notch between the rocks in the center. Officially, it is a 4 mile hike but with my mucking around at the beginning, I ended up with 6 miles, 2200' of climbing.  A fun hike, this is not a fitness hike to see how quickly you can reach the summit because there are too many spots a fall would be fatal.
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    Mark is a long-time cyclist, hiker, golfer and plays some table tennis...ok, it's ping pong.

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