The hills were calling again, and we were finally able to go. After a super fun group trek with Taylor, Andrew, and Basil in May, I'd been wanting to repeat the Flagstaff 12 Hills effort and make some navigational tweaks. "Now" seemed like a good time, amid my training ramp.
John was up for it! At least I think he was:
Good morning, San Francisco Peaks! We're going to stay over here at slightly lower elevations today:
Getting ready at the Sunset trailhead. John's about to start a track on his phone:
And we're off! First a short road run, then an steep "oh right!" climb straight up the side of the first hill. That was a good warm-up. Our first hilltop:
Easy nav to point #2 with an even better view of the mountains:
We spent a few extra minutes exploring further along the ridge of hill #8549 just to be sure we had the exact highpoint. Yes, for certain the giant boulder is the top, so we returned to it and scrambled up for a photo and an InReach Mini "OK" message:
We took a more direct line to hill number 4 this time, passing one of the giant brush piles that I assume will eventually get burned in a prescribed fire:
Another hilltop, ahead of schedule:
#8402 is a flattish top, and a different spot just over there always looks higher no matter where you stand. We think we found the right place in approximately the center of the area:
From there, John did another nice contour, this time more level without gaining/losing elevation. The footing was a tad rough on the traverse but not bad. We noted a lot of soot from a previous fire, some erosion from the summer rains, and plenty of dried up vegetation. You know, when these bushes were green they might have been a lot slower to push through. Perhaps it was a good thing we didn't try to run this FKT a couple months ago.
A manmade object in the middle of nowhere:
A brief run down the road before jumping back off into the woods:
We climbed up the ridge and topped out on a big boulder:
We were moving well, finding our way down to a small trail and then straight up the next hill. It was the first of two steeper/higher climbs, time to get in a groove and keep those legs churning.
Partway up my foot slipped on some pine needles and unfortunately there was a sharp rock right there for my shin to bang on. Ow.... after a couple minutes it was only slightly painful.
Can't keep me from getting to the top though!
John suggested a more direct route to the next peak and I was game to try it. The descent and climb were straightforward, just another big push upward. John climbed well all day and I hung on behind him. Nice going, John! He had time at the top to get a picture of my approach:
Yep, 8 digits, that is correct!
Our first view of town below:
Now for some trail running, around the bowl and over to the top of the Heart trail for more nice views:
John found a spot off the trail to stash his backpack for the Elden out-and-back; no sense in carrying everything all that way (twice).
The road up to Elden:
John is either doing the jig or cleaning a rock out of his shoe:
Look out!
More views:
John led the way on the off-road very-slight shortcut, next to this interesting dead tree:
He also remembered the little cut-down trail at the TV towers, then took a more direct route toward what we thought might be the actual highpoint at Devils Head. We jogged along that ridge, all the way to the northwest end which seems like the highest of the bumps. Except that doesn't match the triangle symbol on the Emmitt Barks map. So... this might take more investigation and clarification. For now, we propose "here":
We roamed back down to the road, up to TV towers, down the next road, and along the trail to pick up John's pack. Setting off from the saddle (at the top of the Heart trail) toward Little Elden:
Partway along the ridge, John for some reason decided to go around a little hill on the right side (the side where there might be cliffs). I questioned several times whether this was wise; it was not. We climbed up and over the hill to keep from getting cliffed out. This is one spot we have yet to optimize.
We recognized the giant boulders at the top of Little Elden and John helped me up them fairly quickly. He shimmied over to the summit register while I decided to hang out at "really quite close enough rock" to take his photo:
Hi John!
I tried to find an easier way down, while John added us to the register book again:
I was unsuccessful in finding a simpler downclimb or a way through the little canyon, and we tried scrambling down boulders to the west instead. That ended up being slow and tedious. Eventually we got back down to the forest floor.
I'd recently done a scouting hike to try to find a better way through the large boulder field and back to the Sunset trail. We had been assuming we would just go back to the saddle at the top of Heart, but I discovered that the rock pile eases up partway around the mountain.
Even better than that, we found a small drainage that was much easier to descend, and soon we were back on the trail. Score!
Just one... big... steep... climb and we were finally at the top of peak #12. Well, John was at the top. I was almost at the top:
I think we were both a bit tuckered!
It's a long, smooth, fun run down Sunset back to the trailhead. As we neared the end I wondered if we might be able to break 7 hours? So we pushed it a little, but nope. A few seconds over. No matter, it was a good effort and an excellent day:
Thank you John, my FKT buddy!
