Story:
We hiked down to the AZ Hot Springs by way of the traditional path and soaked, then instead of making this an out-and-back decided to loop back through the parallel canyon. Misleading cairns and poor trail upkeep led us off trail through some rough scrambles to a dead-end 30-foot sheer wall. The sun was about 5 minutes from setting at this point, so we began to track back. I scrambled up a valley to the north and mercifully (with the help of an Oregon 550t) intersected a trail leading us out. You can see the track-back as well as the valley scramble on the GPX file. This was one of the more harrowing experiences of my life recently, as we had one member who was just about finished physically, our water supply was quickly dwindling to nothing, and we lost the sun with over four hours until moon-rise. What was going to be a quick out-and-back on a trail we know very well became the March of Death.
We hiked down to the AZ Hot Springs by way of the traditional path and soaked, then instead of making this an out-and-back decided to loop back through the parallel canyon. Misleading cairns and poor trail upkeep led us off trail through some rough scrambles to a dead-end 30-foot sheer wall. The sun was about 5 minutes from setting at this point, so we began to track back. I scrambled up a valley to the north and mercifully (with the help of an Oregon 550t) intersected a trail leading us out. You can see the track-back as well as the valley scramble on the GPX file. This was one of the more harrowing experiences of my life recently, as we had one member who was just about finished physically, our water supply was quickly dwindling to nothing, and we lost the sun with over four hours until moon-rise. What was going to be a quick out-and-back on a trail we know very well became the March of Death.
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