Coconino County High Point – AZ
This was the final peak of our long weekend of state high points. I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep on the long drive from Lone Pine CA to Las Vegas the night before, but after a good night sleep the 4.5 hour drive to Flagstaff didn’t seem all that bad.
The trip reports from both of the state high point books were a bit vague about the distance of the trail. The sign at the Humphreys trailhead read 4.8 miles. I think that all of the guys wanted to not hold back at all on this one. Robert went to the front of the line and we began moving through groups of people. It was amazing how many people were out on the mountain, especially given how late (relatively) we were starting. This mountain is very popular and it was a beautiful day with temps in the 80’s and a bright blue sky.
The footing seemed somewhat rocky and rooty in parts and was dusty the entire way. Robert set a strong pace and I found myself running to catch up whenever I stopped to take a few pictures. It was a bit of a surprise to feel as good as I did with long hikes on Boundary and Whitney the previous two days. The others were also feeling good and we made it to the saddle between Humphreys and Agassiz in 1:32. We did a fair amount of running from the saddle to the summit and were on top in 2:02.
We stayed on the summit for 11 minutes taking pictures but pressed on wanting to get this one in the books. Eric decided to run down (no surprise) and it only took him about 20 minutes to reach the saddle. Robert decided to “stretch his legs out” and he completed that section in 15 minutes. The rest of us did it in a more realistic (and safe) 26 minutes. We regrouped at the saddle and with Dan setting the pace we methodically worked our way down. We stopped about half-way down and lost about 5 minutes helping a guy who took a bad spill. Even with the delay we were back at the trailhead in 67 minutes for a total round trip of 3:46 over 9.6 miles with 3,100’ of climb/descent. It was a great day and a great way to finish out the weekend.
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