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dzJeepChic

Picket Post Mountain Phalse Alarm Run

By dzJeepChic, in Trip Reports & Photos

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dzJeepChic    2,897

dzJeepChic
Posted

Today we did not make it to the amethyst mine Ladybug told me about. I knew the odds were against us when, as we traveled down the 202 through Mesa, our GPS unit showed us out in space. I realized right then that I had not updated City Navigator OR the Garmin Topo Maps to my new unit that they sent to me after my 1st one failed. Drats! Since I know exactly where the destination mine is located due to conversations with Ladybug, all I had done in preparation for the trip was mark a way-point at the turn off for Perlite Road. Hopefully this will be enough information to get us where we want to go!

 

peshaw48, Bradywgn71, gearhead, Number 7 & dzjeepchic met at the Chevron station in Apache Junction just off the 60 on Goldfield Rd. AZScout Robb was there on his way to somewhere, just to say hi. We went out Hwy 60 past the Thompson Arboratrium then turned south on Perlite Road where we aired down.

 

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I walked ahead and found these signs

 

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I told Phil about it, and he said "Yeah, they're right over there, so we went to check it out.


 

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Then we went south on Perlilte Road, which, according to Google Maps and Basecamp (Garmin) connects to Telegraph Canyon Road.


 

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Since I had failed to upload Topos, we didn't realize as we passed this gate that is was the Perlite Road closure. We did notice a go-around on the left, but since his experiences with Grand Canyon NP Rangers last year, George says go-arounds are a bad idea. Anyways, we kept going south on the more traveled route.


 

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It was an extremely beautiful area. We were going toward Picket Post Mountain and the trail was a mild moderate at best over some rocky slabs.


 

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All of a sudden we came to a Chevy Tahoe parked in the middle of the trail. No one was in it, so we got out of the Jeep and started walking up there, when the owners appeared off of a side trail. Turned out that the trail abruptly ended there, I mean literally, this is what it looked like:


 

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We had come to the overlook of the most beautiful canyon!


 

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So we were at the end of a very scenic trail, and obviously the Perlite Rd. does NOT go through to the Telegraph Canyon Rd. as shown on maps. So we made our way back and figured we'd follow a rudimentary map me & George had printed from Google Maps to the Telegraph Canyon Road.

 

 

 

So we wound our way around through a maze of trails in the flat lands south of Superior, and finally we think we've found the way.

 

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Except that it doesn't look familiar to those of us who've been on Telegraph Canyon Road in the past. We were saying: "How come we can't see Superior from here?" and "I've never seen that rock wall before", and "Why did Buckner say it was a MallCrawler trail?". Because honestly, nothing looked familiar.

 

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Continued

V

V

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azscout    2

azscout
Posted

Here are a couple rocks I picked up today. If you can see the orange that is wolfinite.

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dzJeepChic    2,897

dzJeepChic
Posted

We came to a little bit of a rock crawl for the stockers in the group, so George got out to spot them through.

 

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Gearhead didn't need to be spotted


 

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peshaw48's Nissan Frontier in the rock crawl section:


 

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Then we came to this:


 

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Psych! BUT, none of us who'd been on Telegraph Canyon remembered a gate, so, kinda weird!


 

Good Ol' Number 7

 

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We kind of had to spot everybody through the gate, and then Bradywgn71 - Chris said that according to his google maps I Phone GPS, the road we were on was parallel to the Telegraph Canyon Road, and worse yet, it ends soon. So we stopped for lunch, and George walked forward to check it out.


 

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Soon George came back and reported that the trail did end about three-quarters of a mile ahead, but that there was a spring there, where there were five bikini-clad voluptuous women basking in the sun. We knew he was faking about at least some of that information, so we turned around and went back the way we'd come in after lunch.


 

Since our day had been cut short, we figured we'd stop at a cave we'd seen some vehicles parked at earlier when we passed. But then as we got closer, we saw:

 

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Look closely:


 

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There was a group of people rock climbing and repelling on that rock face as we drove out.


 

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Here they are gathered on the mid ledge


 

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So we parked and watched them watching us for a while, and me & George went to check out a nearby cave.


 

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We continued on the trail until it met with Hwy 177, which completely surprised me, we were way off from where I thought we were!


 

So, on the re-do, we're going in from Superior to Telegraph Canyon Road, which is easy to find from Superior, but not so easy to find from just south of Superior. Trust me.

 

Diane :rolleyes:

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PMA4x4    4

PMA4x4
Posted

Wow, you guys ran the exact same trail I was on in December with Friends from out of state. We only went a little past where George is standing on the edge. We were solo and a stock WJ so I had to call it sometime. Great to know there is more out there.

 

Looks like fun times!:D

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teddyearp    0

teddyearp
Posted

Very nice. Glad you guys had a good time, too bad about the DoH! on the maps thing.

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thatoneguyaz    0

thatoneguyaz
Posted

Whos grand cherokee? Its my twin! :D Its stock right? I remember when I got mine it had that black license plate holder on the front too, thats the first thing I took off! :P

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Bradywgn71    1,008

Bradywgn71
Posted

That's our grand Cherokee overland. It sure is stock. Wifey is working overtime to help the jeep upgrade fund! Here is the link to the photos I took.

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/110968346826086888564/SuperiorMarchTrip?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNn4sPLv986alwE&feat=directlink

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