John and I decided to try this run yesterday. There were brief talks in the wheeling after Xmas thread of wheter or not it was possible.
Here is the airial photo of the route we took:
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?...e ridge_~aN.33.206700_-111.149712_Ajax Trail_
We took the trail south from the switchback at point 7 and followed it south of point five to where the trail began to head away from the was designated by point 4 (33° 11.18'N, 111° 8.88'W). THERE IS NO CROSSOVER FROM THE TRAIL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE WASH and therefore the potential connection of Martinez Canyon trail to Ajax Mine trail is, as of yet, impossible. We did however hike down to the washbed from the trail and found a potential "future" route to connect the two. This would however require the removal of native cacti and other plant life, unacceptable practice in my book. The bed of the wash did however look to offer up some substantial challenges in the form of rock gardens and waterfalls. Our next excursion into this area will be from the Martinez side at which point we will attempt to get at it from the other side. We went no further than the point mentioned above and are unaware as to whether or not one of the other washesreaches the trail at another point.
The trail between the Ajax turnoff and the point that we decided to turn around is a well defined yet seldom traveled trail. There is a schute about 30 feet long that is VERY narrow and requires some carefull driving so as not to contact the walls on either side, not sure that the sides of an 80 series would make it through unscathed. The schute is followed directly by a nice, medium speed required yet not quite unnerving, hill climb which takes you straight up a ridge about 400 feet vertically in few hundred yards. Once at the top of the assent you reach the saddle between two bluffs and cross into "Martinez Canyon" and follow an off camber decent allong a hillside until you reach a point very close to the wash. This is where we did a little exploring by foot looking for a route into the wash. When we couldn't find a way into the wash we decided that a late lunch in Superior might be nice and head back to the Ajax Mine road and out towards Superior. After a long haul out to Pearlite mines for some rockhounding we decided to head directly home from there. Airing up at the JR/SR Highschool at around 3PM and jumping onto the 60 westbound about 3:15 and finally reaching the home destination at 4pm. Alll in all this was a great scenic run with no real challenges for us other than the couple of hillclimbs and steep decents. In the next few weeks, I will be planning another rockhounding trip out to the pearlite mines for my daughter and I with some additional exploring in the area.
John should hopefully have some pics up in the next couple of days.
EDIT: TO LESSEN ANY CONFUSION, WE DID NOT OPEN A NEW TRAIL! THIS EXCURSION WAS INTENDED TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER OR NOT THERE WAS ALREADY A PATH OPENED. THERE WAS NOT. NO PLANTS OR ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POST.
Here is the airial photo of the route we took:
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?...e ridge_~aN.33.206700_-111.149712_Ajax Trail_
We took the trail south from the switchback at point 7 and followed it south of point five to where the trail began to head away from the was designated by point 4 (33° 11.18'N, 111° 8.88'W). THERE IS NO CROSSOVER FROM THE TRAIL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE WASH and therefore the potential connection of Martinez Canyon trail to Ajax Mine trail is, as of yet, impossible. We did however hike down to the washbed from the trail and found a potential "future" route to connect the two. This would however require the removal of native cacti and other plant life, unacceptable practice in my book. The bed of the wash did however look to offer up some substantial challenges in the form of rock gardens and waterfalls. Our next excursion into this area will be from the Martinez side at which point we will attempt to get at it from the other side. We went no further than the point mentioned above and are unaware as to whether or not one of the other washesreaches the trail at another point.
The trail between the Ajax turnoff and the point that we decided to turn around is a well defined yet seldom traveled trail. There is a schute about 30 feet long that is VERY narrow and requires some carefull driving so as not to contact the walls on either side, not sure that the sides of an 80 series would make it through unscathed. The schute is followed directly by a nice, medium speed required yet not quite unnerving, hill climb which takes you straight up a ridge about 400 feet vertically in few hundred yards. Once at the top of the assent you reach the saddle between two bluffs and cross into "Martinez Canyon" and follow an off camber decent allong a hillside until you reach a point very close to the wash. This is where we did a little exploring by foot looking for a route into the wash. When we couldn't find a way into the wash we decided that a late lunch in Superior might be nice and head back to the Ajax Mine road and out towards Superior. After a long haul out to Pearlite mines for some rockhounding we decided to head directly home from there. Airing up at the JR/SR Highschool at around 3PM and jumping onto the 60 westbound about 3:15 and finally reaching the home destination at 4pm. Alll in all this was a great scenic run with no real challenges for us other than the couple of hillclimbs and steep decents. In the next few weeks, I will be planning another rockhounding trip out to the pearlite mines for my daughter and I with some additional exploring in the area.
John should hopefully have some pics up in the next couple of days.
EDIT: TO LESSEN ANY CONFUSION, WE DID NOT OPEN A NEW TRAIL! THIS EXCURSION WAS INTENDED TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER OR NOT THERE WAS ALREADY A PATH OPENED. THERE WAS NOT. NO PLANTS OR ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS POST.
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