Hike #47 – Grandview Tower East – 22.6 Miles
Location : Grandview Trailhead (NOBO Mile Marker 668.2)
Date: July 3rd 2018
Weather: Clear skies, no clouds, starting temperature 69 degrees and the turn 83 degrees.
Total Mileage Completed : 22.6 on AZT
Hike Description: This hike started at the Grandview Trailhead south of the Grand Canyon and right off of Highway 64. Elevation 7528ft and was to be a 22-mile out and back hike south toward Russell Tank Trailhead at 7071 ft. Elevation gain / loss 2185 ft.
Comments: This hike was another forested fast pace relatively flat mile pushing hike. After Tom headed back up the 80ft fire tower for some quick photos, we were off to the races heading south toward Russell Tank Trailhead. The mile maker signs on this trail are a bit off a little the correct mileage…. FYI. At Grandview TH the signed noted Russell Tank 12 miles. It was move like 11.3. This hike we really pushed the pace. Averaging 3.45 mph on the way out and only getting caught by one canyon drop up and down of 250ft and a series of cattle gates. At about mile 4 you will catch a couple nice view on the Grand Canyon off in the distance. After about 3 hours and 20 minutes of hard pace, we arrived at Russell Tank, is more like a small lake and actually had water in it….. funny huh? Of all this hiking, the first real tank that had enough water to have fish… see the photo…. A real fish…Nice….The other odd thing on this day was the area surrounding the tank was populated with a mass of about 100 wild horses. Skinny, rib showing and skittish, they were everywhere. Horses of all shapes and colors, just running in the woods and along the water line of the tank. I have no idea who put them all there or even if they were truly wild but they sure looked it. The day now was turning hot and the direct sun was simply cooking. Tom and I found a nice shade tree by the tank for a break. At this part of the hike, I offically reached a milestone on this AZT journey… I just passed 800 miles of AZT hiking. More on that later though. We ate a quick lunch and off we went, back to Grandview. This time, we kind of noticed why we were so successful pushing the breakneck pace out to the turn-around… it was a slight downhill all the way out the 11.3 miles. Not really noticeable when going in your favor but on the hike back, it kind of hurt. We trying to pace up but had to settle on a 3.0 average on the way back with a couple water “pack off breaks” to catch our breath. With hiking umbrella out most of the way soon we reached the Jeep in no time. Hiking fast is fun… the miles melt away so quickly. As the thought of Iced Gatorades and Paydays waiting for us in the cooler was ever present. Another nice hike….
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