Just A Little Farther

Awesome run! Cerbat Mountain Traverse 8 miles in 2.5 hours

I started after work at 6pm. Filled up the Camelback and decided to go for a run. Didn't know exactly where I was going to go; I headed North down this sandy 4X4 road into some Arizona State Trust Lands. I look to the west and I see a well established 4X4 road--so naturally I say "Just a little farther".

I've been going out nearly every night, exploring something, somewhere, I've never been before in my new summer backyard. So, I know the sun sets at 8pm but I have light until 8:45 at the latest. I get up-into where the steepness of the mountain grade starts to show itself. I start to see the saddle that the trail is heading to so I go "Just a little farther". Problem, The trail doesn't head to the saddle I was looking at, it turns and heads to what could become the highest peak of this section of the Cerbats. Naturally, I want to get to the top, or at-least to some saddle, so I go "Just a little farther".

I wanted to go for a run, so this whole time I've been trying to jog, with spurts of faster jogging and hiking. Its all up hill now, and will end up being 1,100 feet of elevation gain to the saddle(Click on Elevation Profile above). Getting to the saddle I find a small quarry for Quartz and a small pool of water at the bottom; though this quarry makes the white scar in the top-right section of the map above, I think about the Sheep and Deer that may drink from this. The highest peak of this section of the Cerbats is only 500 feet higher; a summit I've been postponing for a special occasion. From here, I have a good view into the center of the Cerbat Mountain. There's a couple of houses/industry buildings and the 4X4 trail continues over the saddle.

Right now, I'm NOT thinking "Just a little farther". I see this as a leap into the unknown. The time is surprisingly 6:45 and I'm impressed with the amount of trail that I've covered; I can see the whole trail I've sped up--from the saddle it makes a big circle back down one of the spines of this Beast. I know I can get down quickly but I have a choice to make--which side of the saddle to go down. The way I came doesn't interest me; I turn to the center of the mountain and I start to hope that the path ahead completes a big circle around the peak--back to the bunk-house. If I descend, I don't know if I will be able to easily hike back up. One benefit of the descent is that the sun has left the the inner mountain, making the risk of dehydration less if I run out of water.

During the orientation for the Game and Fish Departments internship they told us something I haven't forgotten. When you're feeling 'in-trouble' out in the back country remember there is two kinds of trouble--the Life Threatening kind, and the Inconveniencing kind. I looked down at the trail before me and knew that with my feet on solid ground the only trouble I will encounter, as the sun continues to set, is the inconveniencing kind. I begin my run down.

At this point during my internship here in Kingman, there's been a lot of talk about rattle snakes. I am concerned about running across one, but after the many miles I've hiked here I've only heard one in a bush--while driving to check a Water Catchment for Big Horn Sheep. I also imagine what I look like, and sound like, to a hungry mountain lion. I probably look like a small bodied, heavy panting, sack of thoroughly hydrated meat; so from time to time, when a Quail bursts from the brush my heart does tend to skip a beat and my feet propels me into the air and towards the center of the trail, like a juvenile antelope.

I'm down. I look up at the saddle from where I came and I look at my cell phone--which still HAS service--and the time is 7:10! "Wow" I think, but is ther a trail ahead of me, or will I be bush whacking through the night? "Just a little farther" I find a wash, the sand has tread marks in it, and I think if those treads came from one of those heavy duty golf carts that I saw on the other-side of the mountain just the other day. I hope that this is the best trail that leads back to my summer bunk house. I keep that high peak to my left, I know if it remains there I can't get too far off track, and I hope...