It was however, a hike of strange contradictions. In the first place Brown Mountain is really not very brown, it looks green as it is covered with green cacti of Saguaro, Cholla, Prickly Pear, Barrel. Green from Paloverde trees, Cresote bushes, and Brittle Bush filled in the rest the surface hiding for the most part the brown rock and dirt of the mountain. The second contradiction is in the name 'mountain'. It really should be plural, as in 'mountains', because as we were to find out, the trail traverses as least four peaks. The third contradiction was despite this being the first day of March, the desert sun beat down on us making it seem like we were hiking in the middle of August.
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Descending on the far side we stopped for a snack at the Juan Santa Cruz picnic area. Instead of climbing back over the peaks we selected an unmarked trail that followed along the base of the mountain, which eventually forked into the Cougar Trail, which in turn joined the Brown Mountain Trail.
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