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| Hiking | 3.85 Miles |
1,776 AEG |
| | Hiking | 3.85 Miles | 3 Hrs 48 Mns | | 1.46 mph |
| 1,776 ft AEG | 1 Hour 10 Mns Break | 10 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | The Samurai broke a rear spring last Friday which meant a change in plans for the next few days. So instead of a long off-road before hiking I sought something closer. Another hike long on my list, Dome Mountain looked like just the right thing.
I drove into the Bulldog OHV area at the Tomahawk gate in AJ and took FR 1356 straight north until it turned east when I headed NW, driving as far as the Pathfinder could take me. The Samurai would have only taken me another few hundred yards but I could use more time on foot anyway.
Although I had scanned the various routes prior to the hike, I decided to head up to the closest lower peaks and see what the route would be like. I found out... it was much steeper than it looked from afar, and I was forced to drop down some distance before continuing the climb to the summit farther to the north. that pretty much turned out to be the them for me today... climb until cliffed out, drop down by another route then climb again until cliffed out, and repeat the cycle a few more times. Ok, so it was more work than anticipated but it did provide views I would not have seen if I followed a standard approach. And so hiking outside-of-the-box continues to be my theme.
There were a few areas close to the saddle where the ground was so loose I was on all fours, which wasn't easy today due to equipment malfunction. Not wanting to carry my full CamelBak pack today I dug out an old fanny pack of Tracey's to use. I now remember why it was put out to pasture... although the plastic buckle is pretty large, with any extra pressure it will pop open. Being bent over on all fours when it popped open the first time it took me by surprise, dropping down the slope behind me.
Thankfully it didn't happen next to one of the drop-offs I'd skirt later and instead just rolled 10-12' before being stopped by a Palo Verde. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
Now forewarned, I was very careful the rest of the hike. And of course using the smaller pack I didn't have the extra emergency stuff I usually carry to make sure it stayed latched. Oh well, it just added to the adventure.
I wasn't paying too much attention when I crested the upper saddle and headed NW over to the second-highest peak of Dome Mountain. Only after setting a waypoint did I realize it wasn't the true summit. Once I reached the summit the cairn with the summit log was in plain sight. As I believe one of the previous triplogs noted, the summit log was a mess. But I found a blank spot on one of the papers and added my name top the log. It was kind of cool to see another HAZ member (Charger55) logging his summit on 2/28/11.
Having taken an unconventional route on the way up I saw no point in not doing the same thing again, and sought a more direct route down the main drainage from the saddle. But after dropping some distance down it appeared it I continued I'd be cliffed out again so I climbed back up closer to me original route until I passed the area of loosest ground. Once past there I headed almost straight east in another attempt to reach the drainage farther down, but eventually I felt more like heading home than adding more distance to the hike. I did manage to misjudge where the car was and added another unnecessary descent, ascent and descent.
In short, a great short climb with great views on a perfect day for hiking, sunny and mild. |
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