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| Hiking | 2.40 Miles |
1,268 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.40 Miles | 2 Hrs 24 Mns | | 1.35 mph |
| 1,268 ft AEG | 37 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I had planned South Butte as the last of four peaks I'd summit today, the first two making it a clean sweep for me to have reached the summit of all the 'listed' peaks in the Grayback Quandrangle. (By listed I mean peaks in the Lists Of John that tracks the major peaks of every state.)
However, as I drove closer to the planned peak #3 and noted the steepness and exposure it presented, I realized I needed more preparation before attempting it. Already at 101 degrees it was high time to get going over to South Butte.
As hot as it was I didn't let it slow me down and even with some dawdling and backtracking I reached the summit in just under and hour when the temperature reached 105. Thanks to my 'heat acclimation' hiking and biking over the last few weeks I hardly noticed the heat. Sure I sweated a lot and kept drinking along the way, yet I didn't go through a quart of Gatorade on this hike, the third summit of the day.
After reaching the summit I peeled off both my white long-sleeve shirt and wicking short-sleeve shirt, swung them around for a minute or so and put them back on. The evaporation had cooled them off so much I actually shivered for a few moments as the wind whipped by. A weird but great feeling.
I spent some time reading the notes in the summit log, noting the entry Joe made back in September 2005... 100 degrees at 12 noon. Not too far off my 105 and 12:30 pm.
During my time at the summit nine turkey vultures gathered to circle as a group in anticipation of my demise. By time I thought of taking a photo of them sometimes barely 30' above me and got my camera out they seemed to become camera-shy and all I got in the photo as they quickly dispersed was five. My satisfaction was cheating them of their expectations.
Just about every direction there were fabulous views, particularly of the Gila River lowlands and of Donnelly Slope to the south. While taking a number of shots of the Donnelly Slope area I noticed faint signs of a road across from east-to-west so decided to check it out after the descent. Afterward I did just that, driving the sometime bare-rock but very rough old track all the way across. On this drive I took a photo up to a gap that I had taken a photo when I was up there earlier. Although slow through this part, it did turn out to be a short-cut back to the Florence-Kelvin Highway, saving me the long drive south out of Donnelly Wash.
I posted 25 photos on HAZ, the full set of 36 photos is here:
http://changephoenix.com/jpserver/web/public/album.php?id=135 |
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Route Editor
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