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| Hiking | 4.20 Miles |
1,063 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.20 Miles | 5 Hrs 1 Min | | 1.83 mph |
| 1,063 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 43 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | When driving into Superior from the west, Apache Leap’s ridgeline resembles the Superstition Ridgeline. The similarity vanishes when you hike in from the east side of Apache Leap, toward the western ridge. It’s much different in terrain and in vegetation. Cattle ranching and mining are still very active east of the ridgeline.
Once known as ‘Big Picacho’, Apache Leap is loaded with great photo opportunities.
I picked a spot on FR315 to park, and hiked up one of the drainages (canyons?) to the Apache Leap high point. Apache Triangulation Station (1946) is up there, as are its two reference marks.
They are USGS survey disks, as opposed to being NGS disks. (Two separate departments of the government). More on that below.
I passed some small ‘frozen’ water ponds on my hike up. (in the shade, 8:30 AM and at 4,000 feet). The drainage I chose going up was very good, as I had ‘tolerable’ catclaw etc, to deal with. Not so on the drainage I chose for the return. Occasionally, I disappeared in head-high vegetation, during the return.
The wind was calm when starting out, but when I got to the high point, the cold, gusty wind was moving along at 30 mph from the east. Being right next to the ridgeline (to the west) had me concentrating on ‘not’ becoming a human parasail. After a couple hours, the wind went away.
After locating the three disks, I took a stroll along the ridgeline. I first went a bit south then back north to a low saddle, that was two drainages north of the high point.. As reported in previous triplogs, the ridgeline is loaded with boulders, tall grass, and other vegetation. All that stuff makes hiking the ridgeline slow going.
There are a number of cattle watering-holes (tanks) near the ridgeline, in the drainages. One tank has a huge, man-made berm to really trap water. That tank is large enough to be a cattle swimming pool and spa. There are also a number of rock walls built on the ridgeline, I assume so cattle don’t escape or accidentally ‘make-the-leap’. I must have avoided ‘evidence’ of cattle at least 100 times on the hike, yet I saw no animals today - Just their ‘evidence’.
A summit log was near the main survey disk, with some familiar names listed, along with some ‘ALTA Hotshot’ fire fighter names from the ‘257 Fire’ in June 2012.
Back to the three survey disks…..
The official name, ‘Apache’, is verified by its datasheet.
At first, I thought there was no actual name stamped on any of the three disks, just the year, 1946. That’s quite typical for USGS disks. (as opposed to NGS disks, that almost always have a name stamped on them).
However, after cleaning up the triangulation station disk, I was able to make out part of the first ‘A’ and the ‘E’ in ‘APACHE’. They are faint, but are there. The rest of the letters in ‘APACHE’ are scuffed off, as is a couple other items originally stamped on the disk. The two reference marks clearly have no name on them, just the year they were monumented.
I highly recommend hiking out to the ridge of Apache Leap.
You will not be disappointed in the grandeur of the views in all directions. |
| _____________________
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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