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| Hiking | 6.50 Miles |
2,680 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.50 Miles | 6 Hrs 35 Mns | | 1.01 mph |
| 2,680 ft AEG | 7 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | What I mapped out almost two years ago as hopefully a reasonably short 'peak-bag' ended up to also become a wild-bighorn-sheep-chase.
A quick glance toward my planned route was enough to throw out the first part and take what would in fact prove to be the best route.
It wasn't long before I reached the saddle just south of Klondike and seek out the cliff-ascent route that appeared possible between topo & satellite views. But it was not to be... while I'm sure some climbers may have relished the opportunity, I did not. So... I was just about to turn back and try the 'long' route, which is all the way along the ridge from just south of the AZ 288 bridge at the Salt River.
That is, until I saw a few bighorn sheep heading up-slope some distance northeast of the south end of Klondike. Hmmm... let's see where they're headed. After a short traverse I got to that point where they disappeared and there was a steep gap in the cliff. I really didn't care for the loose terrain, but what the heck, I'm here, let's get on with it!
Every step I would plant my boot, carefully test it before placing any significant weight on it, then plant the hiking poles and take the next step. Even being that careful I managed to set a few rock slides, barely avoiding going down with them. But eventually the one-step-at-a-time approach worked and I was at the top of the cliffs. From there it was a quick jaunt to the summit.
After eating half my lunch back at the top of the gap I had ascended I noticed the fresh bighorn scat, which got me to thinking... Hmmm, I wonder where they are now? So I followed the 'evidence' as it lead to the east, descending toward Pinal Creek.
When I came over the second ridge I saw the sheep loitering in a meadow just well over a half-mile away. Being down-wind I figured I'd move closer for some good video. Although they appeared to be practicing 'jousting & mounting' every so often at least one would stop and look around, as though on guard duty. Whenever it looked my way, I'd stop and wait until it turned its head away, then slowly work to another piece of cover. Doing this took me over an hour to move a few hundred yards.
When I was still a half-mile away the wind began to change so I figured even a long-distance video would be better than nothing. I found a good spot with cover and proceeded to film. Although I shot at least 15 minutes of video, between the sheep constantly moving and trying to hold the camera still while filming at full zoom, I ended up with just over 5 minutes of worthwhile video.
As soon as the wind completed its shift from west to east they stopped moving and stared in my direction. I could tell they were getting nervous, first by moving slowly across the meadow followed by a quick bolt and they were out-of-sight within moments. Although I knew it was very unlikely I'd get another chance, I hustled down to where they had gone and it was a very steep slope toward Pinal Creek. I started down just far enough to realize it proved no return route so now I had an even longer ascent than the first one to the summit. Good thing I packed plenty of fluids... they would last to within a few hundred yards of the Jeep.
Back to the gap, I started down even more carefully than the ascent... until I encountered a hive of swarming bees... I suppose in the cool of the morning there was little activity but now nearing 80 degrees their 'sentries' were already flying into me as a warning. I'm still suffering from a carpenter bee sting behind the right ear a week ago, so I picked up my descent-pace to get far away as fast as safely possible. Eventually I was left alone and the rest of the descent went incident-free.
From the saddle, just to be sure I didn't pick the worse route, I descended along my original planned route, only to wish I didn't... So I'm only including the ascent route on the GPS track.
Two videos:
Klonike Mountain panorama
Bighorn Sheep 'jousting & mounting' practice |
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