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| Hiking | 6.60 Miles |
2,077 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.60 Miles | 4 Hrs 33 Mns | | 2.54 mph |
| 2,077 ft AEG | 1 Hour 57 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I have been wanting to do this hike, and it turned out to be a winner! It was Arizona P2K peak #38 (out of 73) for me.
We drove in on the bypass road that connects Castle Dome Mine Road with the TH. My hiking partner drove his CR-V to the TH, so I guess that is proof that a 4WD vehicle is not necessary. There were a couple of challenging places for him though.
The first 1.7 miles of the hike were in a wash; it wasn't totally sandy, but I would have preferred a bit more rock to hike on. After getting out of the wash we started gaining elevation, and before long it is a steep and slippery class 2 hike. The trail is very well cairned and route finding is a breeze.
After going around an easily visible pinnacle, we climbed up a gully that led to a notch at the summit block. From the notch was a class 4 climb heading up toward the summit. I did not really like the looks of that climb, so we dropped back down into the gully for about 20-30 feet and found a class 3 climb(maybe class 3+) heading toward the summit. We went up that, and then followed some cairns and did a few more relatively easy class 3 climbs as we made our way to the summit.
I located 2 reference marks on the summit, but no benchmark. The trip logbook was in a ammo can that was cemented in place.
We took our time on the way down from the summit back to the gully, and then from the there the going was slow due to the steepness and loose footing in the trail. I would definitely recommend trekking poles in this section.
On the way back we saw a bighorn while we were in the wash, a mile or so from the TH.
This was a fun and challenging hike, and I am glad that I did it! |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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