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| Hiking | 12.94 Miles |
3,759 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.94 Miles | 6 Hrs 46 Mns | | 2.08 mph |
| 3,759 ft AEG | 33 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We had this planned for New Year's Day, but the weather provided some better options for that day. Knowing this one isn't going anywhere, we put it off for a few weeks. It was brutally cold poofy weather as we headed out. Temps were in the 30s and windchill had to be in competition with Chicagoland!  It wasn't as windy down in the canyon and if you could find a sunny spot it was almost nice out  .
Leaving the road and heading uphill, the lower few hundred yards were a scattered mess of routes, cairns, cactus, and dead ends. Certainly no clearly established route here. As we gained some elevation parallel to the drainage a more defined route was found. We were actually quite surprised by this and were not expecting such a defined way up as this one. At one point in history this was very clearly "constructed", and not just a route that developed with sporadic use. This was a pleasant surprise.
Once up to the 3400 saddle the route became less distinct and without being able to see the top and a couple of false summits that don't seem to be in the right direction, it's helpful to have a map to orient yourself and not end up putting extra steps under your feet.
The wind was pretty fierce up high and we found a sheltered spot at the summit to have a snack. Having read the HAZ hike description I was looking forward to sitting at the edge of the "2000-foot sheer drop", but was a little disappointed to see it's closer to 200 feet. Nonetheless, a fall here likely wouldn't end well.
We headed over to the comm site with all those fancy new solar thingys that Bruce found last time. This is where the real views are, looking across to the 4th peak and down to the salty apache.
We considered our return via a more direct route down from the summit, but it looked a little overgrown and steep scree. Having discovered that our ascent was on a pretty solid route, we opted for the known and returned the way we came.
We got passed by two pfat-bike riders on the road and chatted briefly with a guy who was adding some words of wisdom to the old guardrail at the upper turn on the road. Yay, people.  |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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