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| Hiking | 2.00 Miles |
738 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.00 Miles | 3 Hrs 55 Mns | | 1.64 mph |
| 738 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 42 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Castle Benchmark is on a no-name mountain, east of Wickenburg, and just west of Castle Hot Springs Rd. I drove in Trilby Wash for over 2 miles to get to my TH. I have driven in Trilby Wash three times before, while hiking to Maricopa/Yavapai county border frustums.
With the rain we had recently, I was not counting on driving the wash, as I assumed it would be non-drivable. I was wrong.
Trilby wash was fine, and the 'wash drive' knocked off over 4 anticipated miles of 'soft sand' hiking. Good for me.
My TH was literally next to the base of the mountain, making this hike a short endeavor. Out of the car and immediately up, up, up.
Of course, the hike up and down still gave me a catclaw and scree experience, especially on the way down.
Castle BM was monumented in 1924.
It's existence is due to the 1924 Maricopa/Yavapai County border survey, and is just over the border in Yavapai County. Another benchmark (Orion) is nearby, but in Maricopa County and Orion BM was monumented (in 1924) for the same survey reason.
In fact, Castle BM's azimuth mark is yet another benchmark, located 30 miles west, in the New River Mountains. That New River Mountains benchmark is named Bilby, after a famous surveyor, and Bilby BM was also set in 1924 to determine 'where' to put all those county frustums.
I hiked to Bilby BM a couple years ago, and included a photo of it in my Castle photoset.
This was a fun little hike that turned out to be much shorter than I anticipated. However, it was still packed with all the same stuff any mountain bushwhack has to offer.
That's good.
This hike was a nice warm-up for the longer hikes, and higher mountains on my list.
Enjoy the photos. |
| _____________________
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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