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| Hiking | 7.05 Miles |
2,203 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.05 Miles | 7 Hrs 14 Mns | | 1.23 mph |
| 2,203 ft AEG | 1 Hour 31 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a hike to the high point of the Cargo Muchacho Mountains (elevation of 2,217 feet and prominence of 1,417 feet). After the hike I added in a bit of additional hiking by going on a portion of the Tumco Mining District self-guided tour.
The Cargo Muchacho Mountains are in SE Imperial County, about 30 miles from Yuma, AZ. The earliest gold mining in California took place here in the late 1700's. As for the name Cargo Muchacho (translated to loaded boy), legend has it that two young Mexican boys came into camp one evening with their shirts loaded with gold nuggets.
Cargo Muchacho HP
(5.86 miles with 2,131 feet of AEG)
I began the hike by walking on a road for about a mile that took me to an old mining site. From there I went up a short but steep hill to a ridgeline, and then took an old mining trail to a drainage. I went up the drainage to a saddle west of the highpoint. I could have done some climbing and gone directly up a ridge to the highpoint, but I decided to loop around underneath the ridge and ascend to the peak from the south. It worked OK although the ascent was a bit on the steep side. I returned the way that I came.
There was a MacLilley register at the summit from January, 1983; so it has been there for nearly 42 years.
Tumco
(1.19 miles with 72 feet of AEG)
There is not much left of this mining district. I saw a foundation for some buildings, and walked over to 4 giant metal tanks (marked "Tanks" on a topo map). These tanks held cyanide, which was used to extract gold from stone.
There is also ruins from a hospital and a cemetery out there (this mining must have been dangerous stuff) but I did not see them.
At the mining heyday in the 1890's 500 people lived here -- the town area is very small so it must have been crowded. It must have been quite an operation -- a 12 mile long wood pipeline pumped over 100,000 gallons of water per day from the Colorado River. Over time, in excess of 200,000 ounces of gold was mined in the area. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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