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| Hiking | 8.12 Miles |
1,413 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.12 Miles | 7 Hrs 24 Mns | | 2.18 mph |
| 1,413 ft AEG | 3 Hrs 40 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Earlier this month, (5 Feb 2025), The Eagle did a hike he named "Verdi West Loop". It was a two-part hike.
The first part was investigating the Verde River area southwest of Bartlett Reservoir.
The second part was a climb up West Mountain.
It's The Eagle's "West Mountain" portion that enticed me to do this hike.
He had a photo of a reference mark disk in his photoset - [ photo ]
His caption for the photo was, "This was the only marker I found".
My thought was, maybe the other two disks were hiding under rocks or cairns, etc. Surly they have to be up there somewhere, unless they were ripped off by someone.
Anyway that photo was one of my incentives to get atop West Mountain and look around.
I parked where The Eagle parked and followed his track to West Mountain.
After seeing The Eagle's climb and descent locations, and his medium opinion of them, I chose a different climb point. My guess is, I had as much cholla and scree as he did.
West Mountain's top is small. It's only about 50 to 60 feet wide, and about 200 feet long, before it starts dropping down.
Once I got up there, I located reference mark #2, as The Eagle did - It was at the far end of the tiny mountain top, and in plain sight.
Being USGS disks, I had no online data on any of the West Mountain discs. But Hey - The top is small, and the disks will be an easy find. HA
As it turned out, I found no other disks.
I took one of the intact wires that supported the height of light wood, and gently stretched it out to confirm where the height of light was located in 1963. In a perfect world, that would be where the benchmark was placed. It turns out the wire ended right over the larger of two cairns. I dismantled that cairn and another one, then scraped through pebbles, and just found more pebbles. I could have dug deeper, but didn't bring a tool to do so.
My amateur explanation is - The benchmark disk and RM #1 disk are probably sitting in a hiker's garage, taking up space.
Actually, all this disk stuff was a good incentive to hike in an area I had never hiked in before.
It's really close to the Phoenix valley, and an easy drive.
All in all, it was a fun adventure, with some great views. |
| _____________________
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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