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| Forest Hill and Bald Mtn - Little Rincons, AZ | | -
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| | Forest Hill and Bald Mtn - Little Rincons, AZ | | | |
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Forest Hill and Bald Mtn - Little Rincons, AZ
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| Hiking | 9.72 Miles |
2,793 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.72 Miles | 8 Hrs | | 1.22 mph |
| 2,793 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | BALD MOUNTAIN (1st summit)
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From where I camped, I followed about 1.9 miles of 4x4 road heading East. I was on this road already the previous day when I hiked to Eagle peak. But, today I followed the right a little bit further. Up ahead I saw a gate. With a good 4x4 vehicle you could actually drive to this point but there were some rough sections of road and some difficult eroded areas. Even though I had 4x4, I decided to park where my route starts, as the road got considerably rougher after that point.
After hiking 1.9 miles of road and seeing the gate, I made a right and saw a cattle trail leading up the hill. I followed cattle trails which kept me within 100 feet of a barbed wire fence for roughly another 1/3 mile. Looking South I could see Bald mountain up ahead but the slope was steeper if I continued straight and more gradual if I hiked further West before going South. I decided to get away from the fence and get closer to the main ridgeline. As I got closer, I realized that I could zig-zag and get up to Bald Mountain without any problem. There was nothing above class 2 the entire way.
At the top of Bald Mountain, there were a few mesquite trees, a lot of rock, and not much else. I would guess this is why it's called Bald mountain. I stopped for a snack break, took some photos and headed South toward the saddle to continue on to Forest Hill.
FOREST HILL:
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On the first day of my hiking camping trip, I hiked Eagle peak. On day 2, I planned to hike Bald Mt first on the way to Forest Hill and then back down another ridgeline in a somewhat clockwise loop.
As usual, I under-estimated the time it would take to do this hike. There were cattle trails and deer trails but some of the trails were in bad shape, hard to even follow, especially for the 1/2 mile before the saddle East of Forest Hill. In that area, I got off trail a few times and that's what really slowed me down. Rather than try to go back and find the trail, I just plowed ahead where it looked possible and it worked out, for the most part.
I'll continue from where that left off, on the top of Bald mountain.
Looking further South from the Bald Mountain high point, I could see peak 6073. It was a bit out of the way, so I decided to skip that and just head toward Forest Hill. I'm not sure if going to peak 6073 would make the entire hike a bit more pleasant because you would still have to get down to the saddle East of Forest Hill to make it to Forest Hill. So, I continued South down the South side of Bald Mtn. to a saddle.
The next section was very pleasant. There were cattle trails and the grade was fairly gradual. There was a canyon to my left and I made sure to stay above it. There were some use trails heading down into the canyon. In a few spots, I needed to hike around rock formations. I kept going up and the trail became more faint in this area. I believe I got off trail a few times in this area but eventually found where I was supposed to be. Eventually, I came to a really nice looking open area that I labelled as 'shady pasture'. There were some pines and a lot of dry grass in this area. I would imagine the cows could find their way here and they would definitely love it! This was a great place to stop and take a lunch break, so that's exactly what I did.
After this shady pasture area, I continued heading along the use trail for something like 1/4 mile. Somewhere in this area is where I must have lost the trail. It started getting brushier with some cliffs up ahead. I ended up just pushing forward wherever it looked good. If I had to do this hike again, I would have spent more time looking for an actual use trail because I believe there was one at a lower elevation than where I was. See my route and look for the dot marked 'probably better here'.
I lost some time plowing through areas that looked good, but ended up being worse than they looked. I could see the saddle up ahead, I just needed to get down to it. I found a channel leading there and arrived at the saddle. The saddle was thin, rocky, with steep slopes on both sides. There was a barbed wire fence that split the saddle into 2 sides. The left side looked better so I stepped over the barbed wire fence where I found a good sized rock. Later, on the way back, I found that there was a gate about 100-200 feet further to the West. Use this gate if you don't want to step over the barbed wire fence.
I found a use trail here heading toward Forest Hill. In a few places along the saddle, the use trail dropped left to get around rock formations. In general, the use trail stays within about 50 vertical feet of the ridgeline. I don't remember seeing any cairns in this area. Sometimes it wasn't perfectly clear where to go, but it all worked out OK. I ended up reaching a false summit, but then was able to continue along the top of the ridgeline and then left around some rock formations to get to what I was sure was the real summit. There were a few class 3 spots along this ridgeline where I needed to use my hands.
At the summit, I found a registry that was a bit weathered. The oldest entries, I believe were from 2001. A new registry was started in Jan 2021. I was the 9th person/party that signed the new registry. Looking South I could see North Star peak. Looking West I could see Rincon peak and Mica mountain. Those were two long and exhausting hikes for sure. I could also look Northeast down at Bald Mt. which looked pretty insignificant from up here! I signed the registry and got some photos and a video. Then, started to head down.
I thought about maybe trying North Star on the following day but then decided it was too much to do these peaks back to back. Plus, my feet really needed to fully recover. I also somehow got a few thorns right through my boot on the way down and don't even know where or how it happened. But, that definitely was not pleasant.
On the way down, I followed basically the same route to the saddle. Then at the saddle, I found a primitive gate. This gate looked like it hadn't been open in quite some time. But, rather than step across the barbed wire fence 100-200 feet East of here, I decided to go through the gate this time. It looked as though there was a use trail here. I wish I knew about this before! I ended up carefully following this use trail down and over to the first ridgeline. If I had stayed on the use trail originally, I probably would have seen this and maybe it would have saved me 30 minutes.
Once I got to the main ridgeline, I saw a lot of gaps and open spaces. I was able to go around any steep or rocky area and this part of the hike was pleasant. After about 1/2 mile, I felt it would be a good idea to head East and cross a canyon to avoid getting stuck in a bad area. After about 1.5 hours of heading down this endless slope, I found myself in a strange area and had to make a choice. I could stay on my current ridgeline where it looked thin and rocky up ahead, or I could take a sharp left, drop down into a canyon, cross it, go up the other side crossing near Peak 4533 and head down from there. I found myself only 200 feet away from Peak 4533. It probably only had 60 feet of prominence but I decided to do it anyway. Besides, from the top, I would have a better view looking North at the terrain and where I could drop down to the 4x4 road.
I continued North from Peak 4533 going downhill. As I was going down this slope, I saw a baby rattlesnake, maybe 2 feet long, within 5 feet of where I was walking. I was at about 4,400 feet elevation when I saw the rattlesnake. It didn't move and it didn't rattle, even when I was only 5 feet away. I dropped a few pebbles on it from a few feet away to see if it would rattle. It just started moving away slowly. As I walked toward it, it sensed me and got faster, moving away. There were some rocks nearby and it was looking for it's hole. I was able to get a good video while it was searching around. At no time did the snake rattle. Most likely, I was the first human it ever saw.
My battery was getting dangerously low here so I decided to would leave the phone in airplane mode just to record my route and not waste any more battery by checking the topo map. I knew the road was somewhere to the North. I found an animal trail which headed East and down. There was a low spot up ahead and I couldn't tell if the road was down there or not. If I had more battery, I would have checked, but instead I pushed on. Some of the brush was bad in this area getting down and I found myself in a canyon. No road, damn. Well, the good news is there wasn't much brush at all. I was able to hike down the canyon for about 500 feet. Then, I saw some brush up ahead. It was time to exit the canyon to the right and keep heading North. I had to zig-zag around some bushes, but within about 3 minutes I saw the road. I turned left and the road and was relieved to be almost done. I checked my battery and I was at 9%. I decided to jog the less rocky sections of the road to finish before my battery was dead. I'm glad that I made it and was able to record my full track! This hike took longer and was more difficult than I expected, but I probably could say that about 80% of my hikes!
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 9.72 miles
AEG: 2,793
Strava moving time: 6 hrs 1 min (Strava always reports this low!). I bet my real moving time was closer to 8 hours.
Strava elapsed time: 9 hrs 42 mins
Directions:
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See my trip report for the nearby Eagle peak. Same directions. |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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