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| Hiking | 8.24 Miles |
3,456 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.24 Miles | 4 Hrs 56 Mns | | 1.89 mph |
| 3,456 ft AEG | 35 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | I thought Sunday was going to be my 2025 hiking finale, but Chumley had one more hike in mind, and it worked out well--I'd had the Newman twins on my list for quite a while. On the way to the parking area near the CAP, we passed some farm fields with roses and various other flowers, presumably leading up to a pre-Valentine's harvest...I'd never seen commercially-grown flowers like that.
We picked up the old trail on the far side of the canal and stopped briefly at the mine on our way up. The trail was well cairned most of the way, especially down lower, and we benefitted from some of the trail maintenance Chums had done on prior visits. The steepness increased up through the chute and past the laughable up/down painted arrows, and we took a short break at the saddle before continuing up to the peak. We had solid cloud cover on the way up, and it was cool and a little breezy on top.
After signing the register and a snack break bathed in radio frequency radiation, we continued across the ridge toward South Newman with some fun scrambling along the way. We took a short break at the second summit and continued farther south to the Lion's Den Overlook, an outcropping with better views of Picacho...cool perspective to look down at it from that angle.
The descent down the drainage near South Newman was steep, but less so than the climb up to big Newman. We kept a steady pace for the rough terrain and finished it off in just under five hours. The sun finally came out at the end, but the clouds kept it comfortable for most of the hike.
I enjoyed this one a lot and was happy it worked out to fit in one more hike in 2025. Many aspects reminded me of Montezuma Peak in the Estrellas--the drive in on a rough two track following powerlines, the mine at the bottom of the mountain, and the steep, shaded, easterly off-trail scramble up a drainage in the morning shade. This made it two Chums hikes in three days--that's a strong dose of vitamin C to wrap up the year! |
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