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| Hiking | 9.95 Miles |
3,341 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.95 Miles | 6 Hrs 31 Mns | | 1.90 mph |
| 3,341 ft AEG | 1 Hour 16 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Got a last minute invite from Patrick to join on a trip up Sheep Mountain. There are so many of them that they have to be individually numbered. This one is #3567 of all the Sheep Mountains in Arizona.
I was just a follower as they had been here a few weeks prior doing recon for the possible/best route. As I gave a glance at previous HAZ trips in my Friday 11pm prep research, I noticed that a recon trip was needed for all the previous visits too. Apparently it's not as simple as it looks like on the map?
In reality, it turned out to be pretty straightforward and an enjoyable summit. Burn area makes travel fairly unobstructed and there was nary a sprig of catclaw all day which was surprising. The cholla forest survived intact so that made for a nice little obstacle course.
I usually try to avoid private property when the landowner is on site, but today was delighted to run into 6 massive rams who very cautiously watched as we approached their namesake summit. They took up a strength-in-numbers defensive posture and I think it works for them. I can't imagine a lion ever having the temerity to make an attempt at one of them.
The summit was fine enough but I expected that 3397 down the ridge would have the better views into the other Salt River Canyon. After making our way across, I was disappointed to learn that wasn't really the case. So instead of heading back the way we came, we continued down the ridge farther where the views exploded with nearly vertical cliffs dropping 1500-feet directly into the water. It was really quite a stunning location to lay eyes on.
From there we pieced our way back toward Cane Spring Canyon traversing or crossing a couple of annoying drainages as the February heat ticked up to the uncomfortable level, even clipping 100 on the chumometer in the sun. ](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
This summit was an unexpected treat, and I'd definitely do it again. On the drive home fresh with the reverse perspective, I realized how prominent and easy to identify this mountain is as seen from the Beeline. |
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