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| Sunset Peak (7110) Galiuros, AZ | |
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| | Sunset Peak (7110) Galiuros, AZ | | | |
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Sunset Peak (7110) Galiuros, AZ
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| Hiking | 11.18 Miles |
3,263 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.18 Miles | 9 Hrs 13 Mns | | 1.50 mph |
| 3,263 ft AEG | 1 Hour 45 Mns Break | | | |
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| Partners |
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none
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| no partners | | Francisco invited us to visit his family's Buckskin ranch over the weekend, so we decided to plan this hike. Thank you to the Simpson family for allowing the 4 of us to stay at the historic Buckskin ranch. It was a great experience, the ranch is truly an amazing place, and Francisco cooked some amazing food for us during our stay. We noticed that the road getting out there was maintained better this time than our trip last August.
At the trail junction described in my Paddy BM trip report, about 0.2 miles below the high saddle, we found an old wooden sign post that was leaning on the ground. From this junction, the app said we were only 1.3 miles away from the summit, as the crow flies. It sounded like a piece of cake, but the hike was more difficult as we expected for the following reasons:
1. the trail was extremely overgrown in some areas and we needed to push through many stubborn tree & bush branches along the trail
2. there was a significant downhill portion which was needed to get around some cliffs, and
3. we needed to do some off-trail route finding to get from the trail to the summit which wasn't so straight-forward
4. there was a semi-challenging class 3 section right before the summit
Not long after the junction the trail we ran into areas of the trail that were very overgrown. In some places we needed to push through oak brush which at times cut me. Couldn't tell whether it was the rough bark or the sharp leaves, maybe a combination of both. The trail took us around the East side of peak 7490 and up to saddle South of it. The trail then ascended a bit, coming within 500 feet of peak 7193. We decided that we might ascend peak 7193 on the way back if we have time, energy, and desire. When we got back here later, we had neither of the 3!
After taking the trail past the North ridge of peak 7193, we had to descend nearly 400 feet to get down to the low saddle on the South side of 7193. We continued along the trail until we were near the North ridgeline heading toward Sunset peak. We found a cairn off the on the left side, so we thought this might be a good place to climb up. We noticed from a distance that there were 2 summits but it was hard to tell which one was higher. It turned out that the Eastern most peak was slightly higher. We ended up doing the false summit and then we realized that we needed to hike down it. There were some class 3 moves needed to get down, and then we got a better look at the true summit. From here, it looked fairly difficult and we were not sure if there was a safe way up. But, after getting right up to the face, we could see that there was a relatively safe way without much exposure. Some hikers might consider this to be dangerous but we had enough climbing experience where we were comfortable with the climb up. I went ahead and climbed up first, got to the true summit and found an ammo box. I signed, then took photos of the entire registry, about 19 pages. The oldest entries in this registry were from 1997, and some people wrote a lot. Brian climbed up next and we each took photos and a summit video before heading down. We could see Bassett peak to the South and the ranch property to the Southeast.
On the way back down, we found a better route which avoided having to do the false summit. There were a few low class 3 moves and we needed to circle around the North end of the false summit and merge back into our original route. We followed a similar route to get back down to the trail and once we did, we knew that the worst obstacles were the brush but most of that was on the East side of Peak 7490. We also needed to go uphill another 400 feet but with the switchbacks it wasn't too steep and didn't slow us down much. Along the trail on the way back, we found some shin dagger stalks that had many curves on it that had the appearance of small wooden snakes. I decided to carry 2 of them out while Brian carried one out.
When we got back to the broken wooden post, we knew that the trail was in good shape for the rest of the way and we would not need to push through any significant brush. We pressed on and finished the hike well before dark and drive back to the ranch where we got to eat grade A delicious leftovers + pie + ice cream! Slept a solid 8 hours following the hike and that felt great!
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 11.18 miles
AEG: 3,263 feet
Strava moving time: 5 hrs 53 mins, but we felt it was more like 7 hrs 30 mins
Strava elapsed time: 9 hrs 13 mins
Driving Directions:
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From Willcox, AZ
Take I-10 East toward Willcox.
Take exit 340 for AZ-186 E/Rex Allen Dr/Fort Grant Rd
0.3 mi
Turn left onto AZ-186 W/Fort Grant Rd/W Rex Allen Dr
Continue to follow Fort Grant Rd for 14.9 mi
Continue onto S Brookerson Rd for 3.0 mi
Turn left onto W Ash Creek Rd for 17.2 mi
W Ash Creek Rd turns slightly right and becomes Sunset Loop Rd
Continue North on Sunset Loop Rd for 2 mi
See my driving route which I will upload. |
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Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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