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| Hiking | 5.00 Miles |
1,350 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.00 Miles | 5 Hrs 30 Mns | | 0.91 mph |
| 1,350 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | Preston and I set sail for a three hour tour. Heading in I was thinking medium low key hike. Just the ticket as my feet still ached from the Skeleton Cave boot beating. It's been awhile since I've been out near the Sierra Ancha (2.5 years) and even longer since I've been on A-Cross to Salome Jug (9 years & 11 months). With this being my first adventure on the southern end of A-Cross.
The drive in is quiet rolling desert. We passed the faux Dutchwoman near the turnoff and proceeded driving. The road starts clear and continues to look clear though it'll jog your noggins a little. It's one of those "you may be able to squeak it out in high clearance roads, but forget it if it's wet" type roads.
Luckily the weather wasn't getting rough and our tiny ship wasn't lost. In fact it was a grand old day perfect for hiking. Minus the FU welcome sign and knowing a HAZ member had their winch ripped nearby years back this area seemed delightful. The area reminds me of lower Pine Creek near Ballantine. The difference here being rolling distant views as opposed to the whack smack crevice attack.
With the hike in motion we followed a jeep road up to a saddle overlooking Salome Creek on the flip side. On route I couldn't help but notice this hike was looking like a "Sunday stroll". We had a couple pre-routed options. Plan A wasn't looking too difficult, almost easy in fact. At the saddle we took a direct SW route along the NE ridge. The huffing picked up as expected. All went well to about 200 feet from the top. Here we met a distant Cousin Lode relative. Luckily the blood line is thin and we only endured ten minutes of ridgeline boulder rock scrambles.
On the NE end I was expecting to see more grass as Preston mentioned this butte was used in some type of grassland study. Not sure why, guessing due to the fact that livestock can't summit the butte. What it lacked in grasslands was quickly ignored as the views opened up straight down into the Salome Wilderness. Heading across the mesa (I mean the half mile butte) is slow but not horridly difficult through medium to light vegetation. Thank you sweet jesus for the lack of cholla! The NW views maintain their 2k drop the entire way. The butte almost gains it's high point before dipping slightly on route to the SW corner. Here you have stunning up close views of Roosevelt Lake. However looking into the sun does photos no justice.
All is good right. Right! Let's spice 'er up! I had this thought of descending the butte in the middle. So while Preston went to place a summit register in the middle high point I scouted below. What I thought was maybe 200 yards away ended up about twice as far. I waited and waited for Preston to come in sight. Then decide to start whacking two rocks together in hopes he'd find my position. Believe I'm sold on a quarter ounce whistle after little luck with the caveman method. At any rate everything worked out. I overshot the middle and ended up on a cliff that looked doable with a death wish. Then found Preston back where we needed to go down. He found a ravine that looked like the ticket.
Going down the near-vertical ravine was very slow going through loose medium nonot-sized back-burners. We took turns playing a fantasy version of Kill-the-Webmaster. Preston won the award with a distant free spinning bouncer that I was happy to view from above, boy it had the loft too! The slope didn't give up. It looked liked we only needed to clear a hundred yards to some saguaros clinging to a slope then we'd be home free. Whew that was a long hundred yards. Then down to the saguaros it's was just normal scary terrain for a quarter to half mile.
All and all this Sunday-stroll of a hike had more meat on the bone than I anticipated. It's a good hike. Not a must do by any means but certainly good to cure the curiosity. Good company always makes the experience. Thanks Preston!
My first totally Linux processed video
youtube banned it...  |
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