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| Hiking | 7.78 Miles |
2,556 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.78 Miles | 6 Hrs | | 1.30 mph |
| 2,556 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I hiked Shaw Peak 7777 in conjunction with Shaw Benchmark via the Shaw Peak trail #251. This was day 3 of our 3 day/2 night hiking camping trip.
The topo map has 'Shaw Peak' labeled at the Shaw benchmark which is roughly 1/4 mile North of Shaw Peak 7777 and about 50 feet lower in elevation (7728). There was a registry at the Shaw Benchmark but not at Shaw Peak 7777, so I added a new registry at Shaw Peak 7777.
I hiked the very first part of this trail almost 2 years ago when I hiked to Onion peak. It was the end of a hiking trip and I didn't have the time or energy to make it all the way to Shaw peak at the time. But, today we had the time and felt like we had the energy, the day after hiking Sentinel peak which is a real long one!
We parked, arriving around 9.30 am. We followed the old gravel road up and saw a couple of dispersed camp sites in the first 1/4 mile. We noticed a fence to the right. After maybe 1/2 mile or less, we saw an opening in the fence and a trail continuing from here. We crossed the fence and continued up to the saddle West of Onion peak. I hiked Onion peak in 2023, but Brian did not, so he went to summit Onion peak while I continued to Shaw Peak 7777.
In 2023, I remembered running into some confusion near the saddle but this time, I did not. It seemed that a trail maintenance crew did some work on this trail, for the first 2.7 miles, all the way up to Jhus Horse saddle (see topo map). We greatly appreciate the work that was done.
Just past the saddle West of Onion peak there was an open gate which I crossed through. The trail was easy to follow for the first 2.7 miles to Jhus Horse saddle, but I would highly recommend taking a GPS for the trail beyond that to get to Shaw peak.
There's a lot of downhill on the way to the peak, and the elevation gain on the way back from the peak is nearly equal to the amount of elevation gain on the way to the peak, but there are switchbacks which makes it feel less steep.
At Jhus Horse saddle, I found an old sign on the ground that was facing down. I flipped it over and laid it on the ground facing upward. The sign said "Shaw peak trail No. 5251. <- Onion Saddle 3 mi, <- Rustler Park 6 mi, Horsefall canyon ->, Iron Spring 3/4 mi ->, Pinery Road 2 1/2 mi ->".
After Jhus Horse saddle, there was some confusion and I lost the trail a few times. There were areas where the trail was very overgrown. Thanks to Rafee Memon for posting a GPS route which may be the only known route in existence on the internet that I'm aware of. I needed to refer to this route several times when I was confused as to where the trail was. There are a few small canyon crossings and eventually, I was able to get to the high saddle East of Shaw peak 7777. The trail continued West for a bit. I saw an opening in the fence which was to my right.
There were 2 ways to go from this point. I could either follow animal trails to summit Shaw 7777 or I could continue following the very overgrown Shaw Peak trail #5251. I decided to trust the animals more since they knew the mountain better and took the trail more often than humans ever did. ;-)
From the open gate, I followed animal trails to the Northwest, in the direction of Shaw 7777. The ascent to Shaw 7777 was steep but without a lot of brush. I was able to zig zag and make my way to the top of the peak. Along the way, I saw some old mining areas and some copper rocks. Even at the summit, there was an area where mining occurred. The summit had a good sized flat area and not much shade. I looked around for a registry but did not find one. I had a small plastic bottle with me, so I started a new registry here and protected it inside a rock pile. It was about lunch time so I decided to stop here and have my lunch. Brian arrived about 20 minutes later since he did the extra hike to Onion peak.
We decided that after lunch we would hike to the Shaw benchmark and then turn around from there and hike back. Shaw benchmark was labeled on the topo map as the peak. I'm not sure if this was intentional or a mistake. We found a trail on the way from 7777 to the benchmark which wasn't too hard to follow. We had to cross the barbed wire fence a couple of times. A huge fallen tree made that easier in at least one spot. At the benchmark, labeled as 7728, we found a registry and the US survey marker. The summit had some trees which were blocking views. Shaw 7777 was definitely better for views. Shaw BM is better for some shade which we needed in late May.
After signing the registry, we were originally going to descend the ridgeline heading E/NE, but it looked like a rocky mess with a lot of brush. We didn't see any trails going that way. So, we decided it would be best to go back the way we came. We were even willing to summit Shaw 7777 again but we didn't have to apparently. We found an overgrown trail that followed a fence line to basically go East around Shaw 7777 and meet up again with our original track. This was the worst part of the hike. Most of this area involved side hilling and there were some slippery places. There were dead branches and some agave. You definitely don't want to fall into one of those!
We followed the overgrown Shaw peak trail back to Jhus Horse saddle which was slow going. I felt that going down was much worse. For whatever reason we got off the trail more often and needed to refer to the GPS track several times. The trail was especially hard to find at the canyon crossing areas. Once back to Jhus Horse saddle, we were able to follow the well-maintained trail all the way back to Onion saddle where we parked.
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 7.78 miles
AEG: 2,556 feet
Strava moving time: 6 hrs
Strava elapsed time: 7 hrs 20 mins
Driving Directions:
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This is a gravel road. Any passenger car with decent tires should be able to make it. If you have high clearance, even better.
On Google Maps, search for 'Onion Saddle, Arizona 85632'.
If not found, try 'Pinery Canyon Campground'.
Onion saddle is 1.9 miles further up the road from there.
...and for the technically challenged ;-), try this:
Onion saddle is 15 miles from AZ-186
From downtown Willcox, take AZ-186 E from E. Maley St.
Continue to follow AZ-186 E for 31.3 mi.
Turn left onto AZ-181 E, continue for 3.0 mi.
Turn right onto Pinery Canyon Rd, continue for 8.5 mi.
Pinery Canyon Rd turns left and becomes 42 Forest Service Rd, continue for 3.5 mi.
Destination will be on the left (131 ft)
Onion Saddle, Arizona 85632
There's parking for about 2 or 3 vehicles off the road. |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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