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| Hiking | 10.81 Miles |
3,356 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.81 Miles | 9 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.14 mph |
| 3,356 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This hike was an extreme bushwhack and it was incredibly SLOW going most of the way. My Strava moving time must have been much higher - it seems that Strava must not be counting any really slow movement.
Brian and I had this hike on our list for a long time and have been putting it off probably because we knew it would be long and difficult and it was a total bushwhack. We finally finished the hike and I believe it was one of the most extreme bushwhacks I've ever done.
First we took the 9 am tram up to stop #9. The tram was $15 and we have not taken this ride since they made a lot of changes. The tram is now fully electric. They provide a headset for listening to the audio narrative while riding. We felt that the audio left out a few items as compared to the more personalized audio from the driver in the "old days".
We got off at stop #9 around 9:30 am and started the first 1/3 mile on the Sabino creek trail. This trail was pretty well maintained and took us down to Sabino creek which was flowing with a lot of water. We walked in the sand and through the rocks for 1/3 mile or more to find a good place to cross. We found some rocks to step on to cross 3 sections of the creek and amazingly did not get wet. After making it across the creek, we climbed out of the canyon and started hiking UP, heading toward a U-shaped saddle/notch up above.
On the way to the U-shaped saddle, we were able to find clear paths weaving around the brush most of the way. When we got close to the U-shaped saddle/notch, the brush got thicker and the slope got steeper. At the saddle, there seemed to be a natural path or animal trail heading North to a canyon. Once there we tried to follow the canyon but when the brush got to be too thick, we had to drop into the canyon. After hiking a total of 1.65 miles, we were at a junction and had to choose to go left or right. Looking right there was a saddle high up which looked distant. Looking left, we saw a canyon which looked like a more direct route to a high point and then the summit, so we decided to go left. The first 3/4 of the way was pretty straight forward and easy to follow. Then, it started to get more difficult. We ended up going up some very steep areas before reaching the saddle. Once at the saddle, we saw a cairn on a big rock, so we know we were on the right track. We were able to look North and see the summit which looked to be about 1/4 of a mile away. We saw rock formations along the way and we didn't know if they would be obstacles or not. It proved to be very easy to hike along the final ridgeline to close to the top. When we got within 300 feet of the saddle, there was some confusion about where to go. When we reached some steep cliffs we went around the East side having to drop down a bit, then followed a channel West to get to the top. 10 feet from the actual summit, we found a plastic container registry that fell down into a low spot that was a bit tricky to get to. I climbed down to get the registry, and then put it at the actual summit with rocks holding it in place.
From the summit, we saw some nice views of Rattlesnake peak nearby, along with some Tucson city views. We were able to see Palisades canyon, Pine canyon, Sycamore canyon and a few other canyons.
On the way down, we decided to hike East toward the high saddle that we looked at earlier. Getting down to that saddle was fast and fairly easy, but after heading down South/Southeast from the saddle the terrain was very steep with loose rock, dirt, etc. It was extremely slow in this section. After getting lower, the terrain got much flatter and we were able to make our way to the low saddle, the same saddle we came from earlier in the day. We knew from this point that it was about a mile to get back to our starting point. By this time, it was already dark and we were using our headlamps. On the way down, we had a lot of trouble. We kept running into cliffs and areas of catclaw bush. We tried following our route up but we had a really hard time finding any good route. It almost seemed like we were in a completely different place. We believe it just seemed worse because of the darkness. We had to plow through some catclaw bushes and circle around many cliffs. You will get cut up in this section a bit, especially if it's dark and even with a headlamp. After plowing through areas of dense brush and going around several cliff areas, and slowing dropping in elevation, we finally found a better path leading down, which were probably good animal trails. By the time we reached the stream we realized we were at the same place where we crossed earlier that day. We crossed in the same area and continued back on the Sabino creek trail. Because it was late we needed to walk the extra 3.7 miles of road to get to the Sabino canyon parking area.
All in all, it was a long and challenging hike with a lot of messy bushwhacking and some very steep areas. This was a "one and done" for me. In my opinion, for this hike, the effort out weighs the benefit.
Stats:
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Distance (round trip) = 7.11 miles
AEG = 3,301 feet
Strava moving time = 4 hrs 10 mins
Strava elapsed time = 11 hrs 31 mins |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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