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| Hiking | 2.00 Miles |
1,112 AEG |
| | Hiking | 2.00 Miles | 4 Hrs 32 Mns | | 1.46 mph |
| 1,112 ft AEG | 3 Hrs 10 Mns Break | 18 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I was all set to hike up and find a benchmark on Monument Mountain, north of Carefree, when a neighbor wanted to join me. I told him where and what I was doing and he requested to go.
Well, he may never hike with me again.  He may never hike again, period.
It was cold, and the wind going up the mountain, was easily 40 to 45 mph in our face, and swirling. We literally had to balance ourselves against gusts that wanted to roll us back down the mountain. We couldn't hear each other without yelling. This fun "breeze" continued for over an hour, then it stopped completely. Go figure.
Monument Mountain is west of Seven Springs Rd (Rd 24) and just north of Road 41.
We hiked up in a northeasterly direction to the summit, to find COOK Triangulation Benchmark. The surveyors placed the disk there in 1924 and did not place any reference marks. We found a wooden staff placed above the benchmark, held in place by three wires which in turn were secured by huge boulders. I assume this wood staff was "re-installed" way after the 1924 surveyors initially put it there, but either way it made it easy to find the benchmark without the help of my GPS.
Now, for all you "frustum" lovers out there..........(frustums ??)
Monument Mountain is in Maricopa County, but barely. Yavapai County begins one quarter mile north of the Monument Mountain summit, and I decided to hike north to the county border to look for a county boundary monument. I had installed the county border on my GPS so all I had to do was go up and down that GPS line for my search. I had success.
I found, intact and in great shape, "Boundary Monument #25 for Maricopa and Yavapai Counties". It too was installed in 1924.
The monument is a two ft high frustum, with a pipe in the center of it, the pipe being driven into the ground for stability. The frustum (I just love that word ... frustum....frustum)
Anyway, the frustum is a concrete, three sided pyramid with a brass plate on each of the three sides. The three brass plates are in great shape, and display MARICOPA COUNTY 1924 on one, YAVAPAI COUNTY 1924 on another, with the third side stating the course and distance to the next numbered frustum to the west and to the east. Interestingly, (to me anyway), the distances stated on this last brass plate, to the next frustum monument west and east is only in feet, like in 36,131.0 Feet and 21,322.3 Feet. Doing the math, those "Feet" equate to 6.84 miles and 4.03 miles, respectively to the next frustums west and east.
The one to the east is Border Monument #26 and is right next to ROVER Triangulation benchmark, which I hiked up to three days ago. That county Monument (#26) is broken into many pieces and the brass plates are missing, probably by vandals. Knowing that, finding this boundary monument (#25) frustum intact was a bonus.
After many photos and wandering around the area, we hiked off the mountain knowing we had two successful finds. That evening I noticed my face was bright red and hurting. The next day, my last-minute hiking partner said his face was also bright red after the hike.
It turns out, we both had a solid case of wind-burn from that 40 to 45 mph wind we encountered on our climb up. Yikes ! |
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Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
. It was cold but nothing 3 layers won't solve. Started about 10am and it was 45 degrees. The hike is straight up, you gain almost 700ft in a half mile. There are a couple of false peaks but since its so short they aren't bothersome. You could wear shorts on this. Good warmup hike. The roads were in great shape.
