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| Hiking | 8.10 Miles |
2,579 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.10 Miles | 6 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.25 mph |
| 2,579 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Brian, Tim, and I decided to do this hike on one of the warmer days we've had all year - only 81 degrees for a high temp. We traveled East on an old mining road for 0.4 miles, then realized we needed to head South to get to the peak. We traveled South and this ended up being an open country hike with many ways to go. We crossed 4 or 5 washes as we traveled South. Some of the washes were quite deep and we needed to find an easy route down and up. Eventually we saw a wide sandy wash that seemed to head in the direction of the peak. We got into the wash and traveled about 500 feet before we saw a branch heading to the West and then South, while the main wash headed Southeast and then East. We decided to take the West branch which turned and went South. We stayed in the wash until we traveled a total of roughly 1.9 miles and then we got out of the wash and headed South up the ridgeline to what we thought may have been Silver Bell BM. When we got closer, we realized these were false summits at 3,910 feet elevation. The topo maps has these peaks labeled as "prospects". After exploring, we saw one registry/small jar at the Western most peak. There was nothing to write with, but luckily, I had a had a larger jar and a few pens. I transferred the contents of the small jar into a larger jar, and left a few pens in case anyone else summits this unnamed peak someday. Next, we continued East to the second peak at roughly 3,910 feet elevation and didn't see any registry here. Next, we had to drop down to a lower saddle before continuing to the Silver Bell BM. Some of this hike was pretty steep and there were some obstacles/rocks to go around. We eventually made it to the top, looked all over for a registry but did not find one. We concluded that someone must have taken the registry. It seemed very odd that there would be a registry at the unnamed peak but not the more "known" one. So, I left a jar here within 10 feet of the official survey marker today and the 3 of us signed it. It was a great place to have a late lunch. From the top we had good views of Silver Bell Peak, Ragged Top, Wolcott Peak, and could see Picacho peak and Newman peak in the far distance. While heading down from the peak, after about 15-20 minutes of heading down, I saw a small rattlesnake, maybe only 2-3 feet long, about 4-5 feet in front of me on a rock. The head was facing away from me and the body was folded left/right but it was not coiled. It did not rattle. We threw a few small stones at it and eventually it slithered down into a hole nearby, but it didn't rattle once. Pretty scary when you can get that close and it does not rattle. We were especially careful heading down from this point and luckily the hike was open country and we could see the ground where we were walking, for the most part. We went back basically the same way we came up, but near the end we stopped to see some old abandoned mine shafts which were 1/2 mile from where we parked. The first mine shaft we saw, it was possible to walk 50-60 feet inside. After that we saw metal bars blocking the way. We saw a lot of dried cholla all over the place which meant that packrats lived inside. So, we didn't stay too long. We took the old mining road back to where we parked.
AEG = 2,579 feet |
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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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Route Editor
Route Scout
. So that's what got me thinking about doing Ragged Top.
