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| Hiking | 9.93 Miles |
2,655 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.93 Miles | 7 Hrs | | 1.42 mph |
| 2,655 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I summited 5 peaks today in the Picture Rocks area. Peak 3373, 2913, 3022, 3263, and 3039.
Peak 3373:
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I noticed that this peak was right on the wilderness boundary. The Southeast ridge looked pretty steep and rocky so I followed the Thunderbird trail around to the Northeast side of the mountain. There, I found some unmaintained mining trails that went part way up. Someone put a line of rocks as if to say, don't use this trail, but I went ahead because it was going the way I wanted to go. When I got a little higher up, I followed some animal trails to get over to the main ridgeline. Once I got onto the main ridgeline it was pretty straight-forward. Out of the 5 peaks that I summitted today, this was the highest of all of them, but it was unlisted in the database so I added it as a provisional peak. I didn't see a registry on top, so I left a jar under a small rock pile.
From the trailhead I was able to summit after having hiked about 1.25 miles. From the summit, I then went Northeast to Peak 2913, my next goal.
Peak 2913:
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I started hiking down the West side of Peak 3373. It started getting pretty steep to the West so I curved around to the North side and continued sloping down toward Peak 2913. When I got closer to Peak 2913, I noticed that the rocks on the summit were grayish colored, a different color than most of the surrounding area. I did not find a registry at the top and decided not to leave one because I only had 4 jars with me and this peak was under 3,000 feet elevation.
After having finished all 5 peaks, I found a jar on Peak 3022, but had to leave 3 jars on other peaks because jars didn't exist and in the case of Peak 3263, the lid was rusted and had a hole in it, so I needed to replace this jar. That being said, I still had 1 leftover jar in the end, which I could have left on Peak 2913 had I known it wasn't needed on the other peaks.
Peak 3022:
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I started climbing to the top of this peak after summiting Peak 2913. I came down the East side of Peak 2913 and then when I got lower I curved around going North. I ended up crossing the Thunderbird trail and continuing up the Southwest ridge of Peak 3022. The hike up was pretty straight-forward. There were no major obstacles to go around. At the summit I found a jar that was out in the open, not secured under any rocks. The paper was pretty worn, and hardly readable, so I added a new page to the existing jar and signed it. My trip mileage was at 3.14 miles when I summited this peak. My next goal peak was Peak 3263 which was pretty far to the West. I started heading down the Northwest ridge to get down from this peak.
Peak 3263:
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I started heading down the Northwest ridge of Peak 3022. I did have to zig zag a bit because there were cliffs to go around. Near the bottom I found a deep wash that wasn't so easy to get down into. After following the edge for a while, I was able to get down into the wash and cross it. Within a few minutes I intersected the Thunderbird trail. I took that South until I reached the junction with the Brittlebush trail which I took West for a while. When the Brittlebush trail started heading North I got off trail and continued West, crossing the Brittlebush Wash and then later, the Picture Rocks Wash. Shortly after crossing the Picture Rocks wash, I intersected the Picture Rocks Wash trail and followed that to a saddle South-Southwest of Peak 3263. From this saddle, I hiked North and then Northeast to get to the summit. At the summit I found an old registry bottle that was in terrible condition and not covered by any rocks. The cap was rusted and even had a hole in it, so I replaced this bottle with a larger jar and started a new registry. The old paper was in very bad condition, but I left it in the new jar in case anyone ever wants to attempt to read it. I secured the new jar in a rock pile and planned on heading North to my final peak of the day, Peak 3039.
Peak 3039:
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After summiting Peak 3263, I looked North and saw my final peak which was probably only 1/3 of a mile away. I hiked North and then Northeast down from Peak 3263 because the slope was rather steep to continue North. When I got lower, I had to curve back around to get to the low saddle North of Peak 3263. From here, the hike up to Peak 3039 was very straight-forward. I just hiked up the South ridgeline. At the summit, I found a metal flag but no registry at all. There were a few rock piles but no registry. I had another jar so I started yet another registry here and left it in the rock pile with the metal flag marking the location. It was already after 5 pm and I wanted to try to get back to the trailhead before dark, so I needed to move fast. I went back down the South ridge to the saddle, then found some good animal trails on the South side of the canyon leading East. I followed those trails and did an open Country hike down to the Picture Rocks wash and crossed it. On the East side of the wash I was looking at the saddle North of Peak 2879. If I had more time, I could have easily summited 2879, instead I hiked to the saddle North of it which is where I passed through. Shortly after this I could see the Brittlebush wash down below. Before getting to the wash, I intersected with the Brittlebush wash trail, which I took South and East until intersecting with the Thunderbird trail which I took back to the trailhead. I ended up finishing my hike around 6:35 pm and thought I made good time, overall. It was still light out at 6:15 pm then it got a little darker but I didn't need to use a headlamp even on the final stretch.
Stats for ALL 5 peaks:
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Distance (round trip) = 9.93 miles
AEG = 2,655 feet
Strava moving time = 5 hrs 24 mins
Strava elapsed time = 8 hrs 37 mins |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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