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| Hiking | 4.40 Miles |
1,484 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.40 Miles | 5 Hrs 50 Mns | | 1.02 mph |
| 1,484 ft AEG | 1 Hour 30 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | We've known about this hike for a long time. In fact, my friend Amy wrote a guide for this hike over 9 yrs ago on HikeArizona dot com. See link below.
hikearizona.com
Brian and I arrived in the morning and parked near FSR 4191 and 4193. I believe we started in a similar location when we hiked Ramanote peak, a quite long and difficult hike. We followed Amy's route on the way up which we thought was a great route with no side-hilling what-so-ever. On the way down, we tried a shortcut which involved some rugged terrain, side-hilling, more route finding, and a little more concentration.
FSR 4193 is overgrown and not drivable and today it's more like a trail than anything else. Take this old road/trail down to the canyon. After about 1/3 mile you should be near the bottom of the canyon. Turn right and head East. You can stay in the canyon or hike along side it. When there are messy areas in the canyon you may find it easier to hike along side it. When in doubt follow the cattle trails. After 2/3 mile, head North and exit the canyon, getting on the ridgeline. Note: We overshot the turn accidentally so keep this in mind if you are using our route as a guideline as your mileages will not match exactly.
After getting out of the canyon, your goal will be to get on top of the ridgeline but take a more gradual approach and skip around some of the rugged areas. Once you are on the ridgeline, the hike gets a bit easier. From here on out you can stay on the center of the ridgeline and you will make it all the way to the summit. We did have to zig-zag a bit and there was nothing more than class 1 & 2 the entire way. Probably the worst part of the ascent was the section from 1.6 miles to 1.7 miles, marked with a way point labeled 'steep and rocky'. We needed to zig-zag a lot in this area and take a lot of care with our steps because the ground was not so stable. Once on the saddle, we could see exactly where to go. Near the top, we curved a bit to the right just because it was easier. Then, we turned left and did the final walk up to the summit.
At the summit, we found a rock pile and buried inside was a plastic jar, well shaded from the sun and sheltered from any rain. Inside the jar we found an old registry that dated back to 1990. The names were Dottie and Bob Martin, some famous hikers from the past. This old registry only had a few pages. There was also a small notebook that was also started in 1996 by the Sierra Club - Desert Peaks Section. This registry had about 20 pages and the most recent entries before ours was SAHC in Oct & Aug of 2023. The next entry before those was Amy's entry in 2016! So, it's safe to say this peak doesn't see a lot of activity!
We had an early lunch at the summit, took some photos and a video, then decided to head down. This time we decided to try to take a shortcut down to the canyon, To the South we knew there were some cliff bands but we believed we could go around those on either side. The big question was exactly where since we could see the cliff bands so easily from up above. Brian led going down and it was steep and a bit slow because we needed to do a little route finding. About halfway down the ridgeline we found a fairly clear trail that headed to our right and across to another ridgeline which looked better than the one we were on. We took that trail across and down to a lookout. At the lookout we looked left and right and decided that the right-side ridgeline was much cleaner and had a more gradual slope so we decided to take that. Pretty soon, we were down in the canyon, so we decided to take a water break and admire the views from where we came from. From this point we knew of 2 possible routes to get back to the road. One was a trail was spotting going up which we saw across the canyon while coming down. The next was just to go right up the steep slope in front of us. We liked both routes, so Brian took the ridge that we were on and I followed the canyon for about 700 feet Northeast, found a good cattle trails heading South and UP. Halfway up, I saw a few other cattle trail, some heading over to a drainage and others heading in different directions. I zig-zagged a bit and eventually made it to the top. Brian was up there waiting for me. I guess his route was slightly better, not to mention he's faster anyway ;-). We took another short break and then followed the 4x4 road back to where we parked. This hike was definitely a bit easier than we originally expected.
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 4.4 miles
AEG: 1,484 feet
Strava moving time: 2 hrs 44 mins (Note: we did not take 3 hours in breaks. I suspect that our moving time was closer to 4 hrs and 20 mins)
Strava elapsed time: 5 hrs 50 mins
Driving Directions: (Credit to Amy P.)
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Note: a regular sedan will work, but high clearance is preferred as the road is a bit rough.
-Take I-19 to Exit 17 (Rio Rico Drive)
-Go West off the exit, then go right (North) on to West Frontage Road for about 1.1 miles
-Turn left (West) onto Camino Ramanote, which turns to dirt after about 3.2 miles
-FS 4191 will form a 'T' at some corrals on the right, where FS 4198 merges with FS 4191. Stay on FS 4191
-You will be starting your hike down FR 4193, ; thus, finding parking near the start of FR 4193 will be ideal. It may be a good idea to set your odometer by the corrals; FR 4193 is very overgrown and not obvious. |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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