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| Hiking | 8.80 Miles |
2,645 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.80 Miles | 6 Hrs 30 Mns | | 1.35 mph |
| 2,645 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Dave W was in town from PHX and was interested in a hike. I suggested something in the Tumacacori's because Dave has never been in Rock Corral Canyon before and I was interested in bagging Peak 5675, one of the higher peaks that I've never been to before.
We arrived around 8 am and the temps felt like about 70. Rather than park at our normal spot near the campgrounds, and since I had my capable 4x4 HC vehicle, I decided to drive further up the road and turn on FS 4876 to look for a parking spot. This was a mistake since this road was very bad, filled with huge rocks, and places were I could easily have bottomed out. The road was narrow and I needed to do a "17 point turn" to turn around! Finally, I was able to get my truck turned out without falling into the canyon and back it up into a small space on the side of the road.
We started hiking up the road and within a few minutes saw a black garter snake. I knew it was a garter snake because the stripes went the long way along length of the snake. We walking up the steep road until we got to a tree in the middle of the road. This was a good place to start the bushwhack heading up to the high saddle. It was a slow bushwhack because of the steepness of the slope and the brush. We made it to the top, bypassing the saddle going North of it, and then got to relax a bit since the slope was flatter on top. From there we had another 0.4 miles roughly to get to the peak. At the peak, we saw a lot of oak scrub, and a registry under a rock pile at the high point.
From the top we had nice views of Baboquiveri, and could even see the towers on top of Kitt peak. We saw some houses to the West off in the distance and determined that it must be Northern Ruby or the town of Arivaca.
On the way down, we hit the saddle, and this time travelled Southeast along a migrant trail or animal trail. The trail seemed to end therefore we needed to chart our own course going down into the canyon. This was the hardest part of the hike. Once in the canyon, the slope leveled out a bit and it was easier moving. We kept moving and eventually hit the same section of road that we were on before. We decided to walk to the East end of the road to check out some potential mining prospects. After the road ended the brush was very thick and we saw many piles of tailings. There definitely was mining activity here in the past, but I didn't see any mine shafts or even blocked entrances. In years past, I do remember seeing a mine entrance but it was blocked off with a sign and some metal bars. Perhaps that was lower and not so close to the road.
After not seeing much in the old mining area, we went back to the road and followed it all the way back to my truck which was parked on the side of FS 4876, only a few hundred feet from FS 4145.
AEG = 2,645 feet
Strava moving time: 3 hrs 42 mins, but my track was stopped pre-maturely so this stat may be off... |
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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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