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| Hiking | 5.67 Miles |
3,188 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.67 Miles | 8 Hrs 48 Mns | | 0.90 mph |
| 3,188 ft AEG | 2 Hrs 32 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I consider this hike a “Big Boy/Big Girl” hike, and since I believe I’m just a “Medium Boy” hiker, this one was quite the challenge. The distance and AEG were no problem.
However, I spent half my time trying to determine how to go around or through some very nasty vegetation.
There are three “gaps in ridge-lines” to climb up through, before you get the privilege to actually hike up Black Cross Butte 4806. Each gap is laden with thick brush. Then there’s a wash you must cross, that has almost impenetrable vegetation on both sides. It seemed like the shrubs near the wash were locked together. It was like going through a maze of thick, wooden spiderwebs. All this made the hike very slow going for this Medium Boy hiker.
Once I finally got to the base of 4806, the climb up was a bit steep, but nothing out of the ordinary. It actually was a relief.
Black Cross Triangulation Station lives on the Butte, and so does its reference mark #1. Someone decided to rip out and remove RM #2, and take it home.
I re-erected the wooden Height of Light over the station, to let it pretend it was 1946 again.
The location of Black Cross Azimuth Mark is a tease.
You come across the azimuth disk only 1 mile into the hike, and before the heavy brush shows up. You might think you’re almost there, time wise.
In a straight line, the azimuth mark is also only about 1 mile away from the top of 4804, but you’d need a “reverse” zip-line to get there in a straight line. Hiking an arc through the three gaps is probably the best and safest route to get to the base of 4806.
The plant of the day, that administers pain, was agave. They’re all over the place. Very few prickly pear or cholla etc, made the scene.
My hike back down was a tad easier, as I could more easily see and determine the “least thick, of the thick” areas to maneuver through.
Even with the above mentioned “plant” adversity, the hike and the area are winners. The visual ruggedness of this whole area is quite a treat for the eyes, and actually made this hike worth the effort. |
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Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
J.R.R.TOLKIEN |
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