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| Hiking | 8.60 Miles |
2,776 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.60 Miles | 6 Hrs 45 Mns | | 1.50 mph |
| 2,776 ft AEG | 1 Hour Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Kicked off 2016 by climbing up Malapais, only makes sense to start this year by hiking it's brother from a different mother.
Started at TH the same time as some hunters and they offered a ride down 213, which was most awesome. The driver mentioned that he did some trail maintenance on Peter's Trail over the last few months, and sure enough, Peter's Trail was in great shape. Seemed chilly out, though I didn't see a lot of frost. Creeks were running good. Found Kane Spring. Now, on to the exciting stuff.
Cutting off Peter's Saddle toward the peak was tough. The ground is pretty crumbly and, since I chose to circle around a little hill, I wasn't able to plan more than a few dozen yards in front of me at a time. Lots and lots of brush to deal with. Seemed to take forever to reach the first saddle past Peter's. Along the way I thought I saw a hint of a trail and two cairns, wasn't able to pick out anything else from here though, so I'm going with tricksy bighorns. Following the ridge wasn't that bad, soft ground but relatively clear. Saw two good routes up the ridge, chose the second one which turned out to be Joe's route (at least I think so, there was a tree assist). Once I got on top of the ridge I took my time, avoiding the tippy-top, and thus avoided the inevitable cliff-outs. Past the ridge there was a solid brushy climb, then some harder rock and sporadic brush, then the final (and surprisingly difficult) last few yards to the very peak. I like it when a peak is a real peak. Malapais just felt like rolling hills up there, and no one knows what Bluff Springs is up to.
Peak log was pretty empty. After the searches for Jesse in 2012 there were a few groups in 2013, 2014, no one in 2015, and a sizeable group in Jan 2016. And that's it. I signed it, thought about looking around for plane parts (totally forgot about them on the way up, peak log reminded me), decided to lounge and eat some crackers instead, and then headed down for a northern exit.
Northern route was peaches and cream compared to the south. For a while, anyways. It was flat and easy sailing for a time, and then there was a twenty foot drop and things got all boulder-y and overgrown. Spent most of the time dancing along the eastern slope below the ridge, might have been easier to top off. Super slow going until reached the saddle between 4622 and 4484. Climbing out of the saddle was easy, skipping on them flat red boulders, and made semi-good time to 4581. Not much to see here, just awesome views back at Tortilla Peak. The drop down 4581 to the north was easy at first, then got harder and harder as I got closer to the creek that would (mostly) take me out. So much bloody catclaw. Once I reached the base of that creek the catclaw went from knee-high to over-my-head, so that was neat. Eventually it was worth it. Found what I was looking for, an old dam on the little creek, though there wasn't any clues as to it's use. Something something ranching, probably. Or maybe LDM. Let's go with LDM. Followed tanks for a bit, and when creek got bush I pulled up the northern bank, rounded a saddle, and then had a fun 500' descent with a few cliff-outs and even more thick vegetation before finally finding the road. Got back to PHX shortly after three, perfect timing to get some final weekend stuff before it's not-weekend again. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
. After overnight rain, some of the low peaks were still in clouds on the drive and early in the hike. No other vehicles in the parking lot, and it was in the low 50s as we started up FR 213.
singing.A pretty clear day with some awesome views.Great company,weather and hike! Thanks for driving,Wally. 
We decided to drive FR213 this time as it is always a treat and started hiking Peters trail about 7:12a. I noticed the moon almost lined up with the arch on the trail so of course we bushwacked around trying to get it to line up but no luck. Once we were at Indian Spring Canyon we started toward the saddle. Then since Denny never saw Indian Spring #2 we took a slight detour. I know focus on the task. We were off again hiking on the south slope of Indian Canyon and it got thick so we crossed over to the north. Then there was this alcove :whistle: that looked like it may be a cave and so I crawled in a ways. Why are we here? Oh ya. For some reason it seemed the ridgeline wasn't getting any closer. Finally near the top the canyon opened up, the terrain was clear, the rocks turned red and the breeze was blowing. We were now on the ridge will really nice views and a full size map of the Superstitions. We could see Bluff Spring Mtn, Malapais Mtn, Tortilla Peak, Black Mtn, Black Mesa, Black Top Mesa, Peters Mesa, Miners Needle, Weavers Needle, the ridgeline etc. This is a really nice place. Denny and I then hiked across the ridge to Peak 4586 (aka Mt Shasta) and had lunch. We discussed going to Tortilla peak but decided to go to Peak 4581 and see if we could off trail back to the trail head and make better time while covering new ground. That usually never works...until today. Unfortunately we didn't find anything new. Once back at the trail head we strolled over to the JF trail and found George Millers grave marker and put the cairn back up. When we returned to the TH again a group from SSAR had just returned from a hike. We talked with Donnie, Sendo and John about the search in the Tortilla area and the search near Sheep Mtn. It was nice meeting the SSAR group. Thanks for coming out Denny.
.We made good time heading back so Wally took me over to show me where George Miller's Grave was.When we got back to the trailhead some SSAR gentlemen were there.Sendo,Donnie,and John had done some searching too.It was nice to meet and talk to them.Such a vast area to search.No luck this time.Thanks for the hike and driving,Wally.You Rock!
