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| | | College Peaks (South), AZ | | | |
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College Peaks (South), AZ
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| Hiking | 7.10 Miles |
2,588 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.10 Miles | 9 Hrs 41 Mns | | 0.92 mph |
| 2,588 ft AEG | 2 Hrs Break | | | |
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| no partners | | We did this hike in conjunction with College North peak which has a solid class 4 section. See my trip report for College Peaks North for more info.
After coming down the class 4 section with Amy, we were both relieved. After a 30 minute break, we decided to continue down to the saddle and up to College Peaks (South). Getting down to the saddle was steep and rocky so we needed to weave a bit. But, down closer to the saddle, we made better time. The brush was not thick here so we only needed to weave in a few places.
Looking up at College peaks we could see the obvious class 3 section. When we got closer to the class 3 section it looked like there was a lot of brush but there was a use trail that weaved through it. We saw about 3 possible paths up, but the best one appeared to be to the left where less climbing was necessary. It ended up being a mostly class 2 ascent with class 3 in a few areas. There always seemed to be a trail of some kind, although faint.
Along the way, we found some drug runner trash and clothing, both below and above the class 3 sections. Hopefully whatever company owns the communications equipment has some way of knowing if anyone is up there or messing around with their equipment. I did see a lot of batteries up there which made me wonder if any drug running parasites/leeches are making use of those for their disgusting criminal activities. If they are willing to climb a serious mountain like this one, there's got to be a real reason for it. Hopefully these criminal POS's are locked up and/or thrown out of the Country before they are able to steal, destroy people/property, and/or bring deadly fentanyl and other dangerous poisons into our Country!! I'm thrilled as hell that Trump is the ONLY modern president who is doing something about the massive drug and border problem now. The disgusting opposition appears to be funded, fabricated, controlled, and planned (by a very EVIL entity in my honest opinion).
OK, now onto something positive. Flowers/plants seen along the way: verbena, apricot globe mallow, Dichelostemma capitatum, desert evening primrose, desert spoon, mesquite, oak shrubs, ocotillo, agave, bear grass, candelabra cactus.
In a few spots, the trail came close to the cliffs on the left side and we could see some large dropoffs, but no exposed areas if you follow the use trail. Near the summit, there was an area of confusion where the trail appeared to go straight toward a rocky area. On the right side of the trail was a huge candelabra cholla cactus. Looking past the cactus, the trail seemed to continue, but drop down slightly and go around many of the large boulders. This was the best way to go. A path led us from there to the summit.
At the summit, there was some communications equipment, a large antenna with some dishes, and other equipment. There were 3 high points and it was obvious which one was higher. We found a registry with about 30 small notebook pages going back to about 1990. On the summit "boulder", I sat down, set my backpack down and noticed that a corner of my backpack was submerged in water. Surprisingly, there were some somewhat large holes in the rock that held a few inches of water. I guess there must have been enough rain to fill these up. Birds probably bathe in and drink this water on a regular basis when people are not around. Probably could be filtered for drinking if necessary cause there's no other water source anywhere along the upper portion of this mountains.
Amy was concerned about time, so she started heading down and knew I would catch up to her. I photographed all 30 registry pages, and took a short summit video and a few other photos before heading down. On the way down, I found it easier to get off trail. I did that a few times but managed to get back on the trail each time. At least once, I even needed to refer to my Strava app to see where the hell it was where I was in relation to where we were 40 minutes earlier. In some places the brush was thick here and the boulders were all over, creating a lot of dropoffs that were 4, 5, and 6 feet high. If you decided to follow my route, the route going up the class 3 section was better. When I got past the class 3 section, it was more obvious where the trail went because it was more well-defined in that area. I saw Amy down below, maybe 10 minutes ahead of me. After getting CLOSE to the saddle, I turned left and starting angling down the slope. I didn't need to go all the way down to the saddle because the slope here was more gradual and the terrain was good too. In the rocky places or steep places I found that I could weave. I caught up to Amy partway down this slope. The terrain got less and less steep eventually. We aimed for one of the houses near N Cazador Trail which was a good way to get us back to our starting point.
On the way down we stayed on ridgelines for the most part but had to cross a few more washes it seemed. It was getting dark so we put our headlamps on. We had about 1/2 mile left but we got through most of the steep part. Within another few minutes, we made it down to the flat area. We ran into a fence line but noticed that the corner was 30 feet to our right, so this allowed us to walk around the private property without needing to duck under any fences. We felt that our down route was better in the fact that we didn't need to cross into any private property, but the wash crossings were probably slightly worse than what we experienced on the way up. Part of that could have been because of the darkness. We reached the vehicles at about 7.30 pm. All in all it was a fun hike but the class 4 sections on the North peak caused a bit of stress and anxiety. If you attempt the North peak, be sure to be prepared and see my trip report for that.
Stats:
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Distance (round trip): 7.06 miles
AEG: 2,588 feet
Strava moving time: 4 hrs 32 mins
Strava elapsed time: 9 hrs 41 mins
Driving Directions:
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From Tucson and points West/North of Benson...
Take I-10 E toward Benson
Take exit 303 for AZ-80 toward AZ-10/Benson/Douglas, continue off ramp for 0.6 mi
Continue onto AZ-80 E/W 4th St/Historic U.S. 80 for 1.8 mi
Keep right to continue on AZ-80 E/Historic U.S. 80, continue for 27.4 mi
You will pass through the towns of St David and Tombstone
Turn left onto Davis Rd, continue for 26 min (24.0 mi)
Turn right onto US-191 S, continue for 14.5 mi
Turn left onto W Glenn Rd, continue for 2.0 mi
Turn right onto N Leslie Canyon Rd, continue for 2.0 mi
Turn left onto E Golf Course Rd, continue for 1.0 mi
Turn right onto N Washington Ave, continue for 0.4 mi
Turn left onto AZ-80 E, continue for 7.9 mi
Turn left onto N Cazador Trail, continue for 400 feet. You will pass a group of mailboxes. There will be at least 2 pullouts on the right which are on AZ state trust land. I camped there for one night.
There were barking dogs at 1.30 am!! There was also some noise from AZ-80 but it wasn't too bad.
N Cazador Trail
Douglas, AZ 85607 |
| _____________________
Michael Williams
IT Professional
Rocky Point Vacation Rentals
Ocean Front Condo in Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico
www.beachfrontmexico.us
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