|
| | | |
| |
|
| Hiking | 14.75 Miles |
4,800 AEG |
| | Hiking | 14.75 Miles | | | |
| 4,800 ft AEG | | 10 LBS Pack | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
[ show ]
| partners | | Brian, Preston and I were planning on Window Peak. The forecast seemed like a good day for it, and earlier season hiking here means there will be water and it won't be as hot down lower. Unfortunately, Window Peak was not to be. Preston turned back after Bridal Falls due to serious moral and ethical objections with violating the regulations pertaining to the sacred Bighorn Sheep. He simply won't violate any law, regulation, or statute, no matter what. Brian and I found the trail conditions past Cathedral Rock Trail #26 junction to be less than ideal, so we opted to relax and enjoy the saddle.
Few people seem to hike beyond the junction with trail #26, and to my surprise the visible section of #26 looked to be well maintained. Esperero was not, past that junction, though work may be planned. It was marked with flagging and cairns, but some areas were a bit harder to navigate due to down trees. However, as we crested the saddle we could see the snow on the north east face of Window Peak, and neither of us wanted to deal with the combination of snow and thorny New Mexican Locust. After the Bighorn Fire in 2020, it seems a good deal of New Mexican Locust has grown in over the trail where we turned back.
Also, we had no idea of the trail to the top, and there was abundant ice on the rocks above. For all we knew, Window Peak was completely inaccessible due to snow and ice in the canyon leading to the summit, with ice preventing the final 25 feet of climbing. Last, we heard numerous crashes of ice breaking off and falling down. So, we opted to relax and eat lunch in the sun at the saddle and turned back from there. Hiking down was enjoyable, and very pleasant in the desert with mild sweet smelling air and a full moon to finish.
A party did go beyond where we turned back, and as we were starting to leave we could hear them either on Window Peak, or the further Ridgeline section of Esperero where it nears Ventana Canyon. Also, a woman from North Carolina was considering Window Peak, but was unable to due to her time when she reached the junction with #26, and then a group of 3 early 20s hikers was coming up to the saddle when we were descending and they stated that Window Peak was their destination. I don't know if those 3 made it or not, or if the other group we heard did, but I was impressed with the number of people who wanted to summit Window Peak today. My experience has always found it to be something no one does. Maybe due to me mostly hiking it from Ventana Canyon?
I did not find any Esperero Trail Routes that were not HAZbot and went beyond trail #26, so I used Esperero-Ventana GPS routes. I re-used GPS Joe's route from 2008 and also RVCarters route from 2014. I know relatively little about the accuracy of GPS routes, and unfortunately no one has posted a route to that hike since 2014, so they are older and maybe less accurate than a new one. Or, not, I don't know.
I was impressed by my GPS :: Window Peak stats from 2015 when we were heading out for this. I consider that a big hike. That route was produced from GPSJoe's 2008 route. I cut it at the summit of Window Peak, cloned and reverse one, joined the ends, synced it, and viola! A route is born. For today's hike I repeated this process with the Hazbot route, as well as the other two routes. Hazbot had the highest at over 4900' of AEG, and GPS Joe had the lowest. I opted to take a mid-point between Joe's Route and RVCarter's Route. So, that is where I got the stats and I will post the route that I made from RVCarter. I know most don't care one bit about the stats I post, but I don't want to hedge inaccurately, and well, I was impressed we managed to hike as much as we did yesterday.
Basically, maybe we didn't go to Window Peak, but that was still a very big hike. |
  |
Esperero Canyon |
Medium flow |
Medium flow |
| | | Will flow for a while with the snow and ice higher up. | | _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
