
Subject:
[cohp] Digest Number 5202
From:
cohp@yahoogroups.com
Date:
12/2/2015 2:40 AM
To:
cohp@yahoogroups.com

County High Pointing in all 50 states
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2 Messages
Digest #5202
1a
TR: Southern Arizona CoHPs by orbitor15
1b
Re: TR: Southern Arizona CoHPs by "Beth Lakin" beth3up

Messages
1a
TR: Southern Arizona CoHPs
Tue Dec 1, 2015 11:00 pm (PST) . Posted by:
orbitor15
This past holiday weekend I made good progress on the Arizona CoHP and other lists during a 5-day trip to the Tucson area. Below are reports on the peaks I climbed.

2015-11-26 - Tucson City High Point

On Thanksgiving Day, I hit the road early and completed the drive from the Los Angeles metro area to southern Arizona in about 8 hours, which put me in the Tucson area around 15:00 after accounting for the 1-hr time zone difference during the winter months. After a detour to the western district of Saguaro National Park, I headed to my friends place in the suburb of Vail, located SE of Tucson. Incidentally, the city high point is only a few miles from her house, at the same exit off I-10, so I proceeded to check it off even as night had fallen by now. The high point can be reached by taking Exit 279 (Wentworth/Colossal Cave) and heading north over the highway, turning east on Dawn Drive, then north again on Shalom Drive and pulling off the side of the road immediately after this turn. The high point is on the NW corner of the intersection of Dawn & Shalom, on a mound of dirt inside the wire fence. I entered through an opening in the fence to the left, opened the jar containing a register and entered my name along those of illustrious HP legends. Since it was cold and windy, I only snapped a few photos of the register, then hopped back in the car and completed the drive to my host, where I crashed in anticipation for an early start the next day.

2015-11-27 - Mount Wrightson (Santa Cruz CoHP) + Mount Ian

Wrightson was selected as my first major target because it had the hike requiring the most elevation gain. Even with an early wake-up time, it still took me almost 2 hours to get to the trailhead in Madera Canyon, which is a lovely place by the way. I can see how it can get packed on summer weekends, so I considered myself lucky to be there on Black Friday. Even so, there were quite a few cars parked and several groups getting ready to hit the trail, though finding a spot in the uppermost lot was not an issue. I hopped on the Old Baldy trail around 09:00 and made good time to Baldy Saddle at 8750, passing 10-15 people along the way. I only stopped a few times along the way, once to take off layers at, then to put them on again higher up. The wind was blowing the entire day, making shady sections uncomfortable if standing still, but manageable when moving. After a brief rest at Baldy Saddle, I caught up with a few others on the short 1-mile section to the summit. There was some ice on the rocky slabs facing east, but nothing requiring anything more than careful stepping around. Up top the wind was roaring, forcing many to head back down after only 5-10 minutes, but I managed to extend my stay to a whole half-hour. Under a clear sunny sky, the views were glorious in all directions, including far into Mexico. There is an ammo box with a big notebook serving as register and seeing lots of entries.

Since I got back down to Baldy Saddle very quickly, I decided I had time for extra credit, so I kept following a trail northward toward the unnamed peak 9146 known locally as Mount Ian. The round trip was only about a mile with about 400 gain, and I didnt linger on the summit for long seeing how it was just as windy as Wrightson. This peak sees very few ascents, most of them from the nearby hikers in Green Valley. I did recognize a few names in the register, like Greg Slayden and James Barlow. At Baldy Saddle for the 3rd and final time, I chatted for a bit with a group who revealed themselves to be state and county highpointers (though of course I forgot to make introductions). I then booked it down Old Baldy trail to Josephine Saddle, from where I decided to return to the trailhead via the lower section of the Super Trail, just to experience something different. Eventually I regretted this choice as the Super winds its way seemingly endlessly, but I finally reached the car around 15:30. Total stats were 13.2 miles and 4900 gain, making me glad to have gotten this CoHP out of the way early.

2015-11-28 - Rice Peak + Rice Peak Liner (Pinal CoHP) + Mount Lemmon (Pima CoHP)

On the second day I was supposed to head to Miller Peak (see write-up), but a last minute request from my hiking partner switched the order, so the peaks in the Santa Catalina Range ended up getting done now. Thanks to match-making by Scott Surgent, I met up with Matthias Stender on the Tucson Eastside and carpooled in his vehicle up Catalina Highway to near Summerhaven, from where we turned downhill a short way to the Arizona Trail. Starting around 7780, we dropped down Oracle Ridge to Dan Saddle, losing almost 1000 feet of elevation along the way. The trail is well maintained in this section, but continuing north from the saddle the vegetation closes in and occasional branches/limbs snatch at ones clothing. Two bumps on the ridge are bypassed on the western side, then the trail drops down some more before making the final ascent to Rice Peak. A steep jeep road indicates this summit sees plenty of visitors, but we found no register, just one abused USGS marker. Though only 5 miles, the way seemed longer because of the contouring and all the ups and downs on the ridge.

For the Pinal CoHP, we dropped down the north slope of Rice, looking for the Covill Cairn. We searched around through brush and walked further north than necessary just to be sure we got the liner. I was keeping an eye on my altimeter for the exact elevation, but the only possible corresponding marker was something that looked like a scattered pile of rocks. We talked ourselves into claiming this as the HP; on the way back up, we decided to walk slightly west of our descent, and sure enough we stumbled right upon the Covill Cairn with the register can sticking out of it. There were no entries in the register since James Barlow and Keith Christensen back in March of this year, indicating that visitors either: 1) dont know about the rock pile; 2) cant find the rock pile; 3) dont care about signing in. Judging by the famous signatures going back all the way to 2003, it seems that (2) is more likely the case. After being 100% certain the objective was achieved, we made the steep climb back to the Rice summit, where we found several jeeps and an ATV taking in the views. I think the people hanging out there were even more surprised to see us pop out from nowhere, and were duly impressed when we told them we had traversed the ridge from Lemmon on foot. We bid them goodbye and made our way back to Dan Saddle, then completed the uphill slog to the car. Only 10.6 miles and 3000 gain, but with the rollercoaster ridge and the constant wind, this hike felt harder than advertised.

It was already 15:00 by the time we got back on the main road and continued to the Mt. Lemmon Ski Area, where a closed gate at 8300 prevented further car access. We parked and walked up the paved road to the observatory area on the flat summit. The gate to the observatory was closed and barbed wire had been added on top of the fence. We didn't try to force our way here, instead we walked the perimeter of the fence on a use path in a northerly direction, which eventually brought us to a hillside where the fence had been knocked down. We walked through the hole, then up a steep bank to pop out next to a telescope dome. The register is located in a small pile of rocks outside a green gate, which was not even locked, only held closed by chain links. In a bitter wind and with the sun racing towards the horizon, we signed our names, took a few pictures, then headed back. It was too cold to linger and look for the USGS marker. We heard a car exit through the main gate of the observatory, which remained open afterwards, but no one seemed to notice us. We got back to the ski area parking lot right after sunset, and drove off into a magnificent dusk. Getting the Pima CoHP added about 4.2 miles and 900 gain to a day that turned out longer than anticipated.

2015-11-29 - Miller Peak (CONUS Ultra) + Coronado Peak

For the third and final day, I was on my own again and the last item on the agenda was the southernmost Ultra in the Lower 48. Miller is located only a few air miles from the Mexican border, but there were no issues with illegal crossers. From I-10, I followed Scott Surgent's excellent directions to Montezuma Pass, stopping briefly at the visitor center in Coronado National Memorial, a unit of the NPS. At the 6570 pass, the Border Patrol had several vehicles parked, including two trucks with huge scanners pointed to the valleys to the east and west respectively. As I was getting ready for the hike, a NPS ranger pulled up, grabbed his equipment and started on patrol ahead of me. I caught up with him about half a mile up the well-maintained Crest Trail, which is also a section of the Arizona Trail. We chatted briefly about the security situation in the area, during which I was reassured that there shouldn't be any problems. The M4 carbine the ranger was carrying in addition to his regular firearm made a pretty convincing case for why illegals would avoid the main trails. I bid the ranger farewell and motored up the trail, past a few well marked junctions, reaching the wind-swept top in about 2.5 hours. Just like Wrightson, the views here were terrific, but after signing in on a scrap of paper (the register seems to have vanished), taking pictures and eating lunch, there was nothing left to do but get away from the lonely and frigid summit. The descent back to Montezuma Pass went fast, and before driving off the western side I walked the easy trail up Coronado Peak, from where Coronado himself is alleged to have taken in the sweeping views of Sonora, Mexico and the San Pedro River and San Rafael Valleys. Totals for the day were 10.8 miles and 3600 gain.

Overall, this was a very productive trip, during which I was blessed with excellent weather and conditions given the time of the year. There were no issues with snow or access on any of the hikes I did, and I felt entirely safe everywhere I went. I was in a different mountain range every day and found each to have a unique charm. I boosted my state completion to 7 of 15 CoHPs, and added an Ultra and a city HP. Many thanks to all who helped out with logistics and info. Tracks in gpx format are available on Peakbagger; I can also provide them individually upon request. Photos are still being processed.

Mihai G.
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1b
Re: TR: Southern Arizona CoHPs
Tue Dec 1, 2015 11:38 pm (PST) . Posted by:
"Beth Lakin" beth3up
Count me as one that didn't look that hard for the Rice Peak liner!

I'd been there on the Sunday afternoon before you and with a dusting of snow on the ground, just as GPS indicated I was "at" the point, I ran into "big kitty" tracks and admittedly I freaked myself out. ;)

Beth

> On Dec 2, 2015, at 12:00 AM, hikeclimbrun@gmail.com [cohp] <cohp@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
> This past holiday weekend I made good progress on the Arizona CoHP and other lists during a 5-day trip to the Tucson area. Below are reports on the peaks I climbed.
>
> 2015-11-26 - Tucson City High Point
>
> On Thanksgiving Day, I hit the road early and completed the drive from the Los Angeles metro area to southern Arizona in about 8 hours, which put me in the Tucson area around 15:00 after accounting for the 1-hr time zone difference during the winter months. After a detour to the western district of Saguaro National Park, I headed to my friends place in the suburb of Vail, located SE of Tucson. Incidentally, the city high point is only a few miles from her house, at the same exit off I-10, so I proceeded to check it off even as night had fallen by now. The high point can be reached by taking Exit 279 (Wentworth/Colossal Cave) and heading north over the highway, turning east on Dawn Drive, then north again on Shalom Drive and pulling off the side of the road immediately after this turn. The high point is on the NW corner of the intersection of Dawn & Shalom, on a mound of dirt inside the wire fence. I entered through an opening in the fence to the left, opened the jar containing a register and entered my name along those of illustrious HP legends. Since it was cold and windy, I only snapped a few photos of the register, then hopped back in the car and completed the drive to my host, where I crashed in anticipation for an early start the next day.
>
> 2015-11-27 - Mount Wrightson (Santa Cruz CoHP) + Mount Ian
>
> Wrightson was selected as my first major target because it had the hike requiring the most elevation gain. Even with an early wake-up time, it still took me almost 2 hours to get to the trailhead in Madera Canyon, which is a lovely place by the way. I can see how it can get packed on summer weekends, so I considered myself lucky to be there on Black Friday. Even so, there were quite a few cars parked and several groups getting ready to hit the trail, though finding a spot in the uppermost lot was not an issue. I hopped on the Old Baldy trail around 09:00 and made good time to Baldy Saddle at 8750, passing 10-15 people along the way. I only stopped a few times along the way, once to take off layers at, then to put them on again higher up. The wind was blowing the entire day, making shady sections uncomfortable if standing still, but manageable when moving. After a brief rest at Baldy Saddle, I caught up with a few others on the short 1-mile section to the summit. There was some ice on the rocky slabs facing east, but nothing requiring anything more than careful stepping around. Up top the wind was roaring, forcing many to head back down after only 5-10 minutes, but I managed to extend my stay to a whole half-hour. Under a clear sunny sky, the views were glorious in all directions, including far into Mexico. There is an ammo box with a big notebook serving as register and seeing lots of entries.
>
> Since I got back down to Baldy Saddle very quickly, I decided I had time for extra credit, so I kept following a trail northward toward the unnamed peak 9146 known locally as Mount Ian. The round trip was only about a mile with about 400 gain, and I didnt linger on the summit for long seeing how it was just as windy as Wrightson. This peak sees very few ascents, most of them from the nearby hikers in Green Valley. I did recognize a few names in the register, like Greg Slayden and James Barlow. At Baldy Saddle for the 3rd and final time, I chatted for a bit with a group who revealed themselves to be state and county highpointers (though of course I forgot to make introductions). I then booked it down Old Baldy trail to Josephine Saddle, from where I decided to return to the trailhead via the lower section of the Super Trail, just to experience something different. Eventually I regretted this choice as the Super winds its way seemingly endlessly, but I finally reached the car around 15:30. Total stats were 13.2 miles and 4900 gain, making me glad to have gotten this CoHP out of the way early.
>
> 2015-11-28 - Rice Peak + Rice Peak Liner (Pinal CoHP) + Mount Lemmon (Pima CoHP)
>
> On the second day I was supposed to head to Miller Peak (see write-up), but a last minute request from my hiking partner switched the order, so the peaks in the Santa Catalina Range ended up getting done now. Thanks to match-making by Scott Surgent, I met up with Matthias Stender on the Tucson Eastside and carpooled in his vehicle up Catalina Highway to near Summerhaven, from where we turned downhill a short way to the Arizona Trail. Starting around 7780, we dropped down Oracle Ridge to Dan Saddle, losing almost 1000 feet of elevation along the way. The trail is well maintained in this section, but continuing north from the saddle the vegetation closes in and occasional branches/limbs snatch at ones clothing. Two bumps on the ridge are bypassed on the western side, then the trail drops down some more before making the final ascent to Rice Peak. A steep jeep road indicates this summit sees plenty of visitors, but we found no register, just one abused USGS marker. Though only 5 miles, the way seemed longer because of the contouring and all the ups and downs on the ridge.
>
> For the Pinal CoHP, we dropped down the north slope of Rice, looking for the Covill Cairn. We searched around through brush and walked further north than necessary just to be sure we got the liner. I was keeping an eye on my altimeter for the exact elevation, but the only possible corresponding marker was something that looked like a scattered pile of rocks. We talked ourselves into claiming this as the HP; on the way back up, we decided to walk slightly west of our descent, and sure enough we stumbled right upon the Covill Cairn with the register can sticking out of it. There were no entries in the register since James Barlow and Keith Christensen back in March of this year, indicating that visitors either: 1) dont know about the rock pile; 2) cant find the rock pile; 3) dont care about signing in. Judging by the famous signatures going back all the way to 2003, it seems that (2) is more likely the case. After being 100% certain the objective was achieved, we made the steep climb back to the Rice summit, where we found several jeeps and an ATV taking in the views. I think the people hanging out there were even more surprised to see us pop out from nowhere, and were duly impressed when we told them we had traversed the ridge from Lemmon on foot. We bid them goodbye and made our way back to Dan Saddle, then completed the uphill slog to the car. Only 10.6 miles and 3000 gain, but with the rollercoaster ridge and the constant wind, this hike felt harder than advertised.
>
> It was already 15:00 by the time we got back on the main road and continued to the Mt. Lemmon Ski Area, where a closed gate at 8300 prevented further car access. We parked and walked up the paved road to the observatory area on the flat summit. The gate to the observatory was closed and barbed wire had been added on top of the fence. We didn't try to force our way here, instead we walked the perimeter of the fence on a use path in a northerly direction, which eventually brought us to a hillside where the fence had been knocked down. We walked through the hole, then up a steep bank to pop out next to a telescope dome. The register is located in a small pile of rocks outside a green gate, which was not even locked, only held closed by chain links. In a bitter wind and with the sun racing towards the horizon, we signed our names, took a few pictures, then headed back. It was too cold to linger and look for the USGS marker. We heard a car exit through the main gate of the observatory, which remained open afterwards, but no one seemed to notice us. We got back to the ski area parking lot right after sunset, and drove off into a magnificent dusk. Getting the Pima CoHP added about 4.2 miles and 900 gain to a day that turned out longer than anticipated.
>
> 2015-11-29 - Miller Peak (CONUS Ultra) + Coronado Peak
>
> For the third and final day, I was on my own again and the last item on the agenda was the southernmost Ultra in the Lower 48. Miller is located only a few air miles from the Mexican border, but there were no issues with illegal crossers. From I-10, I followed Scott Surgent's excellent directions to Montezuma Pass, stopping briefly at the visitor center in Coronado National Memorial, a unit of the NPS. At the 6570 pass, the Border Patrol had several vehicles parked, including two trucks with huge scanners pointed to the valleys to the east and west respectively. As I was getting ready for the hike, a NPS ranger pulled up, grabbed his equipment and started on patrol ahead of me. I caught up with him about half a mile up the well-maintained Crest Trail, which is also a section of the Arizona Trail. We chatted briefly about the security situation in the area, during which I was reassured that there shouldn't be any problems. The M4 carbine the ranger was carrying in addition to his regular firearm made a pretty convincing case for why illegals would avoid the main trails. I bid the ranger farewell and motored up the trail, past a few well marked junctions, reaching the wind-swept top in about 2.5 hours. Just like Wrightson, the views here were terrific, but after signing in on a scrap of paper (the register seems to have vanished), taking pictures and eating lunch, there was nothing left to do but get away from the lonely and frigid summit. The descent back to Montezuma Pass went fast, and before driving off the western side I walked the easy trail up Coronado Peak, from where Coronado himself is alleged to have taken in the sweeping views of Sonora, Mexico and the San Pedro River and San Rafael Valleys. Totals for the day were 10.8 miles and 3600 gain.
>
> Overall, this was a very productive trip, during which I was blessed with excellent weather and conditions given the time of the year. There were no issues with snow or access on any of the hikes I did, and I felt entirely safe everywhere I went. I was in a different mountain range every day and found each to have a unique charm. I boosted my state completion to 7 of 15 CoHPs, and added an Ultra and a city HP. Many thanks to all who helped out with logistics and info. Tracks in gpx format are available on Peakbagger; I can also provide them individually upon request. Photos are still being processed.
>
> Mihai G.
>
>
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