[Gimpilator]

I was excited to return to the desert, where you can hike just about every day without concern for snow conditions or weather. 12-2-21 Mohon Peak – 7499' It’s not feasible to drive close to this peak. My Subaru made it to within a tenth of a mile of where Craig Barlow started. Arriving with a few hours of daylight remaining, I decided to knock out some of the approach mileage, but I misjudged the night temps. 5 miles in I slept the first few hours, but cold kept me awake the rest of the night.

drought

Most of this route is a road walk through cattle country. Around 5300 feet, you leave the road and continue on the west ridge. At one point I found myself surrounded by 7 large javelina running amok. Minor brush near the summit.

12-3 Weaver Peak – 6574' Notorious as one of the 3 worst bushwhacks on the AZ P2k list, and perhaps the worst. Permission to enter private property, is a requirement for the shortest route, but not difficult to obtain. There are some cattle trails in the brush which ease the way, but the upper 3rd of the peak is pretty bad any way you go. Don’t try and wear shorts or short sleeve, even if it’s hot out. My hands are still healing almost two weeks later. Gloves would have been prudent.

12-4 Loy Butte – 5680' Being the weekend, I was able to connect with Matthias for the day. We started with Loy which is highly recommended by my buddy Stav. Lot’s of easy class 3 and the first half is well cairned with a visible path. This path goes to ruins on ledges where you can see pottery and old corn cobs. I noted that these cobs were a maximum of 4 inches in length. I have read that prior to modern selective breeding and genetic modifications, native corn plants had a much smaller seed head.

Loy

We finished the peak with an exposed downsloping ledge on the upper east face. During the descent we ran into a woman from Seattle and after talking a bit, it turned out to be Rubywrangler! I’ve enjoyed her reports for years and it was awesome to meet her. What are the chances?

key ledge is above Matthias

Morning Glory Spire – 5240' Another peak recommended by Stav. I brought a rope for the crux step. After leaving the main trail you work up to a saddle north of The Mitten and a climbers path works over to Morning Glory. The crux is only about 20 feet. I set up a belay on a bush for Matthias.

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

The next challenge was a squeeze chimney, which is awkward to exit at the top and fairly exposed. Matthias is a strong scrambler, but has claustrophobia and decided to call it there. The summit of the spire is two large blocks. Pretty airy. A 30 meter rope is plenty long enough to rap the class 4 crux step.

summit

airy summit block (yes I went over there)

Sedona down there

squeeze chimney

12-5 Woodchute Mountain – 7840' Trail and then a walk through open woods. Mingus Mountain – 7815' Flattish summit located not far from a paragliding launch ramp.

Mingus Lookout – 7743' Gated road walk. 12-6 Weavers Needle – 4553' Josh and Fletcher were going to be in the area, and one of their peaks I had not done yet. I was pretty excited to join up with them. He has an excellent report and video. I will copy my photos here, but please take a moment to look at his description.

12-7 Dome Mountain – 3381' Walked roads through limited use area to a nice trail. This is a nice hike for the southeast Phoenix area, and somehow not popular or well known. Ran into #GoldenTrailz and her 3 dogs on the way up.

Dome

Browns and the other 3

Ironview

McDowell

Peak 3134 – 3134' This is an easy bonus peak if you’re already doing Dome. Aztec Peak – 7748' I had planned a day to hike Aztec, but as it turned out I drove to the summit. Highway 88 is still closed so I had to go the long way around through Globe.

[Gimpilator]

12-8 Ironview Peak – 5024' One of my favorites of the trip and popular for a good reason. Lot’s of people hike to The Flatiron every day, but very few visit the actual summit for some reason. The register was stolen.

The Flatiron

Flatiron

This is a short steep route with lot’s of gain and lot’s of easy scrambling. If I lived nearby, I would do it once a week. In fact, I met a man during the descent who is know locally as the “Flatiron Guy”. On this day he was making his 331st ascent. Hiking down with him, we stopped to chat with many locals who he is familiar with. Silly Mountain – 2139' This suburb bump has a trail system.

Ironview

Dinosaur Mountain – 2370' If you want Dinosaur, the only good starting point is the free parking at the golf course. There are some odd trails which take you most of the way towards the summit. After that, the slopes are loose and the scrambling is fun but chossy. Be careful. 12-9 Coffee Flat Mountain – 4621' A storm system was coming in. I had planned to go further south, but that area is no good after a rain. The roads become impassable mud. On the fly, I decided to stay in the Superstitions. Coffee Flat seemed like a rarely visited peak so I went to check it out. While passing below Miners Needle, I turned a bend in the trail and almost got sprayed by a skunk. The tail was up and the business end was pointed at me. On Peakbagger, Craig Jones described the route through the cliffs. I saw the “dark patina dry fall” he mentions, after which I was on the main southwest ridge.

Weaver's Needle

Miners Needle

Coffee Flat (summit slightly left of center)

On the ridge, I saw a fire starting, and at first I thought I was hallucinating. It was very windy, so I rushed over to put it out. A man came out from behind a bush. Chuck from Houston. He said he was just burning his trash. He was camping in the area and looking for the Lost Dutchman Mine. He drove all the way from Texas and has been doing so for a long time. In fact, many people continue to scour this area, based on that legend.

traversed left around that bit of ridge

I continued along the ridge and traversed around a rocky fin which was unpleasant. On the descent I dropped lower to traverse, which was much better.

Superstition Benchmark and Ironview

Tortilla

Miners Needle

Weavers Needle

Peak 3461

Superstition Benchmark

12-10 Peak 3461 During the hike with Josh and Fletcher and also on Coffee Flat, I became enamored with some peaks south of Barkley Basin. Peak 3521 is especially lovely and has an interesting spire on it’s east ridge. There are enough cliffs to make route finding interesting and with no beta for 2 out of the 3, it was a fun challenge. On the first peak I got soaked in the waist high grass. The rain the previous night had been intense. Socked in on the summit and no views. Peak 3205 I descended into Tule Canyon and worked up the south side of 3205. The volcanic features in this area are very engaging.

looking back at Peak 3461

looking forward to Peak 3521

traverse

Weavers Needle

traverse

Weavers and Miners

Peak 3521 The traverse to this peak turned out to be easier than it looked, but these mountains are of the same quality that make the core Superstitions so popular. On the summit, I decided to return via the trail system, so I descended past that magnificent spire, down to Coffee/Barkley pass.

this view made me happy

looking back at Peak 3521

hundreds of burned saguaros, something I had never seen before

Peak 3521

12-11 Battleship Mountain – 2797' Being the weekend again, Greg came to join me. Having two cars, we left one at the First Water trailhead and then went to Canyon Lake to start our hike. The trail dumps into La Barge Canyon. Lots of boulder hopping. The southeast ridge of Battleship is 2/3 of a mile. In places it is narrow and exposed. There are numerous scrambling puzzles to work through. For the most part, the rock is solid. We had fun with this peak and there were a number of other people doing it.

Battleship

we're going up there

the long ascent ridge points back to Weavers Needle

Greg on the summit

We exited through Boulder Canyon and Garden Valley where numerous sherds tell of the long-term residency of pre-historic peoples.

Greg being a mountain dude

12-12 Mount McDowell – 2830' Greg lives in Mesa and McDowell is kind of like the local ogre in his back yard, much like Red Needle was for me. We teamed up with Matthias to make a go for it. Not much beta and very few ascents, so I packed a rope. On maps, satellite images, and in person, the peak appears un-climbable. Most of those who have been successful started from the north, but we came in from the south.

McDowell

Some sloping ledges on the southwest aspect looked like they would get us at least part of the way up, but there are significant cliff bands to work through. Fortunately we found hidden gullies to get through the first two cliffs. The “rock” is a conglomerate, and after the recent rain it couldn’t be trusted one bit. Pull hard on something and it comes out. Touch the wall in the wrong place and it falls apart. On the broad upper south portion of the mountain we crossed cholla slopes and nobody was able to avoid them completely. Some easy scrambling brought us to the upper ridge crest and the notch where some parties turn around. We spent time looking for a way to avoid it, but couldn’t see anything reasonable. Everything looked much more dangerous than a direct approach.

summit up there

The notch is narrow and very exposed. Intense wind was ripping through it. Two large Palo Verde stand about 15 feet back, but the rope wasn’t long enough to do a standard rappel. With some slings on the trunk, I belayed Greg over the prow of the arete into the notch. We would be doing the summit one at a time. Because of the wind, he had to fasten the rope to a small bush near the gap, after he untied. We watched him suss out the rest of the route, and it looked pretty tough near the top. Like death-exposure. I actually had to look away because of nerves. When he got back to us he reported no register and assured us that it was actually much better than it looks, with minimal exposure. I went next and Greg belayed me. The downclimb is easier than it looks from above, class 3 and 4, but psychological. There are hidden flat bucket steps near the bottom which you can put half your boot into. Everything after the notch was pleasant and not very exposed. Pretty fun actually. Matthias went last, which allowed me to get some photos. We were all pretty happy to get this one, which was a mystery before.

zoom in to see me on the summit (pic by Matthias)

Matthias ascends from the notch after untying

wild and beautiful

[rubywrangler]

Hey Adam, nice to run into you out there! I wonder if I took a different route to loy’s summit than you guys. Did you have to climb a tree and then squeeze through a small hole? Seemed like an odd route… but it was cairned, and it went. Also looks like you walked right by my camp twice last week! I was at Lost Dutchman midweek and camped at the mouth of La Barge box over the weekend. Climbed battleship on Sunday and really enjoyed it! La barge box is really amazing too.

[Fletcher]

Really fun looking set of peaks Adam! Weavers was so awesome! That cow looks appetizing.

[Nancyann]

Thanks for the TR and pics. I love the Superstitions but was quite distressed last spring to see a beautiful area that we had previously visited was ravaged by fire. So weird to see grand old saguaro cacti blackened and dead. That’s pretty cool that you encountered the horses, I am very envious!

[puzzlr]

With you bouncing around the SW I knew there was going to be some overlap with my past outings. Thanks for the Loy Butte photos -- I'm kind of running out of new places to go around Sedona (I go every year for a week) and the lower part at least looks like fun. I've also wondered about Morning Glory so I might check that out too, but without the summit bit. I went to the summit above the Flat Iron when I was there. That area of sandstone pillars is amazing.

[Gimpilator]

[Eric Hansen]

Coffee Flat register: Bob Packard, March 31, 2007 I ran into him in Flagstaff a few years ago and he said he was still doing ascents of remote peaks, just limiting the elevation gain. Guy is a living legend. Memory has him one of the few that has done the Grand Canyon end to end.