Silver Peak With the Muleteam

This trailhead is a two hour drive from Bisbee, so I estimate we began around 9:30-10:00 in the morning. Ten Muleteam members made this hike (I included Gus the dog as he never missed a hike), which I'd hoped to do in under five hours. Unfortunately, it turned out to be closer to six when the last straggler made it back to the cars. As hike leader, that last person was me as I ran sweep to make sure we didn't lose anyone. I can see why people prefer not to hike in a group, despite the camaraderie it elicits; very stressful if you're in charge, and a little off-putting to have spend that much time on nine-mile hike, albeit one with 3,000 feet of elevation gain.

The Muleteam, Ira in back behind Doug and Gus, who're squatting next to me.

Gus.

 

Below The Rim

The word awesome is almost never apt, certainly not in reference to sauce. There are few things in the known universe to which it could be appropriately applied. China's Wall is merely great; Kreskin is simply amazing. Einstein's Theory of Relativity is awesome, as is the universe itself. Ditto for Darwin's Theory of Evolution. So too, I just found out, is hiking below the rim of the Grand Canyon. Yesterday morning I took a short three-hour hike on the South Kaibab trail down to Skeleton Point, 2040 feet below the rim; six miles round trip. I saw a condor. I worked up a mighty sweat. It was awesome.

Scouting Silver Peak in the Chiricahuas

This hike was a sortie to find out how long this hike would take for an average Muleteam member. The Muleteam is a hiking club in Bisbee, Arizona, with whom I developed my love of hiking, and met my good pal and hiking partner Ira. On February 27, I will lead a Muleteam hike up the Silver Peak Trail to the summit. This is by no means an easy hike, and I figured if I nearly doubled the time it took me, that would be doable for even the slowest Muleteam hiker. Tune in next week to see if that turns out to be true.

This is my second hike up Silver Peak. My first summit was in December of last year, a little over two months ago with my hiking buddy Ira; that is when I concocted the idea of leading a Muleteam hike up here. As I scouted out this hike I also took a few pictures of the views from West Portal Road and South Cave Creek Road, closer up. 

This was, foolishly, a solo hike. This place is too remote to be hiking alone. Generally, one never sees another hiker, and the few bird watchers one runs into are birding only in the first half mile or so. With no recording of this hike, I can only surmise it was a similar pace and time from Ira and my future trip up in February of 2018 while we were training for our Grand Canyon hike later that month. That day we zipped up and back in three hours, so doubling that, I presumed the Muleteam could do this hike in five hours, and definitely under six. We shall see next week!

View from Portal Road.

View from Cave Creek Road, where the trailhead is.

Most of this trail is reminiscent of trails I've been on in Colorado, and Mt. Wrightson in the Santa Ritas south of Tucson: Not a lot of rockiness, but steep at times none-the-less.

Never forget one is at elevation and in February, so always be prepared for snow.

A little shed remaining from when this was a fire lookout, until the Republican-led State of Arizona stopped monitoring fires. Brilliant. 

Actual steps up tha last little bit, to the remains of the lookout platform and extant cistern.