 |
This last
Friday, Nathen and Ethen along with the scouts decided to hike up to
the top of Rincon Peak. Rincon Peak is located on the south end
of the Rincon Mountains (just east of Tucson). The Rincon
Mountains are located in Sauargo National Park. There are many
different trails that lead up to the mountain - you can approach it
from the east, west, north, and south. The shortest trail is from
the east. This is where we approached it from. The trail
from Happy Valley Miller Creek is 8.1 miles to the top. There is
4,300 feet of altitude gain from that point. The summit of Rincon
peak is 8,482 feet above sea level. - View from Tucson - |
| 4.6
miles from the trail head you come to the saddle. This is the
saddle. It is around 6,000 feet. There is a large grove of
pine trees with some improvements. There are many different
stumps to sit on, a plastic table and a shovel. There is also a
bear box located here to store food and other smelly items in that you
would like to retrieve at a later date. I suspect the shovel and
table may be a bit more transient. Although 18 months ago I hiked
to this saddle with Ethen and Kyle and the shovel was there then, but
the table was not. |
|
|
The hikers on
this hike consisted of the 7 scouts and the two scout leaders.
The scouts consisted of Jason Marks, Ethen Hatch, Caden Barney, Jace
Barney, Liam ____, Roco Fraterolli & Payton Dixon. The two
scout leaders are Randy Barney (scout master) and Nathen Hatch
(assistant scout master). We took advantage of the fall 2-week
break that the local schools use and went up on the last Friday.
We met at the Church at 5:00 and started hiking @ 6:05am. |
|
When we started
hiking (before the sun came up) the temperature was 41 degrees F.
It was cold, but once we started walking we quickly warmed up to the
point where we didn't need any jackets. |
| At
the summit the temperature was around 75 degrees F. There is a
360 degree view from the summit. You can see Tucson, Benson and
the Wilcox playa (visible in the background). |
|
|
I took a 4" x
6" signal mirror with me and when I reached the top I pulled out my
phone and was able to obtain cellular service and called
Symantha. Symantha was at our house and Terra was up in Pine top
helping out her mother recover from a hip replacement. I called
Symantha and asked her to grab the signal mirror on the counter in the
house and walk out into the front yard and see if she could see us
flashing here with our mirror. She was able to see the flash from
the yard - and we were able to see her flashing us from Benson. |
| The
hike took us 6 hours to reach the summit and 4.5 hours to get back to
the cars. We stayed at the summit for about a half hour while we
ate lunch and enjoyed the view. All but one of the boys made the
summit - Payton didn't want to ascend the last 1.5 miles. The last 3/4 mile the trail raised about 1,700 feet. This was a real steep trail. There are not many places or trails that I have been on where I have had to traverse that kind of grade. Ethen wasn't sore the day after, but I was. My calves were sore for a couple of days. |
|
Return to Start Page