Mountain Climbing

One of the guys in our group though it would be a good idea to do a little exploring. To climb round a mountain to be exact. By the time all the excuses were done, only three of us actually went. Here we are as we started out. The big knob, called Muggins mountain, part of the Kofa range, in the distance is our objective. We'll circle it using washes, arroyos and burro trails. At least that's the plan.

Close to the bottom of the mountain, the washes became wider and deeper. Here is an arroyo carved in the limestone by the torrents of water that run off the mountains during strong rains. The sandy floor was smooth and solid and the walls were over 25 feet high here. Contrary to popular belief, the desert isn't sand but clay so water doesn't sink in during a rain but runs off causing flash floods in washes. This spot could be under 10 feet of raging water during a major rain.

After hiking for an hour or two and climbing steadily we are about 1/3 of the way around and are now using mainly burro trails to pick our way over the hills. At one time this area was swarming with gold prospectors but apparently is pretty well picked over now. We found lots of holes and tailing piles showing where digging had been done. We also found some agate which is volcanic glass and kept a few of the best pieces as souvenirs.

We are now on the backside of the mountain. Looking off in the distance you can see the type of hills we have been hiking over. I am standing on a burro trail. What you can't see is that the hill beside me drops about 200 feet straight down from where I'm standing. Also note my warm sweater is long removed as we sweat our way over the hills.

This is the highest point we climbed before starting back down. The climb up was a steady gradual climb up and around the mountain. The climb down was much more vertical and over a lot of rubble so it was more treacherous and slower going. The cactus in lower centre is a Cholla or "jumping cactus". One of the guys got one on his jeans and when he tried to remove it the barbs went through his leather glove and so we had to pull the barbs so he could remove his glove. A very treacherous plant.

It took us about 5 hours to make the trip and except for the cactus attack we had no problems.