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| San Mateo Castro/Peak 3461 Loop, AZ | | -
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| | San Mateo Castro/Peak 3461 Loop, AZ | | | |
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San Mateo Castro/Peak 3461 Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.90 Miles |
2,185 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.90 Miles | 5 Hrs 23 Mns | | 1.14 mph |
| 2,185 ft AEG | 12 Mns Break | 20 LBS Pack | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
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| no partners | | The first and only time I had been to the summit of Peak 3461 was some 1300+ days ago, when I continued eastward across Tule Canyon and hit the summit of Peak 3100 as well. So, I when I was putting together another hike from San Mateo Castro area I figured why not make a loop like so:
1. Ascend to the ridge from San Mateo Castro
2. Descend to the floor of the first canyon
3. Head 'upstream' (north) until it gets too steep
4. Turn NE and ascend the second ridge
5. Follow an arc NW to the summit of Peak 3461
6. Southwesterly descent back to the start
1 through 5 went pretty much according to plan, as in no drama, but the descent from 3461 would be a whole different animal, which I'll get into in a moment.
I took the usual summit photos and video and checked out the summit register. Only two entries, the person who placed the register in 2011 and myself in 2013. So I added mine to the list again.
(Note: Bob Packard and one other person were there before the register was placed.)
Now, that whole different animal...
Suffice to say, when I climbed it back in 2013 there was one steep 20-foot bare rock which was so challenging I marked it with a waypoint labeled "SOB". After encountering it again I wondered how I ever made it up in the first place. So now on the way down, I took a few minutes to decide how to approach it.
Nope... not gonna do it! I decided I wasn't even going to attempt it and chose a longer, more convoluted route which although slightly less scary exposure-wise, it was no safer due to the crumbly rock surface.
Whew! Once I got pas that SOB I figured it would be easy sailing the rest of the way down. NOT! It appears there had been more water flow over the last 3+ years and the brush was much worse.
It was a good thing I was headed down as in some spots all I could do was step onto thick brush and wait for it to sag or break enough branches to drop me the next 4-8 feet until it felt like somewhat solid ground before doing it all over again.
In other places I just bulled my way through the brush, which probably worked only because I was going with the flow. As a consequence, my forward (downward?) progress for the descent was snail-pace... 2 hours to travel one mile while dropping 1,000 feet. Once the worst was over I picked up the pace and cruised back to the start.
I put all three videos into one:
First saddle, Peak 3005 ridge & Peak 3461 summit panoramas |
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