Nipple Peak

We didn't get any snow on the ground despite the winter storm warnings last night. If snow fell to the 3500' elevation it wasn't here along the border. Still, I had planned on taking a quick hike up the mountain to enjoy the snow views. Instead of Carr Canyon road, though, I drove up the more isolated Ash Canyon Road where a backyard bon fire seemed to attract the attention of a few gawkers. I drove on to the trailhead.

I have no idea if that is the real name of this minor peak in the Huachucas, but it
looks like a nipple from the northeast end as I approached it so that is what I'll call it. It could have been worse and resembled a phallus.

We left the house at 10:20 and made it to the trail head in 15 minutes. The dogs were beside themselves with anticipation and could barely contain themselves. A drive in the truck up a dirt road into the mountains means only one thing: Hiking! And they all still seem to enjoy it.

The road up the canyon was not as snowy as expected, and the only new snow seemed to be up at the highest peaks. When we got out of the truck we could see snow melting from the pine trees. The jeep trail to this point was muddy but mostly clear.

A Border Patrol agent was parked around the corner. He frightened me as he was in a bullet-proof jacket and carrying an AR-15. He looked serious.

I asked him if it was safe to proceed.
"How far are you going?"
"Up to the snowline so that the dogs can frolic." I wasn't sure how far I was going as I was dressed in jeans and didn't bring a backpack with water. I figured an hour out, an hour back would be enough exercise for the dogs.
"Then that should be OK. The guys we're waiting for are further up. The dogs are going to scare them away so you shouldn't have any problem if you stay in the canyon."

And with those words I slowly climbed up the jeep trail, switchbacking higher and higher until the jeep trail was a single-track and where the snow finally looked to be 2-3 inches deep. We didn't get much snow at all from this last storm, and it was already melting in exposed areas or on rocks. Most of the western edges of the trailwere already melted down to the wet soil. The old mines along the way showed no human life and the dogs didn't show any warning signs. They seemed to enjoy running ahead and rolling around in the snow.

The dogs had fun, jumping around and biting into the snow. The trail was clearly an illegal trail,as the jeep trail branched into three smaller trails and I took the most southern, left trail. This was pristine snow that meandered around scrub oaks, manzanitas, yuccas and thornybrush. In the summer this exposed hike would be brutal. I had never been on this narrow trail before and the views were opening up to quite a vista. Clouds over the two highest peaks remained grey, but in the distant valleys the sky was blue.

It took me just under 90 minutes to reach a ridge line with views into Mexico and toward Mount Wrightson. Even the upper sections of the Huachucas didn't look too bad. If new snow fell overnight, it stayed higher than predicted.

The trail I was on ended abruptly at a steep ledge at the base of Nipple Peak. An abandoned campsite for border crossers remained. Plastic bottles and tin cans littered the rocks. A few shoes lay on the ridge line. The Mexican border was no more than five miles down the mountain to the south. Whoever came up this way to this peak risk falling down steep ridges. There certainly are easier ways to sneak into this country!

This was a secluded area. It reminded me of an old Apache look-out: easy to climb to with expansive vistas, yet concealed nonetheless. It's no wonder illegals use this rock as a camp-out and hide-out; going down from here is fairly easy and direct.

I didn't climb up the "nipple," though. This looked like brittle, crumbly rock. With possible ice along its edges, I opted not to go any further. The dogs didn't seem too determined to climb up higher, either.

I bagged up that trash, enjoyed the views, and went down the way we came. We had trodden on pristine snow but left the trail looking busy with foot traffic, surely to get any illegals worried.

A Styrofoam coffee cup lay where the Border Patrol agent stood hours earlier gearing up. I took that trash back with me, too.

The lower canyon trail had already cleared itself of the snow when I got back to the truck at 1pm. There was little sign that we had had a storm overnight.

This unknown trail I was on today was a nice jaunt up a 7000' or so peak. I estimate it to be a five-mile moderate hike. I'll do this one again as the only people I'll meet are Border Crossers and Border Patrol agents, and I could let the dogs run free.

I do hope to learn the real name of this peak.

http://www.svherald.com/content/news/2010/02/12/why-snow-was-largely-no-show-our-area