I finally got to bag this peak, thanks to Ryan. He emailed me and a few other women asking if we were interested, and I volunteered. We were a group of five: Ryan, Barbara, Lindsay, Deb and I with Zeke. We met in Bisbee by the roundabout, then convoyed to the trailhead off Yuma Trail in Bisbee-Warren. I only knew Deb from three previous hikes with the Bisbee Muleteam.It was a breezy 54F at the start with sunny skies.
We hiked the first mile along the same track I led with the Huachuca Hiking club earlier in the month, through blooming ocotillos, and then down the drainage south around the big conglomerate mound, which Lindsay named Poop Mountain. Lindsay was the naturalist in this group, who easily got excited over the fairy dusters, rainbow cactus and other flowers we encountered. She found an egg sack of a praying mantis later, which she took home to watch it hatch.
We then were briefly on the main path that takes one up to Patio Peak, but then diverted to ascend a spur on the north side of Gold Hill. This was heavily covered in bunch grass, agave, bear grass, mountain mahogony and emory oak. We kept our distance as we climbed. The biggest obstacle was the thickets of catclaw and other shrubbery, but we made it to the first saddle without any injuries. By now the winds were picking up as forecasted.
We rested briefly at the first saddle, looked at the peak, and agreed we should continue ascending on the north slope. This was easier than it looked. Maybe I'm in better shape than I thought as not once did I feel winded. Perhaps the cool wind helped.
It was very windy on the summit, which consists of two high points within a small saddle. Ryan said the more western peak is higher. We could see the lower shaft of the Gold Hill mine on the east side of the mountain. Everything looked dry as the views in all directions were mostly hues of brown.
We sat by a rock wall and near an emory oak as we ate our lunch and gazed out to the north with Patio Peak and its trail visible. Lindsay had brought a homemade loaf of moist banana-nut-coconut bread which helped fill me up as I only brought tangerines to eat. Zeke got his usual chicken jerky treats and a small pouch of chicken.
Our return route was following the ridge to the west. We stopped only once to admire the skull of a javalina which Ryan had come across on his ascent. Again, this appeared easy despite the many rock steps we had to take. But when we reached the western edge of the ridge we had a steep climb down that required our attention. Barbara and I took the more northern route which took us through an ocotillo grove, while the other three climbed down further south. We all met up again just south of the Ivanhoe shaft and took the drainage back the way we came.
We made it back to the cars just after 2pm. The winds had stopped and it was in the low 70s. I took the southern route out of Bisbee and got home just before 3pm. I greeted Kevin, played a bit with the puppies, then took the pack with Minnie (no Sadie) for a 3.5-mile river ramble, the first time this year Susan and I waded through the water.
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