W7N/CK-117 McCullough Wilderness High Point

The forecast was for a hot day, so I got an early start. I parked in the small lot at the Shadow Canyon trailhead. It felt hot as I set out down the trail, which is paved for the first half mile or so as it goes between the houses to the BLM land.

One side of the dry retention pond.

I had intended to take the 403 trail, but the beginning was badly marked and I ended up climbing on the Black Mountain Trail (401 I think). I had already climbed up a ways before I realized my mistake, so I continued up the trail to a place where I could see it was a reasonable cross country walk to the intended trail.

Looking over at the ridge I wanted to climb up.

I was mostly right, the cross country walk was not difficult, but the ground was much rougher than I had expected. I found a trail, 402, that wasn't on my map, and took that to the 403 trail. The trail passed around a small peak, then climbed a short distance before beginning a long, gentle descent. Around the top of the descent I stepped off the trail to take my ridge up to the summit.

Still low down on the ridge.

After an initial steep climb, the ridge ascended at a reasonable grade. It was quite rocky, with plenty of sharp and spiky plants to keep things interesting. I saw three bighorn sheep, but they ran away before I could get a picture of them. I continued up along the ridge until I had climbed to about 4700 feet.

Col, and summit on the right.

Here I decided that the slope looked shallow enough to contour across to avoid climbing up and over the sub-peak. It was steep, but the footing was relatively good. I passed below the cliff on the left side of the above picture. In the col I took a breather and a video of a helicopter flying directly overhead. The final ascent to the summit was the steepest part of the ascent.

The summit ahead.

I found the register, and it was in bad condition like others have reported. I added my name, then got set up. K6ARK was finishing up on a summit, and I was able to coordinate a summit to summit with him. I found out afterwards that it was his first CW QSO! I think that we'll soon have another full time CW SOTA op.

Black Mountain, my next destination, from the operating position.

After finishing with Adam, I turned the keyer speed back up and worked some of the usual chasers. I managed another summit to summit on 30 meters, and got the far away chasers on 20. It was getting hotter, and I wanted to have enough water to get Black Mountain, so I didn't linger on the summit.

Looking south: Sutor BM on the left, 3970 on the right.

I retraced my steps back to the col, then climbed up the peak on the other side. There are two more low prominence peaks that I skirted around, then dropped down and climbed back up to Fracture Ridge. There was a flag and a register, so I signed it.

The summit of Fracture Ridge.

The descent to the next col was a steep class 2. I slipped a few times, but didn't get anything worse than a few scrapes and cuts. From this col I was able to get a good look at the remaining ridge up to Black Mountain. I could see lots of small cliffs and very steep talus. The thing that caused me to stop was a cliff I could see near the top of the next sub-peak.

Remaining ridge walk, from Fracture Ridge.

I decided that it was rougher than I was willing to try by myself. I therefore started descending the slope from where I was standing. It was very steep and loose for the first couple hundred feet down the canyon, but the travel got better the farther down I went. I was hoping there wouldn't be any impassable cliffs, and I lucked out.

Its hard to tell how steep it was from the pictures.

I started making better time, and my pack got much lighter as I neared the end of my three liters of water. There were rock fields which were mostly easy to traverse, except for the occasional surprising loose rock. Near the bottom of the wash I came across the 402 trail again, and took it up to the 401 trail and back to the car.

This was the hardest cliff to get down.

I was surprised to pass people heading up, since it was around noon and close to the hottest part of the day. I was thirsty and tired, and was glad to get back to the easy paved section and my car. Back on the road I stopped at the first convenience store I saw to buy some more drinks.

I felt like I was on the Pennsylvania section of the AT again.

I would not recommend the route I took down. It was difficult and steep. The ridge I took up was pleasant, and is a viable way to go up or down.

Trailhead: Shadow Canyon Trailhead, Sloan Canyon Conservation Area.
Website: SOTA Site.
Maps: AA6XA SOTA Hikes map.
Route: Take the 403 trail to the second ridge. Climb up the ridge, then go across the col and up to the summit.
Red Tape: None.

One hot hiker.