Sun, Oct 9, 2022
|
With: | Tom Becht |
Eric Smith | |
Tom Grundy | |
Iris Ma |
Day 3 in Sedona had us all over the map with various types of climbs. We had some scrambling, some rough Jeep driving and more mundane hikes, all with their own charms. It would keep us and our vehicles busy for most of the day.
The use trail ends here (it probably exists to service the climbing route on
The Mitten), but the cross-country travel
Continued...
traversing the north side of
The Mitten is not difficult. Our route took us to
another saddle
between MGS and The Mitten, then onto the northeast side of MGS where we picked
up
a use trail ascending up through forest on that side. The trail soon
leads to the first of two class 4 sections. The first is a short, but steep
bulge that needs to be surmounted. There are two ways to do this, either with a
beefy pull that TomG did right off the bat, or
a tree-assisted alternate that isn't a whole lot easier. Four of us had
gotten past this with TomB the last to go. I got a photo of him attempting
the beefy pull only seconds before he crashed to the deck, followed by
some choice swearing. To help out, I tossed down the end of a long piece of
webbing I was carrying and secured the upper end to a bush. Using the lower end
as a handline, Tom was then able to get by the bulge and
join us above.
A short bit of
airy scrambling then led to the second
class 4 section, a slanting chimney to get up a slabbly 15-foot
headwall. TomG went up and
tossed down a rope to secure
those of us that wanted it. We all
went up in turn, then more
class 3 scrambling to
the summit block which is
small and
airy, with a step-across to keep things interesting
(inexplicably, there is
an Hawaii plate found in the gap below the
step-across) - about an hour and a half to get
us all up to the top.
An
ammo box serves as
rapped down
the first class 4 pitch and used
a handline for the lower one, TomG
soloing both so that we didn't have to leave any slings or gear. Once we
returned to
the saddle with The Mitten, TomG and I both got
the idea for an alternate return by heading south off the saddle. TomB chose to
join us while the other two went back the way we'd come over the first
saddle.
The alternate proved a fun diversion, initially down some
sandstone slabs, then down
a dry creek channel, and eventually
onto
the Cibola Pass Trail that would take us back east to the TH
where we'd started. We got back just about the same time as Eric and Iris,
finishing up shortly after 10a.
Munds Mountain
Eric was interested in Wilderness highpoints while Tom was interested is some
Jeeping opportunities, and this one fit the bill nicely for both. The Munds
Mtn Wilderness is found SE of Sedona, its highpoint at the summit of Munds Mtn.
Schnebly Hill Rd is a very rough, very long OHV/Jeep route climbing east up
Bear Wallow Canyon. The road is very popular for Jeep tours run by local
businesses. It took us well over an hour in two Jeeps to cover about 10mi of
the road to reach a junction with Forest Road 153A which can be
followed south to get within a mile of the summit.
The TH is old and
in a state of disrepair, but
the trail that leads up to Munds Mtn is
quite serviceable. The trail starts atop the
Schnebly Hill plateau,
first
dropping to
a saddle before climbing up
the NE side of the detached Munds Mtn on a series of switchbacks. The
trail follows
through forest before emerging on
the broad summit area. There is no identifiable highpoint among the
mix of grass, rocks and trees spread about the summit where we spent far too
long
wandering about in hopes of finding a register or some other
evidence at the spot elevation location. In the end, we left one of
our registers at one of the many small rock outcrops that others will
likely have trouble finding, same as us.
Schnebly Hill
Back at the Jeeps, it was now after noon, and time to examine
the beer selection in TomB's fridge. This would be useful for more
Jeep driving over the next hour as we made our way from the Munds Mtn TH to the
highpoint of Schnebly Hill via a series of OHV roads found over this broad,
forested plateau. The actual hike to
the highpoint was something less
than a quarter mile, flat and entirely uninteresting, save for the opportunity
to get out and stretch one's legs. We found an Andy Martin register
from 2012, with a slightly better notepad provided by Mark Adrian
in 2018.
Smith Butte
No one wanted to drive back down Schnebly Hill Rd, as there were two longer,
but easier alternatives to get us back to Sedona. We chose the one heading north
on Interstate 17 as it would allow us to tag this last summit, which as Eric's
namesake, we simply had to visit. Forest Rd 253 gets one to a saddle on the
north side of the summit, and a rough spur road takes one about halfway up
Smith Butte on that side. A use trail through
forest gets one
to
the summit in all of ten minutes. The otherwise uninteresting summit
with no views has
a benchmark and a busy
register. We were
back to the Jeeps soon after 3:30p,
ready for the hour-long drive back to Sedona and our campsite...
For more information see these SummitPost pages: Morning Glory Spire - Munds Mountain
This page last updated: Fri Jan 6 17:01:19 2023
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