Southern Arizona Hiking Club Archives – Page 2 of 5

Table Tooth, Arizona, December 2022

January 2, 2023 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Saturday, December 31, I joined Dave Kohnke, Peyton Kohnke, and Annie Fahey for a Southern Arizona Hiking Club climb of Table Tooth above Pima Canyon, near Tucson. Table Tooth has only 280 feet of prominence, but is a rock tower requiring some exposed scrambling high above the canyon.

Table Mountain and Table Tooth across Pima Canyon to the NNW from Valentine Peak

I climbed Table Tooth four years earlier, and found an alternative route gaining the exposed summit ridge that avoided the most difficult part of the climb. Dave hoped I could share that with him on this day, and I hoped I could remember how to find it.

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Valentine Peak, Arizona, December 2022

December 22, 2022 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Monday, December 19, I joined Dave Kohnke, Thomas Holt Ward, and Tony Krystoff for a Southern Arizona Hiking Club climb of Valentine Peak above Pima Canyon, near Tucson. Valentine Peak has only 146 feet of prominence, but is a rock pillar requiring some route finding and scrambling on exposed rock high above the canyon. None of us had visited the summit before and the SAHC information on the route was vague. We were a small team of experienced desert mountaineers and were eager to solve the puzzle.

Looking up Pima Canyon, with Valentine Peak on the right

We left the Pima Canyon Trailhead in the blue light before sunrise. We soon entered the canyon and spent most of the morning in the shade cast by the high ridges above us. Following the trail up the bottom of the canyon we eventually spotted the tower of Valentine Peak ahead of us up canyon.

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Maricopa Mountains Highpoint, Arizona, December 2022

December 9, 2022 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Friday morning, December 2, I met other Southern Arizona Hiking Club members John Ohm, Dave Kohnke, Tom Tutein, and Larry Wippman in Oro Valley. Our goal was to climb Peak 3272, the Maricopa Mountains Highpoint. Peak 3272 has 1432 feet of prominence making it the 172nd most prominent peak in Arizona. This peak is also a SAHC peak, which explained the interest the others had in joining me.

Two saguaros (one a crested saguaro) frame the Maricopa Mountains Highpoint from our drive in

From Oro Valley we drove to the city of Maricopa, then further west to begin driving on primitive roads towards the Maricopa Mountains. As the roads deteriorated Tom and Larry parked their car and joined Dave in his Toyota FJ Cruiser. I drove my Jeep Rubicon with John beside me.

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Bob Thompson and Montezuma Peaks, Arizona, November 2020

December 14, 2020 by Paul McClellan Leave a Comment

On Monday, November 30, I joined five other members of the Southern Arizona Hiking Club for a climb of Bob Thompson and Montezuma Peaks. These peaks lie in the Huachuca Mountains south of Sierra Vista, Arizona. It was my first club climb since Linda and I returned to Arizona for the winter.

The Southern Arizona Hiking Club has established “Covid Rules” for club hikes which precludes carpooling. So the six of us each drove up Ash Canyon and parked beside the primitive road.

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