200th County High Point
I had
planned on running a 50km race in Arizona to mark my 50th birthday,
but my ankle injury meant that a 31 mile run wouldn’t be prudent. Since I had a plane ticket I decided to do a
bit of research and find some nice places to run in the Phoenix area. Worst case, it would be a nice long weekend
with some running in warm weather and sunshine.
I looked at a bunch of different county high points, quickly eliminating
any that mentioned “exposure” or “scramble” and came up with Mt Union as a
goal.
Mt Union
was especially attractive as it had a fire tower on top and it could be accessed
via a dirt road, so the footing would be good.
I bagged some other small hills while out running.
The ascent of Mount Union was pretty easy, although the access road
was a bit rough for a low clearance vehicle.
The weather was ideal for the 3 mile round trip. I spent about 5 minutes on the summit taking
pictures. There was a random snow shower
while I was up there, just a few flakes flying but it added to the cool factor
of this high point (7,979’).
From the
“Hike Arizona” website: When miners first explored the Prescott area in the early
1860's, some Confederate sympathizers among them named a nearby high peak "Mount
Davis" for Jefferson Davis. In retaliation, Union loyalists named the adjacent
higher peak "Mount Union".
No comments:
Post a Comment