A Hike & the Mystery of the Dead Man

Pima Canyon trail head.  About a mile down trail, remains of a body were discovered off trail.  Few of the "who", "what", questions have yet been solved but one event is certain, 3 mountain lions began eating the body, making identifying even the sex of the victim difficult.  The lions, showing no fear of humans and discovering that if they tear clothing off, what lies underneath is tasty, were killed.  Well, with that out of the way, a hiking friend and I......

….hiked 2 miles of the trail, pushed through trailside thicket and entered this. Although bushwhacking, we followed a ridge with plenty of slickrock.  I had no gps route to follow but if I stayed on the ridge, I should make it some where between Bighorn and Table mountains and then hang a left and ascend Bighorn.

The route ascends a slope to a knob or ridge from where I could plot a route to the next knob then the next, etc...  

Above is one of the knobs that upon reaching it, I reconnoiter what I can see ahead and aim for the next high point.  Throughout, no view of Bighorn can be seen so I'm relying on if I keep climbing, things will turnout ok.

yes, it's steep but....

…..always accompanied by great views when I take my eyes off what lays ahead.

Looking across the canyon, I can see patches of snow on some of the mountains.

At last, we have climbed to the base of what I think is the final slope.  I think once we reach the top of that is a ridge from where you can see Oro Valley and the northwest side.  That slope is about .4 miles having an average grade of a mind boggling 35%.  Not evident are thousands of nasty plants called shindaggers.  

I make it and look again across the canyon and can see the Rincons.

As planned, to my right is the awesome Table Mountain.  I wait for my hiking partner to catch up and then ascend Bighorn.  

I must say, its not all that an impressive peak.  Just a ridge of jumbled boulders.  I looked but found no summit registry.

Looking toward Pusch Peak, I see the narrow knife of rock that I climbed a couple weeks ago, the Cleaver.  Looks kind of insignificant but it's not.

For the purpose of comparison, this is how the Cleaver looks from Pima Canyon trail.

Pressed for time, we do not linger at the peak but drop down to the ridge between the two peaks, have a quick snack and begin the descent.

Carefully we plot our way down and try to avoid some rather nasty looking cactus.

The descent takes longer than the ascent.  Finally reach the trail and finish with 7.5 miles and 2900' of climbing.