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Finally, Big Cat Mountain

8/5/2020

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I arrived at the trailhead and began the hike.  About 1/2 mile in I woke the heck up and realized I was on the wrong trail, returned to my car, drove a few miles and began the hike.  Not a good way to begin but after way too many false starts, I was not going to spit the bit again.  I reached....
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....the trailhead at the top of Sarasota Road and began.  The trail goes through a pass that separates Little Cat from Big Cat Mountain.  I got on the Explorer Trail and began hiking clockwise around the Cat.  Yes, there is a route that begins in the pass and I have poked around in there but was discouraged by a wall.  
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So green but the state is in a moderate drought and the monsoon so far, just like last year, has been mostly dormant.
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About 2 miles into my hike, I reach the cairn that indicates it is time to begin the off trail climb that eventually reaches the above ridge.  Just looking at what was before me I guessed the route would cut right below a rock band but wrong again.  The climb to the ridge is about .7 miles with an average grade of 26% so pretty steep.
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The route has numerous cairns and is not much of a challenge to follow other then I was taking it very slow partly for rattlers and partly because each time I reached a cairn I'd have to pause and locate the next and the next and on and on.  Lots of barrel cactus in the area.
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Approaching the aforementioned rather deep, rock band, I was surprised when the route cut to the left but there was a nice staircase that eventually came to a ridge, far to the left of the peak.  I did not realize it at the time but I still had almost .5 miles to go but what an awesome time!
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It begins with a wall that has enough foot and hand holds that I was able to clamber up.  A fall here would not be good!  Then, there are a series of....
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....false summits as each slope would result in a view of another and another.  The ridge is kind of narrow in a few places but always there were boulders jutting from the ground to hop across but again, don't trip.
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At last, I reached the peak where someone had painted some messages.  More significant was....
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....a transponder that PIMA County installed.  Their effort at camouflaging it was not so good.  In the distance, Golden Gate Mountain.
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Greeaaatt views from the peak.  
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The option exists to continue ahead and descend the northwest side as mentioned earlier.  I walked a little down and checked it out. Given the rising temp, if I got down there and became cliffed out or lost the route, I didn't have enough fluids to retrace my route so instead.....
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.....I headed back the way I came, finishing with 5.4 miles and 1350' of climbing.  A fun hike.  Back at the car, with the temperature at 100, I removed my shirt and could wring sweat from it.  It was soaked, so too most of my shorts.  Hot hiking these days with humidity.
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    Mark is a long-time cyclist, hiker, golfer and plays some table tennis...ok, it's ping pong.

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