Mohave Peak, Needles Eye

30-Jan-93

By: John McCully

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We met at a pre dawn 6AM on the Arizona side of the bridge across the Colorado just below Palo Verde, 15 miles South of Blythe. 4.3 miles South of Baseline Road on Cibola Road a dirt road heads toward the East. After 5.1 miles the road forks, with the right fork quickly coming to a mine. The left fork continues another mile or so, to the campsite at about 900 feet from which we did both peaks.

Two Topos were used, Cobola SE and Mohave. In order to do Mohave from this location one must cross the saddle about an inch North of the "0" in TRIGO and drop 900 feet to get into the wide north south wash on the Cibola SE map. There were 4WD tracks in this wash, so I suspect that there is access was from the North. From the wash it was relatively straightforward to do Mohave Peak (2,768'). The hike back went smoothly, with the last folks arriving about 6PM. With a meeting place closer to the trailhead it should be possible to get back before dark. The stats were about 16 miles and 3,500 feet of gain.

We did Needles Eye (2,539') by going straight up the wash that runs to the North of it. The "eye" of the needle is quite spectacular, and several people clambered around on and in it. The route we took to the peak involved going over the Eastern shoulder of the peak and then coming all the way around to the SW to go up a class III ridge. This peak was quite interesting in the route finding and the rock was just difficult enough without quite getting scary. We got back to the cars about 1PM, 5-1/2 hours after starting. The stats were 6 miles RT and 1,700 feet of gain.

I liked both these peaks and plan to vote to add them to the list. I suspect that an easier way will be found to do Mohave, although the route we used was quite beautiful.

Participants were George Pfeiffer, Ken Olson, Terry Flood, Mark Adrian, Gail Hanna, J. Holshuh, Suzanne Mamedalin, Maris Valkass, Igor Mamedalin, Karen Leonard, Eric Schumacher, Ellen Lady, Tom Moumblow, Sue Leverton, Ron Bartell and myself. One person didn't make Mohave and another person chose not to do Needles Eye.


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