Three Trailblazers are ready to brave Vulture Peak. [photo by Bud]

Ron, Jon.

A small, but hearty group consisting of Jon Radke, Ron Schueman and Bud Tasch, warded off Bull dozers and fought our way through construction workers to reach the trail to Vulture Peak. Vulture Mine Road and the TH itself are being reconstructed as a bridge is being built across a wash that must be dangerous when flooding. This alternate TH lengthened the hike to 6.0 miles RT and 1354 ft of accumulated elevation gain. In spite of the weather being fantastic, we were suffering combat fatigue after dusting off the hard hats. None of us was motivated enough to scramble the last 60 vertical feet to the Summit at 3660 ft from the saddle. Alas, we were also unsuccessful in finding Bonnies lost wedding rings which were lost at the saddle in 2005. Ron pointed out a hole under a rock that I could not quite squeeze through to see if some varmit was cuddling up to the sapphires and diamonds. Oh well, I will try looking again every time I climb to the saddle.

Looking up the montain

View from the saddle