This qualifies as the most miserable summit I have done so far in SOTA and probably my life. I hiked in from the west and then tracked around to the north...not the best route, but access is limited. If I should ever do this summit again (not likely) I will approach it from the east. There seems to be less scrub and such that way. Where I parked I was about 1.8 miles the way the crow flies, which translates into about 4 actual miles (a guess). The hike was steep with a few extreme ups and downs which had me exhausted before I even got to the summit. The ground was rocky with tall grass, making seem like I was hiking on marbles to bowling balls. In addition to that, the place was loaded with agave plants, which are, in my opinion, the most dangerous plants the desert has to offer. They are thick, razor sharp and extremely unforgiving. If you fall into one of them, you are done, that thing will impale you and you will likely be dead depending on how far from help you are. On one occasion I nearly did just that, I hate those things. When I reached the final climb, it was dense scrub, requiring me to hike around most of it and on my hands and knees for part of it. The only good thing about all of the scrub (if there is a such a thing) is that the terrain under foot was better and I had stuff to grab onto if needed. It was a miserable climb that took far more out of me than I anticipated. I envy those guys that have a bunch of 10 summits with roads and trails or a couple hundred feet of elevation.
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