Two Are Better Than One

Our goal today (January 2, 2024) was to combine two peaks (Freemont Saddle and The Flatiron) of the Arizona 2024 Six Pack of Peaks Winter Challenge.

We decided, instead of hiking up and down just one peak, and then driving over to the second peak and hiking up and down that one, we would do a “point to point” hike. To do this, we staged one vehicle at Lost Dutchman State Park near the Siphon Draw Trailhead.

From there we drove to the Peralta Trailhead and began our days journey right around 7:30 am. We headed up Peralta Canyon to Freemont Saddle which was, what I would consider, an easy climb.

From there we continued to climb up to the Superstition Ridgeline and summit Superstition Mountain as we made our way across the ridgeline. This was a long tough climb and ridge walk. Lots of steep inclines, some bouldering and rock scrambling, and lots of cacti to dodge.

After several miles, we finally made to over to our second peak of the day, The Flatiron. After spending some time at the summit, we headed down Siphon Draw. This was about a three-mile down climb consisting of a lot of class 2 and class 3 bouldering as we made our way down the canyon to the Siphon Draw Trailhead.

It was a long tough day on trail, but we made this hike our own today. Climbing two peaks (Freemont Saddle and The Flatiron) and one entire ridgeline (Superstition Ridgeline with a bonus summit of Superstition Mountain). We ended up with 15.2 miles and 5,344 feet in total elevation gain in 8 hours 16 minutes. What a great day!!