This trip was probably scheduled too early in the year, and the weather had been
hot, but we were lucky and caught a brief cool period. It turned out to be a
beautiful day with a cool breeze most of the time. The 12 of us met at the West
Tecuya Peak turn off from the Cuddy Valley Road, and consolidated cars there.
Fortunately we had four 4WD vehicles, so we were able to drive on a mile and
drop several hundred feet beyond the usual trailhead. It took only 45 minutes to
Antimony as a consequence. The traverse over to Eagle Rest is terribly brushy at
the base of Antimony, Eagle Rest, and the bump in between (mostly scrub oak with
some manzanita), but we cut and sawed a route in a few places which saved us
many scratches and anguish on the return. We were on top of Eagle Rest just in
time for a noon-time lunch. The hike back over the intermediate 500' bump and
the 1000' back of Antimony was rough, and we rested often. Between the shade,
the breeze, the rests, and enough water, we were able to make it back to the
saddle on Antimony relieved that there was not much more altitude to gain.
Daniel Bleiberg even had enough energy to climb Antimony again while the rest of
us were resting at the saddle! Our total trip took 9-1/2 hours. Participants:
Erv and Janet Bartel, David Beymer, Daniel Bleiberg, Suzanne Charlston, Jennifer
Lambelet, David Michels, Tom Neely, Maura Raffensperger, and John Southworth.
