Hike of the Month

HIKE OF THE MONTH This Peak Trail Is Tough, but You'll Love the View

Up little-known Cherum (pronouned "shrum") Peak Trail I climb, past scrub oak and piñon pine to the 6,983-foot summit and the marvelous view from the top. Through invigorating clean air, I can see for more than a hundred miles in any direction. The jagged line of the Colorado River fault 25 miles away seems much closer. Big valleys stretch out below, and volcano cones near Williams clear the horizon 90 miles to the east. I don't need binoculars to see detail in the plateau country near the Grand Canyon. Kingman is 20 miles south and mostly out of sight. But I look directly down upon the onetime silver town of Chloride, now busily mining tourists. The traffic on U.S. Route 93 to Las Vegas is too far away to matter. Cherum Peak is the second highest point in the Cerbat Mountains, a range picked and probed by miners for more than a century. About 500 feet below the summit are the remains of the Samoa Mine, and farther down near the trailhead are the tailings of the Lucky Boy. Bruce Asbjorn, Bureau of Land Management outdoor recreation planner at Kingman, says that Cherum Peak Trail will eventually be part of a network of trails planned along the Cerbat heights in backcountry remote enough to hide a herd of more than 100 wild horses. The two-mile-long Cherum Peak Trail can easily be climbed but stops just short of the summit. A slightly lower overlook offers a good view just past the second stock gate, but watch out for the unfenced shaft nearby. Cherum Peak was officially opened in August, 1994. Only a few people had signed the register when I first passed that way, three days after an October snowfall. Patches of snow still clung to shaded clefts. A runt-size mule deer, judging from its small tracks, had climbed the trail partway to reach the state-managed game water troughs at the base of Cherum Peak. The Mohave County Trails Association surveyed the route,

WHEN YOU GO

To reach the Cherum Peak trailhead from Kingman, drive 20 miles north on U.S. 93 to the Big Wash Road turnoff. The turnoff, about a mile beyond the Chloride turnoff, is marked by a BLM sign. BLM has two camping areas: Packsaddle is $2 a night and Windy Point is free. Both are within two miles of the trailhead. Each offers picnic tables, fire rings, latrines, and campsites. Bring your own firewood. For more information, contact the Bureau of Land Management, Kingman Resource Area, 2475 Beverly Ave., Kingman, AZ 86401; (520) 757-3161. High-clearance vehicles are recommended.

From Cherum Peak Trail in the Cerbat Mountains, you can see the plateau country near the Grand Canyon. (RIGHT) Near the 6,983-foot summit of the Cherum trail, the view and the wonderfully clean air are hikers' treasures. local hikers helped carve the trail, and the Arizona Heritage Fund contributed $20,500 of lottery profits for development. You'd have to consider the drive up to the trailhead as part of the adventure. I had no difficulty reaching the trailhead in a sedan, although the graded road climbs steeply, creeps around jackknife corners, and hangs out for two miles along a mountainside offering an unobstructed view of a 2,000foot plunge to the outskirts of Chloride. I caught myself involuntarily leaning away from the edge, but still savoring the views to the horizon.