Scouting Rincon Ridge

I picked up my cousin Brandon at 10 am and got to the trailhead at 10:30 am. Getting there is pretty simple and the hike up to the top of the ridge is as well, except at a couple points. I was absent-minded for some odd reason that morning and managed to get us onto one of the trails that were closed off. Luckily, my cousin was on the ball and read the warning sign I completely missed and prevented us from going into the closed off area, which had a $5,000 trespassing fine. We got to the pass at 11:40 am and went east along the Rincon Spur Trail and climbed one of the rock outcroppings to see where we could explore. There was a large bank of clouds stuck above the Sandias threatening us with rain and lightning but never got big enough to do it. Under the shade provided by the clouds during the entire outing, we enjoyed a cool atmosphere and explored for several hours. We looked down the ridge and noticed the other side of the Rincon Spur Trail and decided to follow it. It was well maintained for about half a mile and then gave out at the top of a ridge. We worked our way down and tried to bypass the large rock spire on its north side and found a dead end in the oak brush. We backtracked and made our own route over a rock and down the opposite side of the gully where the oak brush didn’t grow. We eventually crossed through the oaks to get below the lowest point and found a faint trail running back up to the ridge. We passed another large pile of boulders and continued along the ridge. We came to a shoot between two rock outcroppings onto a saddle before the 8,250 foot unnamed peak. The climb to the top of the peak was not too hard and was a ton of fun because it had a long string of boulders to the top. We followed our trail back to Piedra Lisa Trail and climbed every rock outcropping on the way. We headed up Rincon Spur Trail to the east one more time to a different rock outcropping closer to the Shield, which had some gorgeous views. We ran down the trail starting at 2:30 pm and got back to the car at 3:10 pm.