Clock Out, Click In

Sunset Mountain Bike Ride on Tucson's Foothills Trail

I left work early, excited to hit the urban dirt trail that TucsonVelo.com recently promoted.  The weather seemed warm, after baking inside my car on the long drive home, so I wore shorts and a jersey. Jammed the arm warmers and windvest in my jersey pocket just in case.

With lights on my bike, I rode on the paved Rillito River path to Brandi Fenton Park. Short cut through the park up to River Road headed west. At Alvernon, I tunred north and looked for "the wash." Found it, rode into it, and got stuck in sand.

Hoping the entire trail wouldn't be in the bottom of this shallow wash, I rode a little and pushed a lot and looked for harder ground.

Found the hard pack on the upper edges of the wash and rode happily along toward the beautiful Catalina Mountains, pink in the setting sun.

Saguaro cactus with Finger Rock on top of the Catalina Mountains.

This is what bike riding felt like when I was a kid, racing through the desert on my banana seat bike. Like then, I just enjoy the ride, no real destination because I know darkness will catch me soon enough. I weave around palo verde trees and creosote bushes.  A rabbit bounds across the trail then races in front of me before diving into the underbrush.

Video, without rabbit, below:

 

The light is fading on the trail but the mountains are bright and happy. I reluctantly turn back. I ride more of the wash this time. I'm happy for lights on the major roads, and very happy to be back on the Rillito River Path.

It's getting cold and I put on all my clothing. My top half is fine, but my  knees feel the chill.

I meet up with Lisa and we ride together in and out of cold patches (the river bottom) and hot spots (cement bridges) along the path. My light illuminates runners, families, dogs near Brandi Fenton Park. It's great to see so many people out enjoying the warm winter evening in Tucson.

Night riding is fantastic, our senses are heightened and everything smells fresh. The sliver of a moon and stars brighten as the last rays of sun fade.

I'm looking forward to my next urban dirt trail ride, exploring a little more up into the foothills perhaps by day. But preferably, at sunset.

For a map of the entire trail in the foothills, click here.

Scouting the Arizona Trail: Hike and Bike

"This is dicey," says Lee who asked me to join him on a scouting trip to relocate the Arizona Trail near Patagonia.  He's describing anything from steep slopes to rock to canyon fins that end with no way down to the bottom.  His friend Jay, who has US Forest Service trailbuilding experience, joinsus to find the perfect place for a relocated AZ Trail.

Ridgetop view of Santa Rita Mountains foothills.

The trail currently travels seven boring  miles on a fire service road out of Patagonia, then  passes  through the Mt. Wrightson Wilderness for a few miles. The section is extremely steep for through-hikers and mountain bikers aren't allowed on Wilderness trails.  It's Passage #4 of the Arizona Trail in the eastern foothills of the Santa Rita Mountains. Our mission: find a route that is kind to both hikers and mountain bikers.

Jay and Lee ride mountain bikes along a cattle trail.

Lee laid a GPX track using Topofusion, and we're following it on his handheld GPS.  From the Forest Service road, we drive about a mile down a jeep trail just west of the Patagonia landfill. We optimistically start on our bikes thinking the ATV trails Lee found on aerial maps will be suitable for riding. The ridable ATV track becomes a cattle track then devolves into off-camber loose dirt. We soon stash the bikes and continue on foot, along a barbed wire ridge line. It's all Coronado National Forest, but ranchers still like to put up fences to mark their grazing rights.

Lee and Jay hike the fence line with Mt. Wrightson in the distance.

Thanks for turning around, guys!

We walk above Stephens Canyon, searching for a good way to get north and west toward Tunnel Spring or the flume trail, both in Gardener Canyon.

"A Sweco could build this trail in no time, " says Lee. "Yes, but they're hard to find," agrees Jay. Sweco is trail building speak for a small bulldozer-like machine that can operate on mountain slopes. It's an agile trail-building machine, perfect for this rough ground.

"How about a 6," jokes Jay. He's talking about a Caterpillar 6 Bulldozer, that is far too big for this work. I learn all about Swecos and 6s and 9s during the course of the day--what they can do, how much they weigh.

"This is good," exclaims Lee when we come upon a jeep road. We follow the jeep road for awhile and check out an old CCC dam in the distance with a large pool of water behind it.

The CCC dam and tank are at the bottom of these cliffs, wiht Mt. Wrightson above. Manzanita in the foreground.

The jeep trail has lulled us off our GPX track and now we need to find a way down into Little Casa Blanca Canyon. Unfortunately, the direct path leads through an ocotillo and shindagger forest.

We're through the ocotillo, but Lee and Scott pick their way down the shindagger slope.

We cross the bottom of the canyon with its few small pools of water, and Lee heads up the other side.

Another hard rock and shindagger slope out of Little Casa Blanca Canyon.

We reach Casa Blanca Canyon and realize we're still over a mile from where Lee had hiked north from Gardener Canyon on a previous scouting trip. Time for lunch and time to rethink our goals for the day. I admit that my energy is waning. "Ok, we can go back and scout some other sections on the way back," agrees Lee.

Lee remarks that this section with its purple gray rock could be some fun slickrock for mountain bikers; however, it's fairly remote.  After lunch, we push on a little bit farther north for a better sense of where the trail should go.  Then we head back and I wonder if this will be another "hike a bike" section of the Arizona Trail--on the steep slopes in and out of Casa Blanca and Little Casa Blanca Canyons.

Jay and Lee descend into Casa Blanca Canyon with a fair amount of water flowing.

We hike out of one canyon along a horse and cattle route, and note that the Marlboro man has left his cigarette butt here.  Jay teaches Lee how to use a Clinometer to determine the slope here, it's about 10% which is at the upper end of the standard slope for a hiking and biking trail.

Lee uses a Clinometer to ascertain slope suitability for a trail.

We reach the top of the ridge and explore other possible trail connections to the forest service road. We walk down a slope, cross the sandy stream bottom, and head back up a rather steep slope. My calves, which have been asking me politely to stop for the past hour, now start screaming. "Only two more minutes," I tell them.

Lee and I reach the ridge line trail, Jay continues below, off-camber, searching for a perfect contour line for his dreamed of "bench trail." He reminds me of Spiderman, sticking to the side of the steep hill. As he remarked early in the day: "One mile of bench takes just as much time as 100 yards of switchback." Bench trails are also easier to ride.

We're all on top of the ridge line again, heading back to our bikes. We search the hills south for possible easy trail routes from the fire road.  We spent almost all day scouting on foot, or "boots on the ground is the best," as Jay puts it. "We did some good work today," agrees Lee.

On our bikes, it takes us only ten minutes to get back to the car--smooth descending through the late afternoon sun, with 360 degree views of mountain ranges and hills. A glorious ending to a productive day.

Jay and Lee happily back on their bikes.

On my drive home, I saw the full moon rise over the Rincon Mountains.

 

 

Hike to Tucson's Bridal Wreath Falls

I celebrate the new year by hiking to a waterfall in the desert. Douglas Springs Trail, on the northern edge of Saguaro National Park East, begins at the parking lot at the east end of Speedway in Tucson. We head into the rolling foothills of the Rincon Mountains, through saguaro cactus forests punctuated by cholla, prickly pear, and palo verde trees.

Two women on horses pass by on a switchback, amazingly sure-footed creatures on the rocky narrow trail.

 

Part of the trail.

A 9 am start this time of year normally means cooler weather, but I immediately regret the fleece sweatshirt and tie it around my waist. Off comes the winter "technical" long sleeve T-shirt and I'm happy in my power purple "Democracy Now" T-shirt. Thank you KXCI radio!

We're an hour in and it must be 75 degrees already! After climbing and sweating, my long pants come off--thank goodness I remembered to pack shorts. My wiser hiking companion Lisa opted for zip-off pants.

We come to a stream and Lisa soaks her feet for further natural cooling. I assure her that the climbing is almost done, much as I assured her "there's not much climbing in this hike," earlier. How the mind forgets.

Other hikers explore the slick rocks on the stream edge, with view of Tucson beyond:

After another 20 minutes or so along the stream drainage, the trail crosses a flattish meadow with beautiful views of the Catalnia Mountains.

We head south along the Bridal Wreath Falls spur trail, through shady sections of old mesquite and Mexican Oak. Shade, love the shade. A horse whinnies and soon we come upon the horses in the back country hitiching post--hikers only the rest of the way to the falls.

Saguaro cactus finds purchase in cliff above the falls.

Soon, we're scrambling up streambed boulders with water gushing by. This is the most water I've ever seen here, thanks to early winter snow at higher elevations.  We see one horsewoman sporting chaps and salt and pepper hair barely held back by her cowboy hat. Lisa tells her that the horses didn't seem too happy being tied up, they were talking. She replies: "We needed a rest. They're making us work too hard!"

We sit in the cool shade, drinking in wonder of the waterfall that seems to burst from the sun at the top of the 50-foot cliff.

  

Bridal Wreath Falls in video action.

Other hikers are there and explore the top of the falls, we can't drag ourselves from the lovely cove.

 

Hikers above the falls.

I crawl behind the waterfall and attempt a few photos, they turn out badly. But here's a view north from the falls:

Behind the waterfall.

I remember hikes out here with my cousin Jim before he passed away. Once to the falls with his partner Ellen when we devoured Clementines on a Christmas Day hike. Another time in the spring, we hiked toward Douglas Spring Campground until a surprise spring snowstorm turned us back.

Today, New Year's Day 2012, no chance of snow. It's so hot, I  feel my forearms sizzling and I apply more sunscreen. Coming out of the waterfall cove, we pass streamside saguaro and ocotillo:

On the way back, I join Lisa for the foot soak in the glacial stream. My feet are hot, but too tender to handle the icy water for very long.

 

We see more and more hikers coming in as we descend through the ocean of saguaros.

We reach the car and devour cheese puffs, a post-hike reward that satisfies the salt craving.

Happy New Year from Tucson!