Scouting!

I'm planning on taking a four or five day camping trip in the Catalinas, a range of mountains due north of Tucson. I figured I should take some exploratory hikes to get used to the mountains again, and to familiarize myself with some segments of trail I'll probably end up using. And of course, the cold keeps most of the semi-ambulant bags of water we call humans at home. So, in other words, little chance of seeing anyone else.

Perfect.

The Catalinas are well traveled. Probably the jewel is Mt. Lemmon, named after one of those hoop-skirted botanists who muled her way to the top in the 19th Century. There's a ski slope that's intermittently open and a lot of cabin owners who moaned incessantly when their expensive, saucer-shaped cabins went up in smoke a couple of years ago.

It was an amazing fire. You could see it charring the mountains from the city. And you could smell it downtown. I drove along the back side of the range one day and individual trees exploded like sparklers on Pusch Ridge.

Just think. If the wind had been right, the entire gated community of Saddlebrook would have been wiped out. Just the thought makes me half-hard.

But, alas, there is no God, and the seeping taupe stain of the subdivisions still lives. Can't always get what you want.

So anyway. I went for a hike in the Wilderness of Rocks. Very. Very. Cool.



Like I said, there was a big fire a few years ago. A lot of the forest looks like this. It's deeply cut through by arroyos however. What happened on one side of the ridge ain't necessarily what happened on the other.








Yeah, I know. Dead trees. Big surprise. But check these things out. I'm not sure if these died in the fire, or more recent lightning strikes.








I got lost more than once. But that's the beauty of canyon hiking. You can't really get lost in a tube. I lost the trail up here twice and went straight up a tough steep hill that seemed to be on the trial, walking all the way around looking for it. I couldn't find it and just wandered into the forest. Eventually, I came out on the face of the Catalinas. I spent some time sitting on a rock, staring into space and talking out loud to myself. After half an hour or so I came to some conclusions. This next one is the view when I stood and turned around. Magnificent mountains. Say it out loud. Magnificent mountains... Sigh...




There was a lot of ice on the trail. A ton of snow. I'll spare you all the bear tracks. Who cares right? Ice is a near magical thing. Check out this shred of water, slowly twisting in the breeze.

A good walk. A very good walk.