In Volume I, I talked about the Where, the Why, and some of the Who having to do with our time at the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson. In this installment, we’ll finally get to the dirt chasing part of things. Some of the Whos will make encore appearances, and there will even be a new Who. Who knew?
After our first couple of uncooperative weather days here, the sun returned. At only ten minutes away, we started with the obvious choice of Saguaro National Park’s Rincon Mountain District. (henceforth SNP RMD)
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| What government shutdown? |
Our first forays into SNP occurred during a government shutdown. This particular park remained accessible, and angels in their human form of volunteers came in daily for trash pick up and to keep the restrooms stocked with toilet paper. We put extra trash bags, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer in our car to help out if needed as well, but the dedication of other volunteers meant our help was never necessary. Peoples’ care for and respect of this place was extraordinary to witness, and I can fully appreciate their love for it, as it is one of my favorite places to put my boots down.
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| Searching for the babiest ones. |
As we wended our way through the towering cactus forest, I wondered aloud where all the baby saguaros were. That set us on a mission of searching for the littlest ones we could find each time we hiked.
That “baby” in the bottom photo could easily be more than 10 years old.
As well as the multitudinous hiking opportunities, the greater Tucson area is crammed full of cycling options.
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| It’s also crammed full of these little nuggets of nastiness. |
You know what these are? They’re called goat heads, and they can really ruin a good bike ride. They also super suck when they sneak past the entryway and find your bare foot, usually around 3 a.m. TBikefixerG mitigated the problem by putting on tubeless tires and/or “slime” stuff in the tubes. We still managed an 8-mile ride around the grounds and surrounding roads for our first ride, but as you’ll see in a moment, there was much better and goat-head-free biking to be had.
Let’s go for a few more hikes first, though.
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| On the “Green Tank” Trail SNP RMD, for instance. |
The park brochure alerts hikers to watch for a crested saguaro at the 2.5 mile mark. The reason it is mentioned in writing is that crested saguaros, or cristates, are considered by some people to be rare, and those people take their cristates very seriously. So seriously, in fact, there exists a Crested Saguaro Society whose mission statement is to “use our best resources to locate and document these beautiful mutants.” Their website displays pictures of them all, complete with their names (names!) and even videos of some of them. You heard me. Videos of cacti. I die.
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| Non-members. |
During our time in and around SNP, we frequently spotted these rarities. On one hike, we saw four of them in 3.75 miles. I’m no math whiz, but I’m pretty sure that works out to more than one per mile.
They are undeniably interesting, and it is fun to try to spot them as you hike, but I gotta call b.s. on their rarity. This is why my application for membership to the CSS would be summarily rejected. Well, that and the video comment.
SNP isn’t the only game in town, and we drove up into the Coronado NF for a change of pace. As I maneuvered up the twisty mountain road, I watched the thermometer drop degree by degree to below 40. This did not please me. When we arrived at the entrance to the campground from which we were going to access our trail, we found it was gated due to the shutdown. This also did not please me. We backtracked to park in a small lot a bit further down the road and were able to find a connector trail for our original route.
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| There was snow, and that displeased me. |
Our intent was to do a much longer hike than we ended up doing, but the incessant climbing and ruggedness of the trail curtailed that.
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| Brrrr, I’m hot. |
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| Is that a rock formation, or is the mountain just happy to see us? |
| TBG is happy to reach this rock formation at 7000' |
Since most of the hike felt physically exhausting, it seemed like we did less than we actually did, and we were surprised when we added up the mileage to see that we had managed to eke out seven miles.
The AZT is an 800-mile trail that runs from the northern to the southern border of the state and is open to all non-motorized use.
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| non-motorized motorin’! |
In my last post, I introduced you to many of our new and old friends. Since arriving in Tucson, we have had more socializing than we had in the last several years at Old-Home save for the last few months before leaving.
Our new friend, Laura of Chapter3Travels acclaim, joined us for a spectacular hike in SNP’s Tucson Mountain District (SNP TMD.)
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| Guest-hiker sign duty! |
It was a team effort in choosing our destination, Wasson Peak 4,687′, by way of the King Canyon Trail.
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| The climbing kept us warm on the way up. |
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| Sunny smiles. |
The wind was strong and chilly at the top, so we stayed only long enough for a quick snack and to take and pose for photos with the other hikers at the summit.
I could post pictures of and talk all day about this 7.8 mile hike. Literally, we have that many, it was just that great of a day, and I adore my new friend so, so much. But your teeth would ache from all that sugar.
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| “Yeah, don’t make me puke!” |
OK, OK, on to a different hike with more good friends to whom I also introduced you in Volume I, Kevin and Teresa of Old-Home and now of Arizona.
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| Feelin’ loopy! |
We returned to SNP TMD on clear blue day.
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| Guess what we were looking at. No, really, because yours is as good as mine. |
It was a delightful 4.5 miles, and we look forward to many more good times together in the southwest sunshine.
This installment wraps up with a whirlwind visit by a new-to-you Who. Our friend, Corey, flew down from Seattle for a 24-hour dose of sunshine. We picked him up at the Tucson airport and headed directly to SNP RMD for a hike. TBG had outfitted his extra backpack with water and snacks for Corey to use, and he had traveled dressed for hiking success. Are these dudes efficient, or what?
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| Corey flawlessly executes his guest sign-pointer duties. |
Our destination was a place called Bridal Wreath Falls, and among many
other topics, we discussed how uncreative it is that so many waterfalls
are named bridal something-or-other. Except, now that I write this, I
don’t think I’ve ever heard of one named Bridal Shower. Now there’s a
missed opportunity, eh?
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| Definitely not Seattle! |
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| Rock hoppin’. |
About a half-mile before our destination, we encountered a solo female hiker who told us that she’d seen a coatimundi at the falls. I was beyond excited, and shushed the fellas as we drew nearer. We heard something! Damnit, other humans!
We paused in the cool semi-circle of the rocks at the base of the falls for our snack, and I kept scanning the ledges and shrubs for that coati, but it never reappeared.
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| We didn’t see a bridal wreath, either. |
All in all, it was a fabulous 7.7 mile outing. We had Corey over for dinner and visiting afterwards. It was a short but pretty cool way to visit, and hopefully, he (and Michelle please!) can come see us again on down the road.
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Watch for PCFG Volume III coming soon to an electronic device near you!
COMMENTS
Just in case you are still there, and getting sick of all the saguaros staring at yah, drive south and take a hike at Mt Wrightson, you will enjoy the trail and the view at the top, and no saguaros either.
Chasing Dirt I know I tease mercilessly about the crested cacti, but they really do add an element of fun to Sonoran hiking. 🙂 We have moved on a bit, but we definitely want to hike Wrightson! It didn’t work out this time, mostly because of snowy conditions, but we shall return!
Chasing Dirt Those are known as “retirement whiskers”😁 We love and miss you, too, Jonsie!
“Guess what we were looking at..” Was it a crested saguaro?? :-)))
Oh, and I HATE those goathead stickers. Those things are evil!
Chasing Dirt We’ve been pretty pleased with the amount of activities available in the area, that’s for sure! The Wasson hike was awesome and we would’ve all loved if you had been here. Maybe YOUR next time in Tucson will be OUR next time in Tucson, and we can go up together! And you can show me that crested saguaro 😉
In that other photo, I truly have no memory of what we were looking at. TBG, who obviously took the pic, doesn’t remember either, he just thought we all looked so funny. And he was right! LOL
Chasing Dirt Dear Ms. chapter3travels,
Chasing Dirt is unavailable to respond at this time, but we’re sure she is grateful to you for taking a moment to comment on her little story page.
If you have any photos of cristates, we would very much appreciate their donation to the Society. We would be more than happy to come to you for the file transfer.
We look forward to your cooperation in this matter.
The Society of Cristates
chapter3travels “Hey Kevin? You got a second? Great. Sooooo the Crested Saguaro Illuminati folks apparently kidnapped Joodie and now she’s in some freaken underground lair. Any thoughts on what we should do about this?? Call the cops? FBI? CIA? Dan Brown??? I have no idea…. what a mess….”
Chasing Dirt Oh, gosh, how sweet of you to be worried about me! I assure you, I was never in any danger. A little misunderstanding is all it was. I spent a simply lovely day with some simply lovely people who opened my eyes to the true beauty of the crested saguaros. Let’s do coffee soon!