This site has been fun, but the lack of updates has been due to working like mad on Earthgoers. Now that it’s up & running, I’ll be posting all my adventures there now, and I hope you do the same!
The fate of this site remains uncertain, but it will stay up for the time being…
See you at Earthgoers!
Laurent, Scott, Brian and I, along with 3 dogs (Sonora, Blade, and Agave), headed to Salome Wilderness in the Tonto National Forest this weekend to hike/swim/rappel through Salome Jug. I’ve been hiking, backpacking, swimming, climbing, and rappelling plenty of times before, but this was my first time combining them all into the form called “canyoneering”. Salome, being relatively accessible and easy, is one of the best-known canyoneering areas in Arizona.
We arrived at the trailhead to Jug Trail #61 late Friday afternoon. There were quite a few gnats and other flies, which were easily repelled with a heavy dose of DEET. We hiked the 2-3 miles to the head of the jug in about an hour, set up camp right by the creek, and enjoyed the sunset. Once the sun was down, the flies disappeared and the night filled with noises of crickets, frogs, and the gently flowing stream. We ate our dinner under a brilliant starfield, and we even spotted a couple satellites.
The next morning we took our time getting up and eating breakfast (except Laurent, who was off taking photos). The pools in the jug don’t get much sunlight and can be quite cold so we waited for the mercury to rise a bit. We set off at about 9am and immediately started swimming. A lot of the canyon was swimming through a long pool to the next waterfall, then passing the dogs down to the next pool. Each pool was surrounded by tall granite cliffs, and the canyon itself narrowed to less than 6 feet in places. Fun stuff!
After about 2 hours of walking, wading, and swimming, we reached the 20-foot waterfall near the end. Bringing the dogs was fun, but they made this last rappel very tricky. Laurent and his dog Blade went first, followed by Brian, me and Sonora, and finally Scott and Agave. This step took a while because we had to pass the webbing back up the cliff for each dog.
Towards the end, two other groups showed at the waterfall: a threesome that looked like they had no business being in the canyon (two morbidly obese men and a woman without any ropes, harnesses, or other protection), and a guided group with 360 Adventures. One of the guys in the threesome who had been taken there before (with ropes and harnesses) decided to traverse out to where he could jump. He took a step towards the edge, slipped, almost hit his head on the ledge (a la Greg Louganis), and did a 20-foot backflop in the pool below. He also nearly hit a shallow boulder in the pool below (you need to jump out a bit). I thought for sure we were going to be a part of a rescue operation with this clown, but fortunately he received nothing worse than a very painful slap on the back. His friends obviously did not want to follow that lead, so fortunately the guys from 360 Adventures lowered his fellow ill-prepared friends down the waterfall. The day’s lessons: safety first and know your limits!
After the waterfall, there is a long swim out to where the jug ends and the canyon opens up again. We hung out by the creek, had lunch, and hiked back to our campsite under intense sun and 100 degree temps. Once back at the campsite, we all took a siesta in the shade to beat the midday heat. Later that afternoon we played with the dogs in the large pool by our campsite, throwing various sticks and logs for the dogs to fetch. We had a second dinner and crashed out shortly after dark from a long, exhausting day.
The next morning we were up at sunrise and hiked out early to beat the heat. We were at the trailhead by about 7:30am and stopped for a big breakfast in Globe. Another fun-filled, exciting adventure, and I can add canyoneering to my list of favorite outdoor activities. We were already going through Laurent’s canyoneering guide book and discussing future trips!
I’ve combined Laurent’s pictures and mine to one album and will add Brian’s when he gets them to me. Enjoy!
After a warm week, I noticed the high dipped down to about 78 degrees today. I figured I’d take advantage of the last sub-80-degree temps I’d see until late fall and go trail running in Saguaro National Park East.
My previous visits to the park involved exploring the network of trails at the end of Broadway Blvd. This time I went to the end of Speedway Blvd. to the Douglas Spring Trailhead, which is farther north and east. I had read a description of Garwood Dam in a trail guide book and wanted to check it out, and the total distance was only about 4 miles–perfect for a quick jog.
From the trailhead, I took the Douglas Spring Trail 0.2 miles east and turned south on the Garwood Trail, which I took the rest of the way to the dam. The trail consisted of gently rolling hills, but a bit more elevation gain & drop than the network of trails from Broadway. There were plenty of intersections with connecting trails, so I made sure to turn around and look at each one so it would look familiar on the way back.
The desert was still surprisingly in full bloom and I spotted at least 10 different flowers. I saw a bit of wildlife along the way too, including insects, lizards, birds, and a quick glance of something that looked like a chipmunk. Fortunately there were no mountain lion or rattlesnake sightings. At the dam, several lizards were parked alongside an ant trail, watching their food go by and selecting their snacks as humans would at a Japanese sushi bar.
The dam itself was more impressive than it looked in the guidebook. The Park Service had drilled holes in the base of the dam, so it was no longer holding any water back, but there were some tinajas (pools of water in rock depressions) below the dam. The Park Service also put up their lawsuit-prevention sign warning visitors “do not climb on dam due to threat of falling”. I’m not sure if they meant me or the dam. If I had fallen, or if the dam had fallen out from underneath me, I’d have dropped about 15-20 feet, so I suppose they had a point.
I didn’t see anybody else on the way out to the dam, but crossed paths with 5 people in 3 groups on the way back, when it was a little later in the afternoon. I’m guessing this is a reasonably popular destination, and the mid-day heat (and workday) were keeping most of the traffic away.
Enjoy the pictures!
UPDATE: Garwood Loop is now described at Earthgoers.
I hadn’t been backpacking in a while, so I organized a trip with a few friends to the Superstitions. Laurent, Scott, and Kim joined me on a trip to Reavis Falls, a 140-foot waterfall in the middle of the rugged Sonoran desert. We packed up my XTerra with 4 people, 4 dogs, 4 packs, a cooler, a food bin, and firewood and hit the road at around 2pm on Friday. We drove up through Oracle, Winkelman, Globe, and Roosevelt and came down the Apache Trail to meet up with Forest Road 212. We camped near the trailhead on a little loop off the forest road, where we had a great view of the canyon below, Apache Lake on the bottom and Four Peaks on the other side. We set up camp, started a fire, watched the sunset, and cooked dinner–which included s’mores of course!
Laurent hit the trail at 4am on Saturday to try and catch some perfect light at sunrise for his photography thing, while the rest of us took our time making breakfast and getting going. We hit the trail around 9am and met up with Laurent a couple hours later where the trail forks to Reavis Falls. We dropped into the canyon below and arrived at a strong-flowing Reavis Creek. We ate lunch, set up camp, played fetch with the dogs, and relaxed a bit before hiking the final half mile or so to the falls. After taking lots of pictures (including a vertical panorama I stitched together), we headed back to camp to gather firewood. That night was another fun night with great food, a great campfire, and a brilliant starfield–we even spotted a couple shooting stars.
On Sunday morning we did the tough slog out of the canyon and from the ridge, back down to the XTerra. The sun was out, unlike Saturday morning, so the wildflowers were blooming a lot more. We decided to drive out towards Apache Junction and through Florence to get back to Tucson, so we’d be driving a loop. We were thinking of getting a burger & beer at Tortilla Flat, but once we saw how many tourists were out for a Sunday drive and jamming up the parking lot we decided to keep going. We settled for Carl’s Jr. on the way out of Apache Junction, where I devoured a well-earned Bacon-Guacamole Six Dollar Burger, large fries and large Dr Pepper.
All in all, a perfect trip: two great campsites, a beautiful (and tough) hike, wildflowers blooming, water flowing over a 140-foot waterfall, and best of all, great company. The pictures are definitely worth checking out!
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I headed up to my parents’ house in Fountain Hills for a couple days since we had family visiting from Minnesota and were having a big get-together. Since I don’t get a chance to go mountain biking as much as some of my other activities, namely hiking/backpacking and rock climbing, I figured this would be a good opportunity to check out some of the trails in McDowell Mountain Regional Park, and at the same time do some research for Earthgoers!
I had done their competitive track with my old mountain bike before, which was brutal since it was an old bike without shocks. Even though I have a new, full-suspension mountain bike now, I wanted something a bit easier technically but long enough to get a decent workout. My dad recommended the Pemberton Trail, a 15.4-mile loop that has plenty of elevation change but is fairly smooth riding for most of its length.
I snapped a few pictures along the way, but other than those few stops, I made good time and generated a great calorie deficit that I would earn back later that day during the big family party!
