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!
The weather was gorgeous this weekend, so I headed outdoors again, this time to La Milagrosa Canyon. I brought a date here to show her that yes, there is water in the desert! The water flow was much higher than the last time I went. We brought our dogs along–Sonora, being the water-loving, rock-hopping lab she is, was in doggie heaven. Her dog did well, but being smaller, she needed some help getting over some of the big boulders.
Because of the high water and the dogs, it was much slower going than my last time, so we didn’t quite make it to the falls and pools. We stopped at a nice big flat boulder and relaxed in the sun for a while, watching some climbers on the cliffs above us. I think we could have stayed there even longer, but we were losing daylight & had to head back. By the time we got back to the car, we were both incredibly hungry, so we picked up some Quizno’s on the way back to my place and each snarfed a big sub & chips.
A great day, complete with great pictures!
After all the rain Tucson had gotten (which translated to snow on the Catalinas), I wanted to get out this weekend for a hike. My friend Lina joined me for a hike up Pima Canyon to the dam. This hike is one of the best in the Tucson area, and I hadn’t done it in my 7 years living here!
We waited for it to warm up a bit so didn’t get started until about 11am. We followed the trail up the canyon and chased the clouds and fog, which slowly retreated as we gained elevation. The creek was flowing quite a bit thanks to all the snowmelt. We arrived at the “dam” (which was only about 4-6 feet high) around 1pm and had lunch shortly afterwards. We continued on to catch some snow (and throw a few snowballs), but once we hit this elevation the trail became muddy & slippery and we decided to turn back at about 2pm. The sun came out for the hike out, and we were back to the car by 5, which made for perfect timing to grab a tasty (and well-earned) sandwich at AJ’s. Definitely a great hike, and I snapped some pretty good pictures, so check them out!
UPDATE: Pima Canyon Trail is now listed at Earthgoers.
