The fate of this site remains uncertain, but it will stay up for the time being…

See you at Earthgoers!

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!

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!

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!

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.

Late on Saturday afternoon, I threw my inflatable bed, sleeping bag, some food, my guitar, and Sonora in the XTerra and drove up Reddington Pass. After I crested the ridge into the next valley and was out of sight of Tucson, I took a random right on one of the roughest, rockiest roads I’ve ever been on. The XTerra’s 4-Lo gears got a workout on this road as I climbed over boulders and tried not to test my skid plates. After a while it dead-ended at a ridge looking out over the valley. Perfect! I got a fire going, cooked some dinner, and played some guitar & harmonica.

That night dropped a little below freezing, but I was nice & toasty in my sleeping bag. Unfortunately, poor Sonora kept tossing & turning out from under the covers that I threw over her to keep her warm. Occasionally through the night I’d wake up to her shivering against me, and once she even nudged me awake. The next morning I couldn’t cook my eggs & oatmeal because I forgot my mess kit, so I went home & did the cooking there.

After breakfast at home, I headed back out, leaving Sonora at home. I decided to do a loop hike, going up La Milagrosa Canyon, up & over the ridge on the La Milagrosa Ridge Trail, and coming back down Agua Caliente Canyon. These canyons get technical in places, making it difficult with dogs.

The hike is well-described over at HikeArizona.com, so I won’t go into those details. I will say that it’s days like these that I love living in Arizona. It’s the middle of winter, and I’m out hiking on a beautiful sunny day in shorts. There was water flowing in both canyons (likely snowmelt from the higher elevations) and I only ran into one other group while in the canyons. It was a perfect day full of hiking, scrambling, and even a little bouldering. I can’t wait to come back in the late spring/early summer & go for a swim–I saw a few potential cliff-jumping opportunities!

Check out all the pictures!

I got a late start on the first outing, but checked the sunset and twilight times and figured I’d be fine. I decided to run a loop which started at the Broadway Trailhead and included Shantz, Pink Hill, Loma Verde, Cholla, and Cactus Forest Trails. The total mileage, according to the map, is 3.3 miles. I figured I could easily finish under 45 minutes and be done before dark. Well, the trail winds around trees and cactus, goes up & down washes, and is very sandy due to the horses that have come before me (and apparently horses are okay and dogs aren’t). I also kept stopping to take pictures of the mountains, cactus, sunset, and giant jackrabbits. So my progress was a little slower than I thought and by the time I got to the Loma Verde Mine it was twilight.

Fortunately, this Eagle Scout is always prepared, and I had brought my headlamp (as well as a map, compass, matches, and plenty of water). I ended up doubling back along the Pink Hill Trail since completing the loop would have been a longer distance. Of course, hiking out in the dark slowed me down even more, and I heard a pack of coyotes howling like crazy between me and the car. Note to self: if I’m not eaten, get an earlier start next time.

Obviously I made it back safely, so the next time out I followed my own advice and started 45 minutes earlier. This time I ran a complete loop heading south from the Broadway Trailhead on the Cactus Forest Trail and returning north on the Mica View Trail. This loop was a little shorter than the last one at only 2.1 miles. Once again, I was snapping pictures of all the beautiful flora & fauna of the Sonoran desert. I came across another jackrabbit who is probably used to all the hikers and didn’t mind me getting within 10 feet of him.

There’s a really nice trail system through the park with a lot of interconnecting trails, all well-worn and properly signed, i.e. slim chance of getting lost. I think I’ll be occasionally heading back even after Sonora heals… just don’t tell her.

Enjoy the pictures!

I tossed the frisbee a few more times and we went inside. A few minutes later I noticed the blood spots every couple feet on the floor. I took a look and she had torn her nail pretty badly. It was broken in half yet still attached, and her quick was very exposed. Ouch!

I immediately consulted the finest minds of veterinary care (a.k.a. Google) and found all kinds of crazy remedies involving cornstarch, teabags, a bar of soap, and superglue. Deciding that perhaps Google wasn’t the D.V.M. I thought it was, I decided to simply sterilize it and bandage the wound.

Yesterday I took Sonora to the real vet since she was due for her Bordatella booster anyway. He recommended sedation, removal of the broken nail, and cauterization, which supposedly would have had her back to normal in 24 hours. He termed this the “Cadillac treatment” — perhaps because he wanted a shiny new Cadillac and was hoping I’d spend hundreds of dollars fixing a broken nail. Being on a limited budged, I asked for the “Yugo treatment” instead. This involved taking Sonora in the back “so she wouldn’t blame me,” pinning her down, cutting/yanking the nail off, and wrapping the entire paw in a sterile, antibiotic-filled wrap. They sent me on my way with some more antibiotics.

So now Sonora has about a week-long recovery with a dressing that I’m not supposed to take off until Friday. They said she could walk on it, but it’s obvious it still hurts–the poor girl has been limping around the house. I can tell she has energy and really wants to play fetch, but definitely doesn’t like chasing the ball around on three legs.

The token sympathy pictures: