Rain

It’s raining, almost hard.

Last year at this time Coronado National Forest closed to the public due to extreme fire danger. This year, things are looking much better.

We completed our first run backpacking trip in the Catalina’s. Right before we left, Terraserver changed its address. All old versions of TopoFusion will no longer download maps. Somehow we got 1.45 up and out at 9pm the night before we left. A forced release, for certain. The next version will read object moved messages, so it won’t be as desperate again.

Up at 4:45a, we finished preparations and headed for Catalina State Park. The Romero Canyon trail was sand in the beginning followed by quite technical. The sun was rising fast, so we increased pace. Soon we reached the pine trees and a shady valley. We passed a flowing spring and headed for the pass. On the other side of the pass was a nice camp spot. We stopped and set up.

After lounging for a number of hours, we were never able to cool down. We decided to head further up the mountain. We ran into a few high school kids with a gun, and some ‘hippies” playing drums along the trail to wilderness of rocks. We made it to the junction, but at a high price for water and heat.

Back at our original camp, we decided to head back over the pass to the spring for cold water and less miles to cover in the morning. It was not cooling down–fast. Once we found water we were able to cool off and sleep was possible. Our new campsite was very nice.

It turns out that Tuesday night was the hottest night on record for Tucson in the month of May: 83 was the low. We were at ~6000 feet, but it wasn’t too much cooler. We had to get up early, pack up and hike the 7 miles back out before things really heated up. We were blessed by a few clouds on the way out and the promise of cold gatorades waiting at the car drove us on.

In the end we hiked some 20 miles and climbed around 7000 feet over two days. We had planned on doing a day hike the second day, but knew we weren’t going to last that long with the heat.

Next time, we’re going to have to start (and end) at higher elevation (not 3000 feet).