Ellen S - Arizona Trail Journal - 2024

Winter/Early Spring Passages

A hodge-podge of passages as we got in shape for our longer early summer hike. All hikes were south of Tucson. Some were day hikes, some were backpacks. After a fairly dry summer and fall, all Arizonans hoped for some 'female' rains this winter. The Navajos describe summer rains as male: noisy, violent, destructive, with sudden downpours leading to flashfloods. In winter, rains are gentle and percolate into the soil more, leading to spring wildflower in good years. Alas, there has been very little rain this winter. The desert looks brown and sad.

I did a day of volunteer work at the border, which allowed me to help the trail while knocking out the easy miles from Montezuma Pass to the border. The trail was in pretty good shape. Our group had fun and got some needed improvements done. (about 4 miles) I finished the weekend by hiking from the Casa Blanca TH to Patagonia and back (to camp). This trail hooks the AZT up at the highway crossing to the town of Patagonia, allowing hikers to avoid walking the busy road. A fairly flat trail (as you'd expect from an old railroad grade) but a bit boring and longer than the trek from Harshaw Road. I know the new trail is an improvement for mountain bikers, but to me, it doesn't seem as pleasant as the old route up and down drainages and into town. (10 miles)

The new trail from Casa Blanca TH northbound is well-built. It avoids the old climb into the Santa Rita Mountains, although one does get some views. At these lower elevations, one is mostly in grassland and grazing areas. Once, on the northern slopes of a drainage, we did enter some pretty pinyon pine/juniper woods. We saw 3 deer at one ridgetop. Along a longer section through sparse grasses, there were tons of cow bones (YeahBut thought it looked like the Serengeti). Water was pretty scarce until El Pilar. Reaching it, we descended and climbed out of ever-larger drainages.

From El Pilar to Kentucky Camp, most of the trail was as it has always been. Gardner Canyon usually has some nice water flowing, but this year only had some puddles in rock basins. The hikers we met were often relying mostly or entirely on cache boxes to replenish their water. We saw few flowers, although the ocotillo looked like it was getting ready to flower.

North of Kentucky Camp, the trail was partly dirt road, partly trail. Generally pretty country with some scant trees and a few water sources (Oak). We didn't check out Bowman this time. There was an event going on when we reached Greaterville Road; an orienteering group was divided onto various courses and having a fun time. We only met one person cowboy camping; she was sleeping cold and worried about how much worse it might be in the Rincons and Catalinas (where the elevations are much higher).

Twin Lake/Tanks had more water than I thought it would. The miles to reach it were some of the rockiest we saw this spring. From the Tanks, it was easy to reach Gabe Zimmerman TH. We tried to pick times when there wouldn't be too many bikes on the trail since this is a popular area for that. The artwork under Interstate 10 is starting to fade just a bit, but is still amazing.

From Gabe Zimmerman TH, we walked to Pistol Hill Road, passing through the Cienegas. It's always nice to see the water trickling down this drainage. Colossal Cave Park has not changed as far as we could see. We took a lunch break at the Seville area (where the water is), then finished off our miles for now.

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