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For our next four-day weekend, John suggested that we try
another backpacking trip, just to be sure that we were ready for our New
Year's Eve trek. Since we had always wanted to go to
Hutch's Pool in
Sabino
Canyon, he began to research it to see if it would be doable for us. For
example, would there be water? At what elevation would we have to camp? What
would the temperature be like overnight? How do we get there? And so on.
It was finally decided that we would do Hutch's Pool, because it was going to
be an easy trip, according to John's meticulous plan. Having completed his
research, he told me that the best way to do this was to take the tram all the
way to the end of the Sabino Canyon Trail (which is paved). That would cut 3.7
miles off of our hike. Then, we would take the West Fork of the Sabino Canyon
Trail; from there, it would be 3.8 miles to Hutch's Pools. We would camp at
Hutch's Pools, which always had water. It would be at an elevation of 3,900
feet - a little cold, but John said that it wouldn't get below freezing
overnight. Since it would only take us two hours of hiking to get there (there
would only be 600 feet of elevation gain), we would be at camp by noon or one
o'clock, which would give us plenty of time to explore. Maybe we could even go
all the way to Romero Pass? Finally, the next morning, we could either hike
back the way we had come and take the tram back to the trailhead, or we could
take the Phoneline Trail back to the car. That would depend on my feet, since
I was going to have to buy new boots before the trip.
Having broken one of my boots on our last hike (on the
Coffee Flat Trail in
the Superstitions), I needed a new pair of boots. Two days prior to our trip,
John took me to Popular Outfitters so that I could look for new hiking boots.
I ended up buying the first pair that I tried on, because they fit so well.
They were exactly like John's new boots (the ones he had bought in August)
except that his are Gore-Tex and these were not. (As a result, they were $70
less than his boots!) That same evening, we also went to Payless so that we
could get a new pair of shoes for Mary. Having lost one of her hiking boots on
the same trail, we decided to take advantage of a program that Payless was
running through the year 2000: any baby born in 2000 would get one free pair
of shoes. We got her a pair of sneakers that she could wear during our trip.
Friday morning, we left for Tucson - a trip that would take us roughly two and
a half hours, because the Sabino Canyon Trailhead was all the way in East
Tucson. We left the house at 6:45 a.m., and after stopping to get breakfast
and to do our last minute shopping for the trip, we finally hit the road
around 7:15. During the long, boring drive south on I-10, John and I passed
the time away with trivia quizzes, like: "I'll give you the county seat and
you have to tell me what county it is." Or "Where does this river empty?" Or
"World capitals - I give you the country, and you have to tell me its capital
city." Our trivia game ended abruptly, though, when I couldn't think of
anymore countries.
"Oh, come on," John said. "You missed a whole bunch of them! All of the South
American countries, New Zealand, Chad..."
"What is Chad?" I asked, trying to think if I knew the name of its capital
city.
And John replied, "It's one of those paper pieces that falls off when you
punch the ballot in Florida."
BOO! HISS! GAME OVER! I had been caught off-guard by the Mad Pundit, and I
found myself laughing so hard that I couldn't think of anything else.
When we finally arrived in Tucson, we took the Ina Road exit and followed that
all the way across town to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. (Ina Road
eventually becomes Sunrise Road, which ends just a few feet from the Sabino
Canyon parking lot.)
It was nearly 10:00 a.m. when we arrived. After changing Mary's diaper, we
unloaded our backpacks and headed towards the visitor center to see if we
could catch the next tram. That was when we learned the bad news: the Sabino
Canyon Trail was closed past Tram Stop #8. In order to access Hutch's Pools,
we would have to take the Phoneline Trail to the East and West Forks of the
Sabino Canyon Trail. That was going to add four miles to our trip - and they
were not going to be easy miles. Ah, great!
So we started hiking from the visitor center at 10:20 that morning in hopes
that we could make camp by 4:00 p.m. Our hike began on the Bear Canyon Trail,
which cut through the desert behind the visitor center and connected to the
paved Bear Canyon Trail, leading towards Seven Falls. This trail would also
connect us to the Phoneline Trail, the trailhead for which would be found at
the Sabino Dam, along the Bear Canyon Trail.
We made very good time getting to the paved road, but instead of turning
right, John went left. I followed, unsure if we were going the right way. I
was almost certain that we were heading back towards the main road (Sabino
Canyon Road, where the tram runs), but since he seemed to know where he was
going, I followed anyway.
We eventually realized that we were going in the wrong direction when we ended
up at the Overlook Picnic Area, less than a quarter of a mile before the
junction with the main road. Now I knew that we should have gone the other
way, but it was too late to turn back now. "I can see the dam from here," John
said, and with that, he started blazing a trail towards the dam. I
half-heartedly followed him for a quarter of a mile. Then, when the foliage
began to get too dense, I insisted that we turn back and stick to the trail.
When we got back to the picnic area, there was a tram there, so we asked the
tram driver which way we should go. He pulled out his map and showed us that
there were several ways to get to the Phoneline Trail, one of which was to
continue on to Sabino Canyon Road. At Tram Stop #1, we would find the
Phoneline Link Trail, a spur trail that would take us to where we needed to
be. We thanked him for his helpfulness and continued on our way.
Once we reached Sabino Canyon Road, it didn't take us long to get to Tram Stop
#1. Just off to the right, we found the spur trail, which cut through a small
picnic area then stepped down to the creek. The creek crossing was difficult,
especially since the bridge had long ago washed away and we had to boulder hop
to get across.
After the creek crossing, the trail immediately began to switchback up to the
Phoneline Trail, which was several hundred feet above the creek. Though it was
only 0.7 miles, it seemed much longer than that because of the weight that I
was carrying. I eventually began to get very tired.
En route, we passed by three forest rangers, all of whom were impressed that
we were taking the little one backpacking. One of them thought that it was
great that we were getting Mary outdoors at such a young age, that we were
raising our child to love the outdoors. We told them that she enjoyed being
outdoors, breathing in fresh air and seeing the sunshine; and now that she had
her distance vision, she was able to discover new things and really explore
her surroundings. We also had to brag a bit by saying that she had already
"hiked" fifty-six miles during the first four months of her life and that she
had already spent four nights of her life camping outdoors with us. That
really seemed to impress them!
It was about noon when we finally made it to the Phoneline Trail. When we
reached the trail junction, I suggested that we take a "packs-off" break
because I was not doing too well. My back was beginning to hurt, as were the
muscles in my belly. Those switchbacks had really wiped me out! "Well," John
explained, as if trying to reassure me, "from here it's all up and down, but
it's not steep anymore. However, we still have a long way to go till we get to
Hutch's Pool."
I didn't know if I was going to make it there or not; instead I kept going,
but all along the trail, I kept lagging further and further behind.
I wish, of course, that I had been in better shape when we did this trail,
because it was very interesting. The trail followed a ridgeline along east
wall of the canyon, tracing along the border of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness
Area. It was several hundred feet above the Sabino Canyon Trail and the creek
- in fact, it paralleled the paved road. Looking down, we could see day hikers
walking or jogging along the pavement; we could also hear the tram driver
giving his spiel to the tourists in his tram.
I wish I had been in better shape, but I wasn't. That was why this trip just
wasn't meant to be. About a mile after we had left the trail junction, John
recommended that we turn around. "We still have a long way to go, but we're
not going to make it there as long as you're hurting like that."
At first, I didn't want to turn around, because I knew that if we did, I would
get to hear about it for the next few weeks. I know that John gets mad when he
can't complete a trip as planned. However, nothing about this trip had gone as
planned, and I was only going to make my pains worse if we didn't abort the
trip. Finally, I nodded and said, "Yeah, let's go home."
And, of course, on the way back, John said, "This is the second time this year
I've had to carry all my crap in for a day hike!"
Instead of taking the Phoneline Link Trail back to the main road, we took the
Phoneline Trail all the way back to Sabino Dam, where we stopped to have
another "packs-off" break at the picnic area there. By that time, I was glad
that we had turned around, because even though it was all downhill after the
junction, I was still lagging behind. "You know," John said, "this should just
be called the Moan-Whine Trail, because first of all you got us lost..."
Um, you were leading us...
But it was an appropriate name for this trail.
We made it back to the car around 2:00 p.m. After changing Mary's diaper, we
loaded our gear into the car and started the long drive home. Neither one of
us spoke much during the ride, but when we arrived at home, John said, "That
is the first time we have ever driven longer than we have hiked - four and a
half hours, to hike four hours only."
But the important thing is that we survived another adventure and that no one
got hurt. |
