Wild Burro and Lower Javelina Trails in the Tortolita Mountains

Wild Burro Canyon

Our group started out at 8:30 a.m. to beautiful blue skies and moderate temperatures with a group of 9 hikers, including JoAnn, Jim, Ernie, Gina, Esther, Mike, Judy, Dave and me.  We stayed very close to home again this week; our destination - Dove Mountain right here in Marana. Dove Mountain is a part of the Tortolita Mountain range boasting some 29 miles of trails, which includes all the classic Sonoran Desert terrain, rugged ridges, diverse wildlife, historic ruins and signs of prehistoric inhabitants.

Dave pays attention...

JoAnn w/map - giving route

We took the Wild Burro trail to the Western Lower Javelina Trail loop, and then back to the Wild Burro Trail to the remains of the old line shack.  We’re still very early in the hiking season so this hike was relatively easy and short.  The route is about five miles round trip with an elevation gain of 150 feet.  

FYI – In case the term “line shack” doesn’t mean anything to you, it is a remnant of a stone cabin that the cowboys used when tending the cattle ranch that was once here in Wild Burro Canyon.  I have actually tried to find info on the cattle ranch and who owned it, but I don’t want to give out incorrect info so I don’t post some of the things I dig up.  There were and still are a lot of cattle ranches and farms in the area, so I’ll keep “digging”.  I guess my dream of being an archaeologist may still come true.  Lol

Beautiful skies

Majestic Saguaros

The first part of the hike, along the Wild Burro Trail is very sandy footing.  That’s okay, because many of us are still trying to get our hiking legs beneath us, so we appreciate these moderate hikes with part wash – part climbing trails to start with.  (Thank you JoAnn).   The saguaros are plentiful along these trails, and so are the chollas.  When the Wild Burro met up with the Lower Javelina Trail we started noticing more rocky terrain and started a little climbing.  We stopped several times along the way to enjoy the views and to hydrate.

Line Shack Ruins

When we reached the line shack we stopped for a real break and snack.  It is a very humbling experience to be this close to our not too distant history.  I can imagine cowboys huddling around a fire outside under the stars, or inside the stone cabin trying to keep warm during the frigid winter months in the mountains.  You can sit on the walls of the cabin and let your imagination run wild.  

Line Shack Ruins (Pic of LaNeta from last year)

Hi Ho Hi Ho, back down the trail we go....

Strange rock formations - How? When? Who?

Remember???? OW!

We did this same hike last year, but thank goodness this time we had none of the excitement that went along with the adventure last year.  This was the hike where one of the jumping cholla decided to piggyback a ride on the palm of my hand.  Terrible!!

This isn’t a difficult hike by any standards, but it is one of the most beautiful in our repertoire.  I know I say that a lot, but if you don’t look down when you are climbing up the trails…if you just look out and up, you can imagine yourself in a much more wilderness type area.  If you look down, you are met with views of the Ritz-Carlton Resort and golf course.  

Rugged terrain

Jim hitting the bottle again

After resting and socializing at the line shack, we started our trek back to the Wild Burro Trailhead.  I have to admit that this seemed to be really difficult to travel now.  Dragging through that sand seemed endless and yes some of us didn’t mind verbalizing the drudgery.  Others of us commented that it was just strength training for the more difficult hikes to come – thanks Esther. 

My theory of bigger steps being better didn't pan out.

The day was heating up quickly so we need to make it back to the trailhead.  Temps were estimated to reach the lower 90s and I think the weatherman may have actually hit it right this time. 

We made it back to the trailhead/parking area and decided to stay and have our lunch there.  A wonderful hike!!!

See you on the trails…..

David Yetman Trail in the Tucson Mountains

If you asked 10 people why they hike, you will probably get 10 different answers.  Personally, I hike to push my limits both mentally and physically, to take in the beauty of the trails and for the camaraderie of hiking with friends.  I have a fear of heights, so hiking mountain trails is a real rush for me when completed.  Whatever the reason, I am just happy that hiking season here in southern Arizona is back in full force.

Our group started out at about 8:30 on a beautiful Tucson morning with temps in around 50 degrees.   We had a nice sized group of 11 – JoAnn, Sally, Esther, Judy, Gina, Connie and me made up the women and the guys were Jim, Ernie, Rob, Mike. 

Our hike this week took us to the David Yetman Trail in the Tucson Mountains.  Our group is just getting started for the season so we are just doing 4 or 5 mile hikes to start.  Our plan was to hike the trail to the Bowen House and just a little beyond, then turn around and hike back to the stone structure to have our lunch. 

Jimbo

This trail is named for David Yetman, Ph.D, (research social science) former City Councilman and host of a local Public TV program called The Desert Speaks. The trail is listed as easy to moderate and several in the group have been on this hike many times.  There are a couple of hotels in the area and one of the amenities offered is hiking, biking and horseback riding on the trails in the area and it seems some of the signs must have been confusing because many of them had been pulled out and lay on the ground on the side of the trail.  Never fear, we have “fearless leader” JoAnn to lead the way.

Beautiful scenery

Joann giving the lay of the land

We made pretty good time over mixed terrain – large stones, gravel, sand, and hard-packed dirt.  The scenery on these trails – even the easiest of outings – is absolutely stunning. 

Anyway, I found out that the Bowen House has a direct link to me!  I am from Illinois, and Sherry Bowen, a typesetter and later city editor for the Arizona Daily Star, came from Rockford, Illinois and moved to Tucson in the late twenties with the hope that the change in climate would help his wife’s serious heart condition.  

The Bowens first lived in Tucson but soon decided to homestead in the Tucson Mountains.  He had the home built of native stone in the early 1930s.  They lived in a cabin while the house was being built and after moving into the home eventually expanded their claim to 2000 acres.

Front: Esther, Judy, Gina & JoAnn
Rear: Jim, Sally, Mike, Rob,  Ernie and Connie

Ruby Bowen kept a diary of her first year in the Tucson Mountains.  The diary makes several references to the wildlife that existed in the area including Javelina, deer, wild horses and sheep.  She also mentioned a mountain lion that would come near the house when she was cooking meat and that one time attempted to get in a window. Maybe the one the group is peering out of above.  

The Bowens left Tucson in 1944 and moved to New York City where Sherry Bowen worked for the Associated Press.  The valley and their homestead became part of Tucson Mountain Park in 1983. 

Vandals started a fire which destroyed a large portion of the house years ago, but you can still make out the marks where the rooms divisions were.  There were 2 fireplaces and you can make out where the toilet was and remnants of the stone bathtub are still there.  Also, there are pipes where water came in for the shower and in the kitchen area for the sink.  None of us could figure out where they would have gotten water pumped in from though, or if they had a water tank of some kind out in the back.   Anyway, we agreed it was a nice piece of history in the area.

Walking through history

The men at the turn-back point

We had reached the stone house in record time, and after visiting with a small group of hikers from Green Valley continued on our way toward the crossroad in the trail.  After resting and having water at our turn-around point we all started back.  The ladies started out first with Gina leading the way.  We were having a great time – hiking, talking, and taking in the beautiful views – when we noticed the guys were not behind us.  Hmmmm...

Gina way out front (too far out front)

Connie, JoAnn and Esther

Before long we started noticeably climbing along the trail.  JoAnn mentioned that we were no longer on the trail we had come on.  Still not worried too much we continued to climb.  We stopped to rest and noticed we could see the men way down below on the original trail.  We waved and yelled but they were too far away to hear us.  Mike later said he saw us, but wasn’t sure it was our group because why in the world would we be way up there?  


Well, we had gone so far on this alternate trail we decided to see if it would lead us back.  Short answer – no….it just ended.

Oh well, we turned around and started back to the crossroad.  Before we got all the way back, JoAnn spotted an area that didn’t look to difficult to maneuver and we decided bushwhacking was the way to go.  How exciting!  Here we are, a group of women alone, bushwhacking!  Okay, I may be sounding a little melodramatic but it was fun. 

Heading off-trail!  Hiking in it's truest form - Bushwhacking!

We made it back to the original trail and continued on to the stone house.  We had added an additional 2 miles or so with our off-trail adventure so we got a little more of a workout then the men did.  LOL

This is how we found the men after we got back...SLACKERS!

Gina and Judy resting up after eating

After finishing our lunches and resting up we headed back to the trailhead and home, another successful hike under our backpacks. 

Heading back

Sally - styling and profiling

Oh yes, how can I forget?  If you ever see the fickle finger of fate attached to the arm sticking out of the pink shirt below....RUN!!!

Gina pointing the way again? NOT!

See you on the trails! 

Me sampling the stone tub.  Is there a snake in that hole?

Phone Line Trail in Sabino Canyon

Okay, I know it’s not officially hiking season yet, but several friends and I got together early Sunday morning and decided since the weather was so cool in the mornings, we would try a nice hike.  My suggestion was Seven Falls in Sabino Canyon because having hiked it 3 times I am pretty familiar with that trail. One of my friends felt that the Seven Falls hike was too strenuous for a first hike of the season and that she had done the Phone Line Trail and that it was not as challenging.  We opted to take her advice.  (In hindsight, this may have been our first mistake of the morning).  We met at the visitor’s center at 7:30 a.m. – four strong – Esther, Erika, Jackie, and me.  It was a cool morning, about 69 degrees with clear skies.  It was a perfect morning for hiking.  

We excitedly started out down the tram road.  About a mile up the tram road we came to a sign indicating the direction we should take off the road to reach the Phone Line Trail.  The friend that had climbed the trail before stopped us and told that she had gone up the tram road to the end and gotten the trailhead from there. Again, we opted to take her advice.  (Mistake number two).   

Two of us in the group had looked up information on the Phone Line Trail and knew that depending upon which website you went to and whether or not they add in the mileage to and from the trailhead, you get total mileage of anywhere from 8 miles to 11 miles.  We felt this alone was going to be quite a challenge.  (Not listening to my Spidy Sense – mistake number three).

There were quite a few people out on the trails – bikers, runners, and walkers and we made pretty good time going up the road as it is all paved and easy to navigate.  We made lots of stops to take pictures and enjoy the scenery – fourth mistake – it warms up pretty quickly in the afternoon.

At the top of the tram road we sat and had a snack before leaving the road and climbing up to the trailhead. The views are magnificent from the trail, but some of the footing was kind of tricky in spots and there was very little room for error so we took our time and were very careful.  It was about 9:30 and we saw the first tram come down the road and pick up a group from where we had left the road….

The views were breathtaking from the heights we were and it is just impossible to show it in pictures, though that didn’t stop us from snapping away. 

Where's Waldo?  

Erika, Jackie, & Esther in the rear

After climbing and zigzagging for about 2 miles we were really starting to feel the burn in our legs but there was no turning back now.  We saw more trams come and go, up and down the road.  We were about at the halfway mark coming down the trail and it would be more to climb up and go to get a tram so we trudged on.

We took advantage of every shady spot we came to and used them as water breaks.  At about 11 o’clock it really started to heat up in the sun and we drank lots of water to stay hydrated. 

The last mile and a half or so of the trail was not so bad, we were coming down pretty fast and we could always see the tram road not too far from us so we felt pretty good.  It was at this point that I stated if we ever did this again, we would take the trail from the first marker for the trailhead and then come back on the tram road.  That way if we were really tired we would have the option to jump on a tram if we needed to.  The way we did it, walking up the tram road and down the trail, we didn’t have that luxury.  We just had to keep going….

As funny as this may sound, it seems like the last mile or so after we reached the tram road heading back to the visitor’s center was the hardest.  It was really pretty warm by now, about 90 degrees and we were TIRED!

Okay, so lesson learned.  Make sure you do the research before starting out on an unfamiliar trail.  You can’t always take someone else’s word for how the trail pans out.  We found out when we got back that the person recommending the hike hadn’t done this in over 10 years.  As we all know, a lot can change in that amount of time.  It may have seemed pretty easy to her then, but it really was a challenge to us all. 

We felt like warriors when we walked into the visitor’s center.  Regardless of our mistakes, we had done it.  We had conquered an 11 mile hike!  No trams!  No help!  No accidents!  NO MORE!  Hahahaha!

See you on the trails…..

Perfect little stone armchair (in the shade)

Temporary slow down in hiking

Heart of the Rocks in the Chiracahua's from our hike last year

I have had several questions regarding the blog not being updated for a couple of weeks that need to be addressed.  I am terribly sorry for the lack of fun-filled hikes, but here in Arizona the days have become very sun-filled.  As the temperatures have begun to rise, we have had to disband our regular hikes.  Our last hike was supposed to be in the Chiracahua National Monument, but we had to cancel because of the heat and the fact that the group had dwindled down to just a precious few.  This is not to say there will be nothing happening during the summer months.  I already have plans to go on several hikes up in the cooler mountain areas with friends - so check back periodically, you may be pleasantly surprised.  In the event the hot weather hikes don't happen here - I'll be back on the trails in late October or early November.

See you on the trails......

Picacho Peak

View of Picacho Peak from the trailhead

Okay sports fans, this is it.  The very name Picacho Peak has managed to strike fear in my heart for the past year.  Hearing people in the group mention having to pull themselves up the steep trails using cables and lower themselves the same way, let me know that I am still the novice hiker.  Like a child anticipating the downward thrust of a roller coaster - my stomach tensed up, knowing that sooner or later JoAnn was going to send out one of our weekly email notices and name Picacho Peak as our destination for the week.  Well, it finally happened.  I got THE email.  

Jim, Gina and JoAnn checking out the rules

Getting started

Our group this week was small; just five brave souls would tackle Picacho.  We were really happy to have Ernie back in town for this one because he had tackled it before.  The weather was cool and windy and pretty cloudy when we headed out, but we didn't let that deter us.  In the year that I've been hiking with this group we have only been rained on once, and cancelled because of rain once.  We were certain it would clear up.

You can see Picacho Peak from quite a few spots in Tucson if you are anywhere near I-10.  It has a very distinct look and actually was used for many years as a landmark.  I was quite surprised when we parked at the trailhead and looked at the mountain from that side.  It has quite a different look to it than what I am used to seeing on the highway. 

I was quite nervous starting out, but not afraid.  It’s hard to explain how I can have a fear of heights – which I definitely do – and still do some of the sporting things I have done.  I have gone hot air ballooning, para-sailing  and now mountain trail hiking.  Go figure….

Beautiful Scenery

 

Beautiful rock face

More rock face

The Trailhead

Picacho Peak is a state park located about 50 miles west of Tucson on I-10.  It was one of only a handful of places in Arizona where an actual Civil War battle was fought, and they have reenactments every year at the park. The total elevation is 3,374 feet.  We were to hike the Hunter Trail which is the most difficult of the 5 trails available at the park.  The elevation at the trailhead is 1,784 feet.  The elevation gain to the top is 1,401 feet, but the total accumulated gain is 1,880 feet.  

This hike is the closest I have ever been and the closest I would ever like to be to rock climbing.  There were spots where we were actually crawling on all fours trying to find hand holds and toe holds.  I probably should have a lot more pictures, and maybe the next time (if there is a next time) I will feel comfortable enough to stop and take more, but this time I was concentrating on the trail.

On the trail again

Picacho Peak has been a landmark and has helped to direct travelers and even early explorers to the Arizona Territory such as Father Kino and Juan Bautista De Anza.  In 1932, a 40 ft. light beacon was installed at the top of the peak to help air traffic navigation.  Hunter Trail along with the handrails and planks was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps to ease servicing the beacon.  The Boy Scouts have maintained the trail and rails since it was built.

The first section of the trail took us through truly desert setting with cactus and loose rock and some pretty interesting rock formations.  

Checking out the info at the saddle (and resting)

We reached the saddle, with an elevation of 2,960 feet with very little trouble at all.  It was here that the wind picked up.  Oh, just as an aside, we met a group of 3 young men just as we were starting out at the trailhead who told us they had just come back down from the top.  They mentioned how windy it was at the saddle and when we inquired how it was the rest of the way after the saddle and on to the top, they confessed that they had not gone the whole way.  They were in awe that our little group would be attempting the entire hike.  Well, back to the story.... 

Maneuvering The Cables

Gina waving, JoAnn and Ernie

Yes, that's me behind JoAnn...

Ernie's best side?

So Scary!

Don't look down!

The scenery here at Picacho, although much different from previous hikes, was just as beautiful.  Some of the rock formations were awesome.  In some spots when you couldn’t see any of the parking or camping areas below, it really seemed quite prehistoric.  We continued after a brief rest and water break at the saddle and the trail led us to the backside of the mountain.  This is where the real test began.  We had to climb down with the use of cables almost 400 feet.  This is where that total accumulated gain comes into play.  You gain a little and you lose a little.  There are no straight paths up the side of a mountain.  It is combination of up and down and plenty of switchbacks. 

Cable to the summit

The last big push

Hunter Trail to the peak is only 4 miles round trip, but it was the most difficult hike to date for me.  The last push to the summit was one of those things that you have to tell yourself – “there’s no turning back, there’s nowhere to stop, people can’t get past you on this narrow, winding, cable filled trail….you have to go on” – and go on I did.  We sat for just a few minutes and had our lunch.  The views were awesome, but the wind was treacherous!  Gina said she felt like she was going to be blown off the top.  I didn’t feel like that, but I knew that there was danger in getting too comfortable.  It would just make it that much harder to start down. 

At the top

Usually the trip down on our hikes is really a piece of cake.  Not so on this one.  Every step of the way was just as challenging as the climb up.  In one of the spots with the cables, it was so steep the best way to get down was backwards with hands on both cables.  You have not lived until you are repelling yourself down a mountain backward.  OMG!  There was a spot where there was nowhere to grip with your feet.  You had to just trust that people before you had gone and made it, and you just had to let your hands slide down the cables until you reached a ledge.  Unbelievable!  I bought a new pair of hiking shoes 3 weeks ago.  I was glad to have the extra grip on the soles, but I just about wore out the toes looking for something to grip.  While you’re laughing at me, save a chuckle for JoAnn, whose legs were too short in some of the spots to reach the rocks or steps on the way back down and had to resort to sitting and scooting to lower herself and ended up with a little worn spot on the seat of her jeans. 

We reached the trailhead and parking lot in a little over 21/2 hours from the top.  We shared high fives all around for the wonderful feeling of accomplishment. 

More Pics From The Trail

 

Ernie surveying the view below

Gina - always out front

Me being silly, before things got REAL serious

Really Jim, a phone call?

Yes, this was the monster hike that they have told me about.  It lived up to all the hype as the most difficult hike of our group and I have all the respect in the world for it.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

The novice hiker is humbled…..and sore as heck!

Me at the summit.  What a view!!!

See you on the trails…