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Day 8:
We did take a Zero in Tucson and it was well used. We hooked in with an old friend of my tramily: Cheers and Take Charge, who drove us to REI and to a Walmart to resupply. At a ton of pizza and enjoyed a well deserved break.
Day 9:
Here is where things start going off script. We Ubered back to Sahuarita Trailhead and set off with the goal of Colossal Caves. Unfortunately because of our late start, it was closing when we got there which might have been irrelevant except my missing pants were shipped here by Mary at TerraSol! I ran up and caught staff doing their closing tasks, and they blessed me with a free cold drink as well as getting my package even though they were already closed.
We decided to stop there even though it was just a 12 mile day because Rincon Creek was dry and there was no other water source to stage from to get up to Grass Shack, our intended camp in Saguaro National Park on the way up Mica Mountain. Colossal is a nice little campsite and convenient to the trail.
Day 10:
Our assault on Mica began. It was touch and go with water sources, many I had accessed on my section hike last year were dry. But we made it to Grass Shack and then experienced some trail celebrities who joined us in the evening: Jolly, Jabba (The REAL Hiking Viking) and CuckooBird. They were some of the most extroverted people I have ever encountered and even had some sage advice for me: “Always be kind to your future self.”
Day 11:
We expected this to be a big day and it was: the rest of the elevation gain to the high point of the trail on Mica, then a rapid descent down to Reddington Road. The intermittent light showers from Day 10 were snow on Mica and the temps were COLD at Manning camp! We needed some water but didn’t realize there is a source just down the hill below their fenced off water area. So Cheers hiked back down the mountain a half mile or so to a small creek we spotted as we climbed and Take Charge and I tried to stay warm. I finally fished out my quilt and wrapped it around me. Once we got underway there was patchy snow an inch deep for the rest of the climb and then down to the park boundary. After reaching Reddington and hearing side by sides ripping around we pushed another half mile up the trail for a more peaceful sleep.
Day 12:
Morning sunrise in a cow pasture north of Reddington Road
After such a huge day you’d think we would take a recovery day! We intended to but had no idea what would be in store trying to get all the way to Hutch’s Pool for camp. We knew it would be 20 miles but for some reason we thought it would be easier than Mica. Nope! We had a beastly climb up to a saddle overlooking Molino Basin and then a big descent. Lunch at Molino, then another huge push up, watching people speed up the Catalina Highway. Massive descent down to Sycamore Reservoir (I’m not a huge fan of steep dropoffs and the switchbacks down had me quite uncomfortable). The actual bottom was lovely walking though, and we for the most part enjoyed the rest of the approach to Hutch’s Pool. Wish I had arrived a little earlier, it was too shaded at 5:30 for me to go for my planned swim. So much for our recovery day before Mount Lemmon.
Day 13:
Romero Pass looms above me…
We got out of camp early, rejoicing at how amazing Hutch’s Pool was to camp at. And being Day 13, I felt like my trail legs were coming in and we blazed up to Romero Pass. But the joke was on me. The terrain got pumishingly steep after Romero and I was hurting. We got to a higher point where it finally leveled out for lunch, getting very low on water. Found a couple puddles and squeezed out 2 liters, hoping that would be enough to get to Summerhaven. But fortunately, after those puddles we encountered more, larger puddles and then Lemmon Creek so lots of sources.
I loved that little tree growing out of a rock. A symbol of resilience and perseverance.
At lunch we realized we needed to be in Summerhaven before 3pm because my tramily had resupply boxes there, and I was supposed to receive the magic ring of coupling, to finally link my water bottles to my Sawyer squeeze. So we tried to amp up the speed but the terrain mocked us with repeated steep inclines over large rocks. It took the wind out of us and we resigned ourselves to not making it in time, just slowing down to not kill ourselves. When we hit the lovely tree tunnel we began to run into dayhikers and knew we were close. We got to the parking lot at 2:50 by some miracle, and hitched a ride to the post office arriving with 2 minutes to spare!
So now we are holed up in Summerhaven in a cabin, planning our next 5 days into Kearney. Did I mention my tramily is so awesome, I am 2 days ahead of schedule? So happy! Tired, but happy.
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