First Saturdays Concert Series – Catalina State Park – The First Saturdays Concert Series: “On the First Saturday of the month enjoy an evening concert at the Trailhead with standard park admission. Bring a chair, and your own food and water to enjoy these concerts!” Sponsored by the Friends of Catalina State Park there are seven concerts starting on June 7 and running thru December 6.
Oro Valley Council approves $107 million budget 4-3, Explorer News – The budget discussion in this article includes some notes about budget for the Steam Pump Ranch.
On National Trails Day – Saturday, June 7, 2014 – from 8am to 12pm “The Coronado National Forest, Santa Catalina Ranger District along with REI and the Arizona Conservation Corps will be hosting a volunteer event Saturday, June, 7 in celebration of National Trails Day. Come join us as we work on brushing, trash clean up, trail restoration, and erosion control on our local hiking and mountain biking trails. Snacks, water and lunch will be provided!” – to get all the details see this page on the American Hiking Society Website. The Upper Green Mountain Trailhead is located just before San Pedro Vista 17.2 miles up the mountain on the up-mountain side of the highway providing easy access to both the Green Mountain Trail and the Incinerator Ridge Trail – both part of the Arizona Trail Wilderness Bypass!
2014/5/19 – Shooters litter national forest land by Catalina Highway – an article about a well known shooting destination just off the highway up the mountain – the site had been cleaned up and boulders/dirt added to discourage access but the site continues to be used and this article reports that trash is already a problem again. While Coronado National Forest officials have indicated shooting here is legal it seems like it might not be appropriate.
The view from the 50 Year Trail – the wind/dust almost obscuring the view of Pusch Ridge in the middle of the day! May 2014.
The windy/dusty – slightly cooler – day pulled us out to the west side of the Santa Catalina Mountains for the Baby Jesus Trail Loop.
Golder Ranch Road Parking Area – 50 Year trail (a counterclockwise loop today), the single track of ends too soon… Dirt roads and gunfire as the background… Trail Link – Sutherland Trail, I barely paused at the junction with the Baby Jesus Trail, the thin track thru the desert was marked but seemed too small, thankfully Alison corrected our path.
The Baby Jesus Trail seems to get surprisingly little use near the junction with the Sutherland Trail – cows – the Wooden Trough Spring Tank has clear flowing water, a great surprise!
Wooden Trough Spring Tank – we were surprised to see the water, running and clear. May 2014.
The cows have taken over trail building in this area and at times following the trail is a bit of a guessing game, today we are glad that the last hiker on this trail seemed to know it rather well and left us beautiful foot prints to follow.
The lower stretches of the Baby Jesus Trail are especially beautiful as it follows a ridge and canyon past beautiful rock formations – easy to see why the lower portion of the trail receives more use.
The moon rising between Samaniego Peak and Mount Lemmon. May 2014.
A short section of road – single track on the 50 Year Trail – the moon rising between Samaniego Peak and Mount Lemmon – Pusch Ridge – home…
Bighorn Reintroduction status update for April 28 – May 11, 2014 (all updates are currently available here) – no mortalities this period and the first update that I have seen that has almost no noteworthy content. The one exception may be the statement that “As the lambing season draws to a close it is encouraging to note that the survivability of the known lambs has exceeded expectations”. The yearly prohibition on travel more than 400 feet off of established trails in the Bighorn Sheep Management Area ended April 30.
On 5/1 Stage 1 Fire Restrictions were announced in the Coronado National Forest – including the Santa Catalina Mountains. This seems to happen at some point every year – read the entire document for all the details – the highlights for backpackers –
Prohibited: “Building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire, campfire, charcoal, coal, or wood stove” is prohibited
Allowed: “LPG-fueled stoves, lanterns, or heating devices which meet the fire underwriter’s specifications for safety and can be tlll’ned on/off are a llowed so long as u sed in an area that is barren or cleared of all overhead and surrounding flammable materia ls within 3 feet of the device.”
Coronado National Forest to host workshop May 17 regarding draft land management plan and recommended wilderness – “Interested parties are invited to share ideas with personnel from the Coronado on specific areas under consideration for recommendation for wilderness designation.” None of the areas under consideration are adjacent to the Santa Catalina Mountains but this is an important topic for the Coronado National Forest. The Coronado National Forest – Forest Plan Revision page is a good source for information. A Mountain Project thread about the potential inclusion of popular climbining areas in the Dragoon Potential Wilderness Area.
5/13 – The SARA Facebook Page reports that “The Pima County Sheriff’s Department requested SARA’s services to assist a lost/injured hiker Monday night at 21:30. The hiker was located at approximately 0100 this morning, high up in Pima Canyon between Pima Spring and Pima Saddle and is currently being escorted out by a team of four. They’re expected out of the field sometime after 8am this morning. A very long night for our volunteers. Good job as always guys and girls!”
“Shriveled latex in rainbow colors is ubiquitous in the Rincon and Tucson mountains sections of Saguaro National Park, where the air-filled orbs often land due to local wind patterns, Zylstra found.”
“To Zylstra’s amazement, balloons greatly outnumbered desert tortoises and Western diamondback rattlesnakes in the 120 square kilometers – roughly 75 miles – of parkland she studied to collect the data.”
“In the Rincons, for example, a square kilometer of land had an estimated density of 62 balloons, 30 tortoises, 26 rattlers and 29 plastic bags, which Zylstra also counted.”
Sad stuff from Erin Zylstra who published Accumulation of wind-dispersed trash in desert environments in the Journal of Arid Environments (Volume 89, February 2013) – the first line of the abstract: “Detrimental effects of plastic debris and other trash have been well-studied in marine and coastal environments, but the extent and severity of the threat to terrestrial ecosystems are largely unknown.”
Balloon Litter. January 2009.
A picture from 2009, off-trail in the Santa Catalina Mountains, I took the picture above and wrote “I have found a number of balloons in quite remote places on my hikes – they seem so harmless, maybe even beautiful sometimes, floating up into the sky, but after seeing litter like this too many times they don’t seem so harmless anymore.”
South Fork of Edgar Canyon – on this trip I saw an equal number of balloons and people… March 2014.
This is not an unknown problem – thankfully in some places mass releases of balloons are actually prohibited (the Balloons Blow… Don’t Let Them Go! has a page on Balloon Laws) – but not here in Tucson – the littering continues…
