The Fastest Known Times - FKTs - for the Arizona Trail were last set in 2011 and, with the exception of Kathy & Ras Vaughan's yo-yo of the Arizona Trail, the Arizona Trail page on the Fastest Known Time site has stayed quiet. But in 2016 there have been two new records!
- Michael Versteeg (facebook) set the supported FKT on October 19th with a time of 15 days 22 hours 39 minutes
- Heather “Anish” Anderson (blog, facebook) set the self-supported (thru-hiker) FKT & women's overall FKT, on October 27th with a time of 19 days 17 hours 9 minutes (South Bound)
If you thought it felt warm out on the trails in October you were not wrong - the Arizona Daily Star reports that "It was the warmest October on record for Tucson, with an average high of 92.4, an average low of 62.5 and a median of 77.4 degrees." - the previous record was set in 1952. Yes, Tucson's October was warm — the warmest on record - tucson.com.
The Catalina Bighorn Sheep Reintroduction Project update for Sept 29 - Oct 26, 2016 contains a number of noteworthy details:
- Ram 39538 was killed by a mountain lion on 10/21 (33 collared sheep are known to be alive now) - the adult male mountain lion was hunted and killed. At this point the death of another Bighorn and Mountain Lion is not remarkable - but this death prompted the release of some very interesting information about Ram 39538:
"In February and March of this year, this ram embarked on a month-long trek through the Rincon Mountains and south towards I-10, spending time at Colossal Cave Mountain Park, and venturing even farther south to the train tracks north of Marsh Station Road before returning to the Santa Catalina Mountains. Ram #39538 was captured in the Imperial Hills in 2015."
- Aerial and ground surveys were conducted on 9/28 and 9/29 - 19 of the 34 collared sheep were observed which resulted in a calculated 54% observation rate - aerial surveys spotted 37 sheep, ground surveys spotted 20 sheep. The survey resulted in an estimate of 66 sheep in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
- Rams are no longer showing any rutting behavior.
- A fourth translocation of up to 20 sheep is planned for this month.
