10am at the Gordon Hirabayashi Recreation Site and there was no need for a jacket – February and it feels like spring!
We descended to the Avenida de Suzenu Trailhead via the Molino Basin Trail, Bellota Trail and La Milagrosa Trail – sun, blue sky and water in all the canyons. 10.6 miles, +1100’/-3100′ of elevation gain/loss.
The Bigelow Trailhead, and the highway, were crowded with people enjoying the snow – it was a sleds and snowballs day on the mountain!
In shorts and a t-shirt I had on fewer layers of clothing (and more sunscreen) than any of the people I left behind at the trailhead – I might have been going a little farther, but we were all doing the same thing – just playing in the snow…
The hillsides below Mount Bigelow had a fun amount of snow – but by the end of my short hike, where the Butterfly Trail was in the sun, the snow disappeared. 2.76 miles, 800′ of elevation gain/loss.
Winter Wonderland – after months and months (and months) of summer it feels like this has never happened before and might never happen again, hard to remember that every year, sooner or later, the mountain is covered in snow. Summerhaven was full of people – the trails were nearly empty, and the conditions perfect! Aspen Draw Trail, Aspen Trail, Marshall Gulch Trail Loop – 7.4 miles, 1600′ of elevation gain/loss.
The rain turned to sleet sometime after we passed Ski Valley, the drive up had been slightly faster than usual on the empty highway, when we got out of the car at the top of the mountain the area was a wet mess – no winter wonderland, just frozen slush – a change of plans and down…
The clouds were just as solid at the Box Camp Trailhead – but the water falling from the sky was not nearly as frozen. As my ride pulls away the cold makes me shiver, no where to go now but up the trail.
Lower on the trail, normally home to vast views, I spend a dreamlike hour alternating between watching the loose trail under my feet and the ridge twisting away into the clouds.
The grass is heavy with rain and the trail occasionally obscure – lower still the clouds break and views of Palisade Canyon, Sabino Canyon and the East Fork trail emerge. By the time I arrive at the end of the Phoneline Trail the rain is gone – I pull off my shell and head down the empty trail towards the city. Box Camp Trailhead to the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center, 12.8 miles, +680’/-5800′ of elevation gain/loss.
In the bottom of Agua Caliente Canyon I leave the trail and spend a few minutes chasing the water down stream across the sand and boulders, surrounded by insects I can not name – in this section of the canyon there are not any towering walls or thundering falls, just intimate moments – a little too soon I find the trail again. Milagrosa/Agua Caliente Loop, 6.9 miles, 1450′ of elevation gain/loss.
