A short walk on the Pontatoc Canyon Trail to the second crossing of Pontatoc Canyon – 3 miles, +/- 700′.
Pontatoc Canyon Sunset – 2/21/2015
sunset
La Milagrosa Trail to the Gate – 12/21/2014
There is still snow on the mountain – but rather than join the crowds at the top we took advantage of the weather at the bottom. In summer the La Milagrosa Trail has a merciless lack of shade, best avoided – but right now the weather is perfect for this trail.
Avenida de Suzenu Trailhead to the gate in the fence line on the La Milagrosa Trail – 8.6 miles, 1800′ of elevation gain/loss.
Bighorn Death, Gate Closures, Flowers, Sunset, Fire, Sun
Game and Fish: Another bighorn sheep killed by mountain lion – Jackie Kent – Tucson News Now: A ewe released this November has been killed by a Mountain Lion.
The Bighorn Sheep Restoration Project Status update for 11/13 to 12/3 is now available (all updates are currently available here). The update includes a map showing one week of movement from both the 2013 release group and the 2014 group – at a glance, for this week, the 2014 group was clustered in the southwest part of the range while the 2013 were much more widely spread. It is interesting to compare this data with the maps from 7/21 to 8/3 where the 2013 group appears to have been more tightly grouped into the southwest part of the range – however it may be that the way the data is depicted is not really comparable between the two maps (and the timescale is certainly different).
Seasonal road closures on Mt. Lemmon, roads expected to reopen March 1, 2015: “The Santa Catalina Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest will temporarily close and lock gates Monday December 15 on seasonal roads and day-use sites in the upper elevations of Mt. Lemmon due to expected weather-related unsafe driving conditions.” Note that the gated road remain open for non-motorized use and that the schedule of closing and that it is possible the gates could be closed earlier/stay closed longer due to weather/road conditions.
Recent rains won’t necessarily nurture lots of wildflowers – Douglas Kreutz – Arizona Daily Star: The article notes that the most recent rains are likely too late to create a new large wildflower display. While it is not prime wildflower season there are still a surprising number of flowers in the mountains – but with colder weather predicted for the weekend they may not last…
Ventana Canyon lit by magical autumn sunsets– Douglas Kreutz – Arizona Daily Star: An inspiring set of descriptions of the lovely light in Ventana Canyon.
Redington Pass prescribed burning scheduled to begin Wednesday – Anthony Victor Reyes – KVOA.com: Scheduled for 12/10 to 12/12 .
Solar panels bring sun’s power to campgrounds – Douglas Kreutz – Arizona Daily Star: You may have noticed the solar panels on the mountain (in Molino Basin for example) – this article gives some of the details about the panels and what they power.
Mount Lemmon Trail, Storm – 12/4/2014
The rain started early in the morning – the mountains were invisible from town by the time I started my drive to the top. Clouds floated thru Soldier Canyon at Hairpin Turn and covered the peaks around Molino Basin – the rain brought out the last of the fall colors.
The Summit Parking Area was empty and I didn’t see anyone on the Mount Lemmon Trail – alone with the storm. I knew that the forecast was for rain – not snow – but it was still strange to be at the top of the mountain in December with no hint of snow or ice…
I stop a few minutes past the junction of the Mount Lemmon and Wilderness of Rocks trail to enjoy the clouds, wind and rain before starting the climb back up. The rain gauge at the top of the mountain records the last rain just before 2 o’clock – 2.87″ for the day – and on the hike up the clouds start to break.
On the drive down the sun and clouds were spectacular – I was not alone in stopping to enjoy the beautiful light.
New Bighorn Release Planned, Bigelow Sunset – 10/26/2014
More bighorns being relocated to Catalinas, Arizona Daily Star, Doug Kreutz – The first news article that I have seen about the intent to release 30 additional Bighorns into the Santa Catalina Mountains before the end of the year. There are a number of interesting details in the article including: the intended primary source of sheep is from the Tonto National Forest and that “the exact sheep release sites in the Catalinas will not be disclosed to the public”.
The Bighorn Sheep Restoration Project Status update for 9/29 to 10/12 has been available for over a week now (all updates are currently available here) – no changes are noted in population numbers, some interesting research notes are included: “we will use the sheep location data being collected via satellite collars to quantify an “intensity of space use” for each sheep by constructing a utilization distribution (UD)”.
I enjoyed an evening run on 1918, Secret and Bigelow Road – on 1918 thru Bear Wallow there are still fall colors on the trees and the fallen leaves on the trail were a treat – the big trees on Secret made the dark cool evening even more enjoyable after our long summer – this was the first time I can remember in recent months that it was cool enough for a long sleeve shirt! 4.9 miles, +/- 890′ of elevation gain/loss.