mt lemmon via finger rock trail

[tubby]

I want to hike to the top of mt lemmon starting from finger rock trail. Does anyone have any advice? from what I have read on HAZ trail 26 is hard to follow. Has anyone done this?

[azbackpackr]

Starting at Finger Rock Trail to hike to the top of Mt. Lemmon might take quite a bit of time (a couple of days), since you will have to hike all the way across the ridge to the Window and over Window Peak, and then down Cathedral Rock trail to the bottom of West Sabino Canyon, and then all the way back up to Romero Pass and up to Wilderness of Rocks, and from there you can catch the Lemmon Rock Lookout trail, and eventually get to the top of the Lemmon.

Are you planning a backpacking trip of several days? Which actually sounds kind of fun, but it would also be hard. Water might be hard to come by.

Most people hike to the top of Mt. Lemmon via Sutherland or Romero Trail, out of Catalina State Park. It is still a long hike.

I don't mean to be discouraging. I used to look at the map and try to figure out the best way to do a two-week backpacking trip in the Catalinas, but I never had the time to try it. Let us know if you end up doing the hike.

[keepmoving]

Trail #26 (Cathedral Rock) is not too hard to follow and has improved over the last couple years. Their are cairns in any overgrown areas.

However, (I know it has already been asked), but are you planning on doing this as a backpack? The amount of elevation gain & loss using Finger Rock to try to reach the top of Mt Lemmon would make it all but impossible as a day hike. And the lack of any water sources until you reach West Fork would make for a difficult backpacking trip.

As you have no hikes posted I don't know what your experience level is: but I would highly suggest you hike finger rock, Ventana Canyon, and Cathedral Rock all separately before considering to try the hike you posted...

[imike]

It is doable, but it should be done after lots of elevation training... and as mentioned, really good idea to have done all the intervening canyons separately first. It will be a long, challenging day. I did it years ago, but had stashed water in all of the intersecting canyons on the training hikes. The most overgrown trail section back then was the section past the Window, leading over and down into Espererro Canyon. If you've hiked all the canyons separately, you'll know the routes and their conditions.

[tubby]

thanks for the replies everyone.

Making it to mt lemmon is a goal, and it is something I am excited to train for. I am not currently in the physical condition where I would make an attempt. As far as altitude and training is concerned I am not that experienced; I have taken #42 trail twice up to the pines (not quite to mt kimball) and round trip it is 11miles at 6 hours and 22 minutes. Last time my pack was 13lbs. I've been able to do 2 hikes/week for the last 3 weeks.

As far as water goes??? This is where I was hoping for some advice as I didn't see any water sources along the route. It sounds like stashing water at 3 to 4 spots is the best way to go. I'll probably start bringing 1/2 gallon to a gallon of water to stash when I go up.

I think the next section I will cover will be from the parking lot in summerhaven down to trail 26. I shoot for 7 miles in or so and turn around and go back. I think I save the window and cathedral rocks for later on (those seem like long hikes no matter what trail is used.

[azbackpackr]

So, do you have the map with the trails on it in red? It is available at the Summit Hut. Used to be called Rainbow Expeditions map, when I lived there. Also, guidebooks such as the one by Pete Cowgill and Eber Glendening.

[tubby]

I will definitely grab that map, I could really use new boots as well I have been using downloaded maps to my smart phone which is compact but sometimes hard to see details.

[walkalot]

That is quite the lofty goal! Best of luck to you. You might consider continuing your training until we have another wet spring like last year. It's much less effort to filter cold water from a stream than to lug all that you will need.

A great training hike for elevation gain is Pusch Peak from the Linda Vista trail head. I live in mid-town Tucson and it usually takes 4 hours r/t from my house. Of course the finger rock trail is a steep one too!

Please post a triplog after you complete that one as I'm definitely interested in reading it.

[writelots]

I've got to echo the previous sentiments, that there are much better ways to reach the summit than via the Finger Rock trail...but I also completely understand the way goals get set in our heads ;) There was water in Cathedral Creek (at least that's what I call it) right at the junction of the Cathedral Peak trail and the West Fork trail when I was there Saturday, but just a trickle. I'm guessing that even with this last storm, it will be gone in a couple of weeks. No water in the West Fork at that point. Things up there are particularly dry - not so much in terms of the streams but the vegetation and ground are both just like crispy dry - probably due in large part to our Arctic Express freeze. It's a bit depressing if you're used to the greener, wildflower filled springs we've seen the last couple of years...

[Jeffshadows]

I don't have the map sitting here, but my suggestion would be Finger over to Esperero to Cathedral, back west to Romero Pass, then up Lemmon or you can jump onto Wilderness after a short ways. It can be done in a long day but you will need a lot of speed. If you train to run elevation or are unusually fast, you can probably do it in a day. You are probably looking at an accumulated 9500-10,000' of gain when you factor in the loss and regain that takes place along this route in those upper canyon reaches. Trust me, don't underestimate that! Some parts of West Fork and sections of the Front Range rim seem to lose a lot of elevation for no reason whatsoever.

Water can be had for a minor detour to Bridalwreath in Esperero and then back up and on to Cathedral. That will definitely last you until you get to Wilderness, where there's tons of water year-round.

It can be done. It would rock. Go for it! :bigth: