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I'll be visiting tucson for a week and plan to get in the following hikes:

Saturday 10th: the Pillars (very mild canyoneering hike even though Joe has it rated as a climb...)

Monday 12th or Sunday 11th: Catalina State Park to Mt. Lemmon... very early morning start

Tuesday 13th: Thimble Peak

Thursday 15th: Cathedral Peak, looping back around by Hutch's Pool

Sunday 18th: Mt. Kimbell via Finger Rock trail

Anyone is welcome to join me... hopefully, those crazy high temps over there will be well gone by then. I am a bit old, so if you come along you may want to take that into consideration... ;)

I may be down for the 13th or 15th, we'll see as it gets closer.

Is the Kimball the four timer?

joe bartels wrote:I may be down for the 13th or 15th, we'll see as it gets closer.

Is the Kimball the four timer?

Joe... yes Kimbell is supposed to be the quad... we'll see how that goes... It would be fun spending some hours hiking with you... Thimble is the more dramatic outing... mediocre approach and finish but exceptional destination. I have not been on top in over 15 years. it will be interesting. I have a fear of heights issue that sort of comes and goes, but last time over there it was no problem.. the approach I use to climb up is not the exposed route listed on all the sites, but a crack in the slanted north face... takes you to the north east slab top... a few feet lower than the southwest slab, but miles safer.... Susan will be hiking that one with me also...

Trip being rescheduled for early December... escrow closing delayed here in Cloudcroft and I have to be here for that, then rest of month and all November is booked up, so I'll come over for the full moon in December, hoping for cold, dry weather!

That blows I was hoping to join in on the two ascents of your quad. It's unlikely I'll be available or in shape then but keep me posted. At least the weather won't be a stressing factor at that time.

There might even be snow on Kimball, actually.

Yeah I was going to add "unless there's snow" then figured it's more likely in Jan-Feb. I definitely won't be near if there is as I really don't care for hiking in snow or ice.

joe bartels wrote:That blows I was hoping to join in on the two ascents of your quad. It's unlikely I'll be available or in shape then but keep me posted. At least the weather won't be a stressing factor at that time.

the chance for cooler days makes this a nicer choice, although now I have to keep training for another 60 days! I did an prep hike this last weekend without about the same amount of aeg... all for naught!

joe bartels wrote:Yeah I was going to add "unless there's snow" then figured it's more likely in Jan-Feb. I definitely won't be near if there is as I really don't care for hiking in snow or ice.

Finger Rock with ice is not a place to be... in December I'll simply hang around until I catch a good day

Why are you going up and down Kimball four times in a row, again?

Jeff MacE wrote:Why are you going up and down Kimball four times in a row, again?

the short answer, is because it was one of my goals from decades earlier that I'd never managed to accomplish, I'd either screw up the training or the weather would turn too hot, or I'd take some minor injury... now, it also includes wanting to see what shape I can get back into at age 60 after allowing myself to get totally out of shape over the last few years, thinking this level of endurance performance would not be possible at my age. After reading "Younger Next Year" a year ago it occurred to me that perhaps I might be able to retrain to a higher level. It would appear that is proving out... I managed a 17,200' day this weekend. But,it was not Finger Rock trail... that trail poses it's own challenge... and, I think I can clear the Quad. Time will tell...

I think you can take a large grouping of sub-twenty-somethings and find that they are in much poorer physical condition than many thirty and forty year-old folks in our current population. I'm not talking appearances here, either; I'm talking VO2 MAX and aerobic threshold.

Well, at least you'll have four times as many chances to be assaulted by the demon squirrel that inhabits Kimball as normal!

Jeff MacE wrote:
Well, at least you'll have four times as many chances to be assaulted by the demon squirrel that inhabits Kimball as normal!

...it used to just be snakes, quaties, sheep and lady bugs... demon squirrels...? Maybe it's not the same trail... hopefully, it's also gotten easier!

If you see a bighorn make sure you go by the casino, as well!

Jeff MacE wrote:If you see a bighorn make sure you go by the casino, as well!

...yeah, the sheep moved on over ten years ago... "Ranger Dave", still putting in his weekly hikes up there continues to report sitings so that they keep doing the annual closings... to no real purpose. I have had some neat mountain lion encounters on that trail... looking forward to being back over there.

Allegedly, this last fall the Coronado biology-types found some type of evidence that there is still a small herd in the Pusch Ridge area. I don't think I ever caught the details, though...

Jeff MacE wrote:Allegedly, this last fall the Coronado biology-types found some type of evidence that there is still a small herd in the Pusch Ridge area. I don't think I ever caught the details, though...

...my bet is that the "details" would include petrified poop.. they really want to keep that area as classified as having sheep...

New dates for the Tucson trip are December 9th thru December 18th... the Finger Rock loop is scheduled for the 12th, depending on the weather, with the other hikes following that effort... with luck there will not be additional delays!