| |
|
| | |
|
| Hiking | 21.62 Miles |
6,469 AEG |
| | Hiking | 21.62 Miles | 14 Hrs 16 Mns | | 1.65 mph |
| 6,469 ft AEG | 1 Hour 9 Mns Break | 15 LBS Pack | | |
|
|
| |
| Partners |
|
[ show ]
| partners | | Where to start?.. Linda told me that there would be a free buffet on Mt Lemmon for all who would do this very simple loop as part of a charity event, but for a number of reasons I’m starting to think that may not have been completely accurate.
We set off in the dark with the full moon over shoulder. It was a smooth start, over mild terrain, on well groomed trail, with excellent weather. All too quickly, this segment of the trek came to an end as it merged with the Cargodera road. Though Cargodera is a road, it’s much rougher going than most trails with its grapefruit sized rock, piled into a ramp leading to the base of the Sutherland. This 3 mile section was and will always be my least favorite.
With the child’s play behind us, it was now time to get to work, and climbing to the ridge line would be the first and most physical challenge of the day. At 938 FPM, over 3.25 miles, it’s slow going - partly due to elevation gain and partly due to route finding difficulty. If there were one piece of this hike that I thought would be the slowest, this would have been it, but at exactly 1 MPH, turned out to be a high-fiver.
After all the high-fiving was over, we started the upper section of the #6, expecting the super highway that it’s historically been, but found a good chunk of it (up to the Samaniego Jct) to be largely reclaimed by the mountain. I had expected this section go at a much quicker pace, but the combination of grade and navigation issues brought it in well under par.
Eventually our climb was behind us and we took about 20 minutes to get a breath and a few calories down. With 90% of our AEG behind us, we started the descent along the Mt Lemmon 5 at yet another one of CNF’s hallmark, Golden Gates – the gate itself looks worthy of implementation at Ft Knox, but is flanked on each side by a whopping 30 feet of boundary wire and a few fence posts - A gate to nowhere as it were. This section suffered some fire damage from the Bighorn fire, but considering the record rains from last year it’s holding up beautifully, with few exceptions. The upper portion of this trail is a very scenic and a pleasant stroll, but once south of the Wilderness of Rocks begins to deteriorate rapidly while dropping to Romero Pass. The lower section of the #5 won the “Worst Condition” award for the second half of the day.
Pretty soon we dropped over into Romero Canyon where we were finally able to go on cruise control. There are quite a few interesting places and feature throughout Romero, but by this time we were getting into hustle mode to maximize the remaining daylight, so we didn’t dawdle much. We finally ran out of light with the final mile to go, but we made short work of it with our best pace of the day.
If you really want to wring the most out of a day, this is a good option. My only regret looking back is that there was no free buffet as I was promised. In fact I'm starting to think that this whole charity hike thing was a big scam. 
Thanks Linda for driving down. It was a blast ! |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
