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| Backpack | 20.57 Miles |
2,643 AEG |
| | Backpack | 20.57 Miles | 47 Hrs 38 Mns | | 0.65 mph |
| 2,643 ft AEG | | 26 LBS Pack | | |
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| no partners | | I, Corey, and Jake decided to backpack down Mount Lemmon from Summerhaven to Prison Camp. Our friend John gave us a ride to Summerhaven Friday morning. We originally wanted to start at Lemmon Rock Lookout, but the road was closed, so we started at Mint Spring instead.
After a week of warm weather, there wasn't much snow on south-facing slopes, but there was still a few inches everywhere else until we started the descent to Romero Pass. It wasn't too badly trampled, even on Mint Spring, which was surprising. No slips and not much ice. Jake and Corey brought crampons just in case, but I had decided not to bother. Nobody wound up wearing them, at least not for their intended purpose... more on that later.
Wilderness of Rocks was gorgeous. We made it to Lemmon Pools for lunch and debated a bit about where to end the day's hike. Corey had originally wanted to camp in Wilderness of Rocks, but I had to be close to an exit Sunday morning so we needed to camp near Sycamore Reservoir Saturday night. Our other friends Bob and Keith were going to meet us there. Sycamore Reservoir was quite a distance from WoR; for Friday night, we needed to camp lower down. We hoped there would be water at Cathedral junction, but we got a negative report from a couple of hikers headed up. Unsure if there would be water past Lemmon Pools, we decided to tank up and carry water down to Cathedral junction.
Corey and Jake, however, each had really heavy packs, perhaps twice the weight of mine. Adding the water carry made traversing the rest of WoR brutal for them. We averaged less than 1 mile an hour with lots of breaks, and by the time we made it to Romero Pass, they were exhausted. So we made camp there, enjoyed a marvelous sunset, and enjoyed an even more marvelous sunrise the next morning.
Rested and two meals lighter (and their associated water requirements), we descended into West Fork. We heard some trickling water in the upper part of the canyon, but all the crossings were dry and there was nothing accessible in West Fork until Hutch's Pool.
Shortly after passing Cathedral junction, Jake announced a halt due to a minor issue: half the sole of his left boot had detached. We at first put on some duct tape to patch it up, as Corey and I had a few wraps, but it was clearly not going to be a lasting solution. Then it occurred to me that crampons could be used off-label to hold his boot together. So Jake hiked the remainder of the trip with crampons, and no snow or ice anywhere. If you're wondering, he said they gave him extra confidence on dirt, but not so much on rocks.
We had a pleasant lunch and a good rest at Hutch's Pool, which was full. We tanked up there. I'd say West Fork east of the Pool had moderate flow, and there were no issues with any crossings. East Fork was pretty much dry, though there were a few pools visible at times but not accessible from the trail.
After climbing out of East Fork we stopped at the first creek crossing. There were a few pools there, but the creek was dry. Bob was there waiting for us, and informed us that there was no other water anywhere... even Sycamore Reservoir was dry, though there was a large pool at the bottom should someone be willing to make the dicey climb down to it. Corey and Jake were pretty exhausted from carrying their heavy packs, and we briefly entertained camping at the creek crossing, but we noticed fresh mountain lion tracks and decided it best not to camp at the only known water source with an apex predator prowling around.
We proceeded down the Sycamore Reservoir trail to a large established campsite about halfway to the reservoir itself. We set up camp there. We decided to have a campfire even though we'd have to backtrack a bit to get water to put it out. It turned out we were spared that effort, as it started raining at 11pm and continued raining until 5:30am.
When I got up at 7 to make coffee, it started raining again. I needed to leave by 8:30 and it showed no signs of letting up, so I broke camp in the rain and hiked out solo. My cheap rain jacket wetted completely through within 30 minutes, and I had no rain pants, so I was totally soaked by the time I made it back to the car at Prison Camp. Pretty sure the rain added a pound or two to my pack... fortunately I had trash bag liners so everything inside stayed dry. Being wet was no big deal, I was never cold. Still, note to self: get better rain gear.
It was a pretty awesome trip this time, a real "clouds to cactus" experience with a little snow and rain thrown in to make it more interesting! |
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but then again, I've done some canyons that required literal ice breaking (though in those cases I was properly attired with a thick wetsuit). I swam out to the waterfall to see if there might be a small lip submerged in the pool (there wasn't) - before swimming back to encourage J to get in. After a bit of cajoling and heckling from the other ladies that were there, he gave into peer pressure but quickly turned back around.](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
I'm all for recreation of various varieties outdoors, but it's this kind of behavior that results in increasing access issues.
. It was cold and deep, as I could not feel the bottom. After a little bit of swimming, we dried off and started the steep climb up, making a stop at the other two pools first. I was not looking forward to the thousand-foot climb out, and with temps in the mid-80s, it was pretty miserable. My heat tolerance is pretty low, so it was a slow struggle up. When we got to the saddle, we made a mutual decision for Stephanie to hike down Mint Spring to get the car, and I would hike down Marshall Gulch (since it was shaded) with her picking me up there. We also noticed a couple of climbers who were using a power drill and a generator to cut anchor points into rocks, which is a big no-no in the wilderness area 
, a small snake and some pretty birds.
Spring is full but no appreciable flow. Water looks clean and easy to collect. 
