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| Hiking | 6.56 Miles |
1,248 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.56 Miles | 3 Hrs 24 Mns | | 1.93 mph |
| 1,248 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | I only rarely hike in southern Arizona, because getting any place cool and shady is a 3+ hour drive, and I would like to get home the day I leave. So would my wife. But as much as I like exploring canyons on the Mogollon Rim, I can only do it so often without getting bored. Eventually, I came up with a plan to hike Green Mountain Trail #21 (top to bottom), Maverick Spring Trail #704 and, possibly, Guthrie Mountain Trail #704A.
Not many cars on the Catalina Highway on a Thursday morning. Really, the only folks we saw on the way up were bicyclists on their way down — watch out for them apexing corners! — and a Pima County jail trustee highway cleanup crew. If I had to serve jail time, I couldn’t imagine a better place to do it! The hills of Mt. Lemmon were covered in green due to all the recent monsoon rain. 
My normal hike day is Friday, but I was hiking on Thursday, because this former paratrooper figures the best way to celebrate National Airborne Day is with a “ruck march”. And beer. 
I made the Green Mountain summit in 30 minutes. The unsigned, but obvious, use trail was steep, but not as slippery as reported. My hiking poles came in handy, but you could get by without them: Just use trees & boulders for hand holds or foot brakes. On top was some sort of permanent antenna. I believe a relay station. Being a former Army radio operator, I raised a toast to the antenna. The beer was Efes, which we drank by the Humvee-load in Kurdistan, after the Gulf War. On the way back down Green Mountain, I found a great OP 100 yds. northeast of the use trail. Check out the attached GPS route for its location. I could see Redington Pass, and east all the way across the San Pedro River valley to the Galiuro Mountains.
Back on Green Mountain Trail #21, I headed east, down from the saddle. Just a couple hundred yards on, there was an unsigned split in the trail. I went right. I chose wisely. Just past the unsigned intersection were two boulders defaced with blue graffiti. Not just unnecessary directional arrows either. 
Maverick Springs Trail #704 had more shade than Green Mountain Trail #21. The trail was in good condition, but I stopped short of Maverick Springs, when it dead ended in a tangle of dense vegetation. I didn’t bring a machete, so back uphill I went.
Back at the upright boulders, I headed from Bear Saddle down upper Bear Canyon. I stayed on Green Mountain Trail #21, but where it crossed the floor of Bear Canyon, that looked like it would be the better option. The floor of Bear Canyon seemed to be easy travel.
I never saw any bear scat, but I regularly clicked my hiking poles together to ward off any bears that might be in Bear Canyon. The only critters I saw all day were a small horny toad on Green Mountain and a hummingbird on its slope. 
The hummingbird was feeding on some orange flowers that I was photographing. There was great #flowerporn all along Green Mountain Trail #21. I saw at least a dozen species, in a wide variety of colors: Red, yellow, white, purple, orange, etc. The flowers tended to occur in species-specific bunches, rather than mixed along the trail. Plus, I saw several varities of mushroom, including a stunning red cap mushroom. Or, as I like to think of it, a “maroon beret mushhroom”. 
The hike was not long, nor the AEG excessive, but for the next 48 hours I had trouble getting up from chairs, down stairs, or out of bed, I was so sore. Wierd. 
Hike Video: https://vimeo.com/496479305 |
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Wildflowers Observation Moderate
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| http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Trickling pools in the creek getting pretty green. Won’t last long. 
