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| | | Aspen/Lemmon Rock/WoR/Marshall loopy thing, AZ | | | |
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Aspen/Lemmon Rock/WoR/Marshall loopy thing, AZ
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| Hiking | 12.21 Miles |
3,578 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.21 Miles | 6 Hrs 26 Mns | | 2.10 mph |
| 3,578 ft AEG | 37 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Having rained all day in Tucson the previous day I initially naively thought I could find waterfalls somewhere. But then I saw there was some snow on Mt Lemmon. I decided it would be more fun to hike in snow than chase waterfalls that may or may not exist.
I didn’t have a particular itinerary in mind so I just pointed my car at Mt Lemmon and drove. Snow levels were a little above Windy Point. There was a lot more snow than I expected, and virtually no traffic. First I tried to drive all the way up, but the road was closed at the Iron Door. So I dropped down to Marshall Gulch, and the road was closed about a half mile above the trailhead. I went ahead and parked, then walked down. Lots of tracks in the snow on the road, but they all stopped at the end. Unbelievably, the picnic area and trails were pristine. Nobody had walked any of the trails!
I started on Aspen, since it was a little chilly and I thought it might warm up rounding Marshall Peak. It felt like hiking in Narnia, just with no scary witch or threat of Christmas never coming. There were lots of deer and rabbit tracks, and some from a fox (I think) and occasionally some that appeared to be from a mouse-sized rabbit. But no people. Even at Marshall Saddle nearing noon! It was like a snowpocalypse!
I headed down WoR and found a dry rock in the sun (what sun there was since it was overcast all day) to have lunch. Then I encountered my first human, a woman hiking down into WoR. She mentioned there were no tracks on Marshall Gulch either.
After lunch I followed hers as far as Lemmon Rock, and got to see a few small waterfalls in the creek along the way. At the Lemmon Rock junction I deliberated about whether I had the time and fortitude to climb to Radio Ridge. I decided that if there was ever a day to climb Lemmon Rock it would be a chilly, snowy, overcast one. I figured I could make it to the car by around 5:30, so off I went.
As expected, when I made it to the top I was pretty wiped out and looking for the escalator that would never come.
Radio Ridge was windy, and I was glad for my hoodie and puffy. I hiked down Aspen with my hands in my pockets most of the way to keep my fingers from going numb.
Back at Marshall Saddle I was stripping all my extra layers. No new tracks at the saddle, but I arrived just as another guy was coming up WoR. He turned out to be a thru-hiker who had already done the AZT SOBO, and was hiking back to Phoenix to catch a plane. He’d stayed at Molino the previous night and was ready to crash in Summerhaven with some hot cider or cocoa.
Back at the car I was ready to turn on the heater for the first time in the season. Got some spectacular sunset views on the drive home. |
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