Big day, and I really enjoyed linking up familiar trails to traverse the parks on the west side of town. It was all entertaining and fun, until I reached the northwestern-most corner, and then the last couple miles were slow and ridiculously rocky.
To back up, I was excited to see a route of this distance in Tucson and spent a couple days checking out the new-to-me areas. In particular, the two ridges in the Tucson Mountain Park are gems, and I like the unique way of circling the Desert Museum.
The route as-drawn doesn't quite (as of this writing) match the route as-run by Jayme and RJ in March, in particular before/after the 36th Street trailhead. I decided to follow the actual run, as their choices make good sense. I skipped all out-and-backs including the one to Picture Rocks parking.
I stashed water in a few places, and later in the day husband John would join the adventure as my favorite crew person. I ended up beating my time estimates by quite a bit, so I detoured to the Desert Museum for lunch. It turns out you can get a half hour pass for free, plenty of time to pop into the cafe for food. Nice!
John showed up at King Canyon not long later, and he also crewed along Picture Rocks Road further along. My climbing over Wasson was a bit slow and it was a bit warm, but I was thrilled to reach El Camino del Cerro just before sunset.
I was promised lots of rocks, and there certainly are plenty of them. Nothing too crazy... until the final couple of miles. The eastbound trail along the Panther-Safford fenceline is super slow (not a good place to be in a hurry). But it will get you there eventually. The off-trail climb to the saddle and then even the descent from Safford were also challenging. Finally a bit of running to the finish where John was waiting.
Thank you Jayme, I really like this new route!
Comments
So Awesome! Thanks for helping make such a gem of an area a classic. :) Great job! Also, I have asked for the route to be updated. I think it's taking some time.