"Make-up" hike reveals more beautiful scenery

Me at the summit

A month or so ago I missed a Tuesday hike while we were visiting in California. It was a hike I really wanted to make as it involved a trek up the Ventana Canyon.

So with a free day today, I headed out to the hike on my own. Joan was a little concerned about me heading into the hills by myself, but I assured her that there would be plenty of hikers on the trail and there were.

Before that, however, I headed to the local post office, which is about 9 miles away to pick up a package that had some of Joan’s prescription drugs in it that she has been waiting for two weeks. They would have been delivered here, but they came with $2.40 cents postage due on Saturday.

With that chore complete I headed back out to the mountains to start my hike.

One of my favorite parts of the trail

The trailhead is located on the property of Loew’s Ventana Resort and the first mile of the trail is a little, well, blah. The problem is that to get to the canyon you have to walk a mile between private property, some of which is fenced and others that are residential homes.

For a short time the trail is only about 6-feet wide as it passes along the back fence of the homes and a barbed wire fence on the other side. According to locals the right-of-way was purchased by the county/state so people could enjoy the upper trails without trespassing on private property.

Less than a half hour into the hike I reached the tight “U” shaped gate that allows pedestrians, but which would make it difficult or darned near impossible for bicycles or motorized vehicles to use the trail, which they are prohibited from doing.

The temperatures after sunrise go from 40 to 70 in just an hour or so and by the time I was on the trail the temperatures were in the low 70s. They got warmer as the day went on. I took a little extra water today anticipating the warmer weather.

Blooming wildflowers

Once on the upper part of the trail the scenery turns beautiful and includes several stream crossings as well as a great variety of cactus and at this time of year some blooming wildflowers.

There were other hikers on the trail and I knew if I got in trouble I would only be 5-10 minutes from the next hiker (s) to offer me help. The lizards were out, but I have still not seen a snake, although one of the hikers I passed told me that he saw a pretty good sized one crossing the trail.

The trail climbs gently for the first half mile or so and then it gets hard. A series (and I mean a “MASH” length series not a “Detroit 187” series) of switchbacks start moving you quickly up the mountain. In the next .5 to .75-miles you go up about 1,000 feet and some of the trail is boulders or very high rock steps.

Part of the upper trail

Once at the top there is a stunning view of the valley below and a little further on the trail you encounter a place called “Maiden Pools” which is a series of pretty little ponds connected by a rapidly running creek (or crick as Joan calls it) this time of year.

I continued on up the trail about .5-miles past the Maiden Pools and found a very nice spot along the stream to eat my lunch and rehydrate with those extra bottles of water I bought.

I sat for about 20 minutes (any longer and I start to stiffen up) and started back down about 12:15 p.m. Going down was not easy as the large rocks and steep steps (and gravity) team up to create one trip hazard after another.

Another stream crossing

A young man I passed on the trail was kind enough to snap the photo you saw above and I continued down the trail passing a number of hikers on the way up in the heat of the day. I didn’t envy them.

One very young girl was making her way up without any water or food, but she seemed to know what she was doing and it didn’t seem prudent for an older man like me to stop or talk to such a young girl (about 12-13 years old).

Later I came across a group of folks who wanted to know how much farther it was to Maiden Pools and when I told them they seemed very discouraged. I told them I didn’t mean to do that and that the hike was well worth it, but I didn’t want to lie to them and make it seem easier than it was.

My Michigan State University t-shirt got a lot of comments today. About a mile from the end of the trail I ran into a group of 7 young girls and two women and the girls were already gassed and giving the women some gas about continuing on. I offered them my unopened water because they seemed short of water, but they declined.

A nest in a Cholla cactus

The bottom (“blah”) part went by quickly and I was back in the trailhead parking lot at 1:30 p.m. As a joke I called Joan and asked her if she could call the Pima County Sheriff’s Rescue Squad to see if they could figure out where I was, but she didn’t buy it for a second.

Once home I took a much needed shower and then waited for dinner, which was hamburgers and potato salad.

The funniest part of the day happened when Joan was trying to open her bottle of wine with a corkscrew and could seem to break through the foil. I offered twice to help, but she declined. (She’s stubborn).  Later I noticed that she gave up on the corkscrew and simply unscrewed the cap to allow her to pour the wine.

I held back a big “I told you so” for not letting me help.

My body aches tonight, but in a good way. There are more photos under this post.