A long (too long) hike up a beautiful mountain

Me on the summit of Mt. Wrightson (9,453-feet)

It’s been a week since I took a good hike and so I headed out this morning for a make-up hike into the Santa Rita Mountains a little south of here. This hike occurred during the time Joan’s family was here and so today I headed out to complete what I had been told was a really great hike.

It was about an hour drive from our trailer and included about 30 miles on I-19 a freeway that ends at the border with Mexico at Nogales, Arizona. It is one of the few freeways in America that is marked with metric distance markers.  A lot of Mexican nationals head to Tucson to shop in the same way our Canadian neighbors do in Michigan and New York.

A view from Old Baldy Trail (lower part)

The hike I missed was the Madera Canyon Hike and when the group did it they went 2.5 miles up the Old Baldy Trail to Josephine Saddle and then returned via the 4-mile Super Trail which resulted in a hike of 6.5 miles.

Well, the first 2.5 miles up the Old Baldy went so well that I made a mid-course adjustment at Josephine Saddle and decided to continue up the Old Baldy Trail to the summit of Mt. Wrightson, which was another 2.5 miles up (and, of course an additional 2.5 miles down).

I told Joan I would be off the mountain by about 1 p.m. (on the original hike schedule) and because it was only 9:15 a.m. when I arrived at Josephine Saddle I assumed even adding the extra five miles would still get me back down about the same time. Boy was I wrong.

The trail up

The trail up from Josephine Saddle to Mt. Wrightson was 2.7-miles, but included an additional 2,453-feet of elevation in that 2.7 miles so the going was tough. At times it appeared that my eyes were bigger than my lung capacity, but by the time I had put 1.5-miles into the trail there was no chance I was going to turn back and give up on getting to the summit.

Loose rocks and high rock steps made the going pretty strenuous, but by 11:30 a.m. I arrived at Baldy Summit  (elevation 8,780-feet) and the sign pointing to Mt. Wrightson said the trail there was just another .9 miles. That may be one of the toughest .9-miles I have ever hiked.  But I did what my son Tim always told me on our other hikes. Just keep a slow and steady pace and eventually after an infinite number of switchbacks I arrived on the summit of Mt. Wrightson at 9,453-feet.

Memorial to three scouts who died on the trail

Just a few switchbacks short of the summit I suddenly felt my thigh start to painfully cramp up, so I stopped, sat down and drank some water until the cramping stopped and then finished the summit trail.

With all the work I did to get there I took off my back pack, spread out my delicious lunch (trail mix, a cookie and two tangerines and a bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water). I spent about 30 minutes on the summit taking photos and talking with other hikers, one of whom had once worked at Jet Propulsion Laboratory which is just a few miles from where I grew up in La Crescenta, California.

All too soon it was time to start down, but now I was concerned that Joan would get worried as there was no way I was going to be back down by 1 p.m. (or 2 p.m. or even 3 p.m.). My phone didn’t work on the mountain so I just had to hope she would not be alarmed.

Wounded knees

So the trip down started was going really well for the first couple miles until I stumbled and fell, partly down a hill skinning my knees and one elbow and spraining a finger on my right hand. I felt pretty stupid, but mostly my pride was hurt. The only good thing is that I was alone and no one saw the mishap except me.

From Mt. Wrightson I made the 2.7-mile trip down to Josephine Saddle in just over an hour and it was 1:45 p.m. when I made the decision to not go back down the steep Old Baldy Trail but to take the smoother, but longer “Super Trail” that added 1.3 miles to the trip but saved some wear and tear on the old knees which were already pretty worn and torn.

A view from the upper trail

The trip down the Super Trail seemed very long, but before I knew it I was back at the parking lot about 3:20 p.m. Somewhere about 2 p.m. I got a good enough phone signal to let Joan know I was delayed by a longer hike and she was relieved to hear from me, but she detected that I was pretty tired.

Part of the problem was that I took 3 bottles of water and two bottles of frozen Gatorade up the trail, but that was about 2 bottles short of what I actually needed. I also needed to have more food (my son Tim always emphasizes that you need to constantly fuel on a hike) to keep up my strength.

Another summit view

But I’m a stubborn old man and was glad that I had done the extra distance. The views were outstanding and the weather was pretty good for this time of year when things could get hot. Temperatures on the summit were about 60 degrees and about 85 at the floor where my car was parked.

I called Joan when I was back at my car, but didn’t tell her about my wounded knees (a little Native American reference there) until I returned home.

Joan made a nice dinner of leftover Sloppy Joans and a great Southwest salad. I spent the rest of the evening watching (and rooting for) the Michigan Wolverines and moaning a lot about my sore legs.

To see more photos simply scroll down.