Name This Hike - March 16, 2019
The hike started out simple enough. I had been eyeing the Bushmaster Mountain Peaks for a few days as we trekked around the Tucson Mountain Range just west of Tucson. I find them beautiful to look at – to me they look like a combination of Noah’s Ark and Mount Ararat. But looking at them in terms of hikability – tall barefaced cliffs with the odd saguaro cactus on them… They looked like a ridge too far.
Lately, I’ve been particularly antsy. There isn’t anything wrong with me, I just get occasionally get bouts of anxiety – in the same way that other people get bouts of arthritis. And the one thing that reliably helps is hiking – especially high and demanding hiking. And Sunday was not a great day for me. So Laur – my very own Captain Marvel – came up with a plan to save my world. “Jannie – look at this! There is a way to hike Bushmaster Mountain.” And he showed me this site. https://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=17595
AZHiker456 described it as a “fun little peak.” And wrote, “For the most part, the ridgeline section is tons of fun, with many solid boulders and even a few sections that require some scrambling up gullies and a chute like rock, but nothing very difficult.”
And the stats she gave made it sound like a walk in the park.
Difficulty 3.5 of 5
Route Finding 5 of 5
Distance Loop 4.22 miles (Laur says “It was actually only 3.3.”)
Elevation Gain 1,061 feet
Accumulated Gain 1,442 feet
Avg Time Round Trip 3-4 hours
Heck, we could do that with our eyes closed. I had visions of doing a lot of climbing at first, dancing along the ridges – much as we did in the mountains of Changwon South Korea – and climbing down a gentle wash at the end.
So on Monday, we playfully started the climb at around 11:30 – knowing we’d be easily back by 2:30 – 3:30 at the latest. 4.22 miles is nothing compared to some of the hikes we’ve done. As we started our first climb Laur asked me what I was going to call this hike. I said, “I have the song ‘I’m All The Way Up’ (bicep track on Body Pump 102 which I had done in the morning) stuck in my mind. That sounds good.”
And then we ran into IT. IT would be the only truly scary part of the hike. IT was climbing up loose gravel with a cliff and a sheer drop on one side, and non-grabbable rock on the other. I should have read AZHiker456’s description a little more closely. In one paragraph she writes, “The most challenging part for me was a short, steep segment with some very loose footing. While negotiating loose footing is not my forte, it’s still not very often that I have to watch it on the uphill; but for this one short section, I needed to do just that!”
GAH! There are panic attacks for no reason – which is my usual forte. But this section of 20 feet gave me good reason. Laur who truly has no fear of heights just said, “Dig your poles in deep and look straight ahead. Do not look down.” Which I did and afterwards instead of feeling great relief, I had this realization that now the only way I would be able to get down off this range was to follow through with the hike the whole way. No turning back because, well, I told Laur I had a new name for the hike. “Never Doing This Again…”
Anyway, we got to the first of six “small” (Laur’s adjective, not mine) peaks along the ridge and things eased up a bit. I thought to myself, “OK, time for some ridge-dancing.” What I mean by that is you walk on a wide area and enjoy the spectacular views. And this was true of peak one.
Peaks two and three – not so much. At one point I was crawling on my hands and knees. Laur thought this was completely unnecessary, but I was “cliffed out” as they say.
Time for lunch. We wedged ourselves into a wee cavern just below peak three to get out of the wind. Did I mention, there was lots of wind on the top of those peaks? And we started munching on our sandwiches.
Laur said, “Jannie, I really wish you would smile and enjoy this hike.” I said, “My new name for this hike is “This Hike Has Exceeded The Limits Of My Medication.”
But after we reached peak four – the actual Bushmaster Peak - and saw how broad the ridge was, we were laughing, “It’s gonna a be a cakewalk from here…” and it was until we reached the end of the ridge and realized that peaks five and six required sliding down some nasty rocks and clamoring over skinny pointy ridges filled with cholla cactus. The other name for cholla cactus is “Teddy Bear” cactus. This is a misnomer. This is nothing huggable about these. They grab on and hold and hurt and require tweezers to pull out their spikes.
At that point I said to myself, “There are only three ways out of here. By finishing it, by helicopter, or by body-bag.” I opted for the first.
Finally, and it was a long finally, we reached the last peak and it was time to climb down - but far from being a gentle switchback to the wash, it was pretty much a bushwhack through a jungle of cactus and forest of boulders. Not dangerous – it wasn’t straight down. But certainly not Korea, where there would have been a well maintained set of stairs to bring you from the top to the bottom.
Quite a few run-ins with cacti and hauling ourselves over boulders later, we reached the wash. And then began the “just around the corner” talk. I’m referring to where our car was parked. We thought it was a lot closer than it was. A few hills, many cacti and rocks, and one snake later we caught a view of our car. Our car that after 11 years with its original owner didn’t have a scratch on it. Three weeks with us and it had two “racing stipes” down the side caused by an attack of tumbleweed on the I 19.
Said I to Laur, “I can take this hike off my bucket list.” 😊
We got home a few hours later than planned and after an hour to unwind and shower, chowed down majorly. These days I am not weighing myself daily because I’m never going to eat less or exercise more. So what’s the point? Still, I occasionally get curious. But both of us were surprised to learn that we put on a few pounds after this hike. (OK, there’s been a few meals out and a lot of vegan junk food in the past few days as well.)
What have I learned from this? This is a question I always ask at the end of a sermon about a particular Gospel reading. But unlike a Gospel reading, the answer is NOTHING! Laur has been invited to hike with some church lads on Thursday to do the Esperero Trail at Sabino Canyon. The fast description is “a trail leading from Sabino Canyon to the high peaks of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness.” The more accurate description notes that it has a section called “Cardiac Gap.”
I’m so envious I’m turning green! No wait, that’s just another spine of Teddy Bear cactus I need to remove…
Lately, I’ve been particularly antsy. There isn’t anything wrong with me, I just get occasionally get bouts of anxiety – in the same way that other people get bouts of arthritis. And the one thing that reliably helps is hiking – especially high and demanding hiking. And Sunday was not a great day for me. So Laur – my very own Captain Marvel – came up with a plan to save my world. “Jannie – look at this! There is a way to hike Bushmaster Mountain.” And he showed me this site. https://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=17595
AZHiker456 described it as a “fun little peak.” And wrote, “For the most part, the ridgeline section is tons of fun, with many solid boulders and even a few sections that require some scrambling up gullies and a chute like rock, but nothing very difficult.”
And the stats she gave made it sound like a walk in the park.
Difficulty 3.5 of 5
Route Finding 5 of 5
Distance Loop 4.22 miles (Laur says “It was actually only 3.3.”)
Elevation Gain 1,061 feet
Accumulated Gain 1,442 feet
Avg Time Round Trip 3-4 hours
Heck, we could do that with our eyes closed. I had visions of doing a lot of climbing at first, dancing along the ridges – much as we did in the mountains of Changwon South Korea – and climbing down a gentle wash at the end.
So on Monday, we playfully started the climb at around 11:30 – knowing we’d be easily back by 2:30 – 3:30 at the latest. 4.22 miles is nothing compared to some of the hikes we’ve done. As we started our first climb Laur asked me what I was going to call this hike. I said, “I have the song ‘I’m All The Way Up’ (bicep track on Body Pump 102 which I had done in the morning) stuck in my mind. That sounds good.”
And then we ran into IT. IT would be the only truly scary part of the hike. IT was climbing up loose gravel with a cliff and a sheer drop on one side, and non-grabbable rock on the other. I should have read AZHiker456’s description a little more closely. In one paragraph she writes, “The most challenging part for me was a short, steep segment with some very loose footing. While negotiating loose footing is not my forte, it’s still not very often that I have to watch it on the uphill; but for this one short section, I needed to do just that!”
GAH! There are panic attacks for no reason – which is my usual forte. But this section of 20 feet gave me good reason. Laur who truly has no fear of heights just said, “Dig your poles in deep and look straight ahead. Do not look down.” Which I did and afterwards instead of feeling great relief, I had this realization that now the only way I would be able to get down off this range was to follow through with the hike the whole way. No turning back because, well, I told Laur I had a new name for the hike. “Never Doing This Again…”
Anyway, we got to the first of six “small” (Laur’s adjective, not mine) peaks along the ridge and things eased up a bit. I thought to myself, “OK, time for some ridge-dancing.” What I mean by that is you walk on a wide area and enjoy the spectacular views. And this was true of peak one.
Peaks two and three – not so much. At one point I was crawling on my hands and knees. Laur thought this was completely unnecessary, but I was “cliffed out” as they say.
Time for lunch. We wedged ourselves into a wee cavern just below peak three to get out of the wind. Did I mention, there was lots of wind on the top of those peaks? And we started munching on our sandwiches.
Laur said, “Jannie, I really wish you would smile and enjoy this hike.” I said, “My new name for this hike is “This Hike Has Exceeded The Limits Of My Medication.”
But after we reached peak four – the actual Bushmaster Peak - and saw how broad the ridge was, we were laughing, “It’s gonna a be a cakewalk from here…” and it was until we reached the end of the ridge and realized that peaks five and six required sliding down some nasty rocks and clamoring over skinny pointy ridges filled with cholla cactus. The other name for cholla cactus is “Teddy Bear” cactus. This is a misnomer. This is nothing huggable about these. They grab on and hold and hurt and require tweezers to pull out their spikes.
At that point I said to myself, “There are only three ways out of here. By finishing it, by helicopter, or by body-bag.” I opted for the first.
Finally, and it was a long finally, we reached the last peak and it was time to climb down - but far from being a gentle switchback to the wash, it was pretty much a bushwhack through a jungle of cactus and forest of boulders. Not dangerous – it wasn’t straight down. But certainly not Korea, where there would have been a well maintained set of stairs to bring you from the top to the bottom.
Quite a few run-ins with cacti and hauling ourselves over boulders later, we reached the wash. And then began the “just around the corner” talk. I’m referring to where our car was parked. We thought it was a lot closer than it was. A few hills, many cacti and rocks, and one snake later we caught a view of our car. Our car that after 11 years with its original owner didn’t have a scratch on it. Three weeks with us and it had two “racing stipes” down the side caused by an attack of tumbleweed on the I 19.
Said I to Laur, “I can take this hike off my bucket list.” 😊
We got home a few hours later than planned and after an hour to unwind and shower, chowed down majorly. These days I am not weighing myself daily because I’m never going to eat less or exercise more. So what’s the point? Still, I occasionally get curious. But both of us were surprised to learn that we put on a few pounds after this hike. (OK, there’s been a few meals out and a lot of vegan junk food in the past few days as well.)
What have I learned from this? This is a question I always ask at the end of a sermon about a particular Gospel reading. But unlike a Gospel reading, the answer is NOTHING! Laur has been invited to hike with some church lads on Thursday to do the Esperero Trail at Sabino Canyon. The fast description is “a trail leading from Sabino Canyon to the high peaks of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness.” The more accurate description notes that it has a section called “Cardiac Gap.”
I’m so envious I’m turning green! No wait, that’s just another spine of Teddy Bear cactus I need to remove…