31/03/2023
Hutch's Pool loop trail (a loop back through Bear Canyon), 22.8 miles, Elevation Gain: 4,026 feet; In the Pusch Ridge Wilderness, Sabino Canyon near Tucson, Arizona, 2 days, one-night backpack.
Sometimes adventures stretch time for me. I see how these excursions away from the routines of daily life can become addicting. For the first time, I met people on the trail who have managed to live their life full-time in the wilderness, or at least most of their time. More on them, later.
We started the hike on Monday morning, 3-27-23, in the 80 degree Arizona sun. We welcomed the heat after a particularly cold and blustery winter in Colorado this year. I couldn't imagine what Arizona hiking must be like mid-summer. Spring was a perfect time.
The Saguaro cacti were a nice surprise for me. I've seen pictures and movies with them but in person, they are a lot grander than I imagined and always present on the trail. The barrel cacti were also fun for me to see along the trail. We hiked along the phoneline trail and could see the tram in the distance. A road next to a hiking trail is always a bit irksome to me but after around mile 4, we were free of the tram.
The beautiful part of my experiences with desert hiking in Arizona (my Grand Canyon experience), is that when you find an oasis, the topography drastically changes. When we arrived at Hutch's pool, we found all kinds of trees, plants and sandy beaches alongside the river and pools.
There were multiple pools to camp out (look for cairns or small trails off the big trail after you cross a significant river on West Fork Trail.) The first camp was full. I was discouraged after a long, hot day of hiking that we would be overcrowded. Presently, there is no pass system for this area. When we arrived at the second pool, there were people there as well. I was about to turn around when a man with a gruff long beard and a viking-like presence called out "There's space here" as he moved his camping chair. I looked at the two beautiful camping spots on sandy beach next to the river and I was sold. Little did I know, that "Hayes" and his friends would be part of the highlight of the trip for us. We set up camp and dipped in the pools. They were quite cold but refreshing. The sand made for some nice exit and entrances to the pools. We were then invited to dinner with the four other backpackers near our site.
Hayes and his crew (who he had just met), dwell in the canyon of Arizona for time-being. Hayes is a retired veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. His navigation skills were taught to him in training for war and now he uses them to climb isolated peaks around the area. He finished the Appalachian trail, and was working on the Arizona trail but found Hutch's pool to be a siren's song. He has stopped there and decided to stay for a while. Lonnie and her partner, Kevin were in their 20's. They have made it their mission to live and learn as much as possible about living in nature. They invited us to come and watch them make a fire from a bow-drill (sticks and a rope). Lonnie moved around the campsite, barefoot and in a dress, with a sweater around her shoulders. She pulled out a bunch of greens that she foraged throughout the day...cucumbers, lettuce, and parsley. I watched Hayes throw all of the greens into his dinner. I asked him in private how he knew for sure that none were poisonous and he said to me with a wry smile "I watched her eat them first."
I looked at Lonnie with awe...at her age, I barely knew how to set up a tent let alone all of the foraging and survival skills that she has learned. She wanders alone sometimes without a partner and I ask her about that since I have some anxiety about solo backpacking as a woman, she states, "I choose to believe in a world of benevolence rather than malevolence." We had one other solo hiker there, Roger, who was in his mid-30's and had just cared for his Mom who died of cancer. He quoted Ram Das, introduced me to writer, Alan Watts, and was high and lovely. We ate dinner and shared hiking stories. I loved the connections made.
We left the campsite early the next day, said goodbye to our new friends, and trekked on to the Bear Canyon trail where we stopped at Seven Falls. My two friends took a dip in the pool there and we made it back to the parking lot later in the day. We were given some insider information about hot springs and other forest areas that are a must see in Arizona. More adventures to come. I'll end with a quote from Allan Watts, who I learned about on the trip: "The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."
