Rancho Fundoshi Above Bear Canyon Creek — Images by kenne
“Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.”
— Georgia O’Keeffe
In Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, if you hike to Seven Falls, you walk the Bear Canyon road to Bear Canyon trail, which crosses the Bear Canyon creek seven times. South of the trailhead sets a house on a cliff above the creek outside the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. Since 2010, I have hiked to Seven Falls several times and may have noticed the house but was more focused on the hike.
Yesterday, a group of us older, now slow hikers hiked the newly paved Bear Canyon road to the Bear Canyon trailhead, taking a trail south to get a better view of the house on the cliff, where I took a few images of the house. After discussing the possible owners, I decided to do a Google search once I got home. I first did a drag & drop in Google Images with no match. So, started a Google search using a few descriptors. I learned that about 65 years ago, Jack Segurson, a local high school wrestling, and swimming coach and teacher from the 1950s into the late 1980s, bought the 151-acre property that he lived on, cherished, and mold into a naturalist’s paradise — it became become his legacy.
Segurson died at age 90 in 2011, and soon afterward, an appraiser valued his land at $3.9 million. He left the property to The Nature Conservancy with restrictions that it never be sold or developed. The Nature Conservancy donated the property, which Segurson named “Rancho Fundoshi,” a fundoshi is a Sumo wrestler’s loincloth to Pima County. The Pima County Regional Flood Control District manages the property as open space and owns and manages other lands along Bear Canyon and Sabino Canyon as part of its riparian habitat and upper watershed preservation program.
One word (after the sun) that best describes our past, present and future is water. Currently, in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area the mountain runoff is restarting nature’s wonderful cycle. Other than the fact it almost took my D800 the other day, I love being in its presence. Maybe I need to reduce my “risk factor.”
Bear Canyon Trail Above Seven Falls — Image by kenne
Blessed with clouds And only spotted rain, Hiking the twelve-mile Sabino Canyon loop trail Down through Bear Canyon Was rewarding and inspirational.
Entering the lower canyon Above the falls The clouds opened Atop Bear Canyon Kissing the peaks Lighting nature’s altar.
Below the altar’s pinnacles The Bear Canyon trail Curves away from The dry creek bed Under which water flows Feeding the seven falls.
The steep rocky canyon walls Provide a stark environment For plants to grow. Even so, the stately saguaros Are able to survive as sentinels In this mountain sanctuary.
Offering a serene haven For the mountain gods, Keepers of the mountain ways, To nurture the healing spirits Honed by the ancients’ as Guardians of the canyon trails.
One of the most popular hikes in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area is the trail to Seven Falls in Bear Canyon. The trail to the falls crosses the Bear Canyon creek seven times (seven crossing to seven falls). Usually there is water in the creek, adding to the hiking adventure.
Last Thursday, Ed Rawl, Jan Labiner and I hiked the trail from the Bear Canyon road entrance to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. Even after 19 inches of rain during the monsoon season (July, August, September), the creek is dry. There is some water at the falls, but it disappears underground once down in the canyon.
The now over eleven-year drought continues to impact the Sonoran Desert ecology. As pointed out in previous posting, invasive plants are competing for water in these drought conditions, i.e., fountain grass and buffelgrass. You can learn more about these and other invasive species at “Invaders“, a project of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
One Of The Bear Canyon Creek Crossings With Water Flowing, April, 2013 — Image by kenne
Hiking the Seven Falls Trail, October, 2013, No Water In The Creek (Click On Any Of The Tiled Photos For Larger Slideshow Image) — Images by kenne
A mountain stream in Bear Canyon — Image by kenne
Bear Canyon Trail Above Seven Falls — Image by kenne
One Of The Bear Canyon Creek Crossings With Water Flowing, April, 2013 — Image by kenne
Fountaingrass in Bear Canyon — Image by kenne
Buttonbush Near Bear Canyon Creek — Images by kenne
