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.
Hey hey, my my Rock and roll can never die There’s more to the picture Than meets the eye
Hey, hey, my, my Out of the blue and into the black You pay for this, but they give you that And once you’re gone, you can’t come back When you’re out of the blue and into the black
Since 2011, I have been a volunteer naturalist at the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area
northeast of Tucson. The Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) have
partnered with the Santa Catalina Ranger District of Coronado National Forest to
offer educational programs for children and adults for more than 35 years.
Sabino Canyon North of the Hohokam Ruins
SCVN focuses on conservation, field trip programs for children k-6, nature walks,
guided hikes, and demonstrations designed to help the public learn about nature.
One of the most popular Elementary School field trip programs teaches children about the Hohokam people who lived in the Tucson basin hundreds of
years ago. (“Back To The Past”)
The Clay Remains Of A Hohokam Adobe Structure
The Hohokam organized villages constructing pithouses, sunken earthen, and
adobe structures with pounded floors and thatch roofs. To provide children at least
a basic understanding of the Hohokam, our naturalist training includes
presentations from anthropologists such as Drs. Paul and Suzanne Fish, who have
written on the “Hohokam Millennium.”
Larry Conyers Hiking Down To The Sabino Canyon Hohokam Ruins
As a member of SCVN, I have been provided just enough information “to be
dangerous.” So, one day when I was having a conversation with my neighbor and
anthropologist Larry Conyers, he asked me if I knew of the Hohokam ruins south of
Sabino Canyon Recreation Area near the old Fenster Boarding School. Maybe I had
been told about ruins, but when asked, I had no recollection.
The Fenster Boarding School In The Distance On The Right
We agreed on a day and time we would go to Sabino Canyon Recreation Area,
walk the Bear Canyon Trail before crossing the fenceline of the southern Canyon boundary.
Pieces of Pottery Placed On Nearby Stones
Larry and I spent a little over two hours in the ruins site, so this posting is only
meant to be a “snapshot” of what we experienced. The body of the posting content
contains links to additional anthropological information on the Sabino Canyon Ruins.
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.”
Seven Falls in Bear Canyon — January 2012 Images by kenne
This Friday the SCVN hike will be to Seven Falls in Bear Canyon. The trail crosses the creek coming from Seven Falls seven times and there should be plenty of flowing water at the falls.
High Water Over Low Water Crossing (Bear Canyon Bridge, January 1, 2017) — Image by kenne
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend But I always thought that I’d see you again Been walking…
With morning temperatures in the 50’s & 60’s, our Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists Friday hikes are now off Mt. Lemmon and back in the canyon. Today’s hike was one of my favorite, Blackett’s Ridge that runs between Sabino Canyon and Bear Canyon.
The 6.3-mile hike begins at the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center and is relatively flat for the first 1.5 miles before the trail becomes very rocky, turning into a series of 36 switchbacks, with an elevation change of 1800 feet for the next 1.5 miles.
The trail hasn’t changed much over the six years I have been hiking Blackett’s, and I would like to say the same for me, but my old body is beginning to signal that it might not be willing to hike trails with this much elevation change in such a short distance.
kenne
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity…
Sabino Canyon North of the Hohokam Ruins
The Clay Remains Of A Hohokam Adobe Structure
Larry Conyers Hiking Down To The Sabino Canyon Hohokam Ruins
The Fenster Boarding School In The Distance On The Right
Larry Conyers Exploring The Ruins Site
Pieces of Pottery Placed On Nearby Stones
Desert Photo Shoot, A Different Perspective — Image by kenne
Fountaingrass in Bear Canyon — Image by kenne
Saguaro Near Bear Canyon Trail — Image by kenne
Blackett’s Ridge Between Sabino Canyon and Bear Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains
A mountain stream in Bear Canyon — Image by kenne
Sabino Canyon Picnic Site with View of Thimble Peak (February 2017) — Image by kenne
High Water Over Low Water Crossing (Bear Canyon Bridge, January 1, 2017) — Image by kenne
SCVN Friday Hike, Blackett’s Ridge (November 4, 2016) — iPhone Images by kenne
Bear Canyon Panorama — Image by kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 