Archive for the ‘Hiking Trails’ Tag

Douglas Spring Trail   Leave a comment

Douglas Spring Trail — Image by kenne

On a chilly desert morning

we walk into sun rising

over the Rincon Mountains

in Saguaro National Park East.

— kenne

Spring Flowers Along The Trail   Leave a comment

Spring Flowers Along The Trail — Image by kenne

“I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing
and defends nothing,
but only knows where
the rarest wildflowers
are blooming…”

— Wendell Berry

7 Falls Trail   Leave a comment

7 Falls Trail In Bear Canyon (03-20-15) — Image by kenne

After a day’s walk, everything has twice its usual value.

 
— G.M. Trevelyan

Trails Near Sabino Creek Panorama   Leave a comment

Trails Near Sabino Creek — Panorama by kenne

“O ye’ll tak’ the high trail, and I’ll tak’ the low trail,
And I’ll be in Sabino Canyon a’fore ye . . .”

Mountain Dreams   1 comment

Looking Forward to Hiking Soon In The Catalina Mountains 

Affective September 21, 2020 some of the trails are now open in the
Santa Catalina Mountains after closure after the Bighorn Fire.
These trails remain closed at the burn scar boundary due to hazards that can cause injuries.

Oracle Ridge Trail #1 (3.2 miles)
Brush Corral Trail #19 (1.75 miles)
Mint Spring Trail #20 (0.3 mile)
Box Camp Trail #22 (3.5 miles)
Sabino West Fork Trail #24 (1 mile)
Esperero Trail #25 (3.3 miles)
Finger Rock Trail #42 (1.5 miles)
Pima Canyon Trail #62 (2.4 miles)
Ventana Trail #98 (2 miles)
Pontatoc Trail #410 (2 miles)
Guthrie trail #704A (0.5 mile)
Arizona Trail (32.5 miles)

— kenne

Mountain Forests   3 comments

Coronado National Forest — Images by kenne

One of the things I love about living in the Tucson area is its biodiversity. Being in a desert surrounded by mountains (Sky Islands) with different forest biomes.

In the summer we spend time hiking in nearby mountain forests. However, this summer has been a little different because of the pandemic and forest fires.

Mountain Trail

Sabbaths 1999, VII

Again I resume the long
lesson: how small a thing
can be pleasing, how little
in this hard world it takes
to satisfy the mind
and bring it to its rest.

With the ongoing havoc
the woods this morning is
almost unnaturally still.
Through stalled air, unshadowed
light, a few leaves fall
of their own weight.

The sky
is gray. It begins in mist
almost at the ground
and rises forever. The trees
rise in silence almost
natural, but not quite,
almost eternal, but
not quite.

What more did I
think I wanted? Here is
what has always been.
Here is what will always
be. Even in me,
the Maker of all this
returns in rest, even
to the slightest of His works,
a yellow leaf slowly
falling, and is pleased.

— Wendell Berry

Since I write and share poetry nature, I was not surprised to receive a Wendell Berry poem from one of my hiking buggies, Deborah. She wanted to know if I had posted it in the past, having not it gave me good reason to do so along with the video, “The Women Who Planted Trees,” by Emily Barker.

Mt. Lemmon Trail

On The Trail   1 comment

Sabino Canyon-3503-72On The Trail In Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne

 

Missing Out On Hiking This Summer   2 comments

Hiking Group (1 of 1) blogBox Camp Trail, June 2016

Because of several physical issues,
I have not been able to hike with my friends since April.
Hope to be back on the trail by the fall. — kenne

 

Forgotten The Way By Which I Came   1 comment

Hutch's PoolSabino Creek Near Hutch’s Pool — Panorama by kenne

I wanted a good place to settle:
Cold Mountain would be safe.
Light wind in a hidden pine —
Listen close — the sound gets better.
Under it a gray-haired man
Mumbles along reading Huang and Lao.
For ten years I haven’t gone back home
I’ve even forgotten the way by which I came.

— Gary Snyder

It Always Seems Impossible . . .   1 comment

Milagrosa Loop (1 of 1)-29_art-Nelson Mandela blog.jpg

Art by kenne

Things of Poetry, Revisited   4 comments

Esperero trail to the Ridge“Things of Poetry” — Computer Art by kenne

Things of Poetry

Poppies

line the canyon trail,

brightening

each hiker’s way.

Passing greetings

share the joy

as the morning sun

intensifies

the canyon colors

brilliantly reflected

by each poppy,

the things

of O’Keeffe —

real poetry.

— kenne

Death On The Trail   Leave a comment

D500 PhotosDeath On the Trail — Image by kenne

This towering Saguaro, close to forty feet, fail across a trail near the Sabino Creek Dam. This big fellow had no arms even though it had to be well over 100 years old. There were no signs of disease so it may have just gotten too big for its root system.

kenne

The Hiker   2 comments

Doves, Lightening, HikingThe Hiker — Image by kenne

Further on down the trail
the hiker moves on knowing
life carries him from unknown
to unknown yet a master of destiny.

The hiker prevents the routine
from concealing nature’s secrets
even when the trail’s challenges
come face to face with suffering.

For the hiker, easy and difficult
hikes can all have the same face
until environmental factors cross
the path creating new challenges.

— kenne

Bad Day On Lemmon Rock   7 comments

Lemmon Rock Trail (1 of 1) blog

Pusch Ridge Wilderness — Image by kenne

BAD DAY ON LEMMON ROCK

The wilderness area of the Santa Catalina Mountains
provides many beautiful vistas, massive majestic
rock formations and several challenging hiking trails.

For the start of the fall hiking season,
the naturalists scheduled a hike starting
at the highest point atop Mount Lemmon.

In a prologue to frost and early fall colors,
we arranged a shuttle car at Marshall Gulch
so not to double back the six and a half-mile hike.

Having led this hike two months ago,
it combines four trails leading down into and out
of the Pusch Ridge Wilderness to Marshall Gulch.

Beginning on the Mount Lemmon trail,Wilderness Rock Trail 09-01-14-3658Lemmon Rock Lookout blog
we follow a forest service road through
upper mountain meadows to the Lemmon Rock trail.

The two rocky trails provide a steep 1,800-foot drop
through tall pines on rocky slopes lined with thorny shrubs
with an occasional cairn marking the many switchbacks.

However, cairns are of little help if I misread
a marker and attempts to create my own trail
down an even steeper rocky slope.

Taking a wrong turn at a trail marker,
which was about an hour into the hike,

was the beginning of my bad day on Lemmon Rock.

It quickly became apparent my pace was too fast
for the rocky slope, I was proceeding down, planting
my right foot, so to begin a slide, only to twist my ankle.

The pain told me this was not a slight twist of the ankle —
Oh, SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! Holding back additional profanity,
I quickly started getting up, checking out the damage.

Anyone who hikes with me knows I usually
have my four-pound camera/lens on
the left shoulder, which I balance with the left hand.

Not this time, since I was wearing
a center-body camera harness —
for the first time, not focusing on saving my camera.

In pain, I did a four-point crawl up to the trail
after answering some ankle movement questions
from a fellow hiker, a retired foot doctor.

Continuing to walk on the rocky trail was difficult —
generating expressions of concern from everyone,
some checking their backpacks for an ankle wraps.

Someone had a velcro Ace bandage,
without which I would not have been able
to continue the remaining five miles to the gulch.

The ankle wrap was a blessing, but having now
given the experience, more thought, although a steep climb,
the shorted hike would have been back up to the top.

We live and learn, or do we?
Would I hike five miles again on a sprained ankle?
I hope I never have to face the question.

How here I sit with my wrapped
black and blue swollen ankle iced down —
I guess I won’t be hiking again soon.

— kenne “Wrong-turn” Turner

springed ankle (1 of 1)-2 blogSprained Ankle — Image by Jeff

 

Monday Morning Milers Hiking Mount Bigelow   3 comments

Mt Bigelow 07-15-13

Mt Bigelow 07-15-13

Mt Bigelow 07-15-13

Mt Bigelow 07-15-13

Mt Bigelow 07-15-13

Mt Bigelow 07-15-13Monday Morning Milers Hiking Mount Bigelow In The Santa Catalina Mountains — Images by kenne

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