Lemmon Pools

This past Sunday I joined Bill B, Andy, Rod and Steve on a nice five-mile hike to the hidden Lemmon Pools. It was a hot day and the high elevation and cold water were a refreshing treat. Sadie came along.

My Canon Rebel battery died before we got to the pools, so any photographs of the pools were taken by Bill. He is the only person I know who takes as many photos as I do. I was not expecting battery failure as I had my batteries charged overnight. My mistake is that I didn't bring a second battery. Normally one battery takes over 200 photographs.

The hike started out just like my recon hike earlier this spring (22 May). We parked two cars at the Mount Lemmon trailhead and the third car lower at Marshall Gulch. Unlike my hike, this was a shuttle hike which made for a shorter and more relaxing hike. We got started after 8am and had plenty of parking spaces.

We continued on from the trailhead along the power substation toward the Lemmon Lookout trail. We stopped at the lookout station but it was not manned. Dave, the popular ranger there, was no longer manning it for the season. Views here were toward the south and west.

The Lemmon lookout trail had been cleared of all downed trees, which made the descent to the Wilderness of Rocks trail much easier than a few months ago. Even Sadie showed no fear this time as she didn't have to hop over, scoot under or gallop around large Douglas firs.

We made it to the hidden pools before noon. Bill had been here the week before and knew the route. We all jumped in besides Steve, who sat along the edge of the tannin-laced waters for the hour we were there. "Jumping in" is an overstatement as I hate getting into cold water, so I slowly walked into the pool with a bit of dramatic verbage. Once in, though, the water wasn't so bad.

Sadie acted as guard and didn't whine this time. Normally she doesn't like to be too far from me when I go swimming. Her only misbehavior was barking at some of the dogs along the way, especially other German Shepherd Dogs. I have got to break her of that behavior as it's embarrassing when she gets ugly toward other dogs. Otherwise her trail behavior is quite good. (I watched several "The Dog Whisperer" episodes and Cesar Milan recommends a vibration collar; I will try that out in the next few weeks).

We got back to our cars at 4:30pm, which seemed late for such a short hike. Where had the time gone? The trailhead parking now was full. Shortly after we all left the trailhead, with me nervously watching my gas gauge show LOW FUEL, we all ended up driving right into a violent thunderstorm as we descended the mountain. Once back in Tucson, though, the skies were clear until I arrived back home at 8:30pm and another volley began that lasted most of the night.

Kevin was already in bed but I was anxious to hear his day at the Arizona Border Tea Party rally. That rally was attended by the New York Times and other big media. The Lost Angeles Times, according to Kevin, was not there. Figures.