Sycamore Canyon (Santa Ritas)

Distance: 5.5 miles (Magellan GPS track)

Elevation: 773 ft (4891’ - 5664’)

Hiking Time: 8:29 AM to 2:15 PM (5 h 46 min)

Weather: sunny all day, some easterly breezes outside of canyon



Yesterday was a successful adoption event. All five of my kittens were adopted out to new homes. One man, Jessie, who adopted my favorite tuxedo boy, told me he had come to Petsmart just because of my photographs. That made my day! I had these kittens since 1 August, and five 13-week-old kittens in one XL crate was getting too much. They were starting to fight with one another.

I never saw myself as a local celebrity in the animal welfare area, but people do know me and recognize me, and give me compliments. I've always been one who prefers to remain anonymous.

Now I can have my Saturdays back for hiking, as so many of my hiking friends only hike on Saturdays because Sundays is their church day. Today was one such day with Steve A, Rod, Gina and me. Steve is a trained naturalist and always has some great comments to make about the wildlife and geology we see along the way. I took Sadie and Minnie along, because both hadn't been hiked all week. I've been spending my free time during the week trying to catch up reading books for Amazon.

Today's hike was led by Steve, a 5.75-mile hike that began on the Box Canyon Road off SR83 toward Madera Canyon at 8:32am (we followed the parallel shaded Mill Creek, where a plethora of butterflies entertained us), then north on FR231 to FR4053. The FRs were high and exposed, and Minnie quickly overheated. I had to stop a few times to give her water and let her rest in the shade. I also need to focus on a diet for her. While Kevin says she's "solid," I say she's overweight. Time to stop the free-grazing for the dogs and time to start feeding them portioned meals twice a day.

The Santa Rita foothills are a lovely alluvial plain with vast views in all directions. We were walking on a road that will soon be closed off for a new copper mine, and that means the foreign-held company will pollute the water underground and get away with it. This may be our last chance to see this area in its natural state. ATVers and cattle still roam these foothills at their leisure. We didn't see any cattle, but we did see one ATV.

The area north of here had been heavily mined last century and what was mined then still remains a scarred area if tailings, rock slides and nude hill sides. The oaks, mesquites, chollas, bear grass all will make way for machinery and noise.

It was 85F today with little cloud cover. This direct heat affected us all. Had it been 20 degrees cooler with overcast, and with perhaps more water in the canyon, this would have been a great little hike. The hike up the mining road was at a moderate grade and not too long, but the lack of much shade made this a hot walk. I had enough water for both dogs, but every chance I had, I made them drink creek water. At one point I picked up both dogs and put them in a water tank so that they could drink at head level and cool off their bodies. There wasn't as much water in any of the pools as we had hoped for.

Once we turned off into Sycamore Canyon, the trail became the narrow creek bed, which meandered around and through thick brush and tall grasses and down steep rock beds. Poison ivy lingered here, and I had to be careful not to touch it. It looked like it recently experienced flash flooding, but there was very little water left. We didn't see much water until the last half-mile of the canyon near the road again.

The canyon was narrow and overgrown, and in parts along high cliffs. This provided shade for the dogs. If they got ahead of us, they lay down in the cool creek bed and waited for me to catch up with them. Dry rocks here become active waterfalls during a rain, but all we had today was a little residue.

The few sycamores here were near the end of the canyon. There was some water flowing, but the water contained a high level of copper residue (the water looked rusty) Leftover flash flood debris also crowded the creek bed with organic trash we had to get around. I was quite glad to be back on the road again and at the parked vehicles!

We pulled over into a shaded spot and sat there for well over an hour, drinking beer (one each), water and fruit juice and we talked about other hikes and life in general. It was 4pm before we drove off and headed home.

I like this group of friends. Everyone is upbeat, calm, willing to try new things, and courteous. Today's hike wasn't the best hike we have been on (too hot), but under ideal weather conditions, this could have been a nice, enjoyable one for everyone.