Farewell hike with Nina in Madera Canyon

Nina and her husband Mark are moving to West Virginia next week.  Today was the last and only good day I could get a group of friends together to meet up with her one last time before she moves on to greener (and wetter!) pastures.  The only viable hike that was nearby was the Nature Trail in Madera Canyon, where oak and pine trees shade most of the walk.  Steve and Holly had never been here so the trail was new to half the group.

The expected high in Tucson was 100F so we had to start early.  For me that meant getting up at 5am, leave the house at 6:15am to pick up Holly in town and SteveT in Whetstone.  Dogs Trace and Zeke came along and sat with Holly.  Zeke's getting impatient with other dogs invading his pace and sat in the rear of the vehicle, behind the rear seat that Holly was using.  Trace sat next to Holly on a reclined seat.  We had a lively conversation all the way to Madera Canyon.

I was 15 minutes late.  I miscalculated the driving time and then drove past the trailhead parking.  We agreed to meet at the Whitehouse picnic area, but it's not marked as such via any of the signs.  It's marked as the "Nature trail parking area"  Our 8am meetup became an 8:30am meetup at 74F.  It was a cool, shaded start with few people on the trail.  There was also no water in the creek and what water there was was muddy and stinky, just the kind that Trace likes to romp in.

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I like this trail.  There's a lot of history and natural beauty along the way.  The last time Nina and I did this trail, we started at the Proctor parking area, 0.75 miles farther south.  This party is more exposed, but when there is water running, the lower water fall is worth stopping at.

We walked at a slow to moderate pace, stopping often to drink water and take pictures.  We had the dogs on leashes for most of this hike as rangers do patrol the trails and parking lots quite often to ensure people are following the rules.  I noticed that more than half of the vehicles were not displaying their park pass or day use fee tag.  

The sycamores here are already changing colors, from green to a dull brown.  There wasn't much as in fall colors, but just being together and chatting was enjoyable.

It took us two hours to get to the Madera picnic area, the highest parking lot in the canyon and the trailhead parking lot to Mount Wrightson. We rested here at a shaded picnic table, ate snacks and gave the tired dogs water.  We could now feel the heat.  The sun was now higher up and thus shining on parts of the trail that were shaded in the morning sun.  Cars were now coming up the canyon and filling up the parking areas.

We walked on the road from parking lot A to parking lot B to resume the trail, cutting out an uphill return hike in the exposed sun.  The road has no shoulder, though, and I don't like walking on roads that force drivers to slow down unnecessarily.

The hike took us over four hours for the 4.87 miles we tracked.  I was now very hungry and thirsty.  I hadn't brought any snacks to save my appetite for our farewell lunch at Nina's favorite restaurant in Sahuarity, Pub1922, named so for its 19 varied bottled beers and 22 beers on tap.