2014-06-13 and 2015-06-26
I have been solo in the Catalina Mountains working out a camping tarp arrangement:
https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2018/08/01/mt-lemmon-experiments-and-green-mountain-trail-part-i/
After I break camp, I stop about a ¼ mile past San Pedro Vista, which is a very popular lookout to the San Pedro River Valley and beyond.
Looking Out to the San Pedro Valley
} I am at the Green Mountain Trailhead parking lot. I have had hopes for this spot. Going up the previous day, there was only a white SUV. The same one is still there.
As I pull up naked, I have to park away because the people are just coming out to get in and leave. They drive off and I figure that the trail is mine. I don’t know how far that I will hike. The plan is to walk this, but I am most interested in just looking things over for future, longer backpacking sojourns.
Everything has been either stair step up, or down in this mountain range. I know by my research, that this one is a downhill and any distance would be uphill on the return. I am already feeling tired. I’m sure that I haven’t yet acclimated to the elevation.
There is an older man and a young, probably grandson, that pulled into the other side of the parking lot and then got out, as I initially ascended the Green mountain Trail. I have kept an eye on them. They don’t appear to be hiking far, no water, not a well exercised looking body, probably just a short jaunt. I make sure that I am well enough ahead of them. This is a tough trail. I’m confident that they won’t be going far.
I find an expanse of impressive rock formations and a steep slope with pine trees among it.
It becomes evident that in this 7000 ft. elevation, it is hot out, when not in the shade. I travel a bit past the first trail intersection, when I hear a fire damaged rotted tree fall, further down the trail. First I find the thought, “If a tree falls and there is no one to hear it…” Then, I noticed that there is no strong wind here. There are many old carcasses of burnt trees from a fire a few years ago. I question, “Could a bear have felled one to get at insects? There is a drought.” I also notice the trail descending steeply downhill for quite a ways before me. I’m really pretty tired. I turn around to climb back out.
I pass a tree that had fallen across the trail. It still has needles on it. Then, I find a large Ponderosa Pine the same way. But I don’t remember these on the way down the trail. I continue none-the-less.
I top a ridge and sure enough, my suspicions are true. I am at the busier San Pedro Vista parking lot and naked. I could head back and hopefully find the lost trail. I could wrap the bath wrap around me and walk along the road in public. Then there is a potential third option, which is to climb directly over the hill between the two parking lots to reach the trailhead parking and my SUV. I decide to try the third option.
I trudge up the slippery pine needles on the steep hillside. When I reach the top, I am able to see my red truck way below, but I see no way to descend the steeper slope. I search and climb among the rocks and leaves to no avail.
Eventually, I end up climbing back down the slope and proceed down the trail. I just don’t want to walk in the direct sun’s heat through public and dressed in a bath wrap. Besides, the trail is beautiful shady and nude.
I find my trail, which is marked only by someone’s tie cord on a bush. The trail that I had deviated onto, isn’t listed, or marked clearly by a sign, but it looked definitive, like the more worn main path.
As I reach the top of the ridge saddle, before descending into the parking area, I find a trail heading up the hill to the right. Upon further investigation, I find that it would take me to the hilltop that I had last been on searching, but had turned around on. I actually could have gone that way.
Well, carnude, carnude, all the way home.
Another Reconnoiter: One Year Later
2015-06-26
DF and I reconnoitered the Green Mountain Trail from San Pedro Vista one summer. We were waiting to spend the weekend nearly across the street with a group of friends as a retreat.
The occasion was also in a well-developed campground. While we waited for a 1:00 check in, DF and I decided to try for a little naturism.
We pull into the San Pedro Vista carpark. I show DF the trail to see how she feels about a further excursion down it. There are some incredible rock outlets and views to wet an appetite. We find a short trail leading out to one of these massive outcrops and take it. There is a couple there. We wait for them to leave in to their own explorations.
With the huge rocks and the thick vegetation, we are able to bare ourselves to the breeze for a few minutes. It is a sweet experience, but all too short. Another party is heard on its way.
Frustrated, standing nude in the brush, I watch this party heading toward us. Their heads are looking down watching their steps. I simply drape cloth over my genitals, as I stand behind a boulder. I questioned this incursion. Do I really need to submit to the humiliation, the suggestion, the ignorant edict, that there is something wrong, or offensive, about what we are doing? Would they really care?
Afterward, I successfully, stealthfully, sneak nude along the trail for a while, until we see our time gone.
DF is now convinced and we put this hike into the bucket list and then we join our friends.
Clothing is Uncomfortable and Inefficient:
I’m wearing only my camouflage kilt undone, as I drive the short distance to the campsite and our friends. Shortly, we find the turn into the campground. As I turn, I notice a pull and stiffness in the steering. As I stop at the gate a hissing noise alerts me to a screw in the tire. It is losing air very fast. I am able to get registered and park on a flat spot just as the tire goes totally flat. A flat tire is a bad break, but it couldn’t have been in a more perfect place. I don’t have to repair the damage until our next day, I will have friends to help me, I am in shade and more.
I change into conventional clothing. The only airing out that I will enjoy during the two days is when I get up in the night to stroll nude to the toilet in the evening air. DF then decides to make the excursion herself. It is fun, liberating, and excusable. The evenings stay warm somehow after midnight, after the rains. During night two, we were all sitting around a bonfire with umbrellas for an hour, or so during a drizzle.
It is okay, especially with such a fun group. It’s just that I’m not used to wearing clothing so much without interruption. It gets uncomfortable. Modern clothing isn’t natural. It takes some getting used to.
A Bit of a Pleasant Walk to the Restrooms
So the next morning I have to a tire to change, a first with this vehicle. This is my 4×4, which could have had a flat in the tooleys on a cliff, miles from help. The spare tire wheel doesn’t fit the round slightly greater diameter of the newer non-factory locking hubs and has to be ground off with a dremal (sic) to fit it on. I learn quite a lot during the two hour ordeal, yes, two hours just to change a tire! I must buy a tire plug kit, a new portable compressor, and the jack is inadequate for rough terrain. Now, the spare wheel fits. I actually feel looked after to have learned these lessons in this situation.
What amazed me the most and relates to this site, is how clothing gets dirty. The last few tires that I have changed, I have done nude. It is a much more aware sensitive experience to change a tire nude. One tends to keep the body away and only hands get dirty. What mess might come, can generally be swept away. When wearing clothing, the large dusty spare, etc., rub up against the clothing constantly. There is no way to know, because there is no feel to the cloth surface. Clothing just hangs down and over the tire without me knowing. I got filthy. It was very inefficient.
Not thinking to bring extra clothing, I had to wear the dirty shorts, only brushing them off. I actually almost forgot clothing when packing. I usually keep warm clothes in my backpack, but I was working off of a check list for a nude car camping occasion.
Post Script:
The following two week’s posts will cover our consequent and recent backpacking trip down The Green Mountain Trail. We also explore a side trail to Maverick Spring, our destination. We got around tough weather conditions, discovered a glorious rugged freedom and employed an unashamed freely nude naturist’s policy during encounters with others, all interestingly in contrast with these three earlier more stealthful outings.
The Free Range Naturist 