Long Drive Short Walk II

2024-02-20

We’ve come out to the Rosecuge Mountain’s foothills to explore, a short hike, and a breath of nature. We have found our bearings. I’ve been attempting to get here for years, by hiking, foiled by distance, time and a maze of man-made obstacles, the steep canyon-like washes to appropriate water for cattle.

Two of those stories are here: https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2021/06/09/not-getting-lost-pt-1/

And Also: https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2021/06/13/not-getting-lost-part-2/

After collecting bearings, we are back in the SUV heading through another mile of back-road desert.

I take the tiny road under the double power lines out a bit to line up with the mountain hills. It doesn’t appear to have any closer roads through them. Eventually, I see a place to park and walk into the desert hills.

There is a huge unused drainage pipe laying here.

We investigate and discover photo ops.

We walk atop a berm and disturbed area, but soon there is another deep ditch.

The Corp of Engineers and ranchers had been at work here, maybe before environmental law. There are large steel gates with cement to catch water during rains.

We find a slope amongst the steep walls, which allows us to climb in and out of the obstacle and proceed up into the undisturbed desert.  

We’re surprised to find another road/trail. We cross and use this, marking a crossing cairn. You can’t miss sticks and rocks across this road.

It is easy to get off on an angle out here. We don’t want to get lost naked and can’t find the truck when the sun sets. I climb onto a man-made berm.

We take turns posing as king and queen of the mountain, or whatever this pile was about back in the day. There was a major change constructed in this area. It is fun to see how even this desert is absorbing it back.

Keeping landmarks in mind, we make our way toward a familiar mountain.

I find a passage through the thick vegetation. The sunlight shines through leaves and foliage makes a calm verdant glow.

We turn into a sandy wash and soon find ourselves in overgrown obstacles. An opening provides itself, a gateway to the more open hillside. After years, I’ve arrived. This hillside has a green carpet, too. It is prepped for the coming Spring blooms. Some have started.

There is a campsite near the base. I proceed up the hill, while DF curiously checks it out. She then follows.

Turning about, in the distance, I can see the truck and that huge pipe from here.

We continue uphill. A javalina grunts as it runs up the hill ahead of me and shortly disappears again across the ridge to the other side.

Each time I stop to turn, more is revealed by the elevation. All of the major mountain ranges are seen. Some are dozens of miles away.

The sun heats the tops of these hills first in the Spring and there is more and more evidence of the coming blooms. Biodiversity has increased. This is a rich example of the Sonoran Desert. Saguaros of all ages are becoming more numerous.

I find myself among a significant group of saguaros, who are mostly younger. They’re along the southern ridge facing where the warmth of the morning sun comes up. They are clumped together, some in rows. They appear to be overlooking the valley out from the slope. It is like walking into a saguaro movie theater. 

Parents and their children all sit together. The movie is enchanting, vast and filled with life, which is still less encroached by the meddling of man.

If I had to sit 140 years in one place, like this group, this might be it.

There are many peaks in these mountains. We have conquered/bagged our first. We have a better idea of the expanse of these mountains, where the roads go, how far and just what a beautiful less spoiled place this is. A website, well done by a man who “bagged” every peak in this range, has supplied details and maps.

Our experience has touched us. We know of this kind of beauty. We could stay out here walking for many days. Today, it is abundantly green. A coupe more rains, and a few more weeks it may be a grand garden and all of these miles can be walked with absolutely no concern for clothing. It is solitary freedom all the way to Ragged Top Mountain in the Ironwood National Forest.

We stroll back down and inspect the campsite. There is a shade tent, a barbeque, and someone has also collected an illegal pile of saguaro ribs.

We may take the option some Spring, Fall, or Winter to use this quiet spot as a base camp.

We take the easy way back, avoiding the left over ruins of an Army Corp of Engineers water catchment.

These man-made waterways have been like moats to the castle-like mountain range’s hills. Otherwise, the walk is unencumbered, pleasant.

We find our markers and arrive at the SUV about sunset and play with the long shadows.

It is time to head to Nico’s Mexican Fast Foot and then stop by to enjoy a sweat at Terra Sante’s “Turtle” sauna with friends, before returning home to Tucson.

We have to pull off of the two track path to allow a grinning man to pass. He is cruising the sunset desert in his open top jeep. Steering with one hand, a can of beer in the other, he nods. His expression and laid back posture speaks a thousand words.  It’s the feeling that we three share, “Ain’t this great?” Looking down into the cab, the sight of two naked people doesn’t faze him.

I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.

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