Posts Tagged With: Tortolita Mountains

Where Cows Go

2024-01-30

We’re running late, its 1pm. Well, that’s three hours late. It looks like this will be a shorter walk than we thought, but that’s okay. DF has been getting some therapy on a sore leg the last couple of weeks. This should be a test run. She should be careful, as to not overdo it and too soon.

The plan is to visit the Tortolita Mountains, but this time taking the back way from my old home. We’ll need to find the pass heading south this time, It’s one that we used to come out of our hills through, but heading north.

In the pass is a trail that the mountain bikers have been using more and more during the last decade. Their treads should have kept it evident, but we’ll still have to find the unofficial path in a pretty large piece of grassland desert.

The trail that we’re looking for is one that I used to use often. I wrote a story “Naked to the County Line,” here:

Today, we’re standing on the County Line and beginning to search.
It isn’t an official trail, but if bikers can find it, I can.

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Return to Tortolita II

2022-02-12

We have been visiting/hiking the ‘ol walking trails in the Tortolita Mountains, northwest of Tucson, where I used to live. Now, we are going to investigate the strawbale home that I built and the destruction of habitat where my stealth trail and Havarock sat. Both near the spot that Javalina kept as a safe home. I know that a road and building pads have been introduced. I don’t know how extensive.

The series in this website“My Private Place for Naturism” is about my experiences in this place.

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Tortolita Spring Equinox

2019-03-12

 

In the Spring of 2019, I had finished fixing up my strawbale home in the Tortolita Hills to sell. Unique homes sometimes have to wait for the unique buyer. So, as the story goes:

 

My house is on the market. When it is shown the realtor insists that I disappear. She’s afraid I’ll somehow blow her deal. I’m given a two hour notice and expected to wander for an hour, or more. Today, right now, it’s one of those times when I have to stay away for a while. It is overcast and not particularly warm, but the equinox is coming and there should be some Spring flowers to see in the Tortolitas. I’m feeling some stress, so this seems like a good time for a hike. The exertion should calm me. The usual practice of being in mindfulness will bring me back in the moment. Nature should heal me with her magic.

From Inside the Tortolitas Out

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New Years Day 2014

We got a late start after a late New Years Eve…of course. When we began our drive up into the mountains, it was around noon plus thirty. The goal was to visit the petroglyphs that we had been to once before:

https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2017/09/08/in-search-of-tortolita-petroglyphs-a-trip-report/

It is winter time and the rattlesnakes are asleep with most of the local reptiles. We can bushwack, step over rocks and climb without fear of disturbing those fellows. The vegetation is more sparse and easier to see under and move around when naked. It is a time when I’ll survey the 55 saguaros that grow on my property and revisit terrain that is too dangerous at other times.

It sounded weird to us as the radio told us the date was in 2014. The reported temp on the radio was 66F downtown as we slowly plodded our way up the 4×4 trail, which has been severely eroded. We weren’t sure what to expect for wind-chill, but the forecast was eight miles per hour at most. To a delight, as we parked and exited the SUV, I was stunned by the absolute surreal silence about us and the warm sun on my nude body. We were in the heart of the Tortolitas.

As we ascended the mountains, a guy on a mountain bike had switched places with us twice, but he was soon going another way. The place was obviously all ours. We had been concerned because people’s New Years Day outdoor activities can detract from our elbow room.

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Monsoon Dawn into Sunrise

2018-07-24

Night into Day

I like to feel the dawn. The nakedness most certainly adds to the wonder. Senses are alive. It perks up my consciousness. The animals are all responding, birds singing, night life is going to rest. Most species respond to each other sexually at this time, awakened by the sun. I can experience the energy of the associated sensations myself, as a fellow animal.

Then, there is the morning sunlight, its warmth, its relaxing effects. I sometimes feel like a lizard warming myself on a rock, getting the sleeping blood to lighten up.

During the monsoon, the morning display of the sunrise clouds can strike spiritual awe. There are the beams of light, the angle of it casting longer shadows, making everything that much more distinctive.

Rain Far to the East

This morning, there is a blessed cool breeze circulating around the fresh green growth and my body. It will be 110 later today, breaking another record. This is a pleasant respite.

Monsoon sunrise, wondrous sunrise, hews of gold, silhouettes of saguaros and purple mountains. I see turquoise thunderheads over the Catalinas.

I wonder, am I ever closer to earth and my nature in the universe, than as these nude times?

This body feels loved by a universe, welcomed this morning, as another piece of nature. A part of what is wondrous. The unique smells of the monsoon, its plants, flowerings, the earth soaked with moister and cleansed, every miracle, I am a part of these, too. I am this, simply because I was born to perceive it fully.

Out at White Sands Missile Range, a day’s drive east, someone has pushed a button and set off a rocket. I see the glowing trail from where I stand. The sun enriches its display. I watch, as it floats apart, growing into a long golden cloud itself. For all of man’s world, its war, its technology, the interplay of seemingly important activities, there is irrelevance. None of it truly matters in a moment during a monsoon sunrise. All of it is diminished by a thunderhead over a mountain range, the sound of sweet life, and the smell of a desert exploding with bounty after rain.

This is all best savored without an agenda. That is only within this moment, not preoccupied with a list of chores and concerns, just awareness and sense of gratitude, being here, now. The rest can wait…maybe until after going back to bed for a while…in peace….

Effects of a Setting Sun in an Eastern Sky

 

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Monsoon: The Desert Springs Back to Life: Part III

Summer 2006

 

Another Monsoon Day

This morning, I am compelled to walk out the old jeep trail behind my house and take some pictures. I’m chronicling the rebirth of the desert in progression and recording the blooms of the monsoon plants for myself. The desert around my house has been transformed into a grassy meadow.

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Monsoon: The Desert Springs Back to Life

Summer 2006

After a record burying drought, the monsoon has been exceptional. Weird climate change weather patterns have brought incredible life back to the desert. Amazingly thick foliage now blooms.

The desert streams have been flowing more often than not and all through the day. I even got flooded in and out of the neighborhood one day (it hadn’t happened in years and never from the summer rains). The dry washes that create dips in the roads filled with flowing water. There is risk to be lifted and be swept off the road downstream.

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