Day 3 – 4/30/18
redington Road to Gordon Hirabayashi Campground
13.2 Miles
12.56 miles according to Garmin.
A tough, long hike, but nothing compared to the 17 miles we did the day before. We were glad we decided to finish this passage instead of quitting and asking for a ride back to the car. Pushing through felt so much more rewarding.
I was awake at 2:30AM and got up and started getting ready to go. Tore down camp and started to pack up bedding. Woke Chris at 3AM and we ate cold breakfast of pop tarts and 5-hour energy in lieu of coffee. Saved us time from having to fire up the pocket rockets. We finished packing up camp and were on the trail by 4AM.
I hadn’t done this yet while backpacking, but it was still dark that early in the morning, so we hiked under the light of the fat moon and with our headlamps. It was awesome. Didn’t get to take any good photos until there was enough light from the rising sun.
Chris went into beast mode on this trail. He’s one of those terrible morning people. I was right behind him when we started out. I’d look up from the trail and he’d be a little further ahead of me. I’d look up again a few moments later and he would be way ahead of me. I stopped to drop my pack and remove my longsleeve shirt as I was getting sweaty, and by the time I was ready to go again, he was completely out of sight. Just gone. If it was a cartoon, there would have been a billow of dust down the track. At one point when I peaked one of the grassland hilltops, I saw a little light way off in the distance I could only assume was his headlamp. By the time I had caught up to him, the sun was up and he had been waiting at Bellota Ranch Road (FR36) crossing for about 20 minutes. That’s approximately 4 miles from Redington Road.
I wasn’t going slow either. I was moving at a pretty good pace. 5-hour energy is to Chris what spinach is to Popeye.
This stretch of trail from Redington Road to where I caught up to Chris was rolling hills of grasslands and the trail meandered around all of these small hills instead of cutting over them. At some points there were signs of fire damage where the only thing left the railroad ties along the trail were charred slivers of wood and twisted rebar protruding from the ground. I attempted to take a few photos of the early morning moon and some of the sunrise. They were sad attempts.
Shortly after catching up to Chris at Bellota Ranch Road we came across The Lake, which is not a lake, but a watering hole for cattle. We were doing well on water so walked right past this. We didn’t take a break again until we reached the dry creek bed of Agua Caliente Wash where we posted up on our folding stools underneath some large, shady oaks. We wanted to make the switch backs up to the high point of the trail while it was still cool and we were on track making excellent time. This was the low point before that climb up.
From there it was just a little less than a 1000 foot elevation gain to the saddle. Gradual at first, but increased once we reached the switchbacks. Shortly after leaving the wash, the trail joins FR36A and follows it for a while. Along the way we saw two Coues deer. I was not able to get a clear picture of them through the brush. We also saw a grass snake. Those were about the only interesting animals we saw that day.
The trail gets steeper from here and passes West Spring Tank and takes you up the switchbacks to the saddle and gate. Pebbles and sand kept getting in between my sole and boot, which made for a very uncomfortable climb. But it was nothing compared to the initial climb we made a few days prior up to Grass Shack campground on the other side of the Rincon Mountains, which were now distant scenery.
We finally made it to the saddle and gate and could see Molina Campground right off Catalina Highway. The climb down from the saddle to the highway was steep, but not terrible. Still uncomfortable with my broken boot situation though. The trail flattens out among high brush and oak trees close to the highway, and this is where we took our last break for water and snacks.
I had the great idea of stashing our packs here and walking the 2.3 miles to Gordon Hirabayashi with no weight. We transferred water from our camelbaks into one of the empty gallon jugs to carry with us the rest of the way, then we hid our packs behind some large boulders out of sight from the road. We then crossed the highway and passed through Molina CG and followed the trail that parallels the highway along the crest of the hills.
We switched off carrying the water jug until we finally made it close enough to Gordon Hirabayashi CG. The trail doesn’t go through the campground, so we took a short junction to get down there, which just so happened to drop us out right near Chris’ car at the parking lot. We finished about 10:40 AM.
These passages were the hardest we had pushed ourselves on the trail thus far, and we were glad we did. The day before we were seriously playing with the idea of quitting and finishing Passage 10 later, but we were so glad we pushed through. It was far more rewarding.
We picked up our hidden packs near Molina on our way back down the Catalina Highway, then drove back to my Jeep at Camino Loma Alta. We cleaned up a little there, changed into clean clothes, then drove to Barrio Brewery in Tucson for our victory burger and beer. Another successful weekend and two more passages down.
Hiking the Arizona Trail 