Hill and Dale: Seven Falls Trail to Hutch's Pool to Phoneline Trail

Epic hike today.

The plan was to suggest to my hiking partner Misty that when we got to the junction of the West Fork Trail to Hutch's Pool, we add the 3-mile spur to our existing 18-mile hike. Knowing Misty's love of uber-long hikes, and love of a challenge, I already knew she'd agree—and of course she did. So we ended up close to 21 miles for the day, and a glorious one it was, despite the wind blowing up through Bear Canyon past Seven Falls.

We were somewhat worried about the high winds starting out. Ostensibly out of the east-southeast, when these atypically strong sustained winds hit the canyon, they swirled, converged, and eddied into a 20-mph headwind for the first five miles. What was amazing is after we climbed up out of the canyon to the grasslands above and headed west, and for the rest of the day, the winds blew straight out of the east, and greatly diminished, blocked by the very mountains in which we hiked.

We had a total of 20 river crossings today as the rains of December and January, which are stored as snow on the peaks of the Catalina's, continue their early spring melt and fill the streams and washes and pools.

I first hiked the Bear Canyon Trail to Seven Falls over 30 years ago—when Sabino Canyon was just developing—and again in 2017. That is little 8-mile affair with modest elevation gain. It wasn't until last year, however, that Misty and I hiked past Seven Falls to do the 18-mile Seven Falls-Phoneline loop. This hike is actually comprised of four trails: Bear Canyon, East Fork, Sabino Canyon, and Phoneline. Today, in a paroxysm of hiking optimism (we both like to test ourselves), added yet another trail to the hike: the three-mile roundtrip spur on the West Fork Trail to Hutch's Pool.

Beautiful day, high forties starting out, rising to seventy by hike's end. Encountered very few other hikers, a few trail runners close to Sabino, and a large group of hikers doing a point to point from Gordon Hiraybashi Campground on Mount Lemmon taking the Sycamore Reservoir Trail to Bear Canyon.

Most of the trails in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area start out on a paved tram road.

Misty, successfully staying dry on the first of 14

stream crossings in Bear Canyon this day.

Misty got some great shots of my elderly rock-hopping

self. It's amazing we were able to stay out of the drink

today. Nothing worse than hiking 20 miles in wet boots.

And one more...

Seven Falls.

I have never seen this much water in the Catalinas.

The Bear Canyon Trail meets up with the Sycamore Reservoir Trail to Mount Lemmon after about 6.5 miles.

This is where we made the decision to add three miles to our journey, to take the West Fork trail west to Hutch's Pool. It actually ended up being only 2.5 miles as the water was so high that the final stream crossing before the pool was treacherously high. And so we contented ourselves with the lower reaches of the Pool.