Bridle, CDO Ridge, and 50 Year Trails Riata Loop

 

This is a new loop hike created by the good park service folks at Catalina State Park. It basically combines a section of the 50 Year Trail with a newer trail, the CD, which is short for Cañada del Oro  (CDO) Ridge. That short 1.5 mile trail overlooks the Cañada del Oro Wash on the west side of the park. The loop comes in at around 3.2 miles (total hike is closer to 6 miles in all). This hike is connected to a 10-miler I did two days ago, the Nature, Sutherland, TrailLink, 50 Year, and Bridle Trails. This is a much superior, albeit shorter hike.

I am calling this hike the Riata Loop, as I necessarily added the Bridle Trail spur to and from the parking lot (about 1.3 miles each way) and so the hike map looks a bit like a lasso or lariat. I chose riata (Spanish for lariat) since we are in the Southwest. And in case you are wondering, the loop part of a lariat is of course the noose (the 3.2 mile loop), but most people don't know the other parts. There is the honda, where the rope slips through to create a noose or loop, and then there is the stem or spoke, the part of the rope you swing. Thus, the CD-50 Year Loop is the noose, and, the Bridle Trail the spoke of this hike. 

This was an easy hike as reflected by the pace. Yet another gorgeous day. 72º and clear. The weather gods are winning over the climate gods right now, unfortunately. We need rain.

I accidentally paused my recording and the app filled in the missing

section (see the straight line on the bottom of the loop which missed all the 

twists and turns). Therefore, the actual mileage is 0.7 miles longer than 5.2.

The Bridle Trail is smooth and wide, like a bridle trail should be I guess.

It is about 1.3 miles from the parking lot to the beginning

of the loop, thus adding 2.7 miles to the 3.2 for a total

hike of about 5.9 miles.

This is about as steep and rough as this trail gets, so not at all.

One of the great things about the 50 Year Trail is the magnificent views of Pusch Ridge, the spine of the Catalinas. Hard to capture, but the next few shots, including a panorama and video, attempt to do so. Better to see it in person, and I will be your guide.

I took two videos, one right to left or roughly south to north (above), and one left to right (below).

Nature, Sutherland, Trail-Link, 50-Year, Bridle Trail Loop

 

I figured a 10-mile hike rated as moderate would take about tree hours to complete according to my personal metric, and that estimate was almost spot on. I am on the lookout for moderate hikes to share with our upcoming visitors, most of whom don't share my hiking fanaticism. Segments of this hike fit the bill, but other portions were found lacking for one reason or another—too rocky, boring views, bike or horse traffic, or just too many other bipeds—so I will probably toss this loop in the ain't-worth-the-three-hours bin. 

However, I am intrigued by the back section of the hike. A new loop was recently opened (see map below) combining the 50-Year Trail (which was my penultimate trail today) and the new Cañada Del Oro (CDO) Ridge Trail or CR, A 1.5 mile trail overlooking the CDO wash. The CR now connects to the 50 -Year Trail to create a 3.2 mile loop, or a full 4.0 miles with the Bridle Trail link to it from the parking lot. Maybe that was the hike I should have tried today.

Beautiful, clear weather today. 60º at 10:00 at the start, rising to 76º at 1:00 at hike's end.

The initial path takes the Nature Trail, which is smooth and sandy. 

The Trail-Link Trail is more of a road than a hiking trail, and a rough rock-strewn one at that. I couldn't wait to get off it.

The Linda Vista Loop Trail

 

At the end of Linda Vista Road, about two miles from our place, is access to the short, easy, loping Linda Vista Loop Trail one can knock out in under an hour. But there are two hikes off this trailhead. Adjacent to the Linda Vista Trail is its antithesis: the short but extremely steep Pusch Peak Trail, which I first and last hiked six years ago. The Linda Vista Loop is only 2.5 miles long, and while it is a bit rocky, there isn’t much climbing and it is easily hiked by most folks. The Pusch Peak Trail is also short, only 4 miles, but man is it steep. After the first slightly uphill 1/2 mile from the trailhead, the trail goes straight up, with 2,400 feet of elevation gain in 1.5 miles. I am saving that hike for when I have more than an hour to kill (or be killed ;-)). 

Saw a few other hikers out today, with cool temps (65° at 3:00 at the trailhead, dipping five degrees during the hour-long hike. Hope to come back and hike up to Pusch Peak when I am more properly prepared (long pants and gloves for starters).

The trail that cuts through the middle of the loop connects to the Pusch Peak Trail.

Sign at the start of the Pusch Peak spur off the Linda Vista Trail.

Alamo Canyon Loop Trail & Romero Ruins

Had a little over an hour to kill this morning and needed to shake the Miller Peak dust off my hiking boots and replace it with new dust from the Catalinas. My friend Jack also needed to, as he put it, “get off my arse”. So we headed over to Catalina State park (12 minutes using petrochemicals), parked near the Alamo Canyon Trail trailhead, and knocked out the short 3.2 miler in under an hour, then decided to check out the tiny lariat-loop Romero Ruins hike just to get our mileage up a bit and learn a little archaeology. 

Beautiful day and many other bipeds out in gaggles and herds, as might be expected on a holiday. Scary nice weather, over 60° at the trailhead at 10:45, rising to the mid-seventies an hour later. Nothing says Christmas more than 77 degrees Fahrenheit, which is tomorrow's forecast. Christ (who was, incidentally, not born in December but in February or thereabouts; the Romans, after adopting Christianity around 306 CE, under emperor Constantine the Great, moved Jesus' birthday to coincide with the holiday celebrating the Roman sun God, Sol Invictus). It's a little known fact.

The actual Alamo Canyon, into which we would shortly descend.

The grand staircase up to Romero Ruins.

Miller Peak From Ramsey Vista Campground

 

It has taken nine years, but today I finally got to return to hike Miller Peak from the north, up from the remote Ramsey Vista Campground on the Carr Peak trail. This is one of the first hikes I did with the Bisbee Mule Team hiking club, so-called because many of their hikes are in the Mule Mountains surrounding Bisbee. This was one of their more adventurous and challenging hikes, and one I particularly enjoyed because I got to do it with my then new acquaintance Ira Yedlin. Ira would become one of my best friends and a frequent hiking partner for years.

Several things have conspired to keep me from returning to this hike. A big one is the need for a high clearance vehicle to make it up Carr Canyon Road, a very rough, steep rock-strewn road of switchbacks and single lanes—40 minutes to go 6 miles. Lucky that Misty still has her old Toyota 4-runner from Colorado as well as the driving skills to drive up that crazy rough road. Another common impediment is always timing the weather. This is not a fun hike in the snow and cold and historically, if you don’t do it before mid-December, you might have to wait until the following year when the warmth returns. This year, climate change and La Niña colluded to create a pattern of drought and heat that have enabled this hike. I would gladly give up the hike for a return to weather normalcy, but the genie is out of the bottle so we soldier on as if things are normal. Scary climate, but beautiful weather for winter hiking.

The conditions today were quite nice, 50º at the trailhead at over 7,000 feet; 60º at the Miller summit three hours later. There are actually two peaks to summit on this hike. Carr Peak (9,236 ft.) is only slightly lower than Miller (9,456 ft), and in its shadow in terms of the number of hikers ascending it. It isn’t even actually part of this hike, but it is so easy to get to from the route, and only 0.3 miles and about 240 feet up from the main trail, it seemed like a no-brainer to knock it out.

I would rate this hike as hard, as does AllTrails. This is partly because we start out in the thin air of the 7,000 foot trailhead, but also because of the serious elevation gain that starts immediately from the trailhead and continues unrelenting until the Carr summit almost three miles later. The trail then descends into a beautiful glade before again climbing steeply up the Crest Trail and then the half-mile spur to Miller Peak. Also, the hike is over 12 miles round-trip.

Misty suggested I take a picture of the extremely rocky trail bed 

during steep ascent starting out.

Old Sawmill Trail

Our first glimpse of the first peak we would summit.

Great variations of scenery throughout this hike.

The spur trail to Carr Peak was a short 0.3 miles and only about 200 feet up from the main trail. Here, looking southeast toward Miller Peak (our next destination), and Mexico, where the mountains are cerros.

East from Carr.

North from Carr.

After leaving Carr we descend to a valley glade and start the climb up to Miller Peak, where we'll have lunch.

The Bathtub. This spot is a great camping area or just a place to access a spring fed pool of water.

The steep 0.5 mile spur up to Miller Peak from the Crest Trail.

Hulking reminders of the massive fire that swept through the southern Huachuchas over 20 years ago.

The view from Miller Peak.

(Photo by Misty Atkins)

(Photo by Misty Atkins)

The bumpy descent down Carr Canyon Road was as slow as the ascent: 40 minutes. For an appreciation of the road conditions, watch the short video below.