While on a solo hike in January, enjoying a rest in the saddle after the strenuous hike up the Finger Rock trail, I noticed what looked like some trail development down below, toward Pontatoc Canyon.
Two weeks later, my hiking partner Misty and I decided to check it out from the Pontatoc Canyon Trail. About two miles in on that trail, we decided to cut due west, thus violating my standard principal of no bushwhacking. After some serious cross country scrambling to the tune of a mile-and-a-half or so, we did indeed run into a new trail, one in the arduous process of being constructed. Based on the amount of work that had already been done, we figured it was just a matter of months before this new loop trail would be completed. We planned to front load this new route the following hiking season. Well, that is now. Unfortunately, Misty is currently in Colorado, and since I didn't want to do the loop without her, my friend Jack and I instead hiked the new connector as an out-and-back. And let me say, it was a lung and leg burner.
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Brand spanking new signs make the trail official. The former Pontatoc Ridge Trail has been renamed the Garnet Trail; the Pontatoc Canyon Trail is no longer, replaced by the Pontatoc Trail (the connector). |
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| About a mile in (0.8 mi) we reach the sight of the former Pontatoc Canyon Trail sign, replaced by the new reality, a new sign announcing a new route up to where the Finger Rock Trail meets the Linda Vista Saddle. |
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Jack, marveling at how Tucson was starting to resemble L.A. It wasn't meant as a compliment. Yes, that is smog today. |
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| The newly build trail from which we ascended, and were now descending. |
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