Pontatoc Ridge Under Two (or Bust)

The Pontatoc Ridge Trail—short, steep, and sweet—is one of my bellwether hikes I return to every year to see how much I have deteriorated physically, and my write-ups serve to show how much I have atrophied mentally. So bear with me. 

My goal every year is to do this challenging hike in under two hours, or even better, beat my best time of 1:55 from December 18, 2019—almost precisely three years ago. Last year my time was 2:09, but with 0.2 additional miles; the previous hike before Covid and my year off was in January of 2020, with my brother, probably not as indicative of my hiking as much as his. That hike clocked in at 2:07.  

During most hikes I am there primarily for the hikes themselves, and only casually care about pace, unless it's out-of-bounds for some reason. One reason I really wanted to check on my endurance this year is that my first two hikes were sub-par in terms of how fatigued I got and how slow I was moving. Part of that was the nature of the hikes (two fairly brutal outings), but there is also the fact I hadn't quite acclimated to the elevation. So I was rather pleasantly surprised by my time today.

Another thing I was surprised at was the trail warning signs I saw, warning of attacks by "highly aggressive" colonies of animals...

...of the insect class and the Apoidea superfamily.
Luckily, this is December and they're taking the winter off.

 

My destination front and center.

Pontatoc Canyon, in the background, is another
challenging hike in the area, but not nearly as scenic.

My halfway split gave me some hope my 
time would be under 2 hours.

And voilà!

Romero Pass Via Romero Canyon.

The Romero Pools, three miles in, the destination of the vast majority of hikers. It's always good to get beyond them for peace and quiet. However, not a lot of hikers today.

This was a challenging hike for only the second outing of the season, with over 14 miles and almost 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Of course, I have been drawing Medicare® for the past year. Pretty knackered at the end. The last mile up to the pass was especially steep and brutal. Not my first Romero Pass hike; I did it with my pal Jack Simard from Quebec back in December of 2018, (check here if you want more substantial pictures) and also again in January of 2019, when four of us descended Romero Canyon at the end of our rather terrifying 24-mile-slog up the Sutherland Trail through thigh deep snow that ended at midnight—a full six hours late.

The 2 mph pace was nothing to write home about, but considering
my lack of training, and the elevation gain, not horrible.

A beautiful day, with highs in the 60s and 70s, cooler at the pass.

Upper Romero Pools.

More upper Romero Pools.

One of two rather nice campgrounds on the trail. I did hike up here in 2017 with my Seattle/Bisbee

 pal Ira.

Back in the Saddle Again

I can neither confirm nor deny I chose this particular hike for my first of the season because of its rather obvious metaphor and pun. In any event, with 2,500 feet of elevation gain mostly stuffed into the last two miles, it might not be the best hike to get my flatlander lungs acclimated. However, with my first serious hike coming up in two days, I owe it to my hiking pal Misty to at least try getting in decent hiking shape–as I know she certainly is.

I last hiked the Finger Rock Trail last January, also with Misty. That time we summited Mt. Kimball. This was my third hike up to Linda Vista saddle, the first being in 2018 when I joined the Oro Valley hiking group for a wet treacherous outing, and the second in 2019 with Tucson Hiking Meetup Group. 

Pretty slow pace, but it is my first hike of the season, and it is practically vertical.

De rigueur panorama pic from the midway point.

View from the saddle of the toxic Tucson sprawl.

Looking north from the saddle to where the trail ascends the canyon to meet up with the Pima Canyon Trail, which will take you the two miles up to Mt. Kimball.