-
- Mesquite tree, Catalina State Park
-
- Romero Pools
-
- Five Finger Canyon
-
- Upper Sabino Canyon
-
- Hutch’s Pool
-
- Phoneline trail
If you followed our blog last year, we thank you. We also apologize. What we expected would be only a short break beginning last fall has ended up being a four-month hiatus.
We won’t burden you with a mundane, tediously long explanation for our absence from the blogosphere. Broadcasting the minutiae of our personal life isn’t our purpose when blogging, and we trust it’s not what you’re seeking when you visit hikingcamping.com.
The intent of our blog is to inspire you to hike and camp by providing you with specific, practical, albeit enthusiastic suggestions based on our recent ventures, many of which are beyond the scope of the guidebooks we write and publish.
Now that we’ve resumed blogging, we hope you’ll hang with us again in 2011. We’ll do our best to post once a week.
Just bear in mind, hikingcamping.com is a molecule of a company. The entire full-time staff comprises just two people: me (Craig) and Kathy. And our goal has always been to spend maximum time outdoors, hiking and camping. So it occasionally becomes impossible for us to maintain a quality, reader-focused blog.
At the moment we’re in southern Arizona, near Tucson, camping beneath the Santa Catalina Mountains. When not working on upcoming books, we’re hiking. Though it’s mid-January—the heart of winter—the weather is warm enough that we can stride all day in T-shirts and shorts.
So far, we can strongly recommend several hikes in the Pusch Ridge Wilderness:
• a 17-mi (27.4-km) round trip gaining 3200 ft (975 m) to Romero Pass via the Romero Pools in Romero Canyon
• a 10-mi (16.1-km) round trip gaining 4000 ft (1219) to Mt. Kimball via Five Finger Canyon
• an 18-mi (30-km) loop gaining 1600 ft (488 m) up Sabino Canyon to Hutch’s Pool, then returning through Bear Canyon past the Seven Pools
• the 6-mi (9.7-km) Phoneline trail gaining only 600 ft (183 m) while traversing the east wall of Sabino Canyon between the visitor center and the final tram stop (end of paved road)
And—presuming you’re a camper, not a hotel softie—we can say with certainty that the ideal place to base yourself here is Catalina State Park, in Oro Valley, just off Oracle Road. It’s big, well organized, not overly refined thus reasonably priced, and located at the mouth of Romero Canyon, where a trail network begins at the campsites.
Catalina State Park is also a short drive from a dizzying array of shops and restaurants, which to us seems bizarre but is, we confess, convenient and enjoyable. Whole Foods Market, and Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joe’s, all of which are natural-foods grocery stores, are nearby.
Mexican food, our favourite cuisine, is ubiquitous, excellent, and temptingly affordable. After a big day hiking the Catalinas, we beeline-it to a unique Mexican grill called Chipotle (www.chipotle.com), or to a contemporary tacqueria called Rubio’s (www.rubios.com).
Heck, winter hiking can be such a hot, sweaty activity here, we’ve even patronized Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt.
You’re a fellow Canadian, and you’re in Canada right now? We hope you relish winter, as most Canadians do, and therefore don’t feel taunted when we rave about winter hiking in Arizona.
You’re a genuine, snow-lovin’-and-proud-of-it Canadian? We urge you to consider a mid-winter vacation to this exotic land of saguaro cacti. It’s dreamy this time of year. Hiking opportunities are abundant and superb.
We’ll be back soon with continued hiking/camping advice we hope you’ll put to use when you come down here to thaw and explore.
Regardless where you’ll be hiking, here’s to a high-mileage 2011.
Well welcome back, Nomads!!! (by that I mean welcome back into my life as a blog-reader, if not back into Canada). And the info you offer is timely – we’re just starting to plan a trip to Arizona but not until early April. The plan is definitely to do a backpack into the Grand Canyon, but any info you can provide on good hiking opportunities between Phoenix and the South Rim would be appreciated. And in the meantime, know that I while I do understand folks heading south, we have been relishing the balmy-er, but still snowy weather here with a little XC skiing.
Posted by Kim Varey on January 23rd, 2011.
I just came upon your blog this past November and enjoyed what you shared with us then, so glad to read that you will be posting here weekly. Your photos and descriptions of Arizona hiking are indeed taunting but I am taking full advantage of our amazing winter, choosing to spend my weekend days in Kananaskis or Banff National Park and my break will come on May 3rd when I leave for Moab. I have “hiking from here to WOW Utah Canyon Country” and dreaming over which of the longer hikes I want to do! I will drop in next week to see what else you have been up to!
Posted by Andra on January 25th, 2011.
Hello Andra… Thanks for reading our blog, and for taking time to send an encouraging response. Glad to know you’re enjoying winter in our home range. We will do our best to continue post weekly. January hiking in southern AZ is a magical experience, especially for a Canadian. As for early May in Utah, just a warning: you’ll likely find it brutally hot. Only Bryce NP is at a sufficiently high elevation that you’ll enjoy comfortable temps. Any way you can move your spring break earlier? I know this is difficult to comprehend, given a Canadian Rockies perspective, but Utah canyon country gets surprisingly hot surprisingly early. Whatever you do, hope you love it! Please stay in touch and let us know specifics about your hikes. We always appreciate up-to-date field reports.
Posted by hikingcamping on January 25th, 2011.
Hey Kim! Good to hear from you. Thanks for being so loyal to our blog. We’ll try to keep it informative for you. We intend to post as much as possible in the next few weeks regarding hiking in AZ. Near Phoenix, we strongly recommend many of the trails in Superstition Mountains, particularly the one from Lost Dutchman State Park to the top of Flat Iron. And in the Serra Estrella Mtns (immediately south of Phoenix) we urge you to hike Quartz Peak. As the for Grand Canyon… strange coincidence… Kath is studying the GC maps now, and we’ve been in touch with the GC rangers. We too are hoping to do a GC backpack trip in early April. Kath will write to you directly about that. Perhaps we can help one another with info. At this point, all the GC south-rim trails and backcountry campsites are nearly fully booked.
Posted by hikingcamping on January 25th, 2011.
I remember reading your last blog entry on which potential trailer to choose. I’m curious now if you’r ein a tent or something a little more comfortable in Arizona now.
I too have a trip booked for Moab (as well as western Colorado) in early May. It was a dilemma – Colorado’s still going to have snow, while Moab will be hot. I have the WOW book on my nightstand right now and have said to people that I’ll only hike places where I can follow a Copeland book (Nepal next please?
). One of these days I’ll finish every single hike in DWYTITCR & Where Locals Hike in the Canadian Rockies (getting close with the latter one!).
Right now we’re enjoying the snow in Kananaskis & up past Louise, but I’mc ounting the days to getting back to Moab.
Oh yes, and fond memories of Sabino Canyon as well
.
Barbara
(Calgary)
P.S. – Do you ever give talks anywhere? I’d be so curious to find out more about ‘the people behind the books’.
Posted by Barbara on January 26th, 2011.
Hi Barbara… Thanks very much for taking time to write to us. Sorry for this delayed response.
You asked about our search for the ideal trailer and tow vehicle. Until I can complete that blog post, here’s our response to your recent note.
- We’re now camping in a 19′ Airstream Bambi SE, which we tow with a Nissan Pathfinder. After many years of tent camping, we are loving trailer life.
- You’re right that Moab is likely to be too hot for comfortable hiking in early May, and that Colorado will likely be too snow-laden then, but… Bizarre weather seems to be increasingly common worldwide, so it’s conceivable your timing will be perfect. Who could have predicted that in early February, here in Tucson, Arizona, the nighttime lows would plunge way below freezing?
- Thanks for the vote of confidence about our guidebooks. Comments like yours inspire us to keep working hard to improve future editions. As for us producing a guidebook on Nepal, we wish we could oblige, but… too many mountain ranges, too little time. We trekked in Nepal many years ago. It was a rich experience, but we weren’t compelled to return. Europe, on the other hand, keeps us returning as often as possible. Because we’re hikers, not climbers, we find the Alps, Pyrenees and Dolomites offer us much more than do the Himalayas.
- When you complete all the hikes in “Don’t Waste Your Time in the Canadian Rockies,” let us know. We might have a few, further suggestions for you.
- Do we give talks anywhere? We have, and we might again, but we’re reluctant to, for a several reasons: (1) We organize our life and our work around hiking, the seasons, and the weather. And we’re often away, traveling and in the backcountry for long stints. So it’s difficult for us to commit to a speaking date. (2) Being invited to speak is an honour we take seriously, so we have to be certain we have plenty of time to devote to preparation, otherwise we’ll decline. (3) Neither of us is particularly comfortable among large groups of people. It’s logical to assume that the authors of “The Opinionated Hiking Guide” would be sufficiently ego-driven that they’d leap on stage at every opportunity, but we actually cherish our anonymity. It feels natural for us to communicate to an audience through our books, but we instinctively shy away from doing it in person.
– Craig
Posted by hikingcamping on February 2nd, 2011.
Like Barbara from Calgary I recently read your blog on which RV travel trailer you choose. I found your descriptions of the fiberglass trailers poorly researched and misleading.
Modern fiberglass trailers, like the Escape, have adequate insulation for all but the coldest weather – contacting the manufacturer directly would provide better information than the ancedotal quips of your “neighbour”.
While the modern “eggs” are generally considered 3 season campers, it is not difficult to adapt them for cold season (don’t use the onboard water system). The price of a Airstream Bambi SE is out of the price range of the average camper unless you are independently wealthy or using it full time as a part of an employment situation (tax right offs?).
While it is your right to be an “opinionated hiker”, please check all the facts.
Posted by Gord W. on February 3rd, 2011.
Hi Gord, thanks for writing. I’m responding from Tucson, Arizona, where the temperatures have been plunging well below freezing for the past several nights and will again tonight. We’re camping in our Airstream, and last night we visited some new friends in their Escape. I’ll tell you what happened, and you tell me if you still think my post about choosing a camper was poorly researched.
Our friends in the Escape admitted they were feeling the cold. Though their furnace was running intermittently, we too could feel the cold seeping directly through the walls of their trailer. They were also operating lights beneath their trailer, leaving them on all night, in hope that the residual heat would help prevent their pipes from freezing. It did not. They had to pour hot water over their plumbing in the morning, in an attempt to thaw the frozen pipes. I don’t know the final outcome, but their struggle with this cold weather fits precisely with what I learned during my phone conversation last November with Reece, the owner of Escape Trailers. I was thinking seriously of buying an Escape. But in response to my direct questions about insulation in the Escape, he was surprisingly vague. He led me to believe I should not expect an Escape to be very warm. Everything I’ve heard and observed — before and since — has corroborated this.
I find it interesting that you think the solution to camping in cold temps in a fiberglass trailer is to not use the water system. What you’re saying is that if you anticipate freezing temps, you must drain your water system and run RV anti-freeze through it. That’s a huge struggle, especially in the backcountry. And it means you have no water in your trailer until you can flush the system and refill it, which you’ll be unable to do until you return to civilization. Meanwhile, how much are you enjoying the camping experience when you have no water? If you can’t use your trailer’s water system, it seems you might as well be tent camping.
As for the price of an Airstream, it sounds as if you have not priced used ones being sold by individuals (as opposed to dealers). True, the price of a new Airstream is exceptionally high. That’s because Airstream quality is superior. Yet it’s possible to find lightly used Airstreams priced very reasonably. We paid only a couple thousand more for our used-yet-essentially-new Airstream than we would have had we bought the demo Escape trailer that Reece was selling last fall.
I respect your opinion. I really am glad you took time to visit our website, read our blog, and respond. But I stand by what I wrote about the various trailers I described.
We were dry camping last night. It wasn’t possible to operate lights beneath our rig, but we didn’t need them. The insulated, heated tanks in our Airstream did not freeze. And the 2.5 inches of residential insulation in our trailer kept us very comfortable despite the frigid temperatures.
Happy camping — in whatever rig you currently own or ultimately choose to buy.
– Craig
Posted by hikingcamping on February 3rd, 2011.