This is a story of how best thought-out plans can go awry. The Bug Springs trail is listed as an alternate route on the AZT. If you don't wish to hike up the Catalinas with a heavy backpack and camp for several days, you can do the alternate route made up of four segments of much shorter distance. We already did the lowest portion, the Molino Trail several years ago, so it seemed time to do the next segment up. Using a shuttle idea, we left my car at the Gordon Hirabayashi "Prison Camp" location, then drove Stan's car five miles up Mt. Lemmon Hwy to the Bug Springs trailhead. The intent to hike downhill seemed like a good plan on this early September morning. We gave little thought to just how hot it might get as we hiked on out of the forest and into the foothills
We knew we'd be hiking up and down steep ridges at the beginning. No surprise, however recent rains had washed out chunks of the trail.
Nonetheless, it's cool and shady. There's a peek at the highway.
Up steep ridges--then back down to the next one.
Now and then getting a peek at the distant horizon and hoping the trail will soon level out.
Lovely twists in the trail take a hiker through damp stream beds and--
--a friendly black swallowtail that persisted swooping along as we hiked,
The day was warming and finding shade started to be quite welcome.
With the drop in elevation, the shady pines disappeared and the terrain began to level off a bit.
Finally, we leveled out with a view that told us we were truly starting on the way down the foothills. Time to stop and rest the feet.
And have a little lunch while enjoying the view. It should be easy from here.
The trail starts to lead severely downhill; still a pleasure from hiking up those ridges.
The trail guide described many interesting hoodoos and formations. The exposed trail, however was beginning to get hot and there was very little shade along the way.
What started out to be a cool hike with light jackets turned into an inferno. The oversized white shirt I wore at the beginning became a sunshield as I doused it with water and wore it over my head like a burka. No picture for the next 2.5 miles. We were simply focused on making it back to the car we'd left at the Camp.
Finally, at the highway, just a short distance to the car. This was probably one of the toughest and dumbest hikes we have ever done.
Lesson learned--Don't hike in Tucson's summer heat even if you think the higher elevation will help--and bring more water than you think you'll ever need.
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