Friday Hike Rained Out, A Photo Essay

Friday morning, July 1st, a little before 8:00am we stood in the McDonald’s parking lot
looking up at the dark clouds over the Santa Catalina mountains.
This is our regular meeting place before driving the 25 miles up to
Mt. Lemmon for the SCVN (Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists) summer guided hikes.

Only, this Friday morning there were just the three guides, Maribeth, Maureen and myself.
Others who may have been planning to hike on Mt. Lemmon, probably
took one look out the window deciding it was not a good day for hiking.

This Friday’s scheduled hike was to be a six mile hike starting at the Ski Valley parking lot,
hiking a loop of Aspen Drew, Lemmon and Meadow trails starting at 9:00am.

After a brief discussion, we decided to cancel the hike. However,
since all the SCVN summer hikes are posted in the Arizona Daily Star,
as the lead guide, I would need to drive to Ski Valley letting those who may
still be planning on hiking know that the hike had been cancelled.

As somewhat expected, the weather conditions got worse as I drove up Catalina Highway.
The conditions kept changing rapidly from mist, thick fog, to rain.

When I arrived at the Ski Valley parking lot, there were five vehicles
with about twelve people preparing to hike. At closer look,
I didn’t recognize anyone, so I ask if they were there to do the SCVN led hike —
no, they were members of the Southern Arizona Hiking Club.
The conversation ended quickly as we were beginning to experience a heavy downpour.

The rain lasted long enough for the hiking club members to call off their hike.
It didn’t help that the temperature was 55 wet degrees.

Ironically, the Southern Arizona Hiking Club had been planning on doing
the same combination of trails as SCVN had scheduled.

Now that my task was completed, I started my drive back, stopping at the Summerhaven public restrooms.

I was hoping to get a cup of coffee in Summerhaven, but that would have to wait till getting back down the mountain.

In the summertime, the monsoon weather can change quickly, bringing plenty of lightening, wind, hail and rain.

For the return drive, the fog had lifted and the thick clouds had begun to breakup.
Since I had plenty of time, what better used of it than to stop now and then takeing photos.

In the distance beyond the last ridge is the Tucson basin. Arriving home after 10:30am, I could see very dark clouds moving into the Tucson area. By mid-day we had received 1.8 inches of rain. What a great way to begin July and the monsoon season in the desert.

— kenne