Manning Camp to Bushcamp
29.7 miles
Mile 169.5
It was a chilly night up on Mica Mountain, with the temperature dropping below freezing. The down in my sleeping quilt isn’t lofting properly due to how filthy it is…I probably should have washed it after the Te Araroa…
From Manning Camp I headed up for a bit before beginning my descent to the valley between the Rincon and Santa Catalina mountain ranges.
From the Reddington Road Trailhead, the desert valley between the two ranges consisted of rolling foothills and washes that actually had water in them.
As I made my way through Molino Basin Campground at the base of Mt. Lemmon, I was offered a beer by a cool dude named Olaf camping at one of the sites. After spending all day drinking creek water in the hot sun, the vanilla porter he gave me tasted incredible. I hung out for a bit, before thanking him and pushing on.
I’ve hiked this section, from Molino Basin up to Summerhaven, many times. It’s close proximity to Tucson and the large elevation gain over 21 miles made it the perfect training grounds for me last year when I was preparing for the PCT. Fortunately, I’m saving the big climb for tomorrow morning.
From Molino Basin a passed through Gordon Hirabayashi Campground about an hour later, before entering Sycamore Canyon. I’d never seen the wash flowing with so much water!
Sabino Canyon surprised me in the same way. I ended up making camp along the creek. Tomorrow I have about 15 miles and 5000 ft to climb before I reach the town of Summerhaven perched atop Mt Lemmon, where I’ll meet up with some of my buddies from Tucson to camp with for the night. Pretty stoked for that!
Cheers!
What a great sunset at camp on Day Five! And even better, your picture of the Deer you stalked up on! I gotta take a break and witness some more of this. Thanks again for everything, and keep up the greatness
Thanks Chris!
Wow, I just realized you’ve been including snapshots from Guthook’s AZT Hiker App of your daily route! It’s so great to see the elevation changes, see the numbers, plus the waypoint icons. It also makes you look like even more of a super thru hiker machine with the mileage and ascent totals! Very cool stuff.
Thanks Dee!