Canyon Country - The Santa Catalina Mountains

Constantly teased by the appeal of the warm dry desert, as we moved back to Arizona to continue our training, we thought we'd take advantage of our surplus time to traverse the Santa Catalina Mountains outside Tucson Arizona. Starting off at prison camp just above Molino Basin, it was already hot despite our early start. We set off towards Sycamore Reservoir, sparkling and flowing fast in the sun. In that shady cottonwood canyon we ran into many day hikers taking retreat from the heat. Continuing down the Arizona Trail, we crossed canyon after canyon, making our way towards Hutch's pool. After catching our breath for a minute by the deep water, we continued up toward Romero Pass, eventually making camp in the scrub oak forest that meanders up with the creek. As we made camp, we spotted a few Coues Deer and a Cotamundi coming down for water. With the sound of moving water nearby, we slept like rocks, a 9 mile day under our belts. The next morning, we took a close look at the topo map and had to make some serious decisions. Our three day trip was quickly turning into a two day trip at our current pace. So we decided to take a brief side trip up the backside of Window Peak (about 6 miles round trip), revealing magnificent views of cathedral rocks, and eventually, the city below. As we approached the peak from the North facing slope, we hiked through decent snow pack, up to 15" in places, always a treat in the desert. After enjoying our new perspective on where we've been and where we were headed, we skipped back down to our personal wilderness, only to climb up to Romero Pass; here we split with the Arizona trail, as it headed North up the ridge to Mt. Lemon, and we dropped down the other side of the pass into our next canyon. The trail here was very ill-kept, at times a glorified drainage, wandering through thorny plants and downed trees, making another hard-won four miles before reaching Romero Pools. We hit the pools at sunset, providing for a glorious scene, as the strange light reflected off the fast moving pools. We made dinner in the remaining light, exhausted from a long day over summits and passes, 14 miles in all.  Normally a popular spot, we were lucky enough to pass that entire evening and morning without any human visitors.  With no trees obstructing our view, we had an unbelievable view of the stars before watching the full moon came up and falling asleep. The next morning, after a leisurely stretch and breakfast, we completed the 3 remaining miles to the Catalina state park trailhead. Winter never felt so good.