There is something to be said about the true and tried trial.
The known expectations, the landmarks that indicate how much distance is left and the false summit that can’t play tricks on your mind.
There is comfort in knowing what is around each corner and for me it is the South Mountain trail I’ve done for 15 years and is the one I hit up most of the time.
I really don’t even know the name of it; it is a mishmash of a couple of trails and ends up in a wash that I run on the way back to the car. (Side note – I always feel like Rocky Balboa running on the beach when he is really slow, and Apollo Creed is mocking him).
When short on time, and needing to get a workout in, that’s where you will find me.
With that said, exploring new trails in old and new locations is just about my favorite thing to do. I don’t do a lot of research before hitting a new trail, but apps like AllTrails is a great way to get familiar with how hard a trail is, what the terrain is like, if you need a permit, or a 4x4 in order to get to the trailhead.
I’ll use it to find the trailhead and the distance of the hike, but I don’t want to know a whole lot about a new hike. I want to experience it without out someone else’s opinion or review of it in the back of my mind.
And winging it isn’t always smart.
My #PartnerInClimb and I recently took on a hike we didn’t know much about in the Tucson area on a retreat to Old Pueblo. The original plan was to do a hike to Seven Falls, and then hit Picacho Peak on the ride home the following day.
At the last second, we changed our hike to Romero Pools in the Catalina State Park, and took our time getting our start on an upper 90s-degree day. Again, I didn’t do much research after someone recommended it to my lady friend.
We got to the ranger station, and the ranger said give yourself four hours. It was already after 4 p.m. We didn’t have two headlamps, so that would have made the home stretch by moonlight if we didn’t hustle.
We took on the task anyway. It came with a hefty 1,300-foot-plus incline to 3,847 feet on the 5.5-mile out-and-back trek. So, we had to reach the summit, decline on the other side of it to reach the pools, and then come back up about half that elevation amount on the hike back out.
No lie - I would have turned back and not reached the pools if it were solely up to me, but my #PartnerInClimb would have none of it. She is one that will finish a hiking goal/task regardless of obstacles. She must finish what is set out to do, whereas I’ll gladly say we’ll get there the next time.
And she always wins out in these scenarios.
I'm thankful she pressed on, because the final destination at the Romero Pools was pretty cool. There is a small stream that leads to three pools with each one getting bigger and deeper.
Unfortunately, because we started so late, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to explore. So, we hung out in the first one, and had a snack before heading back for the 2.73-mile return hike, chasing sunlight while trying to not let my hangriness ruin the time on the trail.
We made it back with plenty of sunlight – and had a good enough experience that we hope to revisit sometime soon after a monsoon.
The next day, one of my other faults as a hiker flared up. I tend to go off some trails, get near cliff edges, climb rock spires and head into caves without thinking who or what else might be in such cave. It leads to me sometimes underselling the level of effort it takes to do a hike.
So, the Picacho Peak hike, which has some treacherous terrain, fenced in edges, cable-lined sections, wood planks, and a cable section where rocking climbing and upper body strength are needed. The second half of the hike is much harder and sketchy, and can be daunting at times. It slipped my mind to relay the difficulty of the task at hand, and the whole endeavor was a bit of surprise to my #PartnerInClimb.
In the end, she finished it like a champ, but definitely let me know I didn’t properly mentally prepare her for what was needed to complete a difficult - and SKETCHY - hike.
In both cases, I should have been better at scouring the apps that are out there to make myself more familiar to a trail before heading out, especially without a headlamp and full knowledge of the effort needed to reach each summit.
Yet another lesson that "winging it" is not a smart way to approach hikes that are unfamiliar to you or your hiking group. I do it way too often, and plan on making sure to take more than a cursory glance at an app before my next new hike.
Jason Skoda can be reached at Jason@arizonavarsity.com with story ideas and hike invitations.
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