Little did I know at the time that this would be my last trail run on forest service trails prior to my 100-mile race at Angeles Crest on July 23rd? I started at the Loma Alta Trailhead at 5:50am on Saturday, June 4th. The TH is located at the north end of Camino Loma Alta off of Old Spanish Trail in Vail, AZ. The forecasted high temp for the day was 104 degrees. I donned a 100 ounce camelback and carried two 20 ounce handheld bottles filled with Gatorade. I also wore my birthday present from my wife Trish, a new watch, a Garmin 405 C/X.
The trail starts out heading east to Hope Camp which is 2.5 miles away. This part of the trail has been here for over 10 years and has been part of a long-term plan to create a connector trail to the Madrona Ranger Station. About 2.2 miles down the trail there is a signed intersection for Quilter Trail which connects to the Manning Camp trail in 5.5 miles. I have run this part twice now and discovered both times that the distance on the sign is half of a mile shorter than what it says. The Quilter Trail just opened in April 2011 and was the missing link on the Arizona Trail from passage 8 to 9:
http://www.aztrail.org/passages/pass_09.html You can now stay on single track all the way from Walker Basin, on the eastern edge of the Santa Rita range, all the way over the Rincon Mountains over to Reddington Pass. The first two miles of Quilter Trail are gradually ascending and runnable until it climbs up over a saddle. There are several switchbacks here that require a bit of walking. I have encountered horses on this trail as Vail is a popular area for horses. It seems that in a lot of places on these climbs the dirt is as fine as powdered sugar. After topping out and able to see to the east again the trail bends around to the northeast and descends another mile and a half to the Manning Camp trail intersection.
At the Manning Camp intersection which is 7 miles from my start, the trail has a southern option for 1.9 miles to Madrona Ranger Station. If you go this way you will connect to the Rincon Creek Trail which travels another 8 miles to Happy Valley Campground to the east. Other than that, all land is private with no feasible outlet to Old Spanish Trail. I suppose if you went out X-9 Ranch Road no one could stop you from leaving through the gate; they just won’t let you in that way. My plan today was to go left or north at the intersection so I stashed one of my handheld bottles behind a rock and continued. It is 2.4 miles to the Grass Shack intersection and another 6 tenths to Grass Shack. Incidentally, Cowhead Saddle is another 1.7 miles north from the Grass Shack intersection which would make for an interesting new version of the TTR Cowhead Saddle run requiring 22 miles round trip.
Grass Shack is located next to a creek which quite often has at least standing water but today was dried up. There are also many trees, mesquite, oak, and sycamore providing a shady respite on a hot day. This is a designated campsite with a bear box available. From here the trail sign says 4.5 miles to Manning Camp and it is accurate. The climbs out of Grass Shack and all the way to Manning are not nearly as steep as from Cowhead to Manning via the east slope. Albeit they are not all runnable, I was able to maintain a sub 14 minute mile pace over the next 4 miles. The views from this side of the Rincons are stunning. You can see all of Rincon Valley below and a great panorama of Mt. Wrightson far to the south. Rincon in Spanish is translated as “corner.” When you are on this part of the trail you are up close to the corner of this range.
After going past 7200 feet of elevation the larger species of pine trees begin to shade the trail and out of nowhere there is a trail sign informing you that a mile remains to Manning Camp. As I made my way up the last couple of climbs with the sun casting my shadow in front of me I spotted another large fluttering shadow past my head. At first it appeared large enough to be a bird and I turned around to see that it was a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.
It had swooped down near the white hat I wore on my head. It was very large and fluttered lazily by. What a beautiful sight! Just a couple hundred meters later I spotted a Spicebush Swallowtail but he quickly flew out of sight.
In the last half mile the trail drops down and swings around a large steep drainage filled with boulders and rock outcroppings. Finally I made one last short ascent and had sight of the camp at 7952 feet elevation and 14.5 miles.
There were some tents set up for the forest service workers but nobody in sight. The cabin was open and it appeared that everyone may have been out on a work crew. It took me 3 hours and 12 minutes to get here so it was just a little after 9am. Sometimes there is an opportunity to get some filtered water up here but the forest service does not make it a standard practice to give hikers and runners water or else people would come to depend on it. I walked around the cabin and found 8 empty water containers. The non-potable water spigot produced nothing either. Just as I decided to head back down the trail I peeped into the back door of the cabin and spied no one at home. There were two half filled containers of water on a table. My one remaining bottle was empty so I filled it and took a drink. How cool and tasty it was. I topped it off again and jogged back down the trail.
After the first half mile, the remaining 4 miles back to Grass Shack were completely downhill but not too steep or rocky. I ran the whole way. With two miles to Grass Shack and no overhead cover I began to feel the heat coming on. I got to Grass Shack and spooked a horse that was tethered to a pole. I was surprised to see a horse there especially with no rider, who I knew had to be nearby. I told the horse not to worry about me as I sat on a rock and emptied my shoes of small stones. This was a good place to grab a snack to go in the form of a chocolate fudge Pop-Tart. I gauged the amount of water I had left and felt I would be ok. The rider came out of the outhouse up the side of the hill and we introduced ourselves. His name is Jerry and he was taking his colt out for a ride; this was his turnaround point. He said he noticed the freshness of my footprints and had thought someone might be ahead of him. He also mentioned a couple of bear tracks that overlaid my prints just below where we were. Interesting…I never had seen any signs of bear that day. I said “so long” and made my way ahead of them back down the trail.
I quickly reached the Quilter intersection and retrieved my stashed bottle of Gatorade. It was hot but it still did its job. The next couple of miles were heading south and the sun burned into my face. With five miles remaining I turned west and found it more tolerable. I approached the Hope Camp intersection with 2.2 miles to the end and sucked the last drops out of my camelback. Ten minutes later the bottle was empty as well. Another 10 minutes and I was finished in the parking lot with the temperature registering 100 degrees.
I came back in 2 hours and 40 minutes and showed a total mileage of 28.9 miles. I think I may have taken a side trail that made its way back to the actual trail somewhere and cut off a tenth of a mile. Too bad I didn’t find more of those. Overall, my impression of this route is very favorable. It is 20 miles round trip if you choose to only go to Grass Shack campground. There are many times of the year that water is available in pools and especially at Grass Shack, but not in June. This would be a good run to add to or replace another run on the Tucson Trail Runner schedule.
Happy Trails,
Chase
