February 25, 2020 - Prehike to Bear Canyon - Sabino Canyon National Park

Jerry, John and Nancy prehiked the Bear Canyon Trail. We started the hike by riding on the 9:45 Bear Canyon Trail Shuttle to Stop #3.  We picked up Bear Canyon trail here and hiked a trail that follows the road for about a mile. From there it starts to follow the banks of the creek bed. We crossed the creek 7 times before heading up the switchbacks to the viewpoint of Seven Falls. Then we hiked into the Falls and had lunch. This was 12:00. With a later start at the shuttle, planned for Friday Hike and the amount of water that is in the creek, it will likely be at least 12:30 by the time the hikers will get to the falls for lunch.
We walked back to the Visitor Center instead of catching the Shuttle. We walked through the water at the bridge. We were back by 3:10. The total time of the hike and lunch was 5 hours and 25 minutes. Some of this time was searching for a place to cross the creek.

Milage 6.6 Miles

Brittlebush flowers are starting to bloom

Mexican Poppy 

Feather Duster

We go down a steep bank to the Creek and back up a steep bank on the same side

February 18, 2020 - PIcketpost Loop- Prehike

Jerry and John R. prehiked Picketpost Loop for Friday's Hike - Mileage 8.4 miles

February 11, 2020 Prehike to Miner's Needle - Bluff Springs Loop

Milage 9.9 Miles. 

February 4, 2020 - Scouting Hutch's Pool

Linda and Kevin Scouted Hutch's pool last week. They talked to the park management and were told that in order to make sure everyone was able to secure a ticket, they should go online to https://www.sabinocanyoncrawler.com/  The Tram is now called a Crawler and can be reserved on hourly time slots. The tram runs every 1/2 hour, but for some reason, people can only book in the hourly slots. The cost is now $12.00. It still says it is $10.00 on the main National Parks Site, https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coronado/recarea/?recid=80532 but it has not been updated. Linda, John R and I sent out a bulletin to the hikers that this has changed. See below:

Important information for 

Hutch’s Pool Hike

Palm Creek Hiking Club

Friday, February 7, 2020

As noted in the first handout for this hike there is a Tram (now called Crawler) on Hutch’s Pool Hike. To assure places on the Crawler you need to buy your ticket online. There are only 56 spaces available so it is important to purchase the $12.00 ticket as soon as possible. Each hiker has this responsibility. The website is www.sabinocanyoncrawler.com. When purchasing the ticket you will need to select the 10:00 AM Sabino Canyon Tour. 

To make sure we don’t miss the Crawler we need to:

1. Leave Palm Creek parking lot at 8:00 sharp. 
2. Make sure a member in your car has an America the Beautiful Senior’s pass for National Parks. Go to the left-hand side at the gate if you have a pass. If you do not have a pass you pay $5.00 per car and you may have to wait longer. 
3. We all need to be at the Crawler departure site location at least 15 minutes before departure (9:45).
4. Make sure you waste no time as you gather equipment and use the washrooms.  

The Crawler goes to “stops” along the way where people can get off when they choose. We will be riding to the end, which is stop 9. The Crawler’s last pick up at #9 is 4:30. We need to be back in time. We will gauge our hike accordingly. 

Please don’t be deterred by these arrangements. We want this beautiful hike to be successful.  

We will need to incorporate this information into the mailout for the Bear Canyon Hike and continue to have this information available in subsequent hikes to Sabino Canyon.