Dayhike 6-7-2009

My friend Curt and I met at my house at 7AM and headed up Mount Lemmon north of Tucson. Our packs were never weighed, but I was carrying 2 liters of water (4 pounds) in my old bomb pack (2 pounds), along with food (2 apples, gorp, power bars and gel), a light fleece and a cloudveil parka. I will estimate my loads was about 10 pounds. I wore my Lowa Tempest shoes (lightweight).

We did a 12 mile loop from Marshalls Gulch. This started at 7400 feet elevation, went up to Marshall Saddle at 8000 feet, then all the way out to the west end of the Wilderness of Rocks (7400 feet), then returned by way of Mount Lemmon (9000 feet). This boils down to 2600 feet of elevation gain.

We began hiking at 9:30 AM and were back at the truck by 5:30 dead tired. With precious few and short rest stops, this is 8 hours to cover 12 miles, in other words 1.5 miles per hour.

Analysis

I have been compiling information about what distances a person can be expected to hike in a day. Supermen can manage 60 miles with a light pack. Regular humans in very good shape manage 30 miles. I only manage 12. This is disappointing and sobering. There seems to be only one cure: get into better shape! One of the main reasons I am posting this report is to server as a reference point to measure my performance on other dayhikes against. I will be doing dayhikes with the primary aim being to push my miles hiked in a day to higher levels.

An average speed of 1.5 miles per hour seems pretty dismal as well (we were happily crusing along, except for the uphill grind climbing Mount Lemmon). Across the wilderness of rocks (which is more or less level) we were able to hold a continual conversation.

Conclusion

It was a great day out. Temperatures were unusually cold for June in Arizona, even at 7500 feet. There was a lot of wind (and sun), and we needed the parka (which I loaned to Curt while I wore the fleece) later in the afternoon. We carried almost nothing that was useless weight. The views on the climb up Mt. Lemmon were spectacular, to the east the whole upper part of the Catalinas is spread out and there are lots of interesting views west and north. The Shovel Springs trail needs to be another hike soon. There was plenty of water in Lemmon Creek.

Out and back across the wilderness of rocks would be a 10 mile trail run that would be hard to beat (once I can manage a 10 mile trail run). There is available water and not a lot of elevation gain and loss (but continual up and down and wonderful views). A run out and back to Cathedral Peak via Romero Pass would be a 24 mile loop that I would be foolish to attempt at my current level of fitness, in one day anyway. It would be a great overnight backpack.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org