I originally planned on entering the Tucson area by way of San Manuel and driving through Reddington Pass (The gap between the Catalina and Rincon Mountains.) I later scrapped the idea thinking it might be too much. I changed my mind after realizing we would be entering the Tucson area around rush hour on a Monday. The location of our house makes for plenty of city driving by coming in on 77. If we took Reddington Pass, it could cut down on the stop and go.
My GPS battery had called it quits before we arrived in San Manuel. I no longer had a car charger for it since one of my dogs lovingly customized it for me, so I was flying blind. I wasn't worried since I reviewed the route before heading on the trip. I didn't print any maps of this area out either, since it was so close to home... Classic mistake, I picked the wrong dirt road.
It started heading in the right direction toward the pass, so I didn't think anything was wrong. The better part of an hour in and I started thinking, "this road better start curving east." It didn't. It became clear to me that this old mining road was going to link up with the old Mt Lemmon Hwy (an old Jeep trail up the backside of the mountain.) We were pretty much committed by that time. It would have been about an hour to get back to Hwy 77 and about the same to get started on Reddington Rd. Up the mountain we went.
My wife, knowing we would have another hour descent off of the mountain after arriving at the top another thirty minutes away, was understandably upset. We had been in the Xterra for seven hours at this point and she was ready to be home. We hit the end of the trail near the top of the 9000 ft + mountain. I asked my wife, "Do you want to go all the way to the top?" Bad timing on my part... it was a quiet vehicle the rest of the way home on more twisty mountain roads.