goodtimes
Expedition Poseur
Not really a 4wd trip.....but we did use a couple of 4x4s to get us to the trail head. Most of us were (are) in less than optimum condition, so we decided to keep the distances short....about 12 miles total. 3 on Friday afternoon, 6 on Saturday, 3 on Sunday morning.
So Friday morning, 6 of us headed to the Miller Peak Wilderness area for a weekend of trying to escape the heat of Tucson. We succeeded.
We left the trail head about 1pm Friday afternoon, and proceeded to climb about 1800 vertical feet over a short 3 miles, circling around to the south side of Carr peak. There was a nice wide, flat ridge between Carr peak and Miller peak, so we dropped our gear and set up camp. Timing was good, because no sooner than we set up and ate, the storm came rolling in. Now this was no normal storm....it came up Miller Canyon with a vengeance. I stood at the top of the ridge and watched this massive fog bank roll up the canyon at about 25mph...literally. The fog and wind hit at the same time, with rain not far behind. We all ran for cover, hoping it would pass over us. It did...about 3:00am. But in the mean time, it dropped a massive amount of rain on us...honest guess is that it would be measured in inches. And the wind! While short of a micro-burst...the wind was flat scary. I had a large branch above my tent (4 - 5" diameter), which I was watching out the window....it was moving 6 - 8 feet, with the pine tree creaking and popping the whole time. Now add in the lightning. Not some "off in the distance" lightning...no, more like right up in your face lightning. Lightning so bright that even with the tent and rain fly (which are both quite thick---the tent weighs in at just over 10 pounds for a 2-man), and my eyes closed, I was seeing spots. The thunder that would follow meer fractions of a second behind was deafening. And it just would not stop! All night long....rain, wind, thunder, lightening...rinse, repeat.
It was calm in the morning...calm, wet and cold. But we eventually gathered our stuff up, hid the gear we were leaving behind (large number of illegals in the area), and headed off to Miller Peak...around 3 miles and not quite a thousand feet up. Beautiful trail, but the views were blocked by all the fog. At one rest stop (we were in no hurry), we watched a helicopter fly up Miller Canyon. They made a bee line directly to our camp (we were watching from a rock outcropping on the other side of the canyon), circled around, dropped down to get a eye-level view of the site, before jumping to the far side of the ridge, dropping out of sight, hovering for 20 - 30 seconds, then taking off down the canyon. A few minutes later they returned, dropped out of sight on the other side again for the same 20 - 30 seconds, and back down the canyon. They did this 6 or 7 times before the fog rolled in....we never saw them again. With an uneventful trip to the remains of the fire lookout tower on Miller peak, we returned to camp to find everything undisturbed...still cold and wet though. The sun popped out long enough to BS for a few minutes, then the rain started again. I think everyone took a nap before it let up in time for dinner. And right on cue...7:30 rolls around, so does the storm. We had another night of rain measured in inches, with the same lightning and thunder, but no wind thankfully.
Sunday morning was the only sunrise (or sunset for that matter) that we would see. It warmed up enough to dry our tents out and let us pack up for the morning trip back down the hill. We didn't quite make it before the rain started...the last mile was wet, but uneventful.
A few pics below.
1) Agave in bloom @ 8000'
2) CJ snuggling with a log (dont ask....)
3) CJ snoozing
4) Sunday morning sunrise
5) Sunday morning sunrise
6) Sunday morning sunrise
7) Not sure what the deal is....we saw this quite a bit...anyone know?
So Friday morning, 6 of us headed to the Miller Peak Wilderness area for a weekend of trying to escape the heat of Tucson. We succeeded.
We left the trail head about 1pm Friday afternoon, and proceeded to climb about 1800 vertical feet over a short 3 miles, circling around to the south side of Carr peak. There was a nice wide, flat ridge between Carr peak and Miller peak, so we dropped our gear and set up camp. Timing was good, because no sooner than we set up and ate, the storm came rolling in. Now this was no normal storm....it came up Miller Canyon with a vengeance. I stood at the top of the ridge and watched this massive fog bank roll up the canyon at about 25mph...literally. The fog and wind hit at the same time, with rain not far behind. We all ran for cover, hoping it would pass over us. It did...about 3:00am. But in the mean time, it dropped a massive amount of rain on us...honest guess is that it would be measured in inches. And the wind! While short of a micro-burst...the wind was flat scary. I had a large branch above my tent (4 - 5" diameter), which I was watching out the window....it was moving 6 - 8 feet, with the pine tree creaking and popping the whole time. Now add in the lightning. Not some "off in the distance" lightning...no, more like right up in your face lightning. Lightning so bright that even with the tent and rain fly (which are both quite thick---the tent weighs in at just over 10 pounds for a 2-man), and my eyes closed, I was seeing spots. The thunder that would follow meer fractions of a second behind was deafening. And it just would not stop! All night long....rain, wind, thunder, lightening...rinse, repeat.
It was calm in the morning...calm, wet and cold. But we eventually gathered our stuff up, hid the gear we were leaving behind (large number of illegals in the area), and headed off to Miller Peak...around 3 miles and not quite a thousand feet up. Beautiful trail, but the views were blocked by all the fog. At one rest stop (we were in no hurry), we watched a helicopter fly up Miller Canyon. They made a bee line directly to our camp (we were watching from a rock outcropping on the other side of the canyon), circled around, dropped down to get a eye-level view of the site, before jumping to the far side of the ridge, dropping out of sight, hovering for 20 - 30 seconds, then taking off down the canyon. A few minutes later they returned, dropped out of sight on the other side again for the same 20 - 30 seconds, and back down the canyon. They did this 6 or 7 times before the fog rolled in....we never saw them again. With an uneventful trip to the remains of the fire lookout tower on Miller peak, we returned to camp to find everything undisturbed...still cold and wet though. The sun popped out long enough to BS for a few minutes, then the rain started again. I think everyone took a nap before it let up in time for dinner. And right on cue...7:30 rolls around, so does the storm. We had another night of rain measured in inches, with the same lightning and thunder, but no wind thankfully.
Sunday morning was the only sunrise (or sunset for that matter) that we would see. It warmed up enough to dry our tents out and let us pack up for the morning trip back down the hill. We didn't quite make it before the rain started...the last mile was wet, but uneventful.
A few pics below.
1) Agave in bloom @ 8000'
2) CJ snuggling with a log (dont ask....)
3) CJ snoozing
4) Sunday morning sunrise
5) Sunday morning sunrise
6) Sunday morning sunrise
7) Not sure what the deal is....we saw this quite a bit...anyone know?
