tortolita day trip

[Idlehour]

it was shaping up to be a gray overcast day here in Tucson. threw my son and the dog into the jeep with some snacks and water, gassed up and headed out to the Tortollita Mountains - which is where the Tucson crew has weekly Friday night campfire. i wanted to see the canyon in the daylight and see what else the area had to offer:

entering state trust land
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the powerline road. from here we ran up cochie canyon and poked around a bit. there were a lot of bikes having a good time. we ran back down the canyon and continued west on the powerline and then caught a graded dirt road and headed north for a bit. Then we turned east at the first road that looked promising. at this point it looks like our quick run up the canyon might turn into a loop of the mountain range.



ran in to some Arizona hospitality on the north side of the range.
this may be the first threatening sign that i have ever seen spelled correctly.
funny thing was this property owner only owned about 200 ft of the road. we waved to some hunters at the gate on the far side of the property. they also decided not to push their luck and went around too. I'd promised my wife no gun fighting if i have any of the kids with me.


the detour dropped us into the wash. lots of loose sand and lots of desert pinstriping from trees scraping the paint.


we took a detour into the mountains that looked like it would go through. again - we got skunked by locked gates, but the views on the way up were amazing and they were even better on the way back down. the phone camera cant do justice to the layers of cactus, rock formations, hills and distant mountains






hot manifold taquitos taste mighty fine after a few hours of slogging through the dirt.


back down from the climb we ran into this little guy. my son thought it was the coolest part of the trip.


one of the abandoned mine shafts that were all over the foothills. for scale that beam across the top is probably 6x6. Most seem to be filled up and fenced off which is a good thing. i cant imagine people going underground in these way back when. the ground is so loose that standing a few feet from the opening, the ground begins to crumble. the posts for the fences are completely undercut in areas.

 

[Idlehour]

another spur into the mountians. this was supposed to be a loop off of the powerline road, but the return leg was nowhere to be found. there was another trail that headed south up a wash and looked like it would eventually hit one of the ranches

squeezed through this gap, the dirt bike tracks stopped here. hmmm

ended up at these steps. no tracks going any farther. i walked up the wash some more and it looked like a lot more of the same. decided it was wisest to head back to the main track. cant wait until the kids are old enough to help spotting and opening gates

snow in the distance. The Santa Catalina Mountains in the east - we have rounded the bend

at this point my son is asleep and it looks like we have 2 miles to pavement in the east. turn south onto a surprisingly off camber double track all the way to Catalina. about 3 miles out we start to see a lot of hunters and dirt bikes again.

trip statistics: 50 miles of dirt apparently some of it at 45mph, some of it surprisingly challenging :Wow1:

 

[VDBAZFJ]

Looks like a good day Dave!

 

[timh]

Nice trip report. Isn't it a bummer running into all those locked gates on the north side of the range.

 

[1leglance]

very cool day trip report...
I hear ya on the kids...so glad my younger son is old enough to nav, jump out and spot and open/close gates, good to put them to work

 

[MrGrimm]

Cool report. What app are you using to record it?

 

[Idlehour]

I'm using Gaia gps on the iPhone. I'm still figuring it out, but so far I really like
the ability to download maps in advance for when there is no cell service. Being able to take pictures that are geotagged and show up on the tracks. Is a neat feature too.

 

[teddyearp]

Mmmm, mesquite. My favorite cook wood.