Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Butterfly Trail vs mini camera

Well, Sunday;s paper described a beautiful high altitude hike in the Catalina mountains.
It is called the Butterfly trail and it leads you from the visitors center on Catalina Hwy past the peak of Mt Bigelow to the eastern flank of the Catalinas. Philip had done this hike before and I used his description and advice to plan a 4 hr hike and try out my"new"mini camera that was sent to me after the failure of the last one failed about 1 hr into my Alaska trip.
In the Valley it was in the 90's but at 7800 feet a comfortable 78 F. Fortified with food and lots of drink I set off camera in hand, and yes you might have guessed it it just did not work right and of course without glasses ( in the truck) I could not figure out how to fix what was wrong. I lost this one!
So I went on down the trail which leads you through some badly fire damaged areas with great views of the San Pedro valley and the Galiuro Mountains to the east. I went from 8000 feet elevation down to about 7200 and reached my destination for the day a little stream and a trail to an a crashed F86 super saber jet that crashed in the late 50s. The engine, some canopy parts and a bit of fuselage is all that is left from what in its day turned the air battles over Korea in favor of the US and its allied forces.
As I stopped for lunch at the creek I pondered just sitting here peacefully and a multi-ton object crashing near by. An unsettling thought to say the least.
Well it was time to turn around and since I had my I pod with me I listening to some of the songs I have recorded. This made the climb back up to 8000 feet that much easier but a thought occurred to me.
Imagine you walking along a quiet mountain trail and all of a sudden you see and hear an Old Geezer schlepping his tired butt up the mountain singing the Marseillaise at full volume! Because that was what I was doing. Realizing what was happening I toned it down so other hiker would not be put off ( all 7 of them that I saw that day)
Reaching the saddle below the peak and the way down to the parking lot a sign beckoned to go to the top of Mt Bigelow. So off I went for the extracurricular activity and was rewarder by a beautiful 360 view of the area.
One question remained as I got back into "Opa's truck"
Why is this trail called the Butterfly trail? I saw about 5 butterflies but at least 100 lizzards.
So I vote to have the trail renamed Lizzard trail! A nice if a bit strenuous hike. but next time I will bring 2 cameras my glasses and instructions for my little camera with me!

1 comment:

  1. Nice. That is pretty tough hike. Should be really nice after the monsoons hit!

    ReplyDelete