Jason and Alexander Barnes
Catalina Mountains 4-day Hike



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But first, a couple pics from around town. This is Jani Radebaugh in her grad office.
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Ingrid Daubar, outside Jani's office.
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Ron Fevig (center) and Paul Withers (saturated at left).
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This is one of my favorite pictures that I've taken. There was a wildfire on the Catalina Mountains (a few weeks before the hike). I'd gotten into a discussion with Fred Ciesla a few months before about fires causing clouds. He didn't buy it. I said that the combustion produces CO2 but also H2O, that the heat causes it to rise, and that the water eventually condenses out onto the smoke particles. I was able to get this shot to demonstrate the process.
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We went hiking near Tucson. In July. So we had to make some compromises regarding the hike. At low elevation, we hiked at night, and took siestas where needed. We started in the evening at Molino Basin campground, and hiked westward toward Sabino Canyon until we fell asleep next to the trail past midnight.
Xander and I with the moon. With flash.
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Without flash.
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These next several were taken at night with long exposures, dark subtracted, and then contrast enhanced so that you can see what's going on.
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Continuing the story, we woke up at dawn the next day and continued on our way. We got lost near Hutch's pool, following the streambed thinking it might be part of the trail. Aways down the streambed we took a siesta under a huge granite boulder that gave us a reasonable amount of shade. We didn't realize we were lost at the time, mind you.
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We decided that we were on the wrong track (and that the GPS had been right the whole time), and headed south at the end of our siesta looking for the trail. We grabbed water before heading out of the streambed -- we carried all of our water for usually about a day at a time. We found the trail and hiked west. We wanted to climb to Romero Pass before it got hot the next day, but fell asleep with our packs on about 1AM below the pass.
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Waking up the next morning we decided that we were going to sleep in a cabin or hotel or whatever we could find in Summerhaven, the town at the top of the mountain, when we got there. We climbed up to the pass -- it wasn't so hot, considering it was still early morning. We started to run out of water partway to Summerhaven, but the book that I had said that there was permanently available water accessible from the trail.
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We found the water. It was the most disgusting, brackish, mosquito-infested little pool you could imagine. We pumped the water and put lots of iodione pills in it. It tasted terrible. However, considering our need it didn't taste as bad as you might have expected! It kept us alive.
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We pushed on into Summerhaven, only to find the whole place shut down because it was a Monday! Go figure. We found a guy that rented cabins at the "Cabins and Cookies" shop. All he had was a $120/night cabin. We took it, and slept for about 14-15 straight hours until 11AM the next morning. We also bought frozen pizzas from the dude for $5/. The best crappy pizza I've ever tasted.
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The next day we started in the early afternoon at the top of the mountain, and hiked all the way down the Oracle ridge and out (13.2 miles), arriving at my car parked near Oracle in the early evening. This went well, as we were high when it was hot, and went down as it cooled off. A fun trip, across the Catalinas!