Snow Day on Tanque Verde Ridge

It was fun to watch the tracks wonder off in the snow. I continued on the trail, and the tracks rejoined me after a bit. This happened 2 or 3 times on the ridgeline. I was on the lookout for the tracks not coming back. I was having a great day on a beautiful trail, reflecting on my memories of the place as I watched the present unfold.I have a long and sometimes painful history with Tanque Verde Loop. It was one of the first runs on which I got seriously dehydrated (Well over 4 hours of hard running with no water to speak of. Tough but foolish…). I’ve done the ridge in a snow storm while I was sugar-crashing badly, but had to get through it to get the 2 people with me down safely. This was the first run I ever DNFed, when I was too tired at Javelina to continue. I remember the ridge and basin before the fires, when the forest was thick. It’s still beautiful, but it’s different. Click on “Continue Reading” to see my account with pictures along the way. All the images are “thumbnails”. Click on them to see a larger picture (Which are still sized down to 40% of my camera’s full resolution.) I had watched Tanque Verde Ridge the previous day wondering how much snow was melting (not much). At the start of the 2008 Tanque Verde Loop, the likely depth of the snow was the favorite topic of conversation. Steve got us started, and I settled in for a long day, if indeed I could get through the snow. Joe Dana started a bit after the rest of us and hung with me after he caught me. Joe showed me how to find the balanced rock on the ridge line that bears a remarkable resemblance to Snoopy’s head silhouette on his dog house. Something I hadn’t seen in the previous 28 years! We discussed GPS technical stuff since he has the same model Garmin that I do, and because he’s a former air force navigator with a peculiar fascination for the topic (I’m disinterested, of course).After Joe turned, Cristina passed me and I gave her my usual quizzing since I didn’t recognize her. As I learned later, she is a current air force navigator. Then I ran over the rolling upland in a snowy landscape with a usually clear trail and thought about how I felt sort of worthless. I was wondering how deep the snow was going to get. I bumped into Cristina and her friends John and Barb at Doug Springs, then stopped to take ibuprofen, electrolytes, and try my first Snickers Marathon Energy bar. It was OK, but I didn’t feel any bursts of energy, so I was starting to think about turning. This was disappointing, since I was planning to get a GPS track of the entire loop and take some photos along TV Ridge.I had dropped into the canyon about a mile above Doug Springs where it’s shady and the snow was getting deep. It didn’t help my mood one little bit when Jerry showed up pulling a train of good runners, all agreeing the snow was nasty and not worth fighting. I heard Doug and John kept going. Then Bruce and Angie turned up, with Bruce warning me of frigid conditions on the saddle.  Shortly after that, I met Joe Plassmann, who had similar comments, but said he had turned about 10 minutes shy of the peak because he didn’t want to deal with the snow going down.  And he wanted to see the gem show (priorities?).By now things are getting pretty trudgy. My feet are getting cold and wet. My Achilles heel in snow is my Achilles tendons–when my feet get too cold for too long, I lose sensation, my Achilles tendons shorten, and I can’t put my heel on the ground any more. At Cowhead I put down my pack, took a few pictures, and assessed the state of my feet. I was pleasantly surprised to see Cristina and John had decided to follow me up to the saddle–I looked at the track headed up the ridge and decided to keep going for a bit since my energy was OK and I could still feel my feet. I will admit there was a bit of wanting make sure Doug and John’s footprints stayed on trail. I chatted for a few minutes and asked Cristina to let Steve know what I was up to. Once on the ridge, I found I was in bright sunshine and was quite comfortable in shorts and t-shirt. Here’s a shot of snow, sun, and ridge with my Camelback for scale–I found myself walking in the tracks of our intrepid pioneers, who I think were also following an even more intrepid hiker who had already broken trail (Boot and hiking pole prints). Thanks Doug and John! The ridge has been cleared out by the fires. If you use Google Earth or Google Maps and search on Tanque Verde Peak, you’ll see aerial photos taken before the fires. The fires actually improved the sweeping views and there’s vegetation coming back. Some interesting remnants of trees are left–The Tanque Verde ridge line only climbs another 900 feet from Cowhead to the peak. It’s normally quite runnable.  I kept looking to see if I could discern Joe’s turn around point, but it wasn’t obvious.  When you’re close to the peak there’s a steep climb to the base of a striking reef of rock. This was the first time I had seen the reef with a drape of snow that provided the moisture for this picturesque rivulet of water–Near the peak, there are several stretches of trail along north slopes, still with tree cover. That’s where you’re most likely to find snow, and this year it was lots and lots of almost knee-deep powder. As everyone knows, I’m pretty slow these days. I got even slower and was beginning to worry about my feet again. But then I did the familiar hook up to the TV Peak sign–Here’s a link to a high resolution version- Tanque Verde Peak SignAnd here’s a high-res view of the snowy tunnel Spur to TV Peak. TV Peak is actually a set of rock shelves with a bit of climb onto the shelves. Nice views, but I wasn’t up for the side-trip with wet feet and miles to cover. Running downhill in snow is one of my favorite things. It’s not always fast, but the snow cushion helps with my impact issues. I only fell down 2-3 times, none seriously. Glancing back, I saw a skeleton that caught my eye–A bit further, I got a good view to my left of the ramparts on the ridge top–Looking Back to the RampartsI trotted down into Juniper Basin, across snow fields and through unburned forest. Now that much of the area is burned, when you reach the Juniper Basin sign (where there is no longer a picnic table), you get a nice sense of the way the land slopes and drains out to the south. Every large and small stream was flowing vigorously.Past the basin, the snow was clearing and made for some interesting tableaus–Notice the mixture of recovering vegetation and burned slopes. A bit further, I encountered one of the prettiest water features of the day–Needless to say, I was wondering who else was around. Shortly after the water, I saw these large tracks–Soon (relatively), I was up over the lip of the basin and headed down the ridge. To my surprise since I hadn’t seen anyone, I encountered a solo woman hiker, probably in her 60s, on her way to the basin. There are two canyons that one crosses that are trying to cut through the top of the ridge. In one, the trail is exactly where the drainages drop off on either side. As everyone who’s done this run knows, it’s a long, long descent down the ridge. I was heartened by the sight of the first saguaro at about 4800 feet–A while later I got a good look at my goal, the Javelina Picnic Area–I was still a good 2 miles off. A bit less than a mile out, Pam showed up to meet me. We trotted on down and took her truck back to the east end of Speedway where I left the Space Pod. I kept my GPS going, so I have a new track of the entire route using the road return (albeit vehicle assisted). I’ll post some more map and profile information.While this was one long slow day, it was probably the most fun I can remember on Tanque Verde ridge. This is the most snow for the longest stretch I’ve ever encountered on this route, except for the year it was impassable. The word “magical” comes mind. I really wish more trail runners could have been there.

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