This run made it back on the schedule after a couple years of trail closures forced alternative routes. Here’s run director Doug Kelly’s write-up, followed by my account with some photos. I got photos of most people who did the Sabino Basin turn around. –Ross Z
This run features great views of the Sabino Canyon debris flows. I noticed one of the big ones is starting to get revegetated–
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Doug’s account:
Hi,
We had another fantastic day for trail running this Sunday. Twenty runners gathered at 6am for the designated start. The weather was cool by Tucson summertime standards (about 70F). The skies were perfectly clear. The sun didn’t rise above the mountains until 6:30, and most runners stayed in the shade
until the last mile of the run. The brush was quite thick in the 2-mile stretch from the top of Sabino out to Sabino Basin so there were plenty of scratched legs at the end. Thankfully I only heard of one snake sighting. Those who stuck around after the run got to enjoy strawberry ice cream and mango sorbet in addition to the usual salty snacks and sports drinks. Ross took a lot of pictures and will post them at http://ttraz.wordpress.com
The official run was out and back on Phoneline to Sabino Basin. Ross’s GPS showed 13.8 miles for this circuit. The times were:
Bruce Johnson 2:38
Paul Vyriotes 2:38
Gene Joseph 2:41
Daren Sandback 3:04
Troy Martin 3:10
Wayne Coates 3:12
Ed Berkeley 3:49
Ross Zimmerman 4:34
Quite a few people opted for a fast return on the road. This option had a GPS distance of 13.1 miles:
Nate Polaske 2:05
Jeff Azersky 2:47
Mahendra Jani 2:50
Mindy Horst 2:51
Alli LaCroix 2:51
Joyce Vyriotes 3:41
Two people ran out and back on Phoneline with a turnaround just beyond the turn into the upper part of the canyon:
John Hall 2:31
Deanna Lewis 2:31
Three people ran up Phoneline to the top of the road, descended the switchbacks, and came back on the road. The distance for this loop is about 9.7 miles:
Paul Browne 1:51
Erin Browne 1:59
Patricia Wiercinski 2:33
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My account:
I was pleased with the turnout for the run when I arrived at the start. Doug got us going and I found myself running with Joyce Vyriotes. We talked marathon training and bikes, then I pulled ahead at the start of the trail. The Brownes caught up and we hung together until they peeled off at the top of the road, despite my attempt to entice them further. I turned my attention to photographs. I had already missed one returning runner (Deanna), but got shots of most of the rest. These were all taken between the top of Sabino Canyon Road and Sabino Basin. If anyone wants full-sized versions of their pictures, drop me a note. Remember to click on the photo to see the medium-sized version.
John Hall–
Nate Polaske–
Paul Vyriotes and Bruce Johnson–
Gene himself–
Darren Sandbank–
Jeff Azersky (coming into tall cotton)–
Troy Martin–
Mindy Horst and Alli LaCroix (Sorry ladies, it wasn’t as good a shot as I had hoped.)–
The Ancient Wayne Coates–
Mahendra Jani–
Ed Berkeley–
Joyce Vyriotes–
In addition to people, I took a fair number of scenery shots. Here are some of the ones I thought were notable. Have you seen the spots in the photos?
This is one of the first views of the inter-moutain valley between the front and back range. My theory is that the rock spire in the foreground forms the narrow spot in the canyon where the dam was planned in the first half of the 20th Century.
I noticed the coral beans were starting to change color, so I guess we’ve reached fall in Arizona–
As I approached Sabino Basin, I could see where the east and west forks of Sabino join–
At the basin, is the fabled almost-buried sign–
On the way back, a scene with strange angles caught my eye. Notice the cotton thinks its Fall, too–
I’m always looking for the first glimpse of the lower canyon and the Tucson Basin–
At Phoneline Trail, we can see the Forest Service’s estimate of distances. Based on this set of numbers, the full trail out and back is 6.8 miles (0.9 to Phoneline trailhead, 3.9 up the trail, then 2.0 on to the Basin). That 13.6 miles versus my GPS’s 13.8 fits with my calibration work on the GPS’s overestimate factor.
I saw the Forest Service pulled the top of the road back a bit and built a drainage channel. We’ll see if that helps with future floods.
On my shuffle down Phoneline, I took pictures of some of my favorite rocks. Have you noticed these formations?
Here’s one of the last green, shady stretches before dropping to the desert–
And I’ll end with a view of the mouth of Sabino Canyon. By then it was getting hot and warm. I noticed that I’ve slowed to the point that I was in the sun a lot more than the first time I did this run. This season, I’m annoyed enough about the slow down that I’m actually going to investigate Rolfing as a potential partial treatment for my connective tissue disorder…
