SummitPost.org

So I moved to Tucson and am temporarily staying down in Patagonia while working in Nogales. I'm finally getting a day to explore tomorrow and am going to make my first attempt at this hike. Looks like it will be 23 miles round trip. I had driven up to the trail head the other day. I discovered that at least the start of the trail looked like a jeep trail and I was wondering if it went on like that for most of the way. As well as hiking, it would be a fun bike ride if so.

Not sure I'll finish t he whole hike in one day but I'll givie it a shot. Otherwise I will make it an overnighter in the future. I'm working 6 days, 11 hours per installing solar panels.

26.8 miles round trip from the first parking area. Had I know my car would have made it the 4 miles to the next parking lot, I would have lopped off 8 total miles. The Temporal Trail is actually a single track trail that leaves the road from the upper lot. It runns for 6 .5 miles to the Josephine Saddle between Wrightson and Hopkins.

So, you made it to the summit?

I did. Finished in 13 hours, 42 minutes. It had been a while since I did that much milage in one day. Amazingly, I made it to work the next morning.

The lower section of the trail was interesting. It's little more than a use trail as it climbs up Temporal Gulch. The vegitation reminded me a lot of the San Gabriels back home with subtle differences. The "evidence" of cattle was along much of the trail. The trail stays close to the streambed, which had a trickle of water and stagnant pools along the way. Low in the canyon, the view is limmited but opens up upon reaching a south ridge of Wrightson. Here the trail faces west and you get a nice view of Mt Hopkins and the region around Nogales. Next the trail reaches Josophine Saddle and the last 3 miles to the summit. Even with a little haze the view was well worth the effort.

There was some icy sections on the west and north facing legs. It was passable though if one wachted their step. I made the whole hike in old trail running shoes. The weather the day of my hike was perfectly cool and clear.

One odd thing happened on the hike down. Just before night had completely set in, I triggered someone's game camera. I had never heard of such a thing until a coworker explained it to me. I wasn't sure if I had halucinated or tripped a secret Border Patrol camera. (there's a unique fact about this trail that I won't voice publiclly) What I saw was a single bright flash in front of me. I was in a narrows. After the first, I haulted in confusion. It certainly wasn't Venus reflecting off of water or a rock. And in the split second that follwed I was sure two more had flashed behind me.

Fun hike.

(have a few iPhone pics but the lens must have had a finger print on it)

Did it again yesterday. This time I risked my CR-V and drove to the actual trail head. Still, it was 18.8 miles round trip with almost 5000' to the summit of Wrightson.

I got a late start and did not reach the summit until just before 1600. The late afternoon sun made for spectacular views but I was left to hike most of the way down by headlamp. (I found the cameras.) I did end up using my crampons on the last .9 miles from Baldy Saddle to the summit because my boots were balling. Then, as could be expected, the slush iced up fast as the sun approached the horizon. Unfortunately, I only have an iPhone camera and haven't got any reasonable pics to share.

> I did end up using my crampons on the last .9 miles from Baldy Saddle to the summit because my boots were balling

That last exposed section gets very icy. Be careful on that.

The camera could possibly be there to track the big cats, possibly jaguar. There have been some photos of jaguar in the Peloncillos in southeast AZ. They are extremely rare, generally concentrated farther south in Mexico. Other big cats roam those peaks, but they too are rarely seen (I have seen one very fleetingly from a distance... that's it for me).

The BP would not use a flashing camera to track crossers... it would attract attention to the devices and they'd be ripped out. I have not heard of the Santa Ritas being "popular" with the border crossers. To get there, they'd have to cross some major highways. If I were a border crosser coming up that way, presumably through the Patagonia Mountains, when I got the highway between Nogales and Patagonia/Sonoita, I'd just wait for a ride. I'd blend in well. On the other hand, they like the corridor slightly east of the range based on the number of BP vehicles that run that area.

Thanks, fedak. I was certainly being more careful than the group following me down from the top. All were wearing hiking or running shoes and skating their way down the trail.

surgent, the cameras did look like they might have been placed by someone studying wildlife. They were big any boxy, not what a hunter would want to drag around. I did see some cat prints. As for the BP not being conspicuous, you should have seen the truck parked along Temporal Rd. It had a 30' pole rising from the back. The mast had a number of antennae and a camera array in a ball like you'd see on a news helicopter.