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January 08, 2006
Burned Beautiful
This weekend Paul, the dogs (Morgan and Senga) and I went for a trail run up near the summit of Mt. Lemmon. Our friend Courtney showed us this really beautiful (and really hard!) loop back in the fall and we decided to tackle it a second time. The loop involves many link-ups that take you on the Aspen Trail, Marshall Gulch Trail, to the summit of Mt. Lemmon, down next to the ski slopes, through the mountain town of Summerhaven and back down to where the Butterfly trailhead parking lot is (via some "Fern-something" trail, I can't remember the name). All in all, somewhere around 10 miles we figure. I'd say about 25% of this particular loop runs us straight through where the Aspen Fire of 2003 originated. So yes, some areas are burned to a crisp. Strangely enough though, my most favorite parts of the run are through the burned sections. The sections where the only thing left standing on a steep slope are charred sticks of trees, pitch-black figures against the cloudless blue sky. The ground, a blowing field of tall brown grass. Grass which wouldn't typically grow in a dense pine forest, but is thriving now, given the loss of shade and nourishing sunlight. The view, down the mountain to the desert flats below, is incredible. No pesky trees blocking my line of sight. With every step, I can see for miles. No having to wait until the next "look-out" spot to take in the view. Paul even pointed out these distinctive double peaks we usually see when driving east to Hueco...which are part of the Chiricahua National Forest...about 2 hours away. (we jokingly refer to these as the "nipple tips", haha, - I have no idea what they're really called). And finally (I guess this is due to my being a rock climber), as I'm trotting along, I'm amazed at how much ROCK I see everywhere. Rock that was hidden by the forest, or hidden in the dirt, has now been exposed. I realize I'm actually running on giant slabs of rock, where the earth has burned away. Being from the east, where trees and vegetation nearly smother you it's so dense, I'm really amazed at how beautiful a forest completely absent of the color green can be.
Posted by April at January 8, 2006 10:19 PM
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For the record, the black lab Senga is our friends Vince/Tammy/Mar's dog. We were dogsitting this day. The brownie is our beloved lil Morgie.
Posted by: April at January 16, 2006 12:15 PM