Jeff Love Have you ever driven past the Texas Canyon Rest Area along I-10 between Benson and Wilcox and wondered what it would be like to hike through the interesting rock formations? Last April, the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club was invited to explore the newly developed hiking trails at the Amerind Museum. This location is roughly…
Seth Basker On May 11 five hikers undertook the climb from the top of the Madera Canyon road to Josephine Saddle, a climb of over 1,600 feet at a relatively high altitude of 5,450 feet. Seth Basker led the group up Old Baldy Trail to the saddle where they rested before descending the Super Trail.…
Ruth Caldwell Eight SaddleBrooke Hiking Club members headed up to Mount Lemmon on May 3 to seek the crisp, clear air. What came as a big surprise to most hikers was the number of downed trees across the trail on the Marshall Gulch/Aspen Loop. The heavy snowfall this past winter, coupled with the 2020 damage…
Diana Smith Rob Simms grew up in Grand Rapids, Mich., in a self-described “blue-collar” family. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting and an MBA from Michigan State University and served four years in the United States Air Force. He has been married to Myrna, whom he met while working at MSU, for 35 years.…
Ruth Caldwell The board of SaddleBrooke Hiking Club hosted a Volunteer Appreciation Event this past April 20—the first held since the onset of COVID in 2020. They and the members all know that their club is only possible due to the many volunteers—the guides, all the various committee members, and the tech support. The “behind…
Bruce Hale The April 19 SaddleBrooke Hiking Club (SBHC) program will be a “Recap of this Past Year’s SBHC Out-of-State Hiking Trips.” The Club Trip Committee and other participants will make short presentations of the high points of each of this past year’s trips to Silver City, N.M.; Bryce Canyon, Utah; and Borrego Springs, Calif.…
Walt Shields On Feb. 9, 14 SaddleBrooke Hiking Club members visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum located near Superior, Ariz., 75 miles north of SaddleBrooke. Established in 1924, the Arboretum is the oldest and largest in Arizona. It houses a large selection of desert plants from around the world, which are beautifully displayed in different sections…
Bruce Hale The SaddleBrooke Hiking Club will present a new program on March 15, which may become a fixture on the schedule for years to come. For the first My Favorite Hike program, several members will present a series of short accounts of their great trail experiences. The goal is not only to share these…
Karen Gray Throughout the year, the SaddleBrooke Hiking Club sponsors hundreds of hikes to various areas in Arizona. The final hike for 2022 was the Ridge/50-year Loop Trail. This trail affords a view of the Tucson Basin and surrounding mountains. On Dec. 31 six members of the hiking club drove to the Equestrian Center in…
Lynda Green A few days before a scheduled hike to Brown Mountain, down in the Tucson Mountain range, SaddleBrooke hiking guide Kathryn Madore checked the weather forecast for Jan. 23. Leery of the warnings, she decided to alert her hiking group that rain might cancel their venture. As the hours progressed, the prospects for a…