Minutes for Meeting of 05-31-2000

Hello Ramblers!

GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1.) Important: Unless otherwise announced, the meeting place for all hikes is behind the Park Student Center, in the parking lot.

2.) Future hiking club meetings, during the summer, will continue to be held in the Forbes building lobby, in case Forbes, Room 307, isn't available.

PAST HIKES:

1.) Wolfgang did a backpacking trip in the Chiricahua Mountains, camping on a ridge near ojo agua fria springs. He saw lots of wildlife, such as turkey vultures, a red-tailed hawk, ravens, and deer. Also the night time stars were spectacular.

2.) Michael was in the Whitlock Mountains, east of Safford, where it was very dry. Then he went to the Gila Box, where there was lots of water flowing, and Bonita Creek, a tributary. There, he saw lots of birds and fish. On Sunday and Monday, he continued on to the Pinaleno (Graham) Mountains, where he saw a bobcat and a black bear.

3.) Torsten was on a hike up Blackett's Ridge from Sabino Canyon this past Sunday.

4.) Joe did a hike in the San Jacinto Mountains, in California, near Palm Springs, going up San Jacinto Peak.

5.) Hanna and Richard were in the Chiricahua Mountains at Cave Creek, where they saw lots of birds. They camped near a Cottonwood tree, which had nesting screech owls. Then they went to Barfoot Lookout.

FUTURE HIKES:

1.) Hanna is leading a trip to the West Clear Creek Wilderness for this weekend. The plan is to leave Friday evening (6/2/2000) @ 6:00PM and return on Sunday (6/4/2000). Rated "B+". Contact Hanna: . Note: Since there is a possibility of wildfire danger, under these circumstances, the plans could be altered.

2.) There is a "San Francisco Mountains Anniversary Hike" in the Flagstaff area being planned for the 4th of July weekend. Contact Andy: .

3.) The Arizona Trail hike along Oracle Ridge Trail in the Catalinas has been postponed to the weekend of Saturday, 6/10/2000. This will be done as an overnight backpack, leaving Saturday @ 7:00AM, and returning Sunday (6/11/2000). The entire ridge trail is almost 14 miles long with 3200-ft elevation, rated "B". Contact Hanna: .

4.) Massimo is interested in submitting a permit request for a trip into the Grand Canyon during the month of October. This would be done in June to take advantage of the 4 month permit limit. Contact him if you are interested in the trip: . Here are some details of the trip: *********

Massimo Malagoli wrote:
> I am posting some details about the trip to the Grand Canyon I am planning
> to do in October.
>
> 1) Length of the trip: I am considering to apply to a permit for 3 nights
> in the Canyon, thus it will be a four-day backpack. Then one has to include
> an additional day to travel to the Grand Canyon (the permit has to be
> collected by nine in the morning), so the total length of the trip should
> be about five days.
>
> 2) Period: I would like to go the first week end of October, that is,
> leave Tucson on Thursday the 5th, do the backpacK on friday, saturday
> and sunday, then hike out of the canyon on Monday and be back to Tucson
> on Monday the 9th at night. Anyway I am quite flexible with the dates,
> and can consider another period if someone else is interested and has
> different requirements.
>
> 3) What to do: It is my first time in the Grand Canyon, so I plan to do
> something easy, specially if nobody else experienced is coming with me.
> So my first option would be to spend two nights at the Bright angel
> campground and one night at Indian Garden. That is, hike down the South
> Kaibab Trail the first day, do a day hike at the canyon bottom the second
> day, hike to Indian Garden the third day and hike out the fourth day.
> Let's call this option A.
>
> Option B could be to do a backpack along the New Hance Trail, east of
> Grandview point. This will be more challenging because there are
> no wather sources other than the Colorado River. The plan could be
> to Hike down to the river the first day, do a day hike along the
> Colorado the second day, hike half of the way back the third day
> (up to a camping spot right above the red wall) and hike out the
> fourth day. Probably it will be possible to hide some water and food
> at the camping spot during the way down the fist day, in order to ease
> the climbing back.
>
> Again I am flexible also about what to do, so if someone is interested
> and has some other ideas, please let me know.
>
> 4) How to proceed: I would like to send the application for the permit
> in June, in order to increase the chances of getting the permit. So if
> someone is interested please let me know. I do not mind applying for more
> places and then searching for someone to join the trip at the last minute,
> but I do not want to go alone, so I will send the application only if
> at least one other person is sure he can go.
>
> If nobody is interested at this stage, I will try to repropose the trip
> at the beginning of next semester, but the chanches of getting the permit
> might be much lower then.
>
> Please contact me by e-mail (malagoli@u.arizona.edu)
> or by phone:   office 626-6514
>                home   529-9527
>
>                Massimo

MISCELLANEOUS OUTDOORS INFORMATION:

1.) There is a web site (free), providing topographic maps of the US: http://www.topozone.com. There is other topographic information, along with statistical information about routes to take also available. Contact Steve: sanewcomb@yahoo.com.

2.) Another good web site, providing a fun resource: http://www.soak.net.

If anyone wants to post additional announcements for any hikes, etc., please feel free to use the listserve. Meanwhile, keep Rambling!

Wolfgang