Galiuro Wilderness - Deer Creek Trail

I don't consider myself much of a 'blogger'. So - long story short - I took a hike to where I thought I was, but wasn't. Made for an interesting weekend journey into the Galiuro Wilderness in southeast Arizona.

Ron says that he 'glanced' at the map, but neither of us paid it much attention. I guess we just figured we figure it out.

Didn't matter much anyhow. The scenery was amazing...

...but the trails were difficult to follow. We lost the trail and had to bushwack our way.





We definately could've used a few more of these!

Southern-Most Ski Resort in the Nation...

...And the winner is... Mt. Lemon's Ski Valley!


I'm not even kidding. We've got our very own ski resort right here in Tucson! One double chair, 13 runs, and this winter we even have snow. Last weekend's storms dumped roughly 14 inches of fresh snow on the peaks and with the reasonably cold weather we had this week, north facing slopes kept their accumulation. Add in the dusting of almost 2 inches Thursday, and you've got snowboarding at the southernmost ski resort in the Nation.




Sure there were some exposed boulders here an there. Sure there were a bunch of drunk desert rats doing thier best to get in my way. Sure Kenny G made a guest appearance. But nothing was stopping me from enjoying my second weekend of riding in Arizona (see my previous blog entry for details on the Sunrise trip).

It was frickin' fabulous. I wish you all were there. Maybe you were...

An Accidental 3-Day Weekend!

What an epic weekend. Scott and I ducked out a bit early Friday and headed north - bound for the Sunrise. Tucson was wet, clouds shrouded the Catalinas, and we craved the fresh powder that we new would be blanketing the White Mountains. We took the scenic route out of Tucson, past Globe and onward into the Salt River Canyon. The canyon itself was sacked in with fog, making the sinuous highway a bit trecherous as we descended to the Salt River and then crawled northward up numerous hairpin turns through the pinion-juniper and up into the pine forests on the Mogollon Rim.


The weather gradually changed from rain to sleet and finally snow as we neared Show Low. We stayed at our pal Mike's place, crashing almost immediately upon arriving at his place in Concho.

We spent the next two days riding some of the best powder I've seen in a long, long time. It snowed both days - creating a never ending sea of fresh turns on Sunrise and Apache peaks. Pure heaven. Unless you've experienced it, there is really no way to describe the feeling of making turns in 3+ feet of fresh powder.







Somewhere along the way, we lost any sense of heading home, and by the time we decided to head out on Sunday, the storm of the year pummeled the Whites - leaving around 8 inches of fresh snow over the ice-glazed highway. We crept along, passing through Show Low and heading south towards the Salt River Canyon once again. The wind howled, the snow drifted, and we inched closer and closer to the edge of the Mogollon Rim and the steep abyss that lay ahead. As we neared the drop, we noticed an unusually heavy amount of traffic headed northward back towards Show Low. A short time later, we found ourselves headed back the way we'd come, turned back from the Salt River Canyon with a road closure due to "Extreme Winter Driving Conditions".

Luckily, we made it safely back to Mike's. We crashed and finally got a clear shot at the canyon this morning. Along the way, we saw 4 cars being towed from the ditches along the highway.

There's something to be said for the accidental three-day weekend!

Aggressive Negotiations

On Saturday I met up with my realtor and looked at a few places in Catalina. The first was a nice little house on 0.5 acres. It wasn't anything special, but it was well maintained and had a great view of the Catalina Mountains from the backyard. We looked at a few loser mobiles (puke), and finally a small house on 1 acre. It had tremendous views. Four ranges could be seen from the deck - the Catalina, Tortolita, Tucson, and Sierrita Mountains. You could literally sit on that deck all day and watch the sun rise and then set. The view caught my interest right away. The house itself was nice – open floor plan, sky-lights in the kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, etc. It was a bit bigger than the first house and the property was lush with native vegetation and avifauna - quail running through the yard and thrashers and wrens calling from their cholla and palo verde perches.

I pondered a potential offer Saturday night and today, I met with my realtor to write up an offer. Let me set this up for you a bit. A series of important details indicated to me that I could go in with a very aggressive offer. First of all, the house has been on the market for almost 4 months. Secondly, the listing stated that the owner was very motivated and that all offers were welcome. And then there was the little slip their realtor made in mentioning that they'd had very few showings.

So much to the chagrin of my realtor (I could actually hear him sigh over the phone), I decided to offer $40k below the asking price. Gutsy eh? Well, you have to realize that I am in absolutely no hurry to get myself into a mortgage on an overvalued piece of property - especially in this market. Yeah, the view was spectacular, but there are other properties in the same area that would suit me just as well. So no, I didn't have-to-have this particular house. Also, I have a very ideal living situation right now that does not force me to make a hasty decision. I feel that I have the upper hand in this one. I don't expect them to take my offer outright, but I do expect them to come down a bit. I have no idea what type of response I'll get, but I feel like I really have nothing to lose. We'll see what happens…

Looking east towards the Catalina Moutnains: