The Rincon Mountains rise high above Tucson to the east, mostly with an even profile, like a huge “wall”. The highpoint of the range is Mica Mountain, a plateau-like summit on the north half of the range (to the left as viewed from Tucson). Rincon Peak is the other principal summit, an attractive pointed peak in the south half (to the right as viewed from Tucson). Most of the Rincons are enclosed within the Saguaro National Park, with surrounding areas protected as Wilderness. There are no roads into the interior of the Rincons, leaving them in as natural a state as possible. A fine network of trails and numerous access points allow for day hikes and multi-day backpacks. However, Mica’s summit itself is not close to any trailhead, the usual “shortest” distances running 14 miles round trip or greater.

I have been interested in hiking to Mica for years now, but admittedly let the distances intimidate me. Most people do it as a backpack, camping at one of a smattering of camp areas high on the mountain. But frankly, I don’t like backpacking very much. I’d prefer to hike the summit and back all in one gigantic day-hike if possible. The shortest route (called Italian Springs) comes in from the north from Redington Road and only runs about 7 miles to the summit, but it involves a very bad, unmaintained road. If forced to park earlier, the one-way distance can be 9 or 10 miles. The popular western route in from Speedway Road in Tucson runs 13 miles to the summit but requires over 6,000 feet of gain. People have done it this way in a day, but I knew it would be too much for me. This left the Turkey Creek trailhead from the southeast corner, but this also requires a good high-clearance 4-wheel drive vehicle to cover the last of the rough road. From the 4wd parking area, the one-way hike is about exactly 8 miles, with a shade over 4,000 feet of gross gain. If we could start from here, I knew I could make the hike in a day – 16 miles and 4,000 feet in a day are about my upper extremes when combined together. In late 2007 I made a day-hike of Rincon Peak, covering its distance and gain (both of which are slightly longer than for Mica, by the way) in one long 11-hour push. I did it partly to get an idea of what a hike up Mica might require.

Scott Casterlin of Tucson was willing to venture back up into the high country of Mica Mountain again for my sake, but actually setting a date and a route took some time. We settled on Turkey Creek when Scott’s friend Carl was willing to join us and drive us to the trailhead. We set a late-April date for the hike, banking on warm weather down low, cool weather up high, clear and stable conditions overall, and maybe some remnant snow to feed the creeks and springs. I drove out to Scott’s place the night before, then Carl met us at 4:30 the next morning. We piled into his vehicle and made the drive east on I-10 to the Mescal Exit, and north into Happy Valley. On my 2007 visit I drove here in the dark so I don’t remember much. Today, it was light and very pretty. The dirt road ran in and out of about 10 large “puddle” crossings. A small storm a few days ago dropped some snow, so this was a good omen: water up high! Happy Valley is just gorgeous, surrounded by the gigantic cliffs of the eastern face of the Rincons, and the nearby rocky Little Rincons. We drove to the Turkey Creek spur road, passed through the camp area, then up the remaining 1.5 miles of rough road to the 4-wheel drive trailhead. This last road is pretty rough in places with erosion gullies and large stones, plus a couple steep sections. It’s possible I could have got my truck up it but am glad I didn’t have to. Carl did a fine job getting to the trailhead. This would save us 3 miles of tedious road walking and cut off about 500 feet of gain. We started hiking about 6:15 a.m. in clear, sunny conditions. The trailhead’s elevation here is a shade above 4,600 feet.

I decided to go on ahead knowing they’d catch up to me soon enough. The initial hike runs up Turkey Creek Ridge (its presumed name). The trail is very well constructed and runs generally level, with easy ups and downs, for about 2 miles. Sections are grassy and green, and other sections are rockier, with hardier desert scrub. After about two miles the route comes to the Saguaro National Park gate, then maybe a quarter-mile later, drops to a saddle at a small sign-in log, elevation about 4,980 feet. We were the fourth group to sign in for April, although I suspect not everyone signs in. Although the hike to here had been easy, I was itching to actually go up, as we still had over 3,700 feet of gain ahead of us. Finally, after the sign-in log, the route drops one more time then starts the steady climb up on the hillsides of the Rincons proper. We could see the range crest way above us, heavily forested sections cut here and there by big rock cliffs and formations. But that was still hours away. Down low, the hillsides were more desert-like, with tufty grasses, sawgrass, woody hip-high brush and lots of madrone shrubs (a classic Chihuahuan desert plant, suggesting this area is more “like New Mexico” in some ways than the deserts of Arizona). It was open hiking, and the trail was very good. After a little over an hour I stopped to rest and that’s when Carl and Scott caught up to me. After some rest they went on ahead, and I resumed my slow hike up the gradient.

We met again after about another 40 minutes at Mud Hole Spring, a small seep about 6,000 feet elevation, and about 3.3 miles from the trailhead. The flora had changed to a transition from desert to subalpine, a mix of larger juniper and some pine, but still kind of open and with that edgy desert feel to it. After starting again, Carl and Scott strung out ahead of me, but by now I was in a good rhythm, my breathing matching my pace, so I made steady, if slow, time. The higher I hiked the bigger and denser the forest became, the ambient temperature cooled, and the gradients lessened. Scott and Carl were way ahead of me, but the navigation was very simple – just stay on the trail. Some metal markers are nailed into trees along the trail in places where the trail itself might become faint. The ground even became softer, more dirt than stone, with a soft bed of pine needles. The smells were more montane than desert, that “new car” pine-scent smell! We met once again at Deer Head Spring, elevation 7,100 feet, about 4.5 miles in from the trailhead. Here, we had an extended break and a powwow to discuss plans, since Carl wasn’t going to the summit (he was seeking out some other nearby points of interest). Although I didn’t check the time, my guess it was pushing 10 a.m. when we convened at Deer Head.

After Deer Head Springs, we continued up the trail to the East Side trail and Spud Rock Camp, then made a switchback to another trail junction with the Switchback Trail. Carl left us here to continue south, while Scott and I went west up the Switchback Trail, quickly gaining the top and emerging onto the actual range crest, elevation about 7,800 feet. From Spud Rock Camp to here we had come across a few snow patches and a few places where we had to walk through some small drifts. The weather was very cool and pleasant, and we took another break here. According to the map we had another 2.5 miles one way to the summit, but just about 800 feet of gain: a very gentle gradient. It was a moral victory to be on the range crest and to have about 80% of the uphill done.

We were now on the Heartbreak Ridge Trail. We continued up this trail gaining about 200 feet into increasingly bigger snow patches and trickling streams. The trail bent in and out of many drainages, including one with a strong flow to it, Scott saying this is fastest he’s ever seen it flow. The trail from here went up another slope and finally connected to the Fire Loop Trail, where we went right, gaining a short but slightly steep incline to come upon the giant Man Head rock, a ridgeline formation we’d seen coming up. We sat at Man Head for another break, it offering the best up-high views we’d have for the day. Big Rincon Peak was directly south of us, and we were nearly abeam of its summit, meaning we had very little more gain to go, maybe 300 feet. We still had over a mile, though.

From Man Head we walked along the trail to the Mica Meadow Trail junction, then shortly, to the Bonita Trail (this is not shown on the map for some reason). Bonita ran for 0.8 mile north through mostly-level meadow terrain, just beautiful with the light forest cover and snowy ground cover. By now we were trudging on snow about 70% of the time. It was wet and slippery, and a minor nuisance. Some sections of the ground were big mud fields. The Bonita Trail ended at the Fire Loop North Trail, just 0.2 mile from the summit. Halfway there we got onto the Mica Mountain Trail and took it the remaining 500 feet to the top, arriving a shade after noon, very nearly 6 hours after starting the hike. Success! Yes, there are no views, and the summit is a broad rounded hump of forest, but it was still very nice. I took the usual photographs and we spent about 30 minutes relaxing up there. I sat on the footings of the old lookout tower near the benchmark. Although tired, I felt fantastic and much better than I thought I would after such a long grind. We had talked about taking the trail west about a half-mile to Spud Rock (located nowhere near the aforementioned camping area, by the way), but the snow cover suggested it would be more hassle than it was worth, and besides, we had some getting back down to do. We were moving again around 12:35.

The hike down off the plateau went very quickly. We retraced our route and made very good time, arriving back to the Deer Head Spring at just after 2 p.m. Here, we waited for Carl to arrive, having agreed to be here no later than 3 p.m. Fortunately, Carl showed early, and by 2:30, we were moving again. But in the time sitting at the spring, my legs grew a bit tight, so it took me awhile to get into a rhythm again. The portion down to Mud Hole Spring took about 30 minutes, but we were descending down from the cooler pines onto the warmer, more open transition zones. After another short stop at Mud Hole, we continued. As good as I felt today, I finally hit my wall coming down from Mud Hole. The hiking itself was tedious: now in the open, unexciting brushy slopes. I ended up taking a few more breaks. Carl and Scott would be up ahead, always within sight. There was no urgency to stay as one group, but at the very least I’d be sure I could see them up ahead, or vice versa. The last couple of miles along the low ridge was easy, but boring. It felt fantastic to see the trailhead again. Carl and Scott had been there maybe 10-15 minutes. I walked in at 4:50 p.m., meaning a 10 hour, 40 minute hike for me. Not too bad, I guess. We sat around a little more, having some food and drinks, before beginning the drive out to the highway and to Tucson. After parting ways in Tucson, I got my stuff back in the truck and drove on home to Scottsdale, arriving at 9:30 p.m.

I was beat, thrashed and very happy to have Mica done. The overall hike had gone far better than I was mentally preparing myself for. The trail was in great shape the whole way, and my sedentary ways of recent weeks proved not to be as much a negative as I feared. If anything, I maybe spent 30-45 more minutes on the hike than I would have if in better shape. I’ll never be fast, but I stopped more than usual. Ironically, I now feel that Rincon is the harder hike: it’s a shade longer, about 300 feet more of gain, but with 1,000 feet of it at the very end, whereas Mica does all its gain in the middle portions, leaving a fun, easy stroll amid high montane plateau to the summit. I would love to come back for some more exploration, and I just may have to backpack in for at least one night of sleep. I would love to explore the western slopes and the Tanque Verde Ridge. But that’s for another day. My thanks to Carl and to Scott.