Backpacking Adventure - Day three part seven - Feb 27 - Down from Romero Saddle

When we arrived at Romero Saddle, we were elated from the hike down the north wall of Romero canyon coming down Mount Lemmon trail with all the fantastic views down Sabino west branch and Romero canyons, and of course across the canyon to the back of the front range to the south.

We were also tired from having hiked about 3 miles with our backpacks, and Cheryl's toes were suffering a bit from coming down the Romero north canyon wall, which descends about 1,500 feet from the summit on the trail we hiked that day.

Romero canyon below the saddle begins out pretty unremarkable. The trail was nearly washed out about 4 months earlier when there was 5 inches of rain all in one rainstorm on a day in October, 2014. There is a virtual wall of scrub trees and bushes that line the trail on both sides, and in some places overtake the trail with fallen tree trunks and overgrowth of vegitation.

The trail continues down from the saddle for half a mile until you run into a dry arroyo from the north. We were expecting Romero creek, and we were expecting it to have a significant amount of flowing water in it. We continued on down another quarter mile or half mile, and finally we see and hear water flowing in (some) arroyo / creek. At this point, were weren't in the mood to argue with the situation, even though it did not meet our expectations.

In any event, we were running out of sun, and we were somewhat tired from our about 4.4 miles of hauling a 35 pound backpack ( albeit downhill ). So we started looking for a place to camp. Right off the bat, after we crossed the stream, we noticed a camping spot that suited our needs, so we stopped there and rested for a while.