Climbing Rincon Peak

Dr. Weil climbs rincon Peak near his home in Tucson, Arizona.

1 min

Along with my friends Andre Fasciola and Steve Rooke, I climbed Rincon Peak southeast of Tucson, Arizona on March 24-25. The 24-mile roundtrip hike to the 8,400-foot summit was a challenge, but at age 66, my body did just fine. These photos are by Andre and Steve.

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The overnight campsite at Happy Valley Saddle, at 6,200 feet. Andre Fasciola is at left.
Pouring dried, reconstituted morel mushrooms into a backpacking-stove pot held by a friend of 30 years, Steven Rooke. Rooke has climbed Rincon Peak seven times, and served as the trip's guide.
In the clear desert air, the view goes on forever.
At the summit. The brace on my left knee is for pain I sometimes feel when pushing the joint during strenuous exercise. If I do something very stressful to the knee, it may hurt for a day or two, but that's it. I was concerned about carrying a 30-pound pack up the mountain and even more about the long descent, so I took the brace along. I put it on about an hour before reaching our campsite at 6,200 feet (Happy Valley Saddle) when I felt some pain (left lateral aspect of joint). I was not bothered after that and had no joint or foot problems at all on the whole hike. The only aftereffect was moderate soreness of quadriceps for 2 days (from the descent).
Another view from the summit. The total vertical climb from the valley floor is about 5,200 feet.
Temperatures on the valley floor were in the 80s, but summit required bundling up.
The 12-mile downward hike begins. As it turned out, we did not need to camp halfway down the trail where Steven had left water cached. We made it home just before dark.