Arizona Report #4, Off Trail Hike to the Knob

After several solo  hikes on maintained trails, it was time to do a group hike with a portion of it  off trail so I joined the X=treme club, made up of a bunch of very fit, fun  loving people, some of them showing up for Sunday's hike (from left Tobin, the  real deal hiker and climber, Susana, Steven our leader, Robert, who bailed early, Wendi, Brian, Tess and Jo).  Actually, as I looked around the group I got  the same feeling that I have when rolling out with the Thursday New Albany A  group ride, the hammer is about to drop and I am the nail.
 

Today's destination,  the "Knob" which you can probably figure out what that would be from looking at  the image.  Only about 3 miles away, which is not far except when there are  millions and millions of plants between us and the Knob, the sole purpose of  which is to deny us access to that feature.  Departing via the Pima Canyon  trailhead, we quickly covered 1.8 miles on a good trail before reaching a turn  that had a subtle arrow made of stones, that pointed off trail.....

.....up a ravine and so  we began a trek through cat-claw, saguaro, prickly pear, hedgehog, jumping  cholla, staghorn cholla, barrel cactus, etc... each of which shoot barbed  projectiles deep into the unfortunate who stray too closely to them.  Would you  care to
guess who strayed, fell or skidded into them more than anyone?  Yes, the pilgrim from Ohio, me

I'm not overstating  the difficulty of the hike.  It wasn't the steepness or the distance, that I can  handle.  It was the vegetation that seemed to have gotten the message, "Kill the  Buckeye". This plant in particular was evilly placed and placed thickly.  Called  "Shin Dagger" by the locals, they grow everywhere and on top of each other and  those points yield to nothing that is not sheathed in cement, steel or titanium,  none of which enveloped my legs..  Good heavens, what I wouldn't do for a  thicket of blackberry bushes to wade through as an alternative.

As we hiked along  the east side of the ravine, we spotted a family of 12-15 javelinas on the  opposite side, both they and us headed for the same saddle.  Somewhere in there  they disappeared and we reached the saddle, then headed up another side
ravine  where some of us paused to climb this rock and pose.  Yep, the views were, as  always, fantastic.

Eventually, we reached another saddle, just below the knob and paused to eat.  Here, our leader  Steven, converses with Jo with a nice background.
  

Most of the group  then climbed the Knob but I had to beg out, needing instead to borrow a pair of  tweezers, retreat behind a boulder, drop my hiking pants and remove dozens of  imbedded spines.  The ones from the cactus, while set deep into the skin, were  easy albeit painful, to remove.  It was the dozens of very thin ones that  provided the challenge as they were hard to see while being easy to feel. Here,  most of the group reached the top of the Knob, via a challenging chimney climb.   I was bummed that I could not join them.  Maybe you can see them at the top?
  
The way down to the  Finger Route trail, two canyons from where we stood, had not previously been  scouted by our leader.  We could see where we wanted to go but discerning the  route was difficult as we sought to avoid getting cliffed out with no advance  possible.  We traversed a steep slope while I thought often how Mark Clingan, my  Ohio off-trail hiking buddy, would have loved this experience.  The terrain was  very tough and at some point my feet slid out from under me and predictably, my  back fell into a patch of shin daggers and spine injecting plants.  The good  news is I guess your rear end doesn't have the nerve endings that the rest of  your body has, otherwise I would have screamed like a 5 year-old child. I also  benefited from a very kind fellow hiker, Wendi, who immediately ordered me to  stop while she patiently picked out the largest of the daggers.  
  
The way down to the  base of the canyon was challenging, a very steep drop scrambling over boulders,  slick rock, just wild stuff really. We took turns breaking the trail and at one  point, Tess walked into and then emerged from a thicket of cat-claw, legs  covered with rivulets of blood.  The rest of us sought a workaround.  We finally  reached the bottom and looked upward at a notch in a ridge over which we still  had to climb, before dropping into another canyon where we would hike out via  the Finger Rock trail.  OR, we could just hike down the canyon in which we  stood, reach a gated community and hike to the parking lot.  While the down 
canyon route was off trail and undoubtedly tough, I had had enough of the shin daggers and friends and so joined Brian, Wendi and Jo for the scrambling route to....

....the red brick  road that eventually led us to our cars.  A friendly wager had been made at the  parting of the group in the canyon and I was thrilled we won.  I immediately  drove to a market and bought a pair of tweezers, spending most of Sunday night's  NFL game picking stuff out of my skin.  Now, I'm watching Monday Night football and still digging out plant stingers. I need better clothing I guess or a better  understanding of which plants shoot projectiles and should be avoided.  Geesh,  only 6 miles, 2600' of climbing but almost 8 hours of hiking.