After the interminable summer, fall arrives very quickly in the Sonoroan Desert. The window between the last of the 100° days and the first snow on Mount Lemmon is only a few weeks. Just as Montrealers used to huddle in their jackets at the outdoor tables on the sunny side of rue St-Denis on the first warm day, Tucsonans now cautiously turn off their swamp coolers, open their windows and doors and crawl out from the dark corners where they have been hibernating the last six months. There are a half-dozen outdoor festivals every weekend, and bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way to our favorite mountain playgrounds.

We joined Kit and Ann at Gordon Hirabayashi Campground and spent two delicious days hiking in the high desert country above this former prison work camp. Several hiking trails intersect at G. Hirabayashi, including a long day hike from Sycamore Reservoir to the top of Sabino Canyon. But this weekend we focused on Bug Spring Trail, which loops downhill 4.6 miles from General Hitchcock Campground. I was wondering why this trail doesn't show up on my trusty map of Pusch Wilderness. The answer is that it's a brand new trail, opened only in March of 2008.

From the upper Bug Springs parking lot, the trail climbs very steeply for the first half mile in full sun parsed by madrone, manzanita and allegator juniper trees. The trail then drops into a forest of mature ponderosa pine that survived the catastrophic fires of 2004-2006, meandering back and forth across a dry streambed. We stopped here for lunch and quickly fell asleep in the sweet dry shade. After another ascent, the trail emerges at the top of a ridge with sweeping views of the Rincons and most of Tucson south to Baboquivari and beyond.

This section of the hike is actually the most interesting, scampering between granite hoodoos along the top of the ridge with great views in all directions. From the nose of the ridge, it's an easy, swoopy descent to G-H through golden grasslands and the silvery skeletons of trees taken out in the last fire to sweep through this area. At about three miles, we cross the trail's namesake. Friday afternoon, there were only a few cups of skanky water at the "spring", but the sand was dimpled with dozens of paw and hoof prints. Ann described this area as a "coyote seep", and indeed, when we returned to this spot the following day, the standing water was gone. Downstream from the spring we found a sizable dry waterfall as well as a mysterious stone bridge.

If you decide to hike this trail, watch out for out-of-control mountain bikers, most of whom seem unprepared for the possibility that they might encounter pedestrians during their downhill plunge.

With Sycamore Reservoir just downstream, there was plenty of bird activity in camp, including phainopeplas, scrub jays, and even an oriole, but the highlight of the weekend was when two red-tailed hawks came screaming overhead like a pair of A-10s. The larger bird had a fresh kill in tow, and Ann identified the lighter-colored bird as a juvenile who wanted a piece of the action. They took up positions in the trees just above our camp and provided us with an incredible audio-visual spectacle as well as many photo opps.