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Laze on a great slab of rock known as Lunch Ledge and weigh the seasons.

At first I am certain there is no contest: this, autumn, is the best time of all to be on this trail, the Aspen-Marshall Gulch Loop high in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. In the fall, the air here is as crisp and clean as any on Earth. Sunlight no longer sears the forest but bathes it in a lukewarm glow. Deer appear enroute to the rut. You need a sweater but no hat or gloves. And aspens, vast quaking groves in full autumn dress, decorate the path in hues of gold.

I shift positions on Lunch Ledge, a flat-topped cliff midway on the loop, and consider the case for winter. It has been my priv-ilege more than once over the years to be the first two-legged creature to trek the 3.7-mile trail after a heavy snowfall.

Everything is muted then, monochromatic, dormant but not dead. In winter my heavy mountain boots plunge through fresh powder along the high ridge above the aspens. They squeak and crunch in the frozen drifts of the gulch. The little stream is a ribbon of black ice. Brown stalks of bracken fern jut out of the snow five months after their August heyday. I see the tracks of rabbits. I admire the way snow clings to the boughs of pines and firs. Thoughts of a crackling fire warm me along the last chill mile.

Then again there is spring. It arrives like a brilliant revelation in these forests and meadows at elevations of 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Now, on this elegant day in autumn, I root in the rucksack for my lunch of cheese, fruit, and nuts, spread the cold feast on the tablelike ledge, and recall the times I've ambled these miles in the blossoming days of April and May. Early in the spring, mornings on the trail are nippy, and the last little crescents of snow hang on in cool hollows and patches of shade.

Later in the season, grasses and mountain shrubs flush with a first tinge of green. The sweet subtle perfume of damp pine needles wafts up from the mulch of the forest floor. Birds exult. Wary does venture out with spindly fawns. Bears supposedly shuffle through the country so far unseen by me. And, in the high open glades, the first potent sunshine of the year coaxes up shoots of what will become wildflowers in the warm, wet days of late July and August.

Out of the clear blue comes summer. The season that is so difficult to love in the desert is the season in which hikers flock in greatest numbers to this trail. The trailhead, in fact, is located just a mile from the mountain village of Summerhaven. The name is a one-word testament to how the area is viewed by heat-withered Tucsonans.

ASPEN TRAIL: A MOUNTAIN HIKE FOR ALL SEASONS WELL ALMOST

Summer on the trail is a time of shorts, T-shirts, and sunscreen. Families gambol in the lower reaches of the gulch. Lovers picnic under the aspens. Wildflowers - penstemon, paintbrush, and maybe dazzling yellow columbine, if you know where to look-turn parts of the route into a natural garden. Mornings are cool; middays, warm to hot. During the August monsoon rains, storm clouds sometimes shroud the trail in the afternoon. Thunder. White lances of lightning. A sudden downpour or a gentle rain. When it is over, thick clumps of ferns seem all the greener in the lower gulch.

Enough of reverie. It is time to leave the aerie of Lunch Ledge with its views deep into the Wilderness of Rocks, and walk through the forest to Marshall Saddle. From here the trail descends east into Marshall Gulch, which roughly parallels the Aspen Trail segment of the trek and completes the loop.

The beauty of this trail is that hikers who want a short and easy walk can strike out from the parking lot on either leg of the path without encountering much steep going for half a mile. Those seeking more of a workout will find some steep switchbacks on the Aspen portion of the route and some rocky going in the upper reaches of the gulch.

Finally, there are two things to watch for along the way. One is my wedding ring, a silver band with a jade stone. I lost it while hiking the loop in 1975. The marriage is still intact, and I'd really like having the ring back.

The other is a small makeshift thatched hut that someone built years ago by nestling fallen branches and pine boughs over a thick tree limb growing conveniently close to the ground. The hut has served as a wonderful hideout for kids and a romantic hideaway for adults. Unless you know where to look - or are very alert - you could walk the trail 10 times and never see it. Yet still be the richer.

WHEN YOU GO

To get to the Aspen-Marshall Gulch Loop from Tucson, take the 25-mile Catalina Highway (Mount Lemmon Highway) to Summerhaven. Follow the paved road south of Summerhaven until it ends in less than a mile. Trail signs mark both legs of the loop. The trailhead is in the picnic area. For more information, contact the Santa Catalina Forest Ranger Station, 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road, Tucson, AZ 85749; (602) 749-8700.