Montezuma's Pass

Montezuma's Pass is the high point on Forest Road 61 which straddles the southern slopes of the Huachuca Mountains and the border with Mexico. It travels all the way to Nogales along the AZ-MEX border. It is a very scenic drive across the alluvial plains. It can also be a dangerous drive best avoided at night because this is a popular drug-smuggling route.

The pass and the parking lot is at 6575'. Hikers on the Arizona Trail park here, hike south for 1.7 on the Yaqui trail down to the border, then return to the parking lot to officially start the hike on the Crest Trail going northward and up into the Huachucas. Most of the pass belongs to the Coronado National Memorial. Dogs are not allowed on the trails within the park boundary, but an illegal trail behind the restrooms and on National Forest land takes one a half-mile farther south to some conglomerate outcroppings and pretty views of the border, as long as one knows where to take a slight uphill to continue the trek. This was our Sunday destination for this week.

This is a very short hike with great views into Mexico. The burnline from the Campini fire was quite obvious.

We started the hike around 8:20am as the first ones in the area. I had Zeke and Minnie, Alicia brough Luna, who has grown so big in the last two weeks. She could easily grow up bigger than Minnie! These three dogs play well together, and Luna seems to enjoy the attention she gets. Today Zeke and Luna were a pair while Minnie watched from a distance, often sniffing areas on her own. I led this hike and quickly got us off the trail and going further down the slope than expected. I forgot about a subtle turn uphill in the beginning and led us through a cholla-infested, slippery area. I could tell Alicia was not having fun, and Luna kept getting thorns in her paws. Luckily I found the trail before we hit the boulder.

We sat on these conglomerate rocks for around 30 minutes as the dogs around us played, romped and sniffed. The burn line south of the border was visible, and for a mile or so the burn line followed the border road until west of Bear Canyon where it took on a more wild form toward Parker Canyon Lake. Looking at the area now it didn't look so dangerous, but for two days this was heavily fought off by our firefighters and the reason we cancelled an army reunion with some of Kevin's friends in OKC this weekend. The fear of another wildfire as we had last summer is still fresh in everyone's mind. We weren't on the trail for long. By 9:30am we were back at the parking lot, chatting some more and letting the dogs play as slowly cars pulled into the parking lot. By the time we finally departed the area at 10am three groups had set off to hike Miller Peak. I'm so glad I got my hiking in yesterday, as today was warmer than yesterday.

Carr Peak with Sadie and Minnie

Today was the first day in a week that we didn't have high winds. The sky was clear and it was noticably cooler today (thanks to a front coming in off southwestern Mexico and TS Bud). I putzed around in the garden early in the morning, but my big goal was to hike up Carr Peak with both Sadie and Minnie. It was a perfect day for a hike, with a cool breeze and blue skies.

 

We made it to the trailhead at 11:37am. My van registered 69F. That's 25F cooler than a week ago! Several other cars were already in the parking lot, and many more campers were set up in both campsites along the road. I could hear adults and children at the nearby campgrounds. 

Minnie did very well. I had no idea what to expect. The vet told me she needed ten days rest after her spay surgery, but I couldn't wait too long. She seemed well, although she followed Sadie for guidance and went where she went. Her only flaw as a hiker right now is that as a novice German Shepherd Dog (GSD) she tends to hug my side as protector, rather than take a lead up front. I fell over her a few times because of that.

The six-mile hike was rough on Minnie. I stopped half-way to give the girls some water. I walked at her pace. I stopped plenty of times to photograph the scenery. Despite the lack of any water along the trail, all the trees looked well-leafed. More herbaceous plants mean more seed-eaters are coming back, and indeed I did see more songbirds this time. That freak storm we had a few weeks ago did wonders as the area looked so green this time. The lower aspen grove was full, but was infested with the Western Tent Caterpillar that makes its appearance along the San Pedro River as well. They weave their heavy nests inbetween young tree branches and suck the tree of its new leaves. Luckily many of the caterpillars were weaved in dead trees.

 

Life is coming back to the mountains. Seed-eating birds are back.  I could hear them but not always see them. Lots more herbaceous plants are also up, adding to the recovery of this area. Only the pestemons remain elusive. The varied wild flowers continue to stay away. 

Once I reached the Crest Trail and the intersection for the Carr Peak segment, I could see the burn area of the Campini fire. The fire remained mostly in Mexico, and it seemed to have started near a small lake. (A campground fire?) West of Bear Canyon the burn area became more wild, so it's good that this fire has been extinquished.

 

I maintained a pleasant pace all throughout the hike. Apparently other people felt hiking in the early afternoon was ideal as I met several groups going up and coming down the peak. Minnie barked at some of them, especially a young family that brought a small dog along. To give that family some safety, I sat off the peak with the dogs while they were on the peak, then resumed my spot at the peak for a while longer. 

It was after 2pm before I descended, and Minnie was just as energetic as before, only this time wanting me to throw her sticks along the way! At one point she picked up rocks! I let the dogs determine the pace and again we stopped at the same areas for 15 minutes that we used hiking up. 

The sun was getting to the dogs, but their spirits remained high. Both dogs stayed close by and on the trail. The loud sound of either cicadas or hungry beetles surrounded me in that last half mile to the truck. I couldn't see the insects but I could hear them around me. When we got back to the van at 4:25pm Minnie did not hesitate to jump in. She is slowly feeling at ease now with her new pack. She rested for the rest of the day.

 

I will definitely be bringing Minnie on more hikes with me. She is much more focused on staying near me than Zeke, who chases after everything on the trail. I can't have that kind of behavior in a dog on a hike.

New dog in the pack

Last weekend Kevin and I were in the Phoenix area with some friends. His daughters had flown in for vacation and were staying there a week. We joined them for a few days. We drove in separate vehicles because I had to work on Friday and wanted to give Kevin time to spend alone with his girls. I didn't drive up there until Saturday morning, a day later. We left Sunday morning to return to our home. I stopped by the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control Center-West (MCACC-W) where I met a young, small German Shepherd Dog that was available for adoption. She was one of three GSDs waiting for new homes. Despite knowing we had enough dogs, I paid for the adoption fee and drove up on Monday to pick her up after her spaying. I didn't worry about what Kevin would say. I've learned in the army that it's easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. The vet discovered she was pregnant, so I'm assuming her previous owners dumped her somewhere in Phoenix after she went into heat and mated with another dog. She's around 18 months old, and has had a rough life. Otherwise whoever had her treated her well as she is a gentle little girl who stays by my side. The little GSD we named Minnie, since she's so much smaller than Sadie. Minnie is more Zeke's size and those two have become playmates. Intergrating her into the new pack was easy. I was so afraid of having another female GSD, how Minnie would handle the cats. Everything went so well. Sadie, Sara, Sammy and Zeke accepted Minnie right away after a thorough butt-sniffing. The cats weren't too pleased but they now come up to her. Minnie's barked at them a few times but nothing dangerous. The next morning, before the heat of the day began, we played ball in the backyard. Minnie is right up there with Sadie at fetching, but Minnie also retrieves sticks and rocks! She is a mellow dog, doesn't bark much, and follows me everywhere. Earlier today I took the entire pack down to the river for some cooling off. There Minnie splashed around in the water and tried to pick rocks from the river. Only Zeke and Sara got wetter. Later she went on her first hike with Sadie, Beth and me up Brown Canyon, a five-mile loop Beth and I have done twice now. Minnie held her ground and kept a good pace.

The snakes are out

Daytime temperatures are in the 90s now, and the heat is bringing out the snakes. Since I tend to be on the trail in the late afternoon, I have a better chance of meeting snakes. In the past week I've encountered a King Snake on the Lower Huachuca Trail, and two days ago a juvenile black-tail rattlesnake in Hunter Canyon. The black-tail seems to be rather prevalant here in the foothills.

King Snakes are constrictors and will leave humans alone, but its resemblance to the more deadly Coral Snake, with its similar color bands only in different order, is much more deadly. Here in the mountains and foothills we are more inclined to see King Snakes. The rattler hissed at Sadie but did not strike, which is so fortunate because Sadie came back to the same spot, got close to the snake again, and then darted under the fence to cross a cattle guard. Her behavior reminds me that I have got to get her to snake avoidance clasess. The encounter with the rattler could have ended in tragedy.

Supermoon up Red Mountain

May's full moon today was this year's "supermoon," when the moon is at its closest to Earth along its axis. It appears 14 percent bigger than normal. I wanted to hike a supermoon hike somewhere and asked Rod. He then suggested Red Mountain near Patagonia, AZ. I agreed. Rod, John and I, and dogs Sadie and Sieger, came along. I had only planned on taking Sadie, but Zeke insisted he come as well. This was thus his unplanned first group hiking event. He did OK. Red Mountain is the highest peak in the Patagonia mountains, standing 6373' tall. It's one of the most northern peaks in this rather small range. It's a range that geographically extends into northern Sonora and is laden with active and abandoned mines. There are so many trails here I've yet to explore, so why don't I? Maybe because it's the danger I feel when I am in these mountains. There are always USBP driving around, always these small forest fires that start up at dusk, and other arrests in this area. A hiker must be on guard at all times.

Meetup time was 5pm at the town's post office. No one else but Rod and John showed up. The people I invited didn't RSVP me and I wasn't expecting anyone else. It was once again us three Rogue Hikers. We drove in two separate vehicles to the trailhead, to Forest Road 4649 off Harshaw Road and just south of the Arizona Trail crossing. The road isn't marked well, so few may know about this turn-off. It's almost four miles from Harshaw Road to the peak, and one deep crevice near the one-mile mark may mean parking at the mile-mark and hike on in. That is what we did, despite a Ford Escape with three adults in it making it up much higher and parking a mile from the Look-out. Our starting time was just after 5:30pm. The USBP now use the peak as a radar look-out. I can't blame them, as the Patagonia hills are replete with drug smugglers. We met one USBP vehicle coming down the mountain. No major activity was spotted today, he told us, "but there was a major arrest off Ramsey road in SV."

Rod and John were both tired from having worked a trail maintenance event in Sunnysite Canyon with the Huachuca Hiking club earlier today. Rod looked especially exhausted, as he looked as beat as he looked last week coming down Cochise Head. He trailed behind John and me, causing us both to stop and look back at him. FR 4649 meanders rather steeply up a mostly eastern vantage point to the top, making several long switchbacks up the road. This makes it a great moon hike as the moon shines on the eastern side for the first half of the night. When we started hiking up we were in the cool dark shadows of a setting sun, walking up the slopes of the hills with Harshaw Road extending into the horizon. We could see the lighted cars drive by to our south, but no other house lights. "I don't remember this place being so green!" I told Rod as we stopped at one point to gaze north into Patagonia. Lush green trees followed a creek bed, but the green extended well higher up into the hills. Then I remembered that it only appears so green because our own forest in the Huachuca mountains has burned brown and grey. I'm not used to seeing so much green foliage after our own Monument Fire from last summer. Still, the juniper trees, pygmy pines and manzanitas all looked healthy here. Smaller unmarked trails to smaller peaks veered off from the road. There are other private places to stop and watch a moon rise from this road. And where did that truck load of people go anyway? We saw their Ford Escape parked off the road, but they were nowhere to be found.

The peak up was farther than Rod had anticipated. Was he going to make it to the top on time, I wondered. "We have thirty minutes, we can make it!" he said as we approached the last saddle. I went on ahead since John stayed with Rod. When I made it around the saddle and now facing the western slope, I could see the sun setting over Baboquvari, a sacred mountain of the ToOhono O'dham. The setting sun set a deep red-orange glow in its waning moments of the day. Rod was wrong about the timing. It took me over 45 minutes to reach the peak, and I had missed the initial moon rise by ten minutes. Although the moon was still a ball of orange, it wasn't the huge red ball I thought it was going to be. I arrived at the peak at 7:15pm. A lone USBP agent opened his vehicle door and spooked me, as much as I spooked him.

It was windy on top, and many radar and other communication devices whirled, buzzed and hummed nearby. This added to a rather wild sensation, going from quiet hiking to loud summit conquest; like entering a new world. I was now chilled, and my sweaty back didn't help much. But I remember being here before. I had been here years before with Kevin and the two older dogs in 2005 or so, but don't remember the look-out and certainly don't remember the USBP presence there now. The look-out was open and I went up the stairs to photograph the area. The two dogs stayed at the base, guarding the entrance. I could see Nogales now in the distance, Patagonia lake glistenining in the moonshine, and other lights starting to come up.

John came up ten minutes later, causing Zeke to bark loudly and Sadie to follow. Sadie should have known better as she has hiked up with John before. Lately she barks when he barks. Zeke also barked at John as we hiked downhill, when John got too far ahead of us to be recognized. Rod later called that "straggler control severely reprimanding those who hiked too far ahead or were too far behind Connie." Rod was nowhere to be found. "Is he OK?" I asked John. "He had to stop to take his Motrin." And a few minutes after we both descended, we saw Rod come up, so together we climbed back up to the peak, enjoyed the view, and descended a final time together. As expected the western slopes were very dark without any moonlight. I carried a lantern and lighted up that view until we were all back at the last saddle. From here on down the trail was brightly lighted, only darkening as we came across tree shadows. I slipped three times going downhill, twice scraping my left knee and then my right hand. Rod slipped a few times but only I actually fell. Was I imbalanced, wearing wrong footwear (I wore my Obox trail runners) or was I just always on the slick side of the road? I was holding on to my Canon 5D, a camera I don't want to destroy. It took us four hours for the entire hike. By 9:30pm we were back at our vehicles. Even I felt the stiffness in my legs. No one suggested a post-hike meal as we were all beat. Both dogs were also tired on the drive home. To make it easier for Rod, I drove John back to his car so that Rod could go straight to Benson where he lives. Several emergency vehicles passed us by as we drove east from Patagonia. There were at least ten sheriff vehicles in front of the Sonoita Steak Out. Wonder what that was all about?