Parker Canyon Lake Shore Trail

I had an impressive turn-out this morning for this easy five-mile hike that skirts the perimeter of this man-made lake: a record of 17 people showed up, many who were neighbors of new members. My youngest hiker was Michael,and he brought his 6-month-old Pekinese who simply adored Sadie. We hiked at a moderate-to-slow pace to enjoy the scenery, and to hopefully catch a bald eagle sighting. Parker Canyon Lake is known to have a bald eagle pair that winter here.

It was a great day for a hike around this high desert lake. Temps were in the upper 60s by noon and there were few clouds. Skies were mostly clear.

We got started right around 9am, as the Cochise County Search and Recovery team from the Sheriff's department drove up. This is the team that is still trying to locate the body of drowned fisherman Steven Leininger, 54, whose capsized boat was recovered on the lake 22 December. His buddy's body, Michael Slough, 53, was recovered that day. Both men were out fishing after midnight. Neither were wearing floatation vests or had life-saving devices in their boat. If his body is still in the lake it may take a while in the cooler waters for the decomposing body to emerge; the body is most likely caught on something for right now.

We later saw a S&R team near the northeastern side of the lake diving for the body, an area that is popular with many local anglers. Perhaps other boats on the lake were also part of the S&R team as there were many cars in the parking lot.

Lakewater was calm today. Temperatures quickly warmed up but I never took my orange wind jacket off.

With a group this large it's hard to stay together. Eric and his friends took off right away to get around us slower masses. I certainly wasn't about to keep them back; I tend to stay with the slower hikers when I'm leading and today was no different. I stopped a few times to take photographs but overall this was a fun group of diverse people. There were so many new people that it was hard to remember all the names!

We never spotted any bald eagles this time, though. I figured this mild winter is keeping the birds wanting to stay elsewhere. We spotted an egret, most likely the same egret Hanna and I saw last year on this hike. There were the usual coots, mallards and ducks and a few small songbirds, but we never saw any raptors. I saw hawks and falcons on powerlines driving to and from the lake, but none at the lake!

I packed a large garbage bag but there wasn't much trash along the lake shore this time, despite the many people out fishing today. We also didn't see any USBP vans anywhere, neither at the lake nor along the route on Hwy 83.

This hike took us just over two hours to complete. Some of us chatted at the Marina Store for a bit but we all departed with hopes of another good hike. I was home by 1:30pm. Sadie was unusually tired.

This is the second year in a row we have done this trail in January. I may just make it an annual hike. It seems to be a very popular hike. My next plan is to come here after a heavy snow and photograph a calm lake against the snow-capped mountains. I'm not sure much more snow is forecasted for this winter, though. January has been too mild so far since that last snowfall on New Year's Day.