Upper Huachuca Peak Trail

I finally got out and did a real hike today. Fort Huachuca has opened its trails for hikers and I had to bite. At 9:04am Sadie and I were on the Upper Huachuca Peak Trail to hike this 8400' hill. It was in the upper 80s with a humidity index of around 25%, bordering on uncomfortable for me.

This trail is accessible only by going on Fort Huachuca and then driving up through the old post on Christy Avenue to Huachuca Canyon. Then it's another bumpy 3.6 miles, half which any sedan could maneuver through, before the trailhead is to the left (south) of a fork in the road. The trail sign is hidden a bit; you'd have to know it's there.

I hadn't been here in years, perhaps five or six years now. I remembered very little except for the water running down the trail. The erosion on the actual road, though, has gotten so bad one would need a monster truck to make it to the old parking area of this steep but pretty trail. I could see the residue of previous rains washing debris across the trail, creating heavy groves in the trail. I certainly would not want to be hiking here during a deluge.

I felt slow and uncomfortable in the heat/humidity. Three people near the start resting off the trail warned me of a black bear that was in the area; a military policeman had warned them personally two hours earlier. I never saw it, although there was plenty of bear scat on the trail. With Sadie with me, I wasn't worried.

It took me an hour to make it that first mile where the trail intersects with the Crest Trail! Granted, I stopped a lot to photograph trees and flowers, but was I really that slow? After hiking higher elevations in California just two plus weeks ago, I wasn't expecting this.

I met one man around my age coming down the trail. Talking to him was an excuse to rest some more. He retired a month ago and wants to get back in shape. He never made it to the peak. The four women he hiked with made it to the top and I met them 1/4 of a mile from the peak as I was ascending. They were talking so loudly for so long they didn't even see me coming, and then they moved on and continued their chatter. Their voices would have alarmed bears and snakes for miles!

The pungent smell of wild onion surrounded me as I neared the peak. Or was that the more noxious onion weed? I pulled a few plants out and saw the small bulbs. Onion weed doesn't have bulbs nor does it smell like onion. (It just looks like it.)

I made it to the scrub oak-thorny bush covered peak right at noon. I was feeling sweaty and sat at the old foundation of what once was a lookout tower here. I ate some trail mix and gave Sadie some chicken jerky. She looked tired, too, and the incoming overcast sky didn't seem to alleviate her discomfort. She didn't drink much, either.

What surprised me from my vantage point is how little of the burn area is visible from Huachuca Peak. Miller Peak to the south looks good, except for the burned eastern slopes. The fire must not have crossed over into the western slopes as I had feared. That is good, as the forest looked quite good here.

My last time up this peak was last fall coming up the steeper and longer McClure Canyon. I think I prefer that hike over this one as it's more remote and McClure canyon has a spring in it. It's overgrown but at least it is not eroding off the hillsides.

The Basic NCO course plaque from 2001 is still there, facing the west. I am glad I wasn't in the class that had to shlepp that plaque up the trail.

I could see and hear rain cells toward Mt Wrightson and the Whetstones and didn't want to linger long on top. We descended the same way, crossing through a fagrant field of wild onion near the peak before returning to the alligator juniper-oak-pine forest along the trail. I picked up two old aluminum cans; trash was minimal here. I was more worried about watching my step as my right knee was hurting and I had to look closely at the many crevices and rocks in the trail.

A couple coming up as I was 1/2 mile from the finish line warned me of a rattle snake around the next bend. I never saw it. Perhaps my heavy stride made the snake think an elephant was approaching and scurried off.

I made it back to the truck by 2:30pm. By now the sky was looking dark above and to my west, but the drive down the canyon road was dry. It didn't rain until around 6:30pm.