Agua Caliente Hill

Calling this 5000+ peak a "hill" is a misnomer. It only looks small because it's straddled between two much taller peaks and lies inbetween the Rincon and Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson. I had heard about this hill and what a challenge it is to hike it. All reports to that are true. It's steep, with an elevation gain of just under 3000'. There is very little shade on this eastern hill, but the views over Tucson are worth it. From the hilltop other peaks are visible: Mount Wrightston, Mount Lemmon, Babocavari and the distant Mount Graham and Bassett Peak.

Steve, John and I met in SV at Steve's house. I arrived a little early (overestimating the time it would take to get there) and had just enough time for Sadie to leave several small piles of poop on his driveway. What a lovely way to greet his mother by holding a warm bag of poop for her to take away!

We drove to Benson to meet up with Rod. He was already there. Again we drove in my truck, but Sadie seemed more content with the men around her than last time. She didn't whine at all, much to my relief. We got to the trailhead without getting lost just before 9am. There were around five cars in the parking lot. A woman passed us to jog this trail. We were on this steep trail by 9:04am. The climb began almost immediately as we followed the rim trail overlooking stately homes.

The trailhead starts off Camino Remuda in a nice, expansive development area. It immediately climbs and switchbacks, past saguaros both dead and alive, chollas, palo verde trees and other low desert flora. John entertained us with his vast trivia on Beer History as we lumbered up the trail.

This is the more southern canyon between the Rincon and Catalina mountains. We saw no running water and what pools we did see were stagnant and surely not safe to drink. Milagrosa canyon was to our north and the Catalina Highway was clearly visible. This is a breath-taking area to wander around in when there's water running in the dry creek beds. Today, however, it was hot enough for Sadie and too dry for us all. The grasses were dry and golden, resembling swaying fields of wheat over a prairie.

The cool breeze and warm skies gave us a refreshing start. Expected highs were to hit the 70s and I had two cool-max shirts on. I took the other one off and never missed it all throughout the hike. My dense winter pants, however, were overkill. Both Steve and John wore shorts. Rod, too, wore denim and later regretted it as well.

Saguaros dot the southern slopes of this trail. Why so many dead ones, though? Did a deep freeze kill them, or was these victims of a wildfire from long ago? Even dead these cacti remain majestic, as their fibrous stalks remain upright as if pleading for mercy. Steve also pointed out tops of saguaros that had suffered freeze damage, most likely from our February freeze.

At the 1.7 mile mark we hit the cattle pond, a murky little pond clearly frequented by wildlife. We didn't see any cattle prints, though, but plenty of what looked like mountainlion, javalina, deer. We rested here so Sadie could drink, but she didn't seem interested in this water. We moved on, as the trail pushed deeper up the Canyon with a steeper grade. Two women with two dogs (one was a German Shepherd Dog named Sheeba) were coming down, having forsaken their attempt to get to the peak because the dogs were too tired. We don't think they had enough water for themselves and the dogs. I always carry twice the water, so that there's a gallon each for me and Sadie. She used plenty of that water later one as we struggled that last steep and loose-rock grade to the hilltop.

John was now in the lead followed by Steve, but then Rod went ahead while Steve waited for me and Sadie. My lack of conditioning once again showed. John and Steve have been hiking peaks 2-3 a week and my last peak was with them ten days ago. Steve even conquered Mount Wrightson last Friday and showed no signs of fatigue. I made it to the top at 12:27pm.

The hilltop is worth a visit. It's a small mesa with one lone mesquite in the center that provides some shade for the short-of-breath hiker. Two survey markers are nearby. Golden grass sways in the breeze. It's a pleasant enough destination. After we sat at the peak for a while we walked over to the northeastern slope to gaze into the valley, see the ranch house below, and admire what looked like a bald eagle glide on a thermal. This was one big bird!

The descent was as dramatic. We finally went back down almost an hour later, spreading out as the loose slab rock was difficult enough and we didn't want to pull each other down if one fell. Sadie was also showing fatigue and rested under what little shade she could find. The exposed sun had her tired out faster than up and down Bassett Peak, which provided more shade for her. She was a tough one, though.

Thoughts of making this hike a loop into Agua Caliente Canyon and down into Horsehead Ranch was quickly nixed once we got to the intersection. It was 2:30pm by now and that loop would have added twice the mileage to our hike and required another major hill to climb. We were no longer interested. We made it back to the lone-standing truck by 4:30pm with the sun still above us. We only saw one man on the trail, a local neighbor who hiked up to the trail intersection and back.

Our hike ended at the Magoly's Mexican Restaurant in Benson, a small but decent little place popular with locals. "The only time we go out to eat," said Rod, "is when you're leading a hike!" It's an activity I learned to appreciate while in Germany, when a hike always finished off with a beer at a local Gasthaus.

I came up with this hike Sunday early evening. I hadn't hiked last weekend and needed a good challenging hike before the holidays. I proposed this one for the location and challenge and wrote to the hiking club president and treasurer about this proposal. My response from the treasurer was that he wasn't going to distribute this proposal to other members because of the short notice. What? Other hikes were disseminated on a short notice with no problem. I was miffed. I told the guys who came with me today that I was going rogue. Call me Connie "Going Rogue!" Scammell. Ha! I simply can't plan hikes 90 days out as if the hiking schedule were an army training plan. Too many hikes get cancelled that way, or end up being changed at the last minute. That's how the longterm members want to handle club policies. Let that bite them in the collective butts down the road. It's easiest and less stressful if I only have a week to a few days out to plan as I never know what my schedule will be. There are too many distractors in life. I won't let a hiking group derail me.

I downloaded my photos as soon as I got home, noticing a sharp difference in IQ between the Canon XS with Sigma kit lens versus the more compact Canon S90. The S90 pictures were clearly of much better quality.

Once I logged back online, I learned about the small aircraft that crashed in the Supersitition Mountains around 6:30pm tonight. All passengers, three adults and three children, perished. The pilot was the father of the children on the plane. He had flown in from Safford where he lives and owns an aviation business to Mesa where his ex-wife lives. The children were to spend Thanksgiving with him. The Rockwell AC-690A had missed clearing the 5000-foot mountains by a few hundred feet. Among the dead are Shawn Perry, 39, his two sons and his daughter, Morgan Perry, 9, Logan Perry, 8, and Luke Perry, 6. I grieve for the mother who lost all her children at once so tragically.

New Puppy: Sieger von Scammell der Wunderhund

Thursday after work I went to the shelter to photograph the new animals there. I instantaneously fell in love with a little black-and-red shepherd mix puppy that had arrived a few days earlier. I took him home to bathe and groom. That night, cuddling in bed, we bonded. Two days later I was sure we would keep him. Yesterday I named him Sieger, or German for Winner, Victor, but his nick name most likely will be "Zeek" which is a spin-off from Sieger. To mock the AKC habit of naming papered dogs long, regal-sounding names, Sieger's full name will be "Sieger von Scammell der Wunderhund." This dog already has proven to be very smart and agile.

The other dogs have accepted Sieger. The cats don't seem to mind, and they are the ones who make the house rules. Sammy growls on occassion, but Sadie seems glad she has someone more her size she can play with.

Sieger follows me everywhere but seems just as content being around Kevin. I want Sieger exposed to all the routines we face: gunshot fire from Kevin's target shooting, my mountain peak hikes (next one's this Wednesday up Agua Caliente Hill!)
and group hikes with other dogs.

Sieger is going prove himself a super dog with amazing physical talents. He already jumps off the bed with grace, jumps straight up a foot, and has a good stride for such a young pup. He'll be ready for his first hike early next year.

South Pass in the Dragoons

South Pass is a low saddle in the eastern Dragoons off Gleason Road. This road is east of Tombstone. It is part of the greater Sulphur Springs Valley in Cochise County. It's a dirt road in parts, cluttered with obstinate cows that refuse to make way for impatient drivers. Ranch homes, mesquite, prickly pear and other cacti line the road on either side. Turn north at the remodeled Gleason Jail and Joe Bono's saloon of this former mining town and one quickly comes across the gated area closed off to the public. Most of the land here is private property now. Fifty homes dot the eastern foothills, but don't let that fool you: most of the homes are empty rentals.

I had the opportunity to hike around here today. Steve A, a hiking club member I chatted with yesterday, invited other members of the group to go with him today. He knows Karen and David from another hiking community. I was the only one interested as others wanted the day off. Sadie came with me as we drove off with Steve under a warm and breeze-free morning.

This made for a small group of five: Karen and Dave, Karen's son Eric, and Steve and I. Their heelers Mata and Estrella joined Sadie as we bushwhacked up the brittle, waterless hills to a look-out facing Tombstone.

Although this three-hour hike turned into a six-hour outting, I enjoyed meeting the hosting couple Karen and David, who designed their own 2100-square-foot home on a hilltop in the valley. From their living room one has an expansive view of the eastern valley: the distant Chiricahuas, the northern Sonoran mountains and the peaks further north. Today the view was hazed-in with mostly hues of tan and brown across the horizon. The sky slowly filled with dark clouds as the afternoon progressed.

"I had a full view of the fire this summer" said Karen. She also got the smoke that blew in from Mexico, the Huachuacas and the north. I found her interesting to talk to. She's a very smart, talented and money-wise woman keen on environmental issues. She's also a trained artist who can design features in her head. Her engineer husband is more technically-minded, who has an eye for finding placer gold in the nearby hills. He is also quite the history buff. Their spacious home is comfortable and yet unique. They can prove that one can get by with a smaller home.

We bushwhacked up the hills nearby, sitting at the top for a while and chatting. The dogs got along very well, fighting only over trivial matters. (Steve told me later that he noticed how Sadie was very protective of me, snapping at the other dogs only when she felt they were coming too close to me.) The sky was a grey overcast and a cool breeze welcomed us at the peak. It looked like rain, but no rain fell until past sunset when I was on my way home. On the way down and ahead of the men, Karen showed me three abandoned mines. One was a precarious-looking dark abyss left open for anyone to fall into. Screams for help would go unheard.

I talked mostly with Karen, who at one point showed me the panorama of all the homes around her. "Most of these are vacant" she said. "We only have around 12 people who live here year-round." Among her neighbors include a writer-couple, a western Hollywood actor, a gay couple, Washington DC lobbyists and a family known to cook meth. Another neighbor, who had just moved into the area from Maryland with a large moving van rental, ended up dying of an oxycontin overdose. The van outside his home drew suspicion and that is how the body was discovered. Oh, the stories Karen could tell!

But Karen didn't just talk about her neighbors. She is an avid hiker who has backpacked all across the world; Uruguay, Argentinia, Switzerland. She is very well-read. She and her husband landed in southern Arizona only after hiking here and falling for the then-cheap land. That was 13 years ago and Cochise County has increased their property taxes 83% (they have two rentals), which is greatly upsetting them.

After the 2.4-mile hike (I thought it was at least four miles!) Karen insisted her guests stay for dinner: low-fat curry chicken and vegetables. Everything was low-fat, no-sugar/no-salt so her son Eric sprinkled sow sauce one everything. After dinner she showed me around her property, showing me her artwork and her plans for the garden and outdoor patio. I like her simple taste. Old trees act as pillars around her home. Glass bottles are used as windows. There is a lot of work going on around here!

Despite the remoteness they have trouble with deer feeding on their garden and wild animals attempting to snack as well. Their fruit trees and garden have to be fenced in to keep them from eating their crops. They eat little meat and most of the food comes from her garden. Trips to the grocery store average every three weeks. We could never do that!

Bassett Peak

Basset Peak is a 7650' peak in Graham county that is renowned for its fall colors in November. Since we were in Phoenix last weekend I proposed to the hiking club that we hike this peak this Friday, once I knew I was off work for sure. I sent out a message Wednesday afternoon. Three others accepted the offer: John S, Rod, and a new member, Steve A. They were a nice bunch and the added plus is that we all hike at around the same pace.

We all carpooled in my Ford from Benson. Sadie wasn't too happy with sharing the backseat with two tall men. She whimpered and whined the entire route, once because she had to pee. Luckily the guys were used to dogs, and one, Steve, grew up with German Shepherd Dogs.

And what a gorgeous hike it is! I told the guys this was the prettiest hike I've done in Arizona this year. It starts out at Ash Creek with maples, oaks, sycamores, elms and ends in a high desert landscape of manzanita, pinyon pine and sotols. Usually the colorful trees are higher up than the cacti.

We were the only ones on the trail, too. Everyone else who had cancelled the hike from last weekend's rain out opted to do this tomorrow. We lucked out. It's hard to enjoy the beauty of nature when there are 20 other people on the trail.

We met at the Love's gas station in Benson and I drove us all in my vehicle. Sadie wasn't happy with the crowded conditions but she managed to keep her whimper to a dull whine. Once we got to the trailhead at 9am, though, she was ready to take off. She hadn't hiked a decent trail in three weeks.

There were plenty of hunters car camping along the lower creek but the trailhead parking was empty. We had the next 11 miles to ourselves as we practically frolicked up the trail that followed the seasonal Ash Creek in a northwesterly direction, taking plenty of photos of the fall foliage and also taking photos of eachother taking photos. The maples were red or orange, the elms were yellow, and the aspens further up were just beginning to change from green to yellow.

I had left Sadie's water bowl at home. The only water she got was from the two springs along the trail and from icy snow about 7000'. She didn't seem to be suffering in any way. The overcast sky and the cooler temperatures made this hike very manageable, but I had hoped to have the sun pop out from behind the clouds to bring out the colors. It never did.

Both springs had water in it. The Upper Ash Springs is 2.8 miles from the trailhead, a bit away from where the trail makes a sharp east at the higher aspen grove. I would have missed the springs had Rod not shown it to me.

We had now left the riparian area and were now hiking up through high desert landscape of sotols, agaves, pinyons and manzanitas as the panorama opened up around us. We started with a view to the southeast, with Mount Graham, the Dos Cabezas Wilderness and the San Rafael Valley below us. The craggy rocks around us resembled the rocks in the Chiricahua mountains, dominated with rhyolite. Here is where the trail became steeper, and climbed the rest of the way to Basset Peak.

Rod stopped 1.4 miles from the peak along the lower ridge. He didn't seem itnerested in hiking to the peak, but the rest of us wanted to bag it. Rod reluctantly came along. He led us along the shady ridgeline through rock formations, manzanitas and pinyons. It is a beautiful stretch of the trail! An old crash site from a B-52 lay on the side of an eastern cliff. We now had view of Mount Lemon, the Rincons with Mica Peak, the distant San Pedro River, the Santa Teresas and other distant ranges. To me this was unchartered territory, and I relished the remoteness of our location.

Bassett peak didn't look that far away, but it still took us an hour to reach the peak at 12:56pm as we pushed uphill through an inch of wet snow across some dubious sections of trail that looked like they were ready to fall down the mountains. I would not want to be caught on the peak during a snowstorm; one bad move and a hiker could tumble straight downhill. The last 300 feet were a bushwhack.

We didn't stay at the peak for long. We were getting cold. We took a few group photos and descended the same way we went up. The overcast sky seemed darker and my hands were cold from the snow around us. What saved us was that there was no wind.

I was glad to be back down in the creek area as the colors and the smell of the deciduous trees were very refreshing. It was back at the springs that I realized we hadn't seen much wildlife on this hike other than a few hawks and song birds. Bear and cow scat were on the trail, but no other signs of life.

We got back to the truck at 5:07pm. Several large car camp sites had been established while we were hiking. The Tucson MeetUp group that planned the hike for tomorrow will have a crowded trail to contend with! The full moon rose behind a thick layer of clouds. I think the rain will start falling in the afternoon and spoil many of these hiker's experience tomorrow.

We stopped at Salsa Fiesta in Wilcox for a decent Mexican meal. I got back home around 9pm. Sadie went straight to bed.