Sandy Bob canyon (again)

After yesterday's hike I just wanted to sleep in and stay home. But at 6:20am I got up and got ready for the 8am meet-up in the parking lot of Fry's. John was already there, Mack drove up by 8:10am and it was 8:40am before we met Rod and Paul at the Old Divide Road in Bisbee and then drove up to the Juniper Flats trailhead. It turns out that several people had tried to call me yesterday to let me know they were coming on this hike. I am glad I still showed up to lead it.

As usual, hiking with Rod always means that the hike gets diverted or changed altogether. I am prepared for this, but for newcomers this may be aggravating. Rod likes to bushwhack and explore, something a novice hiker may not appreciate.

"Highs of near 100 degrees" were again forecasted for Tucson, so that meant that it would reach the upper 80s in Bisbee. Unlike last week's hike in this hidden canyon, this time there was no cloud cover. Rod spotted one lone cloud over Mt Wrightson, visible from Juniper Flats.

Despite a drenching rain on Thursday in the Mule mountains, there wasn't that much water in the creek bed. The only change was that there were more mud puddles on that first stretch of ATV trail to the hidden trail.

It had been a while since Rod or Paul had hiked here and they relied on me to find the hidden trail. The rocks that were placed at the start of the hidden trail had been dispersed, but I recognized the sotol hidden by the oak. We didn't have to look for this trail.

Mack, our newest club member, just got back from a tour in Afghanistan as a contractor and is still needing to acclimate himself back to the elevation of Arizona. We stopped many times for him to drink water, but every stop was appreciated by both Sadie and Minnie as well. They sought shade right away and would wait for us to continue the hike.

Today's hike went north of the oak tree we use as a rest stop. Instead of bushwhacking in a northeasterly direction downhill, we continued northwest around a hill. This is a very rocky and very exposed section, a part I didn't appreciate much due to the footing. I was always watching our for rattlers in the high grass, hiding from us and hoping not to be discovered by a sudden foot stomp. The dogs dutifully followed Rod.

The trail was hard to follow as we were looking for a cattle trail. This "trail" ended at the start of a side canyon with rock slabs and water for the dogs. This was a steeper and narrower canyon than the first canyon from last week. I didn't like this way to the falls but at least I'm now aware of it and will stick to the quicker trail downhill from the first oak tree.

This diversion gets us to the top of the falls, from where we continued around the top rocks for lunch and a beautiful vista of the front of the falls. There wasn't much water at all today. The rainfall midweek over Bisbee did nothing to replenish the water level. Itw as still nice to see the falls again, especially from a new angle.

From where we sat we could see how far and how steep Minnie slid down last week. From our vantage point it looked like a dangerous fall. The rest of the lower canyon seems more narrow and less rocky from what I could tell.

Going back we stayed in Sandy Bob canyon, just like Ellen and I hiked the week before. The water seemed to disappear already, so that I didn't recognize the sandy creek bed as we neared our drainage turn-off. What a change in just one week! And when we had to climb out of the creek bed and bushwhack uphill, Rod wanted to divert to an old cabin that required going uphill on the "other" side of the drainage and up a steeper hill. No one by now was in the mood to bushwhack more, and the group decided to get back to the oak tree as quickly as possible.

We could still see faint foot steps Ellen and I had made the week before. We came across some of the blue, green and pink markers on trees, too. And when we got back to the oak tree we all sat down in the little shade it provided to drink some water. I was thirsty and sweating under my nylon clothes. It was hot and the dogs were getting tired. Sadie did well, though and didn't whine.

I opted to be rear guard going uphill from here. Mack kept stopping to wipe his naked head; sweat was getting in his eyes and he seemed unstable a few times. Was he going to faint from heat exhaustion? He had carried a hat but refused to wear it. Wearing head cover in our desert is imperative at all times!

We took one more shade stop just before the last creek crossing. By now the heat was getting to us all. The dogs stayed as close as they could in the shade along the rugged trail. When we got back to the trucks it was approaching 2pm. Rod and Mack opted to drive home, but I joined John and Paul for a few post-hike beers at the Old Bisbee Brewing Company. That is such a great little place to sit and enjoy Bisbee, let alone chat about life. Sadie and Minnie stayed in the truck with the windows down. I had parked in the shade along Brewery Gulch and next to St Elmo's Bar. They were able to see us from our outdoor table the entire time.