Bisbee Loop Hike

I had another hike scheduled for the Bisbee Loop trail for yesterday via the Sierra Vista Hikers. This is a combination of unmarked trails that form a loop around the hills of Old Bisbee, starting and finishing in Old town. It's a moderate hike with 900-feet of elevation gain from the start to the highest hill on the trail. My last time on this hike was with Beth almost two years ago. Finding professional trail reports is difficult to find, as these are mostly locally-made trails on private or BLM land. General knowledge is that landowners don't mind the hikers, but no hunting is allowed, and people need to pick up after themselves.

Again, only Ryan showed up. Sundays just isn't a good day here to advertise a hike. At least this allowed us to go at our time, leaving the Sierra Vista meeting place 45 minutes than originally scheduled. We arrived in Brewery Gulch at 9:45am and quickly walked up the road to the official trail head at the end. It's always nice to have an excuse to visit Bisbee. Weather was warm, with just a few clouds in the sky and high humidity.

Several houses in the Gulch have been "cleaned up" of it's "art." One corner brown brick building once had hideous dolls and other figurines on the facade, and now it has nothing. It looks cleaner now. Previously the "art" was just a discussion topic. The small "dog park" where homeless lived has been cleaned of the semblances of transient homes, although several people were milling around in there. Apparently residents had been complaining about the noises coming from that area and city council cracked down.

I wore shorts today, despite knowing that the upper trail had plenty of blooming cat claw acacias this time of year. I was right about both the cat claw and about getting my legs scratched up. I think even my exposed portions of my feet were sun-burned.

Sadie was on her leash and did OK, pulling only to be in shaded parts of the road. Starting this hike two hours later than normal allowed me to sleep in from yesterday, but it already had warmed up quite a bit. We met two small groups of people coming out of the canyon as we walked in, but that was all that we encountered.

Luckily for Sadie, there was plenty of water in the lower canyon, water that had settled in rock depressions. Minnie would have loved this water, but she would have also been exhausted from the rest of the exposed hike.

Ryan had never been here and stopped to take plenty of photos. Sadie ran from tree to tree to stay cool. The higher we got in elevation, the cooler it felt, with a bit of a breeze once we were away from the canyon water. I was very cautious of snakes but luckily we didn't find any or come close to one. The usual wildlife of birds (a falcon), butterflies and lizards was the standard fare again. The many ocotillo were also lush green, and several agaves had huge flower stalks.

The hills were very green from the recent rains, and seasonal grass weeds were growing everywhere. Some parts looked overgrown, like the famed "peace wheel" along the way, reminding people that this was Bisbee afterall. The views from the wheel showed the upper Tombstone canyon and its many hillside homes.

Ryan, in his quest for peakness, wanted to hike up every hillside on this hike, and there were several. Elevation hovered around 6000' so it's not like we were suffering from oxygen deprivation. I was just worried about lack of shade for Sadie. She finished off two pints of water in one sitting. There are still so many trails that take off from the ridge that I've never been on. Some appear to disappear into mysterious canyons below, while others climb even higher toward Juniper Flats.

The peace wheel is the highest point on the trail, as it now turns back into old town with a slight descent. There are several side trails that lead into town, and we opted to get off the trail at the last descent, making the last half-mile exploratory. The views here toward the Lavender Pit Mine were quite impressive, if open-pit mines can be considered pretty. Our choice in trail was a wise decision, as we ended up closer to the Gulch than walking a mile down Tombstone canyon, with the car traffic and other urban noises that make Sadie uneasy. The closer we got to the homes, the more the trail split into numerous slides, making an exact trail difficult to decipher. A small cross surrounded by blue silk flowers under a sickly small oak stood watch over the town.

We ended up coming out in front of a small house that resembled a modified storage container for boat transportation. We were now on the "official" Bisbee 1000 route that takes runners and walkers up the aging and dilapidated stairs of town. The hot pavement was probably not what Sadie needed, and we didn't mosy on this stretch. We were all rather warm by now

The hike took us just under three hours. We finished it at the brew pub, where we each had two beers and a bratwurst. Sadie sprawled out on the cool tiles and took advantage of the rest. She was clearly tired. We sat away from the small crowd to keep her from being in the way, but the clientele just slowly left once the late-lunch crowd had gone. It was a quite little place to relax.

Hiking stats (from Ryan's GPS):
Time: 2hr 44min,
Distance: 4.5 miles
Total Ascent: 1,119'
Total Descent: 1,076'
Max Elevation: 6,194'
Min Elevation: 5,285'

The other dogs did not get exercised all weekend. I owe them some one-on-one time, too. Weather report looks pretty stormy these next few days. I'm not complaining, as Arizona always needs whatever rain it gets.