It rained constantly all night from Wednesday over Thursday. It was a steady rain with no storm activity. In the early morning it turned into a constant drizzle, then fog, and the rain stopped around 9am. Clouds were still overhead and the storm wasn't over, but it gave people time to regroup.
The storm and flooding that was supposed to hit Tucson instead fell east of the city in Cochise County. We got 3.5 inches of rain in our back yard. The San Pedro River had flooded its banks. Hereford Road bridge by the river (where I take the dogs) was under water, causing the county sheriff deputies to close off the bridge and the bridge on SR92. This made it hard to get to Bisbee. I had planned, once I knew I wasn't working, to drop off the recyclables at the transfer station and then check out the waterfall. I have never seen the Bisbee falls and the falls only run after heavy rain.
My plan was to take Sammy and Zeke, but that plan was quickly nixxed when Sadie and Minnie knew of my scheme and bolted out the door. I now had four dogs and a van full of recyclable trash!
I ended up going to the Sierra Vista transfer station, driving north via Moson Road. Parts of that road south of Ramsey still had flowing creeks over the road, but the smaller creeks had stopped running by the morning. What kind of force would it require, though, for all these creeks to flow? It was obvious that water had recently flashed across the terrain. The many east-west dirt road off Moson Road were all still heavily pooled with water.
The only access I had now was SR90. The bridge here was widened and improved on just last year, so it was standing and above any flood water. But the river below was still flowing fast, full of light-colored mud, dead trees and other debris. Water saturated the fields next to the river. Cars were slowing down to take a look and people were parked off the road to walk on the bridge to take a look. That's what I did, letting the dogs run around away from traffic before calling them into the van, and walking to the bridge. A sheriffs deputy came by, visible pissed, to direct traffic. The many lookie-loos were hampering the natural flow of traffic.
I drove on, east toward Bisbee. The dogs were now restless, looking around and wondering where I was going. SR90 into Bisbee is a beautiful drive, as it meanders through a canyon. Here the creek was flowing fast, too. And the closer I got to the famous town, the more water was flowing off the rocks along the highway. It's like the hills came alive with water! The sound of cascading water was everywhere. I can now see the attraction to this place after a rain. Cars were pulled over along the turn-off across the falls, and here's where I finally got to see the falls in all its splendor.
My goal now was to drive to the Old Divide, which is above the Mule Tunnel. There's an unnamed path there that goes along the lower ridge of that hill. Is that the trail to Fissure Peak? "No county maintenance" is all a partially-hidden sign says here. I didn't pack for a hike, and with Sammy with me, there was no way I could go on a four-mile hike, But I could take the dogs on that trail for at least a mile each way. Online write-ups mention that the trail goes past private property, and as long as the land owners know you aren't hunting or trapping, they are OK with hikers walking through.
Water was running off this path, which looks like an old mining trail. The path went steady downhill, following the creek. SR90 was across the creek from this path. The creek was flowing powerfully. I walked past one gate, then a second, but felt I was in the middle of someone's land. It didn't feel right. I turned around at a third gate with "Oak Thicket Ranch" on it. This looked more like a path to someone's house and not a path up a hilltop. This didn't seem like the trail up Fissure Peak.
The walk back was uphill, at a steady pace. The dogs continued to frolic, chase each other, and the girls played with sticks. This was about as much as Sammy could handle. No one else bothered us until we got back to the parking lot, where a couple was sitting on a barrier watching the traffic below. The roads were wet, the paths were saturated, and water gushed out of cracks in the side rock. For one day this year, the area looked like something out of the Northeast. It's no wonder people here want to see and experience the water!
The drive back had the same crowds at the falls and at the river. The rain had stopped now and there were blue patches of sky to the north, but more rain clouds from the south east. It rained again hard once I got back home. This was the final volley of rain. By sunset the sky was mostly clear. Looks like the storm is now behind us, although we may get more moisture from Tropical Storm Polo, that's still churning off southern Baja California. We have rain forecasted through next Tuesday, but Polo is expected to blow northwest into the ocean.
Now I must make plans for this weekend. I will try to visit Carol at her CT scan appointment. A suspect lymphoma is mentioned, which worries me. Carol is only 71 years old and the reason I got into the animal welfare group and stayed with at the Huachuca City shelter. I am not ready to lose her yet as a dear friend. Tomorrow, Saturday, I'm taking Gina and her girls down to Sandy Bob Canyon, and on Sunday it's back to the Chiricahuas, Rucker Canyon and the Grotto.
http://www.jrn.com/kgun9/news/Odile-topples-retaining-walls-in-Bisbee-swells-San-Pedro-275690531.html
In other news, Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom (with more autonomy promised from England), Congress has voted to arm Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State fanatics, and Ebola is now seen as "exponentially increasing" across western Africa with 60,000 infected people expected by December. Over 2600 have so far died from that virus.
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