Hiking around Gleeson, AZ

Distance: 7.8 miles (Magellan GPS track with shortcuts), 8.4 miles (DeLorme GPS) without shortcuts.
Elevation: 548 ft (4951’-5499’). Total elevation gain including all ups and downs: 1476 ft.
Hiking Time: 9:04 AM to 1:47 PM (4 h 43 min)

Hiking couple David and Karen S from the hiking club live in Gleeson and enjoy hosting intimate hikes to the nearby hills around their home. I've been on one hike with them before, but volunteering at the shelter and other errands kept me from returning. Today, though, I made sure I showed up. I took Zeke along.

John S was the only other hiker. Ryan didn't go due to a flat tire on his BMW coming back from Benson Friday night. Steve A never showed up, so it was just John, Zeke and I in John's Toyota Tacoma driving to the Gleason Jail, a 1910 repaired jail from the wild west days. Karen met us there and we followed her back to her hilltop home where the hike started.

It was 9am by now, and the heat of the day was beginning to come out. There are hills in all directions from their home, but the mesquite and grasses still make this landscape look parched and abandoned. The hills to the northeast have old mining trails visible. We hiked toward the lower valley where free-roaming cattle kept cool under the shade of mesquite trees. The first mile was downhill toward the wash before we started climbing again, up toward a ridge-line that offered a beautiful vista of the valley south of Willcox. Turpentine bush was still in bloom, but many other wildflowers were going to seed. The hills looked exhausted, Whatever turquoise these hills had, had been plundered decades ago. Mining equipment rusted in the sun, and a few sun-parched shacks remained, providing nothing more than shelter from winter winds.

This was an exposed hike with no shade, no water. Cows wandered on the dirt roads or watched us from nearby shade from houses. Mesquites here were young and bush-like. Lehman's grass was over a foot tall and densely packed, interspersed with an occasional cholla or prickly pear. Zeke wore a cooling towel wrapped around his collar that seemed to help him stay cool. He got along well with Karen's dog Mata, a female heeler who didn't mind Zeke once we were on the trail. Had it been 20 degrees cooler with an overcast sky, this would have been a more enjoyable hike for everyone. Seeing this canyon after a heavy rain must have been quite beautiful.

This area was once a bustling mining town. Property here is either private or part of the State Trust Land (perhaps because of all the abandoned mines in the area). Tire tracks revealed that local residents use these trails to explore the area on their ATVs. Karen pointed out some of the homes of owners that she knew: an old Apache shaman, a once-active drug lord (!), retired CEOs. Many of these homes didn't look like milion-dollar estates, but the land around them was wide. Everyone here has open space to grow vegetable gardens, raise chickens, have cows or horses.

We went past an algae-infested livestock pond, a dry wash (Dead Mexican Wash) where Zeke attempted to chase some cattle until I told him to get his butt back over (and he stopped on a dime, creating a cloud of dust at his feet). That was Zeke's one scurry; he was too tired on the return hike to chase or bother with anything. This hike was a test of how he was on the trail. The cow chase was his one flaw.

After we crossed the dry wash we began ascending again, up a switchback trail. A rusted metal cross lay at the first switchback. There was no name in anyone's memory on that cross. We were now going up toward our destination, a ridgeline view of the mountains north of us. In the valley below were campers firing weapons. I had never been in this area before. The mountain top was full of cracked or decomposed granite, revealing a once very busy mining history from decades ago.

We never took a lunch break, although we took a few short shade breaks. I didn't bring anything to eat, but made sure Zeke had his water. He found an old trough with murky water in it, in which he quickly jumped into to cool off his paws. Wasps were flying around but left him alone. The views back toward Gleeson were quite impressive, but I can see how this area would be a quagmire after a heavy rain. All the roads are dirt and many homes are on hilltops.

John, Karen and I walked together on the return hike, while Dave and Rod stayed together. Mata ran back and forth between the two groups while Zeke stayed with me.

The dogs were clearly exhausted a mile from the house. I had to give both more water. Mata was panting hard and Zeke seemed to not want any water, although he drank from Mata's water bowl once back at the house. Even I felt tired, feeling the sun zap whatever energy I had to make it up that final ascent.

We finished off the hike with a nice gathering outside. We started with water. The dogs lay by our feet. Zeke got some chicken treats. Then we had watermelon, potato chips, pretzels and fruit. Then came the beer. I slowly had two in the two hours we sat outside and relaxed. A bald eagle flew overhead, a hummingbird briefly came by the fruit eater. It was a nice way to finish off a nice hike.

Karen wrote later that they had a brief rain shower overhead, but it was clear and sunny on the drive back to Hereford. Zeke slept soundly the rest of the day. Kevin told me that with Zeke gone all day, the dogs were quiet, including our neighborhood dogs. Yes, Zeke is a barker and likes to instigate "conversations" with area dogs.

Apache meowed outside my office later in the evening as I was going over photographs. How did he get outside? I had seen him inside resting when I got home. He had caught and killed a desert woodrat and wanted to bring it inside.