Murray Springs toward the river

Susan had a hike planned along the Arizona trail, a 6-mile out-and-back route east of Tucson. I had never done this stretch. It follows part of the Cienega creek Nature Preseve. In the end decided I was not up to driving 50 miles for a short hike and ended up sleeping in. I wanted to take Sadie and Zeke somewhere, but I stayed local. I had other things I also had to do today.

After the morning usual of writing Amazon reviews, I finally got ready by noon. The dogs were on alert. I already had my shoes on, but the alert went out when they saw me grab my wallet, my camelback and the camera. By then they all went nuts, including Minnie who seemed quite rested from yesterday's exercise. I ended up taking her as well and drove back to the Murray Springs trail head by 1pm. There were no cars parked there this time. My objective was to walk the trail down to the first creek and walk along the creek bed to the San Pedro River. I never made it that far.

This area is a flood plain and after heavy rains, the creek bed collapses or creates a new flow through the sandy soft soil. The creek is cutting a narrow swath toward the river, with exposed tree roots that are well over 12 feet tall. A few areas looked freshly-collapsed. I wouldn't want to be hiking along the edges of the creek bed, but wildlife may not realize that when they are wanting to get to the water.

The overgrowth was all throughout the area, so that at times all I could see were tall weeds around me. It was windy today, and the sky had a bit of a haze. The dogs didn't care as they just wanted to run.

The Murray Springs trail ended at the official San Pedro River trail (which is a half-mile from the river!) at the first water crossing. From here I would follow the meandering creek for the rest of the way to the actual river, near an old bridge railing that is long gone. Remnants of railroad tracks are also here, created during the area's active mining era, but even the ledge is now overgrown with prickly mesquite trees, creosote and cat claw acacia. The creek bed was too overgrown with horsetail and swamp grass and wet, sinking sand along the edges. This was not good walking terrain. I saw several areas of collapsed banks.

I stayed in the area for a while to let the dogs run. It was cool enough to explore some of the side trails to ruins a half-mile away, but I wanted to be near the water. I spotted lots of quail hiding in the brush and a few raptors flying overhead, but not much else. Coyote scat was on the trail, but it didn't look like there was much human activity in the area. Indeed this is a rather flat, boring trail compared to any of the foothill paths, but at least the creek makes for a nice destination for energetic dogs, and our cooler weather makes the exposure tolerable. According to the trail sign, it's 1.6 miles one-way to the creek. We were back home by 3:30pm and had a chicken dinner soon thereafter.