I wanted to do some exploring today off the Bisbee Loop trail.
I had always wanted to know where that cattle trail led that ends at the saddle and intersects with the Bisbee Loop Trail. With last week's rain still present in washes, I opted to explore that late this morning with my three-dog hiking pack. I stopped at the Bisbee recycling station off SR92 on the way. It promised to be warm and sunny and in the 70s today. I'm glad I got there when I did around 11am, as I got the last parking spot in Brewery Gulch. The touristy part looked busy today.
The only downfall to parking here is having the dogs on leash, as Bisbee is known for its friendly strays that come out of nowhere. Minnie and Zeke can be quite a handful to pull. Trail head parking for this hike is the Brewery Gulch free public lot between the Old Bisbee Brewery and St Elmo's. I had to contain the dogs while getting their leashes on. That makes Minnie even bark louder. Other people were also walking their dogs down the street, which got her excited.
There was water still trickling down the pavement, which got stronger the higher we got up Zacatecas canyon. Although I had water for the dogs, I encouraged them to drink creek water.
It got warm fast this morning, and soon the dogs were panting. The hardest part of the trail was hiking that mile to the saddle in the exposed sun. I stopped in shaded areas, but they didn't come in force until well over the saddle and now hiking in a northeasterly direction. I figured I would eventually land in Sandy Bob Canyon, but I was wrong. The trail turned into a cattle trail that followed the drainage for the most part, and when the canyon widened with less water in it, I opted to turn around. I had gone two hours.
This was an interesting hike nonetheless, as I had never been in this unknown canyon. The hills on either side of me were barren of trees, trees that once were chopped down and used for the town's mines. Part of the trail today looked like a long-ago mining trail that suffered from severe erosion over the years, as parts of it widened out to a two-track path. I came across two troughs and a rusted bathtub once used for a cattle trough.
My view was enveloped by both sides by hills. My only vista was toward the northeast, far into the Dragoons. Where would this creek bed lead me if I followed it all the way? Once I got to the creek bed and saw how the trail stayed near the water, I followed this until I ran out of path. This is where the trail WAS the creek, and the water here was no more.
I was well aware that had something happened to me here, that I could be lost for a few days. There was NO sign of human life around me: no trash, no recently-used structures, no established trails. Sound wouldn't carry far with hilltops around me. The hillsides were covered in catclaw that tore into my jeans around the thighs. The only shade was along the creek bed, with isolated oaks along the slops. The hills were mostly grass, agave, ocotillo and oaks. The hills didn't look any greener from recent rains. They looked more like something from central coastal California: dry light brown with few trees.
This this was an exploratory hike, I had no reason to rush anything. I stopped a lot to let the dogs rest in the shade. I found a small but pretty box canyon off the creek bed with a 15-foot waterfall. We stayed here in the shade for a while so that the dogs could rest. This place would be a great swimming hole in the monsoon season! Minnie, of course, wanted to throw sticks instead. We had to go back down the creek bed and back up the cliffs to get back on the trail, which was the creek bed. We were now on our return hike.
I knew the dogs would help me backtrack, as Sadie likes to keep her nose to the ground when hiking. There are many smaller drainages here and I didn't want to get caught on the wrong one. I remembered while hiking down to "Stay to the right" but on the return hike, that "Stay to the right" would be "Stay to the left" and at a three-drainage intersection I erred and did stay to the left, but that drainage was smaller and dryer than I remembered. The dogs were pointing their bodies toward the center drainage, the correct way, but I didn't listen.
I soon realized we were definitely not going the right way, and decided to climb over the hill to the next drainage. The hills were covered in tall, dead grass and I slipped and fell on my left hand, bruising the palm and screaming an expletive. Who, besides the dogs, would hear me here? Luckily the hand wasn't broken, but for the rest of the hike I had my left hand held close to my chest as I couldn't put pressure on it.
Luckily once we were in the correct creek bed, the path was easy to follow. The faint cattle trail that brought us down to the creek bed was now going back uphill and back to the troughs. Here's where the trail began its steep ascent, and I felt a bit overcome by the heat and stopped often to let the dogs rest as well. I had brought enough water for me, and needed to drink more of it. By now the dogs were happy to rest and sat around me, making a tight circle with the pack leader in the middle.
Despite the recent rains, I was surprised I saw no recent cattle activity in this canyon. No dung, no hoove marks in the mud, nothing. Even the water in the trough was green from algae. There was nothing to excite the dogs (which is fine with me!) until we got back on the saddle. Here I noticed fresh horse shoe marks. We were now on our final descent, and yet the sun was still high enough to warm my face.
We finally came across human life again as we approached the water in Zacatecas canyon. A family with a young girl was ahead of us, and I let them get ahead so that the dogs would be no hassle. Zeke and Minnie were especially interested in sniffing her; had they ever been around little people before? Another couple came down off a side canyon behind me, and we all existed the canyon around the same time. We were a party of eight.
I was tired and hungry by the time we got back to the van. The van was now in the shade, as were other cars on the west side of the Gulch. I normally stop at the Old Bisbee Brewery for a post-hike beer, leaving the dogs in a shaded van with the windows open, but I knew that Kevin would have dinner ready when I got home. I stopped at the Bisbee Safeway for milk, beer and pork feet (for the dogs as a post-hike treat) and got home after 4:30pm to a Swiss cheeseburger meal.
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