I had eleven (!) people show up for my hike today up Huachuca Peak. One came from the local meetup (Brian), the others came from the Huachuca Hiking Club. Several people I hadn't seen in over a year: Brenda and Gordon were also there. Bill from Sahuarita showed up to bag his first climb up to this peak. Ellen was there as well. Others, like Big Steve, Paul, Jim, JohnS and Rod were HHC members. Ages ranged from 32 to 77. It was a robust group. Sadie was my loyal hiking dog.
We met at 7am at the Main Gate Shoppette. By the time everyone had signed in, it was 7:20am and we carpooled to the trail head up Huachuca Canyon. Rod insisted on driving up further on the road, but I wanted to keep the cars parked safely at the parking lot. His discontent with my stubbornness was evident in his trail report which he emailed everyone. (Rod is the club secretary.) We finally got on the hike by 8am, passing a large group of birders at the start of the trail.
The water that was in the canyon last fall had dried up for the most part. Only a small section of pooled water was on the trail near the Upper Huachuca Trail. I wanted Sadie to drink as much water as possible from streams. Although I brought a gallon of water in two jugs, she had four more bottles in her pack. She didn't seem too interested.
We hiked up to the end of the Huachuca Canyon trail where it T-intersects with the Crest Trail/fire break. The Crest Trail is more of a wide jeep trail here, with several "illegal" trails coming up to the old wire fence from the west. I had never taken any of these illegal trails down into the western slopes.
Rod and Paul were the slow ones today, but they still hiked at a consistent pace. We waited here for them and I made sure they were rested before we resumed our hike. I stopped whenever I didn't see Rod and Paul in the distance. The crest Trail here gets steep as we climb uphill for a mile. While there was no longer the musky scent of bear, we saw several piles of scat along the trail.
Views here are to the west, with the silhouettes of the many ranges. An orange haze today made distant peaks like Baboquivar peak, sacred to the Tohono O'odham tribe, barely visible, unless you knew were to look. The oaks in the western slopes looked dry but were still mostly green and still looked healthier than they did a year ago, when many were displaying yellowed leaves.
We had to hike single file now as the trail narrowed steeply uphill before reaching the more level section. The last mile was on the eastern slope of the ridge and shaded. We made another stop at the intersection with the Upper Huachuca trail, where a sun-faded jacket hung over the aging forest sign.
The section between the Upper Huachuca Trail and the intersection with McClure Canyon is one of my favorite sections. This is Pine Park, a high grassy area dotted with mature pines. An abandoned helopad left over by Fort Huachuca is now overgrown with grass. During the Vietnam War era, the Army used this area as one of seven air-assault training areas. A second helopad is near the Knob by the Lower Huachuca trail.
By now the stronger hikers remained up front: Bill, Brian, Jim, Ellen and me. Gordon, Brenda, John stayed with Rod and Paul. I let the stronger hikers go up ahead as now my shins were hurting. We were at five miles and still had another mile to go! Sadie, too, took every opportunity to rest in the shade as we waited.
This last mile spirals around to the peak. The southern portion of the peak is a vast limestone wall that is prominent from the western slopes. But this peak is well-hidden by other peaks nearby. Mature pines, oaks, junipers and plenty of agave and sotol cover the terrain, with several openings into the vista. We passed what looked like the death scene of a wild turkey, as its feathers covered one small area. Raven gawked overhead as they circled us, perhaps uneasy about all these humans coming to the peak.
"Rod and Paul will meet us at the Rock Springs trail!" said Jim, so on we went to the peak. We made it to the peak in 3.5 hours. Everyone's GPS was giving us a different reading, and my smartphone app had turned itself off after the there-mile mark. I ate some day-old rolls Kevin got from the Texas Roadhouse in town, drank some water and Sadie ate an entire bag of smelly salmon jerky. She still stared Ellen down for more food, and others nearby. (I fed her an extra can of Iams when we got home.)
We spread out on this rocky, cactus-studded peak. The sun was warm but not as warm as it normally is in May. Today's weather was on the cool side, but perfect for hiking. Perhaps it was in the low-to-mid 60s. The longer we sat here taking in the views, the cooler the breeze became, so after 30 minutes we descended. Rod and Paul had made it up after all but had sat in a different area, closer to Gordon and Brenda.
The wild onions were just now coming up and weren't very fragrant, but I showed Bill the fossilized coral and other embedded remains left in the limestone. I can only imagine how these fossils made it at an elevation of 8000 feet.
We took the steep and little-used Rock Springs Trail down. This is a very steep one-mile! There was no water, but wild Irises were growing in one section, and young shrubs in another. It's been over a decade since I ventured UP this trail trying to find the peak, but got lost and ended up in a rocky cliff area where I then opted to return downhill. We had to watch our footing the entire time. My shins were aching going up the peak; now it was my thighs and left knee that were hurting. I fell once, but luckily no one else endured any missteps.
When we all regrouped at the bottom, along D Break, we decided to continue north on the steep D-break because of Gordon's sensitivity to poison oak, that is found along the creek further down. The last three hills up D break before we leveled off and finished off the trail going down the Lower Huachuca trail were very painful. We all looked tired.
We met a lost birder here who then followed us back to the cars. The sign for the Lower Huachuca trail is no longer posted at this saddle, but I found the trail behind young manzanitas. Jim and Brian were ahead of me. We rested again in the shade along Huachuca Canyon Road. Sadie parked at one woman's huge dog, but she seemed very exhausted as well.
We made it to our cars by 2pm. There were still birders out at the trail head. One took our group photo and then we departed. Jim, John, Steve and Brian went home and the rest of us went to Culver's for a post-hike lunch. Sadie spread out in the back of the truck, parked in the shade, and got her meal when we got home at 3pm to a quiet house: Eric was at work and Kevin was already in bed.
More tomorrow
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