Today's hike was originally scheduled for Huachuca Peak via the Lyle Canyon trail. Big Steve was to lead it but he got sick and asked Rod to lead it instead. Rod agreed, but then changed this to the drone crash site in Lyle Canyon, making this a 10-mile hike and not a 12-mile hike but along the same trail. The only other person who RSVPed for this was me. Apparently no one had read the change to this hike. The original hike also had a trail sign repair task scheduled on the return hike, but who wants to labor after such a long hike?! We learned a lesson here: don't schedule a work task after an especially long hike. Sunflowers dotted the road along AZ83, but even without the flowers, this is such a pretty drive through alluvial terrain.
I met Rod by 7:20am in town. He drove with me in my Ford Escape and Minnie sat quietly in the back. He was my tour guide for the day. I could have taken Zeke along as well since Rod likes the dogs and doesn't get irritated by their goofiness like a few other hike leaders.
It had been since 2008 when I was last in Lyle Canyon, but we had never gone to the drone site. We instead hike up to a stock pond a few miles away.
The trail head is off AZ83 and MM7, on FR201 which leads to Brushy Canyon on the western slope of the Huachucas. Cows lingered on this road and I had to drive past them slowly, so as to not pester them, or get Minnie riled up. Right before crossing the wash is a wired fence on the right that is kept closed to keep the cattle out. That is where we parked. In the morning sun this is mostly a shaded trail.
We started just after 8:30am. There was no water in Lyle Creek at the unmarked trail head behind the concertina wire fence, which surprised me after last week's rain, but we did find water 9/10th of a mile up the trail, much to Minnie's delight. From here on up there was plenty of water for Minnie. I had two 64-ounce flasks of water with me but always encourage my dogs to drink creek water, as long as it's relatively clear. Cows do shit and piss in the water and contaminate it with giarrdia.
This is a gentle slope up to the canyon for the first three miles. The first mile is along the rocky wash, in and out of shaded oak and juniper sections. The trail had been washed away in parts. I would not have been able to find my way up the canyon without Rod's help. He never got us lost. At the 2.6-mile mark we hit the intersection with the Huachuca Peak trail and a few other trails, but the sign was so badly eroded it was hard to read. We continued on a gentle grade along a narrow canyon and ridgeline on the HP trail. Rusted Mexican food cans littered this stretch. This canyon is popular with border crossers because of the shade and water.
Lyle Canyon is long and narrow. Mature oaks, sycamores and alligator junipers crowd this canyon. The sun at times shined through the canopies, creating a halo effect on swaying grass and hair. It was hard to capture this with the camera. I walked behind Rod so that my stopping to photograph scenes didn't slow him down, which resulted in me getting mostly butt shots of him. His pace is my pace, so I never felt that I was slowing him down. He even pointed out nice watering holes for Minnie and took shade breaks for her.
The longer we were going uphill on the Huachuca Peak trail, the steeper it got. This area had been spared damage from the 2011 fire, so the shade continued.Just as I was getting tired, we walked past the first debris piece from the fallen drone, and soon the main parts were in a narrow open space, littered among rusted cans from border crossers. I took another well-meaning break, had a Swiss cheese sandwich, and gave Minnie her water. The pieces seemed to have been moved into one area, with two other pieces uphill by 100 feet. Perhaps the clearning was as a result of the crash, taking down several mature Douglas pines. This was a nice place to rest before taking off for the return hike. Attempts by Rod to coax me into going higher fell on mute ears.
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