Another winter storm

California is getting pounded with rain this winter.  The state hasn't seen this much water since 1997, when I lived in Pacific Grove with the kids.  We had gotten so much rain that year that the road we lived on, Ransford Avenue, became a deluge whenever it rained.  Water would rush down the hill and create powerful streams along the sides.  This year landslides, killer floods and sinkholes are making the news, with a precarious dam in the northern region, Oroville, showing damage from excessive water in the reservoir.

We now are getting those storms.  I'm happy Arizona is getting all this rain, but like California, wish it came in smaller increments over a longer period of time.  Our weekend was forecasted for rain both Saturday and Sunday, with high winds starting Friday night, so I didn't make any travel plans this four-day weekend.

It howled early in the morning, waking me up at 4:45am.  By sun rise it looked ominous outside, but the rain was still a light drizzle.  I didn't want to miss a day of walking the dogs and took them to an abandoned housing area off Avenida Saracino, just south of Ramsey Road and the city limits of Sierra Vista.  I've been here a few times for shorter walks with the dogs.  Today this area seemed like a better choice for a walk since the clouds were much darker to the south where I normally take the dogs.

The Coronado National Forest has its Sierra Vista office off SR92 and Avenida Saracino, which runs in a northeasterly direction and ends at Ramsey Road. There are no homes here, but at one time this was supposed to be a neighborhood.  Now Saracino is a mere thruway.  Some of the side roads are paved and end in cul-de-sacs, but some roads are dirt roads.  This area was supposed to be the San Pedro housing development. Why and when was it abandoned?  The 2008 housing crash seems to have permanently halted further development in the greater Sierra Vista area. Some roads show up on Google Maps that don't even exist, but one can tell by walking across the grass that the area had been graded for a future road.  There are several ruined homes on the southern portion of this land tract, remnants of a time when this was the edge of town before the sprawl spread southward.

This is a flat area with scattered mesquite trees, desert bloom and tall grass.  Elevation ranges from 4600'-4730'. The area provides a nice areal view of the Huachuca mountains. The Coronado National Forest maintains its maintenance shop here, and a stock pond for wildlife.  The pond is now overflowing from the recent rains.

I've never come across another person here while on my walks, although evidence of people walking here remains in some of the trash I come across.  The far eastern section of this abandoned housing area has now become an illegal dumping ground.   Perhaps the lack of a dedicated parking area prohibits walkers from exploring the area.  I don't come here often because it's a bit farther away than the other abandoned housing area, Oak Estates to the south of us.

I walked 4.3 miles with Zeke, Minnie, Sadie and Sweetie in 1:24 hours.  It was 48F when I finished at 10:20am. Weather alternated between cold and blustery to sunny and then drizzly.  The dark clouds fixated on the mountains.  It was calmer east toward Bisbee and Tombstone.  The storm was moving north. The dogs didn't care about getting wet, they were having fun running up and down the straight roads.  The lack of massive trees allows me to see them better as they frolic in the grass.  I wore two fleece jackets and didn't realize until I came home how wet I was.  I drank tea for most of the day to keep my hands warm.

I'm glad I got the walk out of the way early.  The drizzle turned to more steady rain in the late afternoon, when I tend to walk the dogs, and the winds persisted all day long.