I was last on this peak in December. The Forest Service finished grading the road and opened it to the public on Tuesday. I used today to hike up the peak in preparation of next week's spring break road trip to southern California. I took Sadie, Minnie and Zeke. This will be Minnie's last big hike until I get back from California.
I didn't leave the house until 1:30pm. The midnight walk with Minnie had tired me out and my thighs were still sore! The late start meant I had to hike as fast as I could to be back safely at the truck before sunset. I allot myself four hours for this hike, but the drive up can be 30-45 minutes long. The road is nicely graded for most of the drive, but that rocky section near the top waterfall still requires drivers to pay special attention. A sedan could maneuver this road to the campsite.
There were no cars at the Sawmill trailhead across from the group campsite. I was getting my GPS ready when another vehicle pulled up next to me and I called the dogs back into the vehicle so that they wouldn't disturb these people. It turns out the couple in the 1994 Ford Econoline wanted to ask me questions about the area and didn't mind the dogs at all. I thus let them out as I talked to Brian and Iris from California. Iris is German and lives in BC, Canada. They had already camped the previous night at a dispersed site off the road and wanted to explore the waterfall that falls off on the north side of the campsite. Getting there isn't marked, but I told Brian and Iris to just follow the creek through the campsite. It passes an old mining site before hitting the dramatic rock croppings. I also recommended hiking around Bisbee and spending time at the brewpub in Brewery Gulch. Brian and Iris were the only people I saw on the hike.
We chatted for 25 minutes about van camping, boondocking, and today's lineup of affordable cargo vans by Ford. Even Brian agreed that the Ford Transit makes a good cargo van that one can customize for camping. I'll research the vans later this year but I'm pretty sure I'm taking my old Dodge Caravan with me to Alaska. I need to start getting it mechanically sound for that voyage. I'm not sure I want to finance a newer vehicle at this time.
I started the hike at 1:53pm. I felt good, but Minnie was quickly tired and panting. It was rather warm but I failed to get today's temperature noted. My little thermometer on my keychain said 85F but that seemed too high. There was no wind, either. I wore a dryweave shirt under my Wrangler plaid shirt and my blue UnderArmor pants. I carried a black wind breaker but never needed it. Our weather was part of a heat wave blasting across southern California. It will peak this weekend.
There are more blowdowns along the trail so the trail gets a bit of a challenge to maneuver. This is especially true once one reaches the first aspen grove. There is still icy snow here and the dogs took advantage of that. We were all thirsty and even I stopped twice to drink water.
The waterfall at the 1.75 mile mark was also gushing nicely. Again I stopped to let the dogs cool off. We probably have two more weeks of snow left on the trail before things start drying up.
Nothing is budding yet and no sign of wild flowers. The only flowers I saw were the alpine variety near the peak. Things should start popping up later this month. The vista was still very much a dry brown.
Fort Huachuca was conducting a control burn which left the sky hazy, but by the time I was driving down the mountain, most of the haze had cleared up.
I got to the peak at 4:10pm. I had missed the turnoff to the peak since the sign's gone now. That was just a .2-mile detour. More downed trees here as well that slowed me down.
Each dog got two jerky strips on the peak. I had an orange and drank some water but didn't linger for long. I knew that sunset would be at 6:28pm but I clearly wanted to be off the road by then. Our descent was mostly in the shade now, which Minnie enjoyed, and I didn't stop as much to let the dogs munch on the icy snow. The 93.6% moon rose at 3:52pm while I was on the peak, but the sunlight and haze kept me from seeing it. It was much more visible once I was a mile down from the peak and the sky was less hazy and the mountains' shadows cast across the valley.
The 5.73-mile hike took me 3:48 hours. It's not my fastest pace but not bad for a first hike. The blowdowns and ice in sections did slow me down and the warm weather on the dogs forced me to stop for them. Next month I expect the penstemons and salvias to be in bloom!
My photos aren't uploading but I'll get them here eventually.
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