Shady Glen

Another heat advisory was out today:  highs in the upper 90s and humidity in the 60%.  I did not go on yesterday's scheduled hike up Split Rock Canyon with the hiking club because of this heat, as much as I like the canyon. (Turns out the hiking club president turned the hike into an unannounced trail maintenance hike!)  The monsoon so far have been a bust, with little rain and mostly just dry electrical storms that only cause more lightning-caused wildfires. Our ground is too dry for this time of year, and water levels are below average.  The Tucson area has received above-average rainfall for us, but Cochise County has been dry.  This is a big concern for me.

I can not sleep in this weather, let alone hike in it, so at 3am I got up with Kevin and never got back to bed, making me even more exhausted by 9am.  When Ellen asked me at 9:40am if I were interested in hiking a "slot canyon off the Hamburg Trail west of Ramsey canyon" in the Huachuca mountains, I agreed to do so anyway.  We met at 1pm and hiked in.  Had she not contacted me, I would have spent most of the day in bed trying to get some sleep.  At least this way I was forced to stay awake during a normal awake cycle and then being too energized to sleep during normal hours.

Despite my recent hikes up high peaks, I was exhausted hiking the 800' to the vista lookout.  Sweat was pouring down my skin and I felt miserable.  There weren't too many people in Ramsey Canyon today.  The few we saw were hiking out, not in.  Skies were cloudy but no chance of rain.

The heat even kept the birds in the shade.  I saw a flicker, but no humming birds. Just a lot of friendly deer off the trail staring at us.  Just like in June, the creek through the canyon was dry.

I soon realized that the "slot canyon" that Ellen was talking about was Shady Glen.  She had never been down this way before, hearing only about this from a canyoneering co-worker, so I led the way, following a faint trail along the creek toward the rhyolite crags at the end of the canyon.  There was flowing water here, but most of the flowers from June were gone.  A lone Golden Columbine stood guard, a few other firecracker penstemons bloomed in the sunny areas, and some orange Monkeyflowers  grew along the water's edge.  I saw mostly horsetail weeds and lush green foliage, but no other colors.

We made it farther than when Bill and I were here in June, but not by much.  The canyon quickly narrows and the ground pools with water.  There are several pools of water here, each one dropping 3-5 feet lower than the previous one.  Water looked to be thigh-high.  I would normally want to explore this, but I didn't have the proper clothes, nor any gear. I didn't want to slide down the slick rock and discover I couldn't get back up again.  Ellen agreed, and we didn't proceed any further.  The temperature around the water was cooler and less humid; it felt good!

The canyon is just below the vista overlook on the trail, but unless a person uses a loud whistle or foghorn (and who carries those around on a hike?), hearing calls for help would go unnoticed.  With no one on the trail this late on a Sunday afternoon, it wasn't worth the risk.

Had I known that this was the "slot canyon," I would have worn shorts and my Keens as well, just like Ellen did.  Keen sandals with their Vibrams soles are the best water shoes.   (I have a new pair coming this week.  My current pair are from 2015 and are getting weak in the ankle seams.)  We admired the water scene and then turned around to hike out.

We got back to the cars by 4pm.  Clouds overhead were getting darker and we heard some rumbling.  Darker clouds were to the north of us, toward Whetstone 20 miles away. The hike was a mere 3.5 miles r/t. I fell asleep shortly after coming home, but woke up again from hunger at 6pm.  I hadn't eaten all day.  Kevin was already asleep. At 9:30pm I took the dogs out for a quick 1.2-mile walk down the dirt road, and again saw distant lightning over the Mule mountains to the east.  The dogs seemed fine with the shortened walk.   The cool evening hair, void of humidity and freshened with a bit of a breeze, was invigorating.  I simply didn't have the energy for a longer stroll. I will make up for it tomorrow.
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Robert, a hiking friend of mine, posted a picture on his FB page today of a scalp with long, reddish braided hair, aka human remains, in a "deep canyon after daylight" hat he and his pals had come across on an early morning hike in Rustler Park in the Chiricahua mountains.  It clearly looks like woman's hair.  He and his pals he was with reported their find with GPS location to the local sheriff's office.  Seeing the photo of the hair is a reminder that even though border crossers are coming across illegally, they are still suffering and taking risks to come here, even losing their lives to be here.  I am always aware that I, too, can come across human remains on any of my hikes, since so often I'm off the beaten path because of my dogs.  I'm not sure what the protocol is when one comes across deceased personnel, though.  I would think that not touching the area is the first rule, so that investigators can come in and rule out homicide.  I would not want to inadvertently "destroy a crime scene."

PS--September 13,2019: the remains have been positively identified as belonging to 44-year-old Lydia Castrejon, missing since June 2015 when she was camping in the area with her parents and brother.  Lydia suffered from a severe brain injury sustained after a car accident, leaving her near blind and with the intellect of a six-year-old. How she wandered off alone is a mystery.  She was last seen walking to the campsite restroom.