Papago Springs Trail, round two

Today was the big day: I would discover the Papago Springs trail!  At least I thought I would.

The Huachuca Hiker's Anonymous led this hike, meeting at 9:45am at Tia Nita's and then at 10am at the trailhead.  I was by myself with Zeke.  No one else from town wanted to go.  Galen said he'd meet me at the trailhead with his wife Sunny.

There were only two cars in front of Tia Nita's.  Where was everyone else?  The four women were wondering the same thing.  After a few pleasantries, I told him I would drive to the trailhead because I did not want to miss this hike.  But when I got to the trailhead, there was no one there, either.  What was going on?  Was the start time changed?  I decided to wait in the Honda and listen to Sirius XM's "Top 1000 Classic Rock countdown, but after 30 minutes with no cars in sight, decided to hike the northern section alone.  What a disappointment hiking alone.

The northern section of this 8.6-mile loop is flat as it skirts the south end of Sonoita and sevveral homes.  Again I came across a myriad of unmarked criss-crossing trails.  After about .75 miles the trail turns south and descends down into a rocky arroyo, where I let Zeke drink from the trough.  The trail then ascends again, coming to the eastern boundary of the national forest.  The creek along this boundary was still flowing from the recent snowmelt.  Near the two-mile mark I rested by a rock dam before crossing the Papago Springs road.  The trail up to this point is pleasant and easy to follow.

I had followed the given route in Alltrails.com but now it got tricky.  It was easy on the north end with the creek and boundary fence to guide me, but now there were simply too many unmarked trails in all directions.  I ended up giving up figuring out the maze of trails and opted to just hook up with trails I remember from my previous hike here, managing just over five miles.  I never did meet up with the others until I was able to contact Galen when I finished, and I met the group at the Copper Brothel brewpub.  They, too, had hiked no more than I had, but had started going south and parallel to my route.

I was initially miffed at the leader's lax guidance, but the more we chatted in the brewpub, the more I eased up. I am not giving up on the Papago Springs area, either.  There has got to be an eight-mile loop I can do that won't get me lost, or find one that I could lead again in the future.