Today's hike was led by EricS from the SVHikers meetup. He didn't start the hike until 10am. That meant I could walk the pack at sunrise and then relax in the early morning, which is what I did. Temperatures were forecasted to be in the upper 60s, so just comfortable enough on a high desert trail void of much shade. I looked forward to this hike as it had been a while since I hiked this loop around Bisbee. I like Bisbee and always enjoy a good excuse to go there.
I took Zeke only. People were already mingling in the parking area. Susan and her dog Allie were there, even Steve with his Trace, but he ended up doing his own hike once the group got started. HollyW was also there. Another hiker, Jon, brought his 8-month old Golden, Chance, along. Chancee group was very playful so Zeke hung out with Allie instead. A total of ten people hiked this trail, and most were new hikers to the group, including a young New Yorker who was worried about not being in good enough shape for this hike.
My last time in Brewery Gulch was in February when I hiked up Mural Hill with Minnie, Sadie and Zeke to explore a side trail that ended up on ridgeline bordering Zacatecas and Wildcat canyons. I walked through a burn area, which was the Wildcat fire from the previous October. I was curious how the area had regrown. I had warned people to wear jeans to prevent getting poked by blooming catclaw along the trail. It turns out the catclaw along the steep section had been charred by the fire and most shrubs hadn't developed new shoots from their roots. We all wore heavy jeans unnecessarily.
I was also curious about water. Would there be any in the canyon? There was some water trickling in the upper Gulch area, but once in the canyon, the water was gone. I had to stop at least twice to give Zeke some water.
My biggest surprise was the lack of lush grass growing in the burn area. I expected to see new grass growing. Instead, I saw some catclaw come back, and plenty of purple verbena, but not much else. Even the poppies, prolific in town, were absent here.
I chatted mostly with Susan, Holly chatted with Jon, and Eric picked up the rear with new gal Rebekah. That made me the hike leader for the faster people, all who had never hiked the trail before. I made sure we all stopped at the first saddle to wait for the slower people to catch up. This saddle still bears hotspots from the fire. The dead mesquite that ten years ago still provided shade for me is now gone. Firefighters widened the path and cut back a lot of the catclaw.
This would have been a hot hike if it had been in the 80s. It came close, though. Some of the shadier oaks along the way offered cooling shade that was noticeably cooler. Even Zeke took advantage of any shade along the way. Once we got to the second saddle overlooking Heartbreak ridge, it was all exposed and the faster hikers went on ahead.
This was Allie's first group hike and she did very well. She didn't run off to prance on imaginary prey. She stayed by Susan. She will turn into a great hiking dog with more group training.
It took us just over 90 minutes to do this loop. We had no real slow hikers. I was relieved to be back in town, among the quirky people and the many poppies. There were poppies everywhere! Even in rock cracks.
Steve showed up as we got back to the cars. We all went into the brewery but he ended up going home. Rebekah went to another place by accident, but we had seven people show up for beer and chat! I enjoyed talking to all these new hikers, and listened intently to Jon's story about his pet water buffalo.
I had two really good beers today. The first one was a sweet Belgian witbier, El Trigo, that tasted as if it had sassafras in it. (Ingredients listed coriander, not sassafras though). The second one was a pomegranate IPA served in a 12-ounce tulip. I'm starting to like some of the fruitier IPAs. However, the beer and the lingering fatigue/dehydration from yesterday's hike quickly tired me. When I went to pay and learned that my credit card was declined and I had to pay with cash (imagine that!), I worried that my card had been compromised. I told Eric I would not join the rest of the gang at the Screaming Banshee. I didn't have any more money on me and now I was worried I'd be too tired to drive.
I ended up pulling over along the San Pedro river to take a rest. That rest turned out to be a 30-minute nap. Then, when I got home, I went straight to bed where I fell asleep until 5:30pm. I woke up thinking it was Monday morning!
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