San Pedro River south of the B&B

On Sunday Susan and I took the dogs and walked south along the river from the Casa de San Pedro Bed and Breakfast (aka the "Casa").  We wanted to see how shallow the water had become.   This is a pleasant walk along a wide river bed, shaded by cottonwoods and ash trees. Our answers were quickly answered:  it's shallow enough to walk the creek bed.  The water goes dry a mile south of the Casa

The Cochise County Search and Rescue teams were conducting canine training along the river, parking their vehicles by the B&B.  We had to park 0.4 miles west of the parking area to give the trainers their space.  This also added 0.8 miles to our walk, so we didn't go far along the river because of that added distance.

My original plan was to hike up Carr Peak after our free Denny's breakfast, but Denny's had an hour wait.  A free meal wasn't worth an hour-long wait (most people waiting looked like WWI and Korean War veterans) so we ate at the Landmark Cafe, where Kevin's bacon and eggs and my biscuits and gravy and coffee totalled over $18.  I also got stomach cramps from that, so I scratched Carr Peak and repeated the river walk,  starting at 1:20pm with all four dogs.  My goal was to walk two miles down, and then back. Susan couldn't join me this time, due to a scheduled MRI reading at 1pm.

Weather was mild all weekend, with a warm breeze and overcast skies.  The turning leaves are coating the ground (making it treacherous with my old Keens that have little traction)  The leaves hide the stagnant water, so we were careful where we walked, watching the dogs ahead of us.   They don't like to walk in water deeper than their chests. The golden hues of the leaves contrast nicely with the green grass that grows in some of the open areas, and sunlight accentuates the colors.

What I like about the river here is its wide banks.  It makes walking with the dogs easy.  I can see them easily, without shrubbery in the way. That's good for walkers, not so good for water-loving dogs.  We hadn't walked this stretch since the early spring, before any rainfall.  We noticed several downed cottonwoods and shore erosion, which probably happened from TD Lorena.

We came across fur tuffs on the ground.  Susan quickly analyzed it to be deer fur.  Sure enough, the carcass of a very dead buck wasn't too far away from the fur.  She had spotted what she said were mountain lion tracks  farther up the river.  She is very good at noticing anomalies when we hike.  She also spotted two piles of mesquite pods and a lone shoe that could have been a child's.

We also saw mating butterflies on the ground, stuck to each other.  Isn't it rather late in the year to be mating?  Or has our climate changed so much to confuse wildlife? Today I came across a crawdad.  Don't those need water to survive?  It was lumbering along, hopefully looking for water, but it was walking in the wrong direction if a pool of water is what it was seeking.

On Sunday we turned around at the 1.8-mile mark.  Today I went down to the shrine and the overturned car, which is the two-mile mark and a nice place to turn around.  The River here is always dry and rocky, which resembles more of an old Roman road than a river bed.  It's the perfect place to walk a pack of dogs.  The sand is more compacted here, but there is no water. The only people I ever see here are illegals, and I did come across a buffing shoe that illegals will wear here to mask their footprints.

I was a mile away from SR92 and another four miles from the international border.  The river gets more  chaotic south of the road, with more overgrowth and thick shrubbery along the water.  I should check that out next on my next day off to see how the river has changed its course here.  The course I did today is perhaps one of the prettier sections of the river.

I was back home by 4pm.  The sky to the south looked like rain, but it remained mild the rest of the day.  I drove into town for a free Veterans Day meal.  Chili's, Applebees and Olive Garden in town offer great deals (so do Golden Corral and Texas Roadhouse).  I brought leftovers home for Kevin.