Today was my final drive home. I opted to stop in the Chiricahua Mountains and do a quick hike of at least four miles before continuing on home. I had forgotten how beautiful this mountain range is. Snow was still obvious in the higher peaks when I turned off NM80 to get to the eastern trails off Portal Road.
It had been over ten years since I last hiked this trail with Kevin and dogs Sara and Sammy. The 2011 Horseshoe fire and then 2014 flooding from Hurricane Odile have changed the character of this trail quite a bit. The creekbed by the trailhead is much wider and rockier now . Volunteers are still working on removing snags and fortifying the river's many boulders. In the summer this is still a popular trail for birders looking for the Elegant Trogon as one hikes among the oaks, sycamores, ash, maples and pines and high crags envelope the canyon. In the winter it's best to turn around when snow and ice make hiking treacherous.
My Alltrails app says this is a 4.1 mile hike. This mileage is roundtrip to the intersection with the Burro Trail at the two-mile mark, which turns left and meanders uphill. I stayed along the creek. The original trail continued for almost seven miles to the Crest Trail, but now the upper reaches are still badly damaged.
I started at 8:06am when it was 27F. The sun was just starting to light up the tops of the crags, but the canyon was chilly and shadowed. Rocks in the creek were still iced over, so fording the creek was quite a challenge. Icicles hung off the rock walls. I wasn't dressed for a serious hike, thinking I'd get the four miles done within two hours. I even left the backpack in the Honda. Ha! I ended up logging in 8.3 miles in 4:54 hours. The many snags and overgrowth in the last mile slowed me down even more. Snow was two to three inches deep in the shade. I turned around when the trail got too overgrown and started to climb. It was approaching 60F when I was done. On a warm summer months with more sunlight and warmth, this trail would be more enjoyable. There are still original sections of the trail in the higher elevations.
I didn't come across anyone until on my return hike, when I met two Coromado Nationl Forest volunteers who were sawing through blowdowns. By now the sun was high enough to warm up the lower section of the trail, melting the ice on the protruding creek rocks and lighting up the forest. I stopped and chatted with these two men and somehow the topic of craft beer came up. I didn't want to take time away from them, thanked them for volunteering, and the in quick succession met two women, one single man, a group of three older women and a scared wired-hair terrier. I was the first car in the parking lot, but there was at least seven cars when I got back and many more people just walking along the forest trail.
What had been intended to be a two-hour hike ended up being a long five hour hike. I didn't come home until 4:15pm. Zeke was happy to be with his pack again and the other dogs were excited about finally going on a walk again. I couldn't disappoint them, so I reluctantly took them all down the maintenance road for a quick 1.8-mile walk. The stock pond off the maintenance road is still very full. Minnie got a few laps in the water as I threw sticks into the water for her to fetch. I had logged in just over ten miles today and my calves felt it.
Christmas break is over. It's back to school tomorrow. I started the first weekend of 2020 with a decent hike. May there be many more!
http://www.chiricahuatrails.com/trails/south-fork-trail-243
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