Slavin Gulch

It was another busy day for me outside.

At 4:30am (yes, we get up early, even on the weekends!) Kevin asked if I wanted to join him for breakfast at 5:30am at McDonald's.  He chose McD's because our local restaurant, the Chuckwagon, doesn't open until 7am and he knew I had a hike planned with Susan in the Dragoons.  I agreed to join him, as the time was perfect: it would still give me time to walk the pack at sunrise along the maintenance road before meeting Susan at 8:45am at the corner of Moson and Hereford Road.

All four dogs came on the walk, which started out in the pre-dawn hour, when lights in Naco, Sonora still shine.  I timed the walk so that it would be bright enough to see the water in the stockpond, the pond that Minnie enjoys so much after a hike.  She is my only swimmer, and this pond offers her the opportunity to swim while the other dogs watch her from the grass.  Sweetie continues to watch from the road.

I gathered up the recycables for my Tombstone visit, picked up dog shit in the back yard, and met Susan on time.  She wanted to drive her own vehicle, so I drove my Honda and we drove in two cars to Slavin Gulch.  We stopped briefly at Middlemarch road and AZ80 so I could park my car off the shoulder and continue in Susan's Jeep for the remaining 12 miles. I rode with her from this point because the last three miles can be badly rutted and flooded, if there is water in the creek, and my car has low clearance.  She didn't bring Allie, but Sadie and Zeke were a bit confused riding in the Jeep with Allie's smell and Allie wasn't there.  Susan later regretted not bringing Allie along.s

Members of the Bisbee Muleteam hiking group were also coming to park where we were, getting out of their cars to chat with other Muleteam hikers while members were slowly driving up and arranging car pools.  The Muleteam is Bisbee's own hiking group, and they had a 9am meetup at the same location for a hike around Council Rocks.  I had heard of this hiking group, but never have been able to meet up with them for a hike.  They don't publish a website of their group or their hikes, but one member, Sara, said they now use blogspot --the same one I use for this blog--to post their hikes.  Twenty-two (!!!) members ended up showing up, and all left before we did.  We let them get a head start so that the dust from the road wouldn't blind us all.  Susan and I agreed that this looks like a nice bunch of people.  And they welcome friendly dogs on their hikes!

muleteam.blogspot.com

On the three-mile long forest road to the trailhead, we met another group from Sierra Vista, the Moses Trekkers.  They are a slow group of mostly older people.  We met a few of them along the road.

When we got to the official trailhead shortly after 10am, there was one other car, but we never met other people along our hike until the final mile back to the cars .

There was water in the gulch.  That is always good.  We knew it would be a good hike when we crossed the final wash before the trailhead and there was flowing water in it.  Campers were taking advantage of the water and were camped out in all the camping spots along the way.  Today's high was only in the low 70s and sunny, but it was in the mid 50s at the start and plenty of shade.  It was very pleasant hiking weather, and the dogs never lacked any water.

Susan picked this hike because she was fascinated by the rock formations the first time I took her to the Dragoons a few years ago.  Ellen invited Susan and me to join her on a rock-hopping hike with her friend Adam, and we all explored the watering holes in the gulch.  When there is water running, this is a pleasant hike, but this can get hot and miserable in the dry summer before monsoon season.  Rattlesnakes also call this place home.

Susan wanted to find the watering hole that Ellen took us to the first time.  We both got the location wrong.  I thought it was three miles up the gulch, so we hiked that far in.  At the three-mile mark the trail starts pulling away from the creek and ascends for another 1.2 miles  to the Abril mine, which is visible from the upper trail at the three-mile mark.  The dogs were getting tired once the sun was higher up, and we decided to make the Abril mine a destination for another time.  We turned around a the three-mile mark, just as the trail began getting overgrown with manzanitas.  The manzanitas were blooming here and quite fragrant.

It turns out we had missed the watering hole as it's in a steep descent off the trail and hidden by shrubbery and boulders.  We found it on our return hike.  Susan had made cheese and cucumber sandwiches which we ate in the shade by a small watering hole.  The dogs got their can of Pedigree each and some bites off the sandwiches.  Both dogs are good at giving people a hungry look when they see others eating.  Susan falls for that look every time.

 Weather by now was warm and we had taken our hoodies off.  It wasn't warm enough to jump into the cold water, though.  We stopped at a few watering holes on the way back just to relax and let the dogs rest.  By the end of the six-mile hike, both dogs were tired. And I could feel the thigh muscles' work-out from last week's Miller Peak.

The hike took us 4:45 hours.  We had rested several times and took it easy.  We got to see the watering holes and the hidden shrine as well, but the peace wheel by the shrine is gone.  This was a peace symbol formed by rocks on the ground.  We noticed dug-up areas there, either from hungry javelina or from an angry forest ranger.  Why would someone want to remove the old peace wheel? Even the shrine is not what it once was, of little trinkets left behind on a rock shelf.  Few things remain now, such as a rusty can opener, horseshoe, and old pocket knife.

We walked back the way we came, agreeing that we should come back here soon, perhaps get a small group of our friends to hike to Council Rocks, Abril Mine, or even China Peak.  I would love to do China Peak again, but that is a tough hike best done under an overcast sky and cooler temps

We got back to the Jeep after  3:30pm and to my Honda 30 minutes later.  My car was the only car by then.  Susan dropped me off, I drove to Tombstone and dropped off the recyclables, stopped in the Tombstone Brewery but didn't see any beer I'd like, so I just drove on home and got in at 4:30pm.

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The new coronavirus (2019-nCoV)continues to spread, now claiming over 300 deaths, with the first death outside China, in the Philippines.  Two weeks ago, when I was in Tucson, it was 32 deaths that jumped to 50 Sunday morning.  We now have eight patients in the US with that virus, with the 8th victim in Massachusetts.  Hopefully this virus can be contained by this summer.

Another storm is heading our way late Sunday, with snow expected down to 2500'.  Phoenix and Tucson are on track to get some precipitation, but will we here at the border?  (I do hope so!)