Walking the San Pedro trail from Escapule Road going south is a hike I did with the Huachuca Hiking club back in 2005. It was one of my first hikes with the club. We stopped at the Clanton Ranch House ruins (there's not much there but remnants of one adobe wall) and then walked back to our cars, an easy three miles. I don't remember much else of that hike.
Today's walk started at the same trailhead off Escapule Road, but my goal was to take Susan down to the river via the springs and wash that flows to the river. She had never been to this part of the river. But instead we took the unmarked dirt road to the ruins and continued via a game trail to the river, 1.7 miles from where we had parked. The dogs were panting in the exposed sun. It was 72F and breezy, but already too warm for the dogs. The low-lying catclaw did a number on my exposed lower legs as I was wearing capris and cheap water shoes with thin soles.
We came out to the water just below a populated area. I wasn't sure if the river north was still BLM land. We let the dogs romp in the water to cool off. We sat in the shade and let them play fetch. I could see the old railroad bridge towers (what is left) from my first walk here with Sammy, Sara and Sadie a good ten years ago. Susan agreed to go toward the towers and to walk back to the cars from there, making this a four-mile loop. It was 0.3 miles to the old bridge as we walked mostly in the river. A coatimundi scurried out of our way. A blue heron flew off.
This was a pretty part of the river, with high banks, tall grass, and an opening for the sun. The river going south took a sharp turn east south of us, but we didn't go that far as we saw mallards with babies and we didn't want the dogs bothering the animals.
We took the old railroad bed from here that parallels the wash. The wash is now fully overgrown with tall reeds and water running through it. I didn't even recognize the old spring here. It looked too wet and grassy to walk through so we took the high railroad bed, but then quickly opted for the wash when we realized how hot the tailings were for the dogs' feet.
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The railroad bed is now heavily overgrown as well, with thorny brush and tall grass proving some protection. Walking in the wet wash was was more pleasant for us, even though the soft silt sucked the shoes off me. At onepoint I stepped on a mesquite thorn that pierced my right foot arch. I extracted the thorn, but somehow broke the thorn and walked the rest of the way with a 1/4" thorn embedded in my foot. Walking was slow and tedious, but there was water for the dogs to stay cool in. We'd return to the old railroad bed when the brush was too thick to carefully walk through.
We passed a rusty carcass in the wash. The trunk had a huge boulder in its trunk but only the metal frame remained. Why was that old car there? Was it dumped by its owner and left to rust in the wash? How did it get there? The banks on either side of the wash are too high for the car to just tumble down and remain upright with no other damage. Perhaps it was left behind by miners who once worked the area? There is a lot of history in this area known as the Escapule Wash, but one has to look carefully around the area to notice.
We came across some barbed wire that forced us once again to get down to the wash. Allie ran ahead and took a straight drop down into the wash, perhaps 20 feet. Susan screamed, but Allie landed upright on all four feet. We struggled to find a safe route down to the wash, but we all had to leap down. Sadie slid down head first but was otherwise injury-free. Only Minnie seemed to have sprained her right rear leg and limped for a while.
We got to the pedestrian bridge as my phone died. Here is where we climbed back up to the official trail and walked the way back to our cars, now a good bit warmer. We took it slowly, but we were all glad to be back in air-conditioned cars at 3:30pm. All dogs were tired and thirsty.
I enjoyed the walk, but we needed cooler, overcast skies to better enjoy the scenery.
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