My first reaction to seeing the water level was how low it had gotten. This made it easy for us to wade through, and high enough to keep the dogs' paws cool. We hit a few slippery sections, but never anything deep or treacherous. We could see tadpoles and crawfish abundantly. I rather enjoyed this stretch, as there was plenty of sand bar to walk on. The flowing level for most of this walk was narrow, with wide rocky beaches. It took us a mere 30 minutes to walk the first mile. The five miles took us just a little over three hours.
This was David's first time. We started at 8am but probably should have started even earlier to have more shade.
There was little algae here, keeping the water clear. We did come across three dead badgers (?), all juvenile, along the water. How did they die?! All three were in separate locations and looked to be the same size, as if litter mates.
The river meandered north here, and the father north we walked, the higher the sand walls became. Cottonwoods shaded the river whenever the shore was close to the water. This is how the river looks south of Fairbank, another eight miles along the river. We knew we could walk that far with the dogs, as Minnie can barely make it five miles. The eastern flank looked to be a flood plain with ATV tracks. How did they get there? It's best to look at Google Earth to see from where one can access the river here.
We rested at the 2.5-mile spot, had water and snacks, then walked back the way we came.
Hansi continues to recover, but it's heart-wrenching to continue to separate the two pups. Gretel still hasn't shown any parvo symptoms.
***
Global cases
Global deaths
US cases 2,143,128 (1,166,655 active)
US deaths: 117,538
AZ cases: 34, 458 (190 cases in Cochise County)
AZ deaths: 1183
No comments:
Post a Comment