Distance: 8.7 miles
Elevation : 1072'
Significance: exploring mines and enjoying the views
https://www.strava.com/activities/4670332222
This was the big day! After taking Ellen and Rob to the Abril mine on New Year's Day and them enjoying the mine so much they wanted to do it again, we finally had a good date with good weather (upper 50s early afternoon but with a windchill) to go back to the mine for some real exploring. I took a fresh headlamp and brought Zeke, who wore a bright orange vest and a collar lamp himself.
We met at Fry's in town at 8am. We were all punctual and left promptly. I ended up driving myself but told Ellen that if Middlemarch Road got too rutted, that I would stop and continue on in her vehicle. I have not driven Middlemarch Road past the Forest Service sign to Soren Pass since 2015, when I last went exploring there with Zeke, Sadie and Minnie. It never should have taken this long to come back here! I love exploring the Dragoons, but it's at least an hour's drive each way, and the rocks get too hot when it's warm out, so winter is the only time I can enjoy this mountain range.
The only obstacle today were some obstinate cattle in the middle of the road that refused to make way for us. I had to make Zeke growl before they were able to move for us so we could safely drive on by. So much for the effectiveness of cattle guards!
The road was surprisingly in good shape for my Honda. I was even able to drive all the way to the old camp site in my Honda, 1.4-miles from the turn-off! It seems the road had been graded some, too, and a new barbed wire fence installed just before getting to the old camp. The old windmill is still there. The water retainer was full of algaeic water.
We had no one on the trail near us at this point. We were just three hikers walking the old mining road to its dead end. It was chilly, too! I put on three layers at home but took my rain jacket and a sweat shirt in the Honda. I put on the sweatshirt for added warmth and then never took it off! Even when it did reach the upper 50s on our return hike, the wind chill kept the temperatures down nicely. It was 39F when we started our hike at 9am, walking up a. former mining road surrounded by oaks, agave, cholla and lots of hillside shindaggers.
Ellen was totally enjoying this hike. We entered two small mines right off the road but neither was very long. Zeke followed me obediently without fear. The views from the pass impressed her and Rob, and even more exciting was the mine we found up a hillside that we went into. It had a large opening! We didn't enter the mine from here due to the steep and loose rock. Ellen said this opening is a big air shaft that we came near the last time we were here three weeks ago. We went back out, then followed a faint foot trail that ended up by another mine shaft behind a wooden cable tower.
We rested here a bit to drink water and have some snacks, then entered the mine from here. The tunnels were solid rock and I never felt nervous. We followed some arrows and ended up circling around inside, hitting cave structures formed from dripping minerals off the ceilings.
We avoided all the ladders and straight shafts. There must have been a massive rock slide inside that closed off some tunnels, but the main adits were walkable. Others come here to explore, as evident by the many beer cans and bottles on the mine floor. The broken beer bottles bothered me, as the glass is hard to pick up. I don't mind picking up whatever trash can fit into my backpack, but my pack was packed to the hilt with food, water and first aid supplies that I had no other room.
This mine tunnel is not visible from the main road as it's behind the cable tower and overgrown with shrubbery, but this was a huge, complex mine operation at one time. We only explored the safe passages; who knows what else is underground here. My cellphone doesn't take good low-light photos, and so many pictures didn't turn out.
We basically did a big loop in this mine, coming out by the adit that we had entered from three weeks ago. We then took the mining road back to the pass. This is an exposed trail and even though the fog had cleared, the wind chill was back. We had another snack at the campsite by the pass before walking back to our cars. We were now just north of China Peak (a hike scheduled for February 27th with the hiking club), and we noticed a flag waving from the peak. I told Ellen that was most likely from an ATV that had made it to the summit.
It was now approaching 2pm. Several campers had set up camp at a few other side roads. Ellen treated me to some chocolate muffins as part of my birthday surprise, and as we stood by our cars to eat, three more jeeps thundered on by. Thank goodness we were not driving back yet, as the road to Soren pass is not very wide! I noticed more mine adits near the Middlemarch Road turn-off that we need to explore at a later date.
More traffic was on Middlemarch Road (FR345) as we made our way way back to SR80. It was after 3pm now and a Cochise County Sheriff Deputy vehicle came barreling down the road, blowing up a dust trail and flashing its lights. Then a county vehicle followed, and then a second CCSD vehicle roared on past us. What had happened? Ellen told me later two 27-year-old hikers had gotten lost in the Cochise stronghold when they took a wrong turn, but that was two days ago. I later learned that a 65-year-old man fell off a horse on some remote land and needed to be sent to a hospital.
I got home just as the 4pm NPR news came on the radio. Long-time interviewer Larry King died today, after being hospitalized for covid late last year. He was a long-time beacon on CNN back in the 80s. He was 86 years old. And yesterday baseball great Hank Aaron died at age 87.
The dogs were happy to see me back home. I was too tired to walk them, but if it's cool and overcast again tomorrow, I may just take the whole pack back to Bisbee and explore the mining road that goes east of Gold Hill. Weather will get cool and rainy tomorrow evening and snow is even in the forecast for Tuesday!
My Clorts hiking boots, which I bought on sale via Amazon four years ago, are now too torn to be effective. These boots were comfortable, but the leather suede did not survive my hiking style. The leather was slowly coming ripped from the sole and today a big rip from the seam into the upper arch made these boots too airy for safety. I'll never buy Clorts again as the boots I had were poorly made with cheap leather and low-grade rubber. I usually wear out hiking boots via the soles, but these boots have worn down all over! I do have new boots coming via sierra.com, though.
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CDC is now reporting several variants of the coronavirus, but the UK variant appears to be very contagious and very deadly. There is also a South African variant and a Brazilian variant and any of them may cause another surge of infections and deaths
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