Distance: 5 miles in 6:40 hours
Elevation gain: 2226'
Significance: Bonafide exploratory bushwhack with vistas
https://www.strava.com/activities/4782935084
I've always wanted to explore Bisbee's Escabrosa Ridge, a prominent limestone ridge in the south Mule Mountains. Mount Ballard is the high point, a peak at 7369' (2671m). The hike up Ballard is a a short, near-straight hike up the mountain, but the rocky, loose soil and the demonic cholla along its peak make a summit more of an adventure than a hike. It's a peak not to be taken lightly, as it introduces one to the character of this ridge.
My experience hiking Mount Ballard taught me what to expect on today's hike to Mount Martin. And I was right. I wore my Carhartt jeans for their durability, to fight off any persistent shindaggers and catclaw along the way, although they were conspicuously absent along the path. The flora we fought off today was merely standard high desert chaparral such as Arizona oak, yuccas, manzanita, and a few other small-leafed shrub I haven't yet identified. I wore three top layers that stayed on me the entire hike.
Today 's hike was lead by Stephen S, who has explored all the nooks and crannies of the Mule Mountains. He's a reliable guide to have out in the wilderness. He had last done this route eight years ago, when, admittedly, the trees near the ridge were a bit smaller and the trail he once took more noticeable.
We met at the end of Spring Canyon road, a hidden street dotted with small, but nice homes with artfully landscaped gardens and the typical left-leaning political sign. I had never been here before.
I arrived first as I had driven straight from home. Then the doctor arrived with BillC, and soon the SV carpool with SteveS, Rod, Dough. JimA, RyanD, John Severn arrived, filling up the open space near the trailhead. A cellphone tower dominates from above, making for a good landmark.
The trail starts out as a gravel path (old mining road?) in a southwesterly direction to a covered spring, then becomes a single track up the shaded drainage for two miles, as it quickly gains altitude. Views back into Bisbee and B mountain open up as one nears the saddle.
I stayed in the rear to keep Zeke from running between the other hikers. He mostly stayed by my side, but he would occasionally get in front of whomever was right in front of me. We were moving slowly, stepping over rockwalls, darting yuccas and then chollas as the altitude increased. The men kept any wildlife safely away with their constant chatter.
It took us 1:15 hours to arrive at the saddle 1.7 miles from where we parked. We now had views of the south, oak-covered Mount Ballard, the distant border wall and Naco. The hillsides here were all wilderness, with no discernible trails. Stephen pointed out Willson Road off SR92 but to me it was all mysterious.
We still had 1.2 miles to go to reach Mount Martin. We were averaging less than a mile an hour, so I knew then that today's hike would be a long day hike. The trail from the saddle traveling southeast was densely populated with chaparral. While not pokey like catclaw and shindaggers, this flora was more shrubbery and whispy: long pliable branches snapping back in one's face made this section not very pleasant. But at least my thick (albeit too large, it turned out) jeans kept my legs from getting scratched up.
The hardest part about this bushwhack was finding a decent path along the ridge. Not only was the flora dense, but the ridge was a brittle, rocky one divided by a rusty barbed wire. We had to get to the other side of the wire to travel safely, as the views and the wind began to open up. We hiked past a few sites that looked like abandoned mines, but nothing besides flora and canyons was visible.
There was some discussion about which peak was Mount Martin. We had gotten to what looked like a taller peak just before Martin and I was ready to make this unknown peak my destination, but the men wanted to bag Martin so off we went.
I think we were all relieved when we did get to Martin, plopping down on the ground facing Bisbee and having our snacks. Zeke had his two pouches of venison in gravy, I had my tangerines, and we both watered up. Zeke dug himself a cool spot under a shrub and rested. He looked exhausted and gave up begging for food from the others and just sat next to me waiting for the call to resume our hike back. The red blooms I saw on many of the shrub branches turned out to be huddling ladybugs. Have ladybugs adapted to the blustery winds on our peaks to survive our winters?
The hike back to the cars was a bit easier thanks to gravity. We were more spread out now, staying along the ridge as much as possible, but we reached a steep rockwall that required slow, methodical steps getting around. At one point my group was separated from Jim and Doug, but we reassembled in the saddle, rested to treat Rod's bloodied arm and commented on John's bloodied legs before continuing on down the drainage
All went well on the descent until SteveS took a direct fall to his head on a rock just a half-mile from the cars. It looked serious. I was able to disinfect and bandage the wound. (Note to myself: stock up on large cloth bandages!) He said later on that it was just a shallow cut and that he felt no other symptoms once he was home.
The general consensus was that this was a tough bushwhack and perhaps one of the worst ones the members had done. "I'm going to be sore all week!" stated one member. I wasn't sore, but I was tired and hungry when we were done and I had no blood wounds to brag about.
We were back at the cars at 4:22pm. My strava tracker said we had hiked five miles, but a short section near the end was gapped, so I'm thinking it was closer to 5.5 miles. Zeke jumped into the Honda and drank more water and ate more chicken jerky strips. I waited for any signal from the guys for a potential meal in town, but they all ended up driving back to Sierra Vista.
My post-hike meal was curry chicken at Thuy's Noodle Shop in town, which took 30 minutes. Several other masked people were waiting outside the patio gate for their to-go meals.
Signs everywhere were warning people to wear their masks, or else they would not be waited on. Even the Copperman statue was masked. Bisbee takes its mask mandate very seriously.
I was not about to wait for my food in the breeze. Winds were picking up and it was now back in the chilly mid 50s; not the kind of weather suitable for outdoor dining. I took my meal to-go and ate some of it while sipping on a Short Circuit Stout at Electric Brewing.
The stout was a classic stout with no other flavors. I would have had a second beer, a Lawnmower pilsner, but two guys at the bar were talking loudly about all their sexual conquests in college that I was turned off about having a second beer. What bothered me was that neither guy was young; were they missing all that "great sex with rich girls" from over 20 years ago? I finished my stout, paid the tab and drove off into the sunset.
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