I had wanted to lead a hike on Sunday through Huachuca Canyon. Steve and then Susan joined me. I had Zeke and Sweetie. We met at the Van Deman main gate on Fort Huachuca at 7am and made it to the trailhead at the 1.7-mile mark where we started at 7:23am. It was in the 50s and shaded, We were the first cars in the parking lot.
The cool shade was refreshing. While Susan ended up putting on a jacket to stay warm, I stayed warm enough in the shade with my t-shirt under my favorite hiking shirt (a long-sleeved white Royal Robbins Expedition shirt).
The first two miles were in the early shade as we walked the canyon road for two miles, passing the turn-off for the Lower Huachuca Peak trail and then the Upper Huachuca Peak trail. The one thing I noticed was the improvement on the old jeep trail, the same trail that ten years ago was heavily rutted by massive floods that summer. Today the road was passable in a high-clearance trail for the first two miles, but then two boulders in the middle of the old jeep road now prevents even high-clearance vehicles from going any farther.
We average 30-minute miles. Susan and I were not much farther ahead from Steve, who was able to keep up for most of the way.
The hardest part of this trail began at the 2.8-mile mark, with a very steep and rocky road. I remembered this part, just before entering a wide meadow and then the post boundary fence, but when we got to the top of the road, there was no fence, and no view east into the Santa Cruz valley. Had I taken us up a different path? We went up a short but again very steep section only for me to realize that I had gone up the wrong trail. I had forgotten the way to get to the Crest Trail! My last time here was in May 2018 with Bill, so why was I having trouble remembering?
My track was easy to follow and I had plenty of battery power to lead us back to the cars, but that meant continuing on a just as steep and rocky descent that took all our energy to maintain our balance on. The dogs were tired, too, and it showed, but at least we were back in the shade for most of this loop. We had two miles to go before meeting up with the Huachuca Canyon Road again. We made it back in five miles and now we had two more miles on a now sunny but mostly flat section.
We were now meeting people coming and going. First it was three young soldiers who were returning from an exploratory hike up a high fire break, then several families with dogs and binoculars, then more young people heading into the canyon. I was glad we started early as I could feel the heat rise.
Susan left to go home but Steve and I stayed in the parking area/picnic area. All three dogs rested under the table, taking occasional breaks in the flowing creek water. Steve had brought a five-pack of Nitro stout from Left Handed Brewing. He and I casually drank the tasty beer and chatted. The older birder returned with his 12-year-old dog and then left and soon there was only one other vehicle in the parking lot before we finally departed an hour after the end of the hike.
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