San Pedro House Trails

This walk was Susan's idea.  She wanted to see the water levels of the San Pedro River here.  We hadn't done this stretch yet in all of our SP river walks.

We met at the San Pedro House (SPH), a former ranch house,  at 0640 and immediately went southeast toward the river.  We were the only people there.  Normally this is a popular place for birders and walkers, but the rising heat--it was already 77F when we started--most likely kept people away. 

I don't normally walk this area because I don't want to annoy birders with any dogs.  Birders are a serious genre who demand absolute silence.  We came across no one in the entire 4.8 miles.

I brought three of the pups: Sahne, Sheba and Wolfie.  "You've been holding on to them too long" said Susan, referring to me still having them.  I admit I am stalling on finding them new homes, but I know I must. 

The pups were at first hard to contain, being excited about being outside, but they soon got into the rhythm of walking onleash.  Susan held Sahne and I had the other two pups. I brought the pups instead of Hansel and Gretel because the pups are easier to walk onleash and don't yet have the urge to chase big animals.

Once we got to the low water of the river, I let the pups offleash.  And oh my, all three pups went right for the water, splashing around as if they were in the water trough in the back yard.  They love the water!  They didn't play so much with Allie like Hansel and Gretel do, though.  They were in their own world and yet stayed close-by whenever we continued our walk.  All the pups are good at recall.  

While there is the official San Pedro Trail and Nature Loop that starts at the San Pedro House, there are now many more unmarked trails that follow the river. Most likely these are the trails created by migrants crossing the border.  We stayed on these unmarked trails and hiked south, past the dried-up duck pond and looped around at the big rock piles.  Had these rocks always been here?  They looked to have been placed here by humans, either as a flood defense, or as rock debris from developing the trails.: 

I was on the lockout for snakes.  They like to hide in and around rocks and crevices.  Luckily we didn't see any.  We saw more lizards and ants but no snakes.

We stayed in the waning shade on our walk back, following the tree line to keep the dogs cool. We followed the Nature Trail back to the parking lot. I didn't put the dogs back onleash until we were a quarter mile from the SPH.

I know I'm repeating myself, but we desperately need rain.  Our hillsides are now a dull brown from dead and dying trees. The entire Southwest needs rain, as wildfires are flaring up all over Cochise County.  The biggest fire is south of Globe, the Telegraph Fire (currently at 171,242 acres and the 6th-largest in AZ history), but smoke is causing a haze I see at sunrise and sunset. This heat wave will die out next week, when clouds will return and chances of rain increase midweek.  The monsoon can't come soon enough.

It hit 103F for the high, making the house very hot and all the dogs tired by late morning.  I didn't do much at all until it was time to head out to the dog park.  I took Hansel, Gretel and Sahne and it worked out very well.  All three had fun, socialized with other dogs (even Gretel walked around and sniffed people).  All three also walked well onleash afterward for two full laps.

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