Thompson Saddle

I originally wanted to go with the Huachuca Hiking Club to Hidden Pasture in the Little Rincons, a hike led by one of my favorite hike leaders, SteveA.  Other friends I had told about this hike were interested, but warned me that temperatures were expected to reach the mid 80s.  The Little Rincons are an impressive area, with rock formations, hidden pools, and isolation, but it can get very uncomfortable in the sun with the exposed boulders.  October is also an active snake month.

But it was not to be.   Three dogs were in my Honda overnight and I had to get them back inside.  I had taken them on a river ramble yesterday with Susan.   I still want to know why the dogs like sleeping in that car. All three played hard to get.  Sahne fought me and wiggled out of her collar. Gretel insisted on a quick walk around the block (by now I was running low on time before having to leave for the meet-up), but Fritz took the cake by playing stubborn and taking ME on a walk.  He wasn't wearing a collar and I had to coax him gently to come back.  He was being playful, but he was also curious with meeting some of the other dogs in the 'hood.

By the time I got him back inside, it was already 6:50am and I needed to have left at 6:30am.

Then Sweetie got out at 7:30am when Kevin went to his truck.  She, too, wanted a walk around the 'hood.  She at least isn't an ass about her walks and daintily tip-tapped with me.  I had now walked two miles, some of that unintended.

I needed to do more.  Hansel and Fritz are strong boys and needed a challenge, so I decided to take them both up Ash Canyon to hike up to the Thompson Saddle, a short but steep 3.2-mile hike.  They were excited about going out.  Fritz whimpered so much I thought he was going to defecate in the Honda, but he held out until shortly after reaching the trail head. 

There were plenty of hunters in Lower Ash Canyon, but luckily none along my path.

It was a cool and breezy 59F when we started this hike.  I packed a wind breaker but never wore it, as it got warmer the higher I got. I was slow today.  It took me an hour to hike the saddle.  That's 15 minutes slower than usual.  I hope it's not because of my low Vitamin D count (which the nurse told me last Monday can cause lethargy) I had to stop a few times when the dogs took off running into the manzanitas off the trail.  At least they stayed together; Fritz always following his dad closely.  Those two dogs hike well together, but when they see deer they can take off at high speed up steep hillsides. I also diverted three times at switchbacks trying to find the old mine that Rod showed me when we hiked Thompson Peak a few years ago.  Zeke was my dog that day.  I never did find the mine.

I thought a lot about Zeke.  I even accidentally yelled out for "Sieger!" when I meant to say "Hansel!" at one point.  That dog always had that look of love when I gazed at him.

I only brought a quart for the dogs.  That was clearly not enough, but I decided once on the saddle to hike the social trail along the ridge going west.  That prominent peak I discovered later while looking at my track is Montezuma Peak, the 10th-tallest peak in the Huachuca mountains at 7676' (2304m) .  This is a popular trail for the illegal border crossers.  They leave their trash here under the brush: sun-faded back packs, plastic bottles, tuna cans.

I have done this ridge a few times, dipping down into another saddle and then continuing up the steeper grade up Montezuma Peak.  This part was new to me.  I wanted to hike at least three miles one way now, but realized that the dogs were running too hard after deer and getting thirsty and needed more water than I had brought.  I turned around at the 2.35-mile mark.  I was less than a half-mile from the peak. 

I would like to bag Montezuma Peak some day from Thompson Saddle, but I know I'd be safer with at least one other person.  The area is heavily used by the illegal border crossers and smugglers.  The grade it steep near the peak with a few prominent boulders along the way.  Later on at home I googled for any trip reports from that vantage point.  Several groups have bagged the peak and posted about it on peakbagger.com, but none of the reports were very helpful.