Sheelite Canyon to the overlook

 Today would have been Kevin's 69th birthday.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8291131107

Ellen had a hike planned up Sheelite Canyon.  I agreed to go with her even though neither of us knew how far we would go.  How deep was the snow?  We didn't know. We would go as far as we could comfortably go. 

This hike forced me to get my Fort Huachuca pass so that I can finally access the army post again.  This meant I had to get up early to walk Gretchen and Sweetie, then drive to the Visitor's Center for the paperwork.  The last time I got a post pass, I waited an hour.  Today it took me less than 10 minutes.  All I needed to show was my driver's license.

I took Gretel and Wolfie today.  This hike was Wolfie's first wilderness hike.  He ended up doing very well.

We parked at the end of the upper Garden Canyon picnic area and walked up the road for 0.2 miles before reaching the official trail head.  It then quickly gains elevation a half-mile into the canyon, as the trail follows the creek up the narrow canyon.

This is a pretty canyon popular with birders, although we didn't see any birds today, or at least didn't notice any. The trees around the creek protect the canyon from heavy snow fall, so our walk up to the overlook was doable.  The snow slowly got deeper, but no deeper than four inches.  The many boulders and rocks melted the snow off most of the trail, but there was ice in the stagnant pool that was protected by the shade.

The trail to the overlook branches off from the main trail in the last half mile.  It's a faint trail that I didn't see.  Thankfully Ellen knew the way.  We got off the official Sheelite trail to continue across a more open, exposed and snowfree slope to the former helipad.  This was our destination, as we sat on a warm metal rod to eat our snacks and enjoy the views.

It took us three miles to reach our destination.  Elevation was 7234', with a gain of 2320'.

Both dogs were well behaved.  I was surprised that Gretel didn't run all over the place.  Even Ellen mentioned that.  But on our return hike, back on the main road with the final half mile, several deer jumped across the road.  This activated Gretel's chase drive and she took off after the deer.  So Wolfie did, too.

And they didn't come back right away.  I walked that last half mle twice calling their name.  A lone power walker came up the road and I told him about my two missing dogs.  He didn't seem too concerned but told me he'd look out for them.

I told Ellen to just go home, that I would stay in the canyon for as long as I could safely.  The army closes the canyon at dark so I had an hour, but the shade by now was already cooling the temperatires down.  The dogs would get cold!

I drove up the canyon another half mile past the Sheelite canyon trailhead.  The road got badly rutted during the monsoon season earlier this year.  The power walker was now on his return hike and he told me he didn't see any dog prints past the second creek crossing.  I decided the drive down to the lower canyon and do a second round of calling out to the dogs before parking the truck at the Sheelite trailhead.  Dogs will return to the last place they saw their owners and this was the place

Soon panting caught my attention.  Both dogs were happy to see me and hopped into the truck.  How much more did they run around the hillsides?  They kept me worried and waiting for 40 minutes! Both were exhausted and went right into the RV to rest.

This worked well for me, because Susan invited me over for a Cmas dinner.  I was allowed to bring Gretchen and Sweetie, who played with Allie as we chatted like old times.  I ended up staying until almost 10pm today.  Both Wolfie and Gretel didn't mind being inside the RV in my absence.