Sunday, February 26, 2023

Back to the cold

 I'm so glad Susan talked me into hiking with her yesterday.  The cold rain forecasted for today came as predicted, and I hurried to walk as many dogs around the hood as possible before the rain.

I began the usual route with Fritz and Sweetie, then Gretchen solo, then Hansel and Sahne who together walked well.  She has matured slowly into a more obedient dog. I then took Gretel and then finally Wolfie from the backyard.  Each got almost a mile and they all walked so well on leash.  What a difference from a year ago!

Then the rain came down at 8am and lasted until past noon.  Clouds didn't clear until 1:30pm.  I learned that Ethan's biological father Wayne R was found dead yesterday in his home, in a pool of blood.  He was only 38 years old.  Doctors will perform an autopsy as they predict either an aneurysm as he had suffered from a severe brain injury after a 2013 car crash, or he slipped, fell and re-injured his head.  Ethan was never close to his real father since Wayne wasn't in his life on purpose, but Erin kept the relationship open as Wayne's mother Linda and his sister Jennifer continued to be grandma and aunt to Ethan.  Linda had lost her younger son Joseph two years ago to a heroin addiction.  Ethan was closer to Joe than to Wayne. I never met the family, but I can empathize with Linda who lost both sons before they reached 40 years of life.  No mother wants that.

By 3pm I knew I had one last chance to walk the pack for the day.

Today's route was the boring maintenance road going south toward the border from the Palominas trail head of the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. There was no one else parked here.  All four dogs were happy to get another chance to run.  Only Wolfie was limping.  His front left paw was bleeding.  How did that happen?  That dog never seems to catch a break.  He stayed by my side, but he also wanted to run with his pack. He also lifted his rear  left leg as well.

We made it down to the river, then reversed course to head back to the official trail south to the surveillance tower.  This is two miles into the route.  There is nothing exciting about this route; it's simply an opportunity to let the dogs run off leash without anyone else around.

I appreciate this pack.  All four dogs stayed close to me.  When they did run into the desert to chase a desert hare, they came right pack.  I didn't have to stop and wait for anyone.  They all came back when called.  Why can't Gretchen do that as well?

There were no puddles of rain waiter after the rain, which surprised me, so I had to give the pack my half-gallon of waiter, which they finished.  Each also got two raw chicken thighs, again devoured except for Gretel.  (She later devoured a can of Blue Buffalo right before lights out).  I put antibiotic cream on Wolfie's front paw as well.  I kept Gretel and Sahne in the CR-V, Wolfie and Hansel in the truck, and the other three in the RV with me, as plunging temperatures back in the 20s are forecasted all this week.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Babocomari again

I do like that area, but it was originally not in the plan.


I walked Sweetie shortly after sunrise, following her closely as she walked the block she has done for years.  I don't always have her on leash because of her arthritic spine; I don't want her to have any more pain.  It was a mild morning, but tomorrow we are returning to the 20s.

Fritz and Gretchen were on my mind, though, so after the walk with Sweetie, I drove back to the LDS Boys Camp route to rewalk yesterday's track in the hopes of finding them.


Another woman in a blue hatchback came to the trailhead at the same time. We didn't talk,  but I knew she had a dog with her by the way she leaned into her car for a while before leaving it.  She had at least three middle-sized dogs with her.

I walked the route counter-clockwise, just like yesterday, walking straight south.  I was barely on the trail when both dogs appeared on the trail 0.2 miles away, staring back at me.  I didn't want to call them just in case the woman was too close behind me and the dogs ran toward her.  I remained silent, watching them.

I was relieved to see they had stayed together the last 15 hours.  But Gretchen took off running away from me while Fritz hesitated, still looking at me while also watching his sister.  She ran across the field moving northwest and he then ran after her.  The woman saw the dogs,too, and via hand signals I let her know those were my dogs.  She understood and turned eastward, walking straight to the LDS camp.  I continued walking southward.

I called the dogs to me when the woman was out of sight.  Both dogs immediately ran toward me, much like last Sunday, jumping up with joy.  I put them both on leashes and walked calmly back to the truck.  Neither dog pulled on the leash.  This showed me that they were exhausted from their overnight adventure. I even noticed a slight limp in Fritz's front left leg.  There were no other visible injuries, thankfully, no sign of a javelina attack.

I put both dogs in the truck and fed them some raw chicken as I contemplated walking a bit more by myself.  Just then Susan called.  She wanted to know if I were going to hike the Babocomari today.  She had yet to see that area.  I was more than glad to go there, as the LDS camp area was too muddy from recent rains.  This also gave me the opportunity to take the dogs home so that they could rest, while I try to take a few other dogs from the back yard. We agreed to meet at 10am.  

Fritz and Gretchen were happy to hop on the bed and rest. They didn't complain. I then went to the back yard and took the first two dogs out the gate: Hansel and Sahne.  They are my two best hiking dogs as they stay near me, have excellent recall, and are friendly with dogs and people. Sahne, however, is always hyper and can't stop jumping up.

It was only 9:15am, enough time to drive to McD's for coffee. This drive, however, stressed out the dogs as they wanted to go for a walk! They were restless while we waited for Susan at our designated meetup place.

Weather was ideal for this hike: overcast and in the upper 50s at first.  It warmed up to the mid 60s in the end.


There were cows near the parking area.  This was a first.  I knew there were cows using the land, as evident from all the cow paddies, but I only saw them in the river.  Today three cows were feeding from a blue bucket.


I took Susan on the short cut.  She was liking the walk.  We even met a hunter coming back from a morning hunt.  His wife had killed a javelina and was letting it  cure for a while.


The nice thing about hiking with Susan is that she likes to explore.  We got off the railbed and walked along the river instead.  I saw lovely sections for the first time, including washes that originate from the San Pedro.  I will post these pictures here to show new views of the Babocomari.


 








 



Friday, February 24, 2023

Fritz and Gretchen at it again

 It has been a cold week.  I kept the dogs in the RV until I came home from school.  I couldn't let them suffer in the 40-degree cold, but now they needed a good run after a week of in-house suspension.

After school today I took Fritz and Gretchen down to the LDS camp to walk the 2-25-mile loop counter-clockwise.  It was muddy from the recent rains.  The dogs were running all over the fields, then would run back to the river to splash around.  I enjoy watching them revel in their freedom, but always worry about them taking off.

A single adult javelina began chasing me a mile into the loop.  He was coming from behind.  I called Fritz for help, and together he and his sister chased the beast away.  This is exactly why I have my dogs off leash most of the time, because they can better defend me. They chased the animal away, but then they, too, didn't come back.

Not again, I thought.  This time I should have known better not to have Gretchen off-leash!  Again I stayed by the truck until dark, but this area is not a safe place after dark with it being so close to the border and it being a popular pick-up place for border crossers.

I drove around the dark streets calling out their names.  I even stopped briefly to talk to two Border Patrol agents parked down Border Road, but this time I went home more angry at myself than the dogs.

I will have to go back out in the morning to find them.  

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Winter Storm Olive

This is our third storm in ten days.  This one will bring ice to northern Indiana and rain and high winds here in southern Arizona.

I could hear the wind rattle early in the morning.  I waited for the rain to subside before walking the dogs at 5:30am, and they didn't seem to enjoy the wind blasting in their faces, so we only did one lap.  I kept Fritz and Gretchen in the RV and Sweetie in the truck (still her favorite den to hide in) while I was in school.

It never got above 45F here.  I'm so tired of the cold! It continued to rain until well past 8 pm



https://weather.com/storms/winter/news/2023-02-21-winter-storm-olive-snow-ice-forecast

Monday, February 20, 2023

A neighbor has died

My last day of a four-day weekend and I didn't get much done. 

I was up early to walk Sweetie, then Fritz, then Gretchen and then Hansel. It was the warmest morning in over ten days, even though it had rained overnight.

I was walking Gretchen east down my street when I met Melissa, a neighbor who lives on S circle S Drive. She stopped her pickup to talk to me, saying she was concerned about Stephen and his two dogs.  His two German Shepherd dogs, Clementine and Haddow, had gotten loose again Sunday morning and another neighbor, Lena, kept them in her yard.  Both dogs were very thin and hungry.  Jill H, a former animal control officer for the county, came by to take both dogs to her rescue, Zoey's Ranch.

Melissa and I exchanged phone numbers in case we heard anything about Stephen. Melissa said she would call in for a welfare check.

Two Cochise County deputy vehicles arrived by 9:30am.  I could see them from my RV window.  They were there for almost 90 minutes, with both vehicles running.  Later Melissa texted me saying they found Stephen deceased and were busy securing his valuables.

The news bothered me.  No one knew Stephen's name, nor the name of the dogs but me.  Yes, Stephen was a reclusive curmudgeon who avoided other people.  His neighbors across the street couldn't stand him because he kept his dogs outside where they would bark non-stop.  He would walk his dogs off-leash up and down S Circle S Drive.  Those dogs would charge my dogs if I wasn't paying attention.  But instead of getting into a spat with him, or calling the county animal control on him, I simply avoided any confrontation.  Stephen lived alone and his dogs were all he had.  I didn't want the county to take the dogs away from him.  I was his unspoken ally.

His death was on my mind all day.  The man was only in his 60s but looked older.  Perhaps he was suffering from a terminal disease and purposely let his dogs loose; this was the second time in as many months that both dogs were found roaming the area.  If I had known the dogs needed food, I would have given him one of my big bags of kibble.

No one should die alone.  His neighbors apparently didn't suspect anything, according to Melissa.  I was so used to his dogs barking at me whenever I walked my dogs past the home.  They had been missing for two weeks after they broke out the first time, but then were returned.  A light was on inside the home one evening, so I knew Stephen was ok at the time.  That was about two weeks ago.

It was a rainy. breezy day all day.  I didn't get muck hiking done, either, other than a few laps around the 'hood.  I was more concerned over where I placed my truck keys and made it my mission to get my Honda CR-V's battery and rear right tire replaced.  The battery couldn't hold a charge and my rear right tire had a slow leak.

By 6pm I was back home to a car ready for tomorrow's school week.  I like driving the Honda.  Its engine is quiet and it maneuvers well, but boy does it need a good interior cleaning!  I hadn't driven it since before Labor Day.

 

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Babocomari with Hansel, Fritz and Gretchen

 I bowed out of a hike up Thompson Peak because of fresh snow and ice from Wednesday. There is one steep section that would take someone over the edge if they slipped.

The morning started out breezy in the upper 30s.  It warmed up to the 50s by the afternoon.  I didn't want to waste the day so I took Hansel, Fritz and Gretchen to the Babocomari river.  I like that area and its secludedness.

Despite recent rains, the water table was down from my last visit in early January, with algae now growing in the shallow river.  Parts of the dirt road were muddy and still had some water in the deeper depressions, so it was surprising to see the water table down.

I did the short cut route, cutting across the desert via a cattle trail and turning this into a 4.4-mile walk.  The dogs ran down to the river when they spotted cows, but then came back up to the path I was on.  All was well on this hike until the return walk, when all three dogs took off after something (cow, deer, rabbit?) and then didn't come back.  Hansel came when I called, but Fritz and Gretchen remained missing.

This area is not a place I want to lose a pet.  Lots of wildlife wander through here that could potentially attack a domesticated dog.  State Road 82 is a busy highway at night, with its many curves and dips in the road.

I had an hour of daylight left.  I placed Hansel in the truck, then walked the last mile back to where I lost them.  I called their names, but they didn't come back.  Crestfallen, I walked back to the truck and called out their names.  Still nothing.  I drove down SR82 to the San Pedro River to see if anyone there spotted two dogs, again nothing. I drove around the Tombstone Territories RV park twice and no sign of them.  I even drove down some of the dark dirt roads off Saunders road but turned around.  The roads there are soft dirt and heavily eroded. Hungry dogs will be attracted to houselights in the distance.

I called SteveT to cancel our trip tomorrow to Tucson since now my priority was finding my two dogs.  Every time I lose a dog, Gretchen is one of them so she is the problem.  She has no recall and darts away when feeling stressed.

I posed a lost dog post on Facebook that evening and got slammed for being negligent, for letting a dog run off leash that is known to have no recall.  I agree with that.  Gretchen may never know what it's like to run free going forward as I'll always have to keep her on leash.

But why didn't Fritz come back?  I had high hopes for him always listening to me.

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Hiking the Perimeter extension south from Miller to Hunter Canyon

This hike at 12:45 was Susan's idea.  She had been lacking any strenuous hikes lately since Allie's joints keep her from walking much; the old walks we used to do along the river are short jaunts now for the old dog.  She wanted to get a good hike in with friends and she likes this trail.

It was also Super Bowel 57, the Kansas City Chiefs playing against the Philadelphia Eagles and I had a lot to do before the hike.  I'm not a football fan, but it seems the rest of the country is and I have to follow along. 

The morning started out warmer than yesterday. Fritz and Gretchen and Sweetie got their loop walk around the neighborhood at 8am.  At 10am I took Hansel and Sahne with me into town to wash two loads of laundry.

The laundromat was busy!  Was everyone trying to wash clothes before the big game started at 4:30pm? I was there for over two hours, and went directly to the meet-up at the lower Miller Canyon parking lot.

The parking lot was crowded. A big RV was parked in the lot and looked like it was camping there.  Several cars with bike racks were lined up. Everyone who was supposed to meet was already there, so we took off as soon as I got the two dogs ready.  

We were a group of five:  Susan, Holly, Laurie, David and me. Holly brought her little pug Lilly with her and that little dog kept up with the rest of us.  Hansel and Sahne left Lilly alone after the initial sniff test and stayed close to me.  I was up front, Holly stayed in back and this way all the dogs were happy.  German Shepherd Dogs can be intimidating toward smaller dogs.

It was in the mid 60s and breezy.  I still prefer this kind of weather over the weather the Great Lakes is having right now, with daytime highs in the mere 40s.

We went a little farther this time on the trail (and I felt a lot better), stopping at the 3.5-mile spot to rest, feed and water the dogs, and then turn around.  One of these days I'll hike the big loop from Miller to Hunter and then up over the pass.  That would be a ten-mile hike.

We kept a good pace. The hike took us three hours and we only came across two separate cyclists.  Holly and Laurie stayed in the rear and I was up front with David and Susan, and Hansel and Sahne.

The dogs were tired when we got back to the truck.  Neither dog had hiked in a while.  Even Susan told me that both dogs "have filled out" since she saw them.  Both dogs slept quietly in the truck overnight, as winds began to pick up.  We're back to cold weather tomorrow.

The Chiefs won the Super Bowel 38-34.  I didn't even watch the commercials.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

A short trip into Bisbee

 I think I exerted myself in Tucson.I woke up feeling exhausted, perhaps from the 12 miles, perhaps from not drinking enough water.  It was another warmer-than-usual morning that smelled of spring.  I had to get out and do something.  I took Fritz along.


I called SteveT and we agreed to head out to Bisbee to walk the stairs.  The stairs are a popular Bisbee attraction and there's even an annual event to honor these old and crumbly stairs, the Bisbee1000, and it's every third Saturday in October. Unfortunately, I totally miscalculated how out of shape I am right now. I had no energy today. I want to blame it on my recent recovery of a cold and yesterday's grand walking mileage.  I also didn't have a hat to cover my thin hair and was quickly warmed.  Fritz was, too.  Even Superheroes need days off and today was definitely my need to be off.  We barely walked two of the 4.6 miles of the original course through town before calling it quits.


We stopped at the Old Bisbee Brewing company for our traditional post-hike beer.  Steve kept his dog Trace in his van and I should have done the same with Fritz.  While he was fine at first as he rested in the shade, the upstairs sundeck quickly got crowded.  He's fine around people, but other dogs still get him nervous. 

I invited one older man, Terry, to join us at our table as I could tell he had no place to sit as he got up to the deck and looked around for an empty table.  He was grateful for the invite and immediately started talking  We had an interesting conversation (well, he did most of the talking) about life in both Arizona and Sonora, and cultural differences between the two countries.  Terry was quite the conversationalist as he bragged about knowing some of the mafiosi in Mexico.  He recommended the guide "There's a word for it in Mexico" to brush up on Mexican slang. https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/817-there-s-a-word-for-it-in-mexico/


But then a young couple with two big dogs sat at the table next to us.

That was too close for comfort for Fritz and I sensed his nervousness.  He sat up from his nap and was shaking in fear as one of the two dogs got too close to us.  I had to move closer to Fritz and calm him down, rubbing his shoulders and behind his ears as a vet tech once showed me.  When we left I held him close on the leash as we walked back down the stairs and outside, but it was barely outside when Fritz took a swipe at Steve's hand and broke skin.


What caused that?  I can only blame that on Fritz's nervousness.  I now realize I need to keep a closer look on him and keep him muzzled in crowded situations, and review my dog reactivity videos. Ideally, I should have let him chill in the truck, but I was parked 0.3 miles away and I like to have close observation of my dogs when they are inside my vehicles. If I can afford professional training for Fritz this summer, I will do that.  As well as reinforce the chain link fence in the front yard.


Saturday, February 4, 2023

The Loop: eastern terminus of the Julian Wash

I slept in and didn't wake up until the sun shined through the window.  My runny nose was dry and my sore throat back to normal.  Maybe I just had a 24-hour cold?   Warm weather was forecasted for today and I didn't want to waste a spring-like day in the RV.

So by noon I headed to Tucson with Fritz and Gretchen to finish walking the short sections of the Loop that I still had to do.  I figured that would be around eight miles. if I completed all three gaps in my walking map.

My first stop was Rita Road, southeast of Tucson.  I wanted to finish the southern part of the Harrison Greenway that I began a few weeks ago.  I ended up parking at the unmarked parking area by railroad tracks and followed the eastern greenway that lead not to the Harrison Greenway, but to the Houghton Road connector.  I somehow missed the directional signs.  The path I took paralleled the tracks across the desert and avoided the cyclists just south of me within view.  This was not a scenic walk at all, neither for me or for the dogs.

The multi-use path along Houghton Road is a straight path that travels due north and never leaves the noise of the road; not a very fun walk for dogs.  I may walk that someday, but my next goal is to explore the Santa Cruz river park starting at Valencia Road travelling north.  This is the path that Father Kino allegedly took as he traveled northeast to establish missions on his way to central California. I like historical walks.

But I was disappointed in myself.  I should have looked at the Loop map closer and known that I had to walk north along Rita Road before turning left (north) on Harrison Greenway.  It looks like a round-trip walk of just a bit over three miles.  Instead, I walked 4.7 miles through the desert without making any progress on the Loop.

My next move was to finish the Julian Wash Greenway.  I had to start off Park Avenue, just a block north of the recycling station.  By now, though, it was in the upper 70s and rather unpleasant for the dogs.  The path here edges right on high-traffic streets around the Veteran's Hospital.  The noise and smells of Tucson traffic is not calming by any means, neither to human and dog.  I cut this walk short to continue later when it was cooler.

I stopped at Borderland's Brewing in mid-afternoon.  I parked across the street and left the dogs to rest in the shade in the truck.  I struck an interesting conversation with a 26-year-old IT specialist traveling for the next three months from Cleveland, OH all the way up the western coastline.  He has to be back home in April.  He's traveling in a converted Ford Transit van by himself and stopping along the way in towns to try out local beers.

I felt a connection with him despite our age difference.  Here's a young man exploring the western states, hiking trails and meeting local people and then boondocking at night in off-the-path places.  This is what I do when I road trip.  When he asked about sites I should see, suddenly all those hikes I did with Sadie and Minnie in 2015-2018 came back to me.  I remember images but then can't recall the names of where I was.

Mount St Helen's National Park did come to mind.  Hiking the bald ridgeline near St Helens after the volcanic eruption is quite a sight to behold, looking at all that destruction and seeing the mountain tops come back to life after total destruction just 40 years ago is worth experiencing.  There is plenty of national forest land nearby where he could boondock as well.

He thanked me for that advice, as he hadn't considered stopping at Mount St Helen's National Park.

I also warned him of the many NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING signs along the Oregon coast, despite what the tourist websites claim is public land one could camp on.

I miss my annual road trips, but I'm tied down for a few years with these dogs.  

We chatted for over two hours.  We then went our separate ways and I resumed my walk along the Julian Wash.  It was now just before sunset and more pleasant to walk.

This time, though, the dogs saw a young man walking a pug and lunged forward with so much force, they pushed me down and dragged me.  I could not stop.  I was in so much shock at their combined force, that I could either scream nor discipline them.  A chainlink fence stopped me from rolling down a cement embankment.  The woman screamed at her partner for help who was behind her on the trail with an even bigger dog, but the dogs were on leashes which I was still holding in my hands.  He got up to her and together they continued to walk.  Here I was still on the ground and feeling a bleeding abrasion on my upper left thigh.

I was now both angry and aghast.  Angry at the dogs for causing me harm, and disgusted at the young couple who rendered no help to me, not even a "Are you OK?" My only saving grace is that nothing happened to their dogs.  By now I was fed up with my dogs' constant reactivity, that I walked them back to the truck to stay there while I finished the walk on my own.

It was now dark when I finished this most eastern terminus of the Julian Wash.  I've now completed this section of the Loop with a slow walk around the archeological site found here. I'd like to come back here during the day and read the informational signs in better light.  The Santa Cruz river walk south of the Julian Wash will be another path to explore.

I was hungry now, but I quickly discovered that the two Mexican restaurants recommended to me by Google that were in the immediate area were truly Mexican restaurants.  I was on 12th Avenue, a part of South Tucson with some of the densest Sonoran restaurants in the country.  I walked to one and got stared down by the Spanish-speaking people watching me approach them.  Was I invading their turf? Bright lights, loud music are typical of these authentic Mexican diners, and I opted to eat elsewhere to keep the dogs calm. I'm sure the food is good, but at night the atmosphere is pure Mexico.

I found a quieter place to eat on 22nd Avenue, just before stopping at the Hop Street Lounge where Dion, my bartender from my last visit, had just gotten off his shift and was now chilling with some friends by the pool table.  He recognized me and even remembered the beers I ordered.  Yikes!  He remembered that I had taken seven canned beers with me, making my bill rather high.

Thus ended a good day.  I had walked 12 miles and the dogs walked ten.  We were all tired.  I had to stop in Benson on my drive home to nap for a bit before resuming my drive home.  I got to the RV at 3:30am.

 

 

Friday, February 3, 2023

My stepdad was buried today

 I've had a sore throat all week.  I never thought anything of it as it would disappear by the time I got to school.  Today, however, the sore throat turned into a runny nose, and then in the afternoon into a sneezing fit. I went to bed as soon as I got home, thankful for the start of the weekend.

I never forgot that today was my stepdad's funeral in Culver, at the family church cemetery on the south side of town.  This is where he wanted to be buried, next to his parents Forest and Mildred Curtis.  He had already reserved his slot.

I couldn't attend the funeral for a variety of reasons, but throughout the day I wondered how things were going for those who were in attendance, like my daughter Erin.  She and my ex-husband Tim had always enjoyed having "Grandpa Curtis" around, even if in his last few years he became set in his ways and would only go to a few select restaurants in NW Indiana.


Erin sent me the first few photos in the early evening.  There were some nice group shots of all of his children, and one with Erin and Sharon, who was my bride's maid at my first wedding to Tim.  She certainly hasn't aged in all these years!

My brother Jason, according to Erin, cried during the ceremony.  He was always close to his father, but also felt less valued as a son because he didn't become a lawyer or doctor like Michael or Stephen had.  Nonetheless, as the oldest son he was the recipient of the flag after the military funeral with the words


“On behalf of the President of the United States, the United States Air Force, and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of our appreciation for your loved one’s honorable and faithful service.” 

I had to recite those words a few times when I was the NCO in charge of military funerals in New Jersey and those words would get me choked up, too.

Jason is in my thoughts but I respect his need for privacy.