Juniper Flats loop

It has been almost ten years since I have done thus eight mile loop around Bisbee. It  turned out to be the one substantial hike I did over my spring break this year. I hiked with Bill and Mike F and took Hansel with me. We met at 8am in front of the mining museum.

Old Bisbee was recovering from a motorcycle really on Saturday, the annual Prowl. Beer cans and bottle were littered in the streets as we started, with early bird bikers already gathered in Brewery Gulch revving their bikes. Mike met Bill and I on OK Street as we walked by, hiking the loop counter clockwise.

It started out chilly in the upper 30s but two hours later my hands were no longer cold.

We walked at a slower pace than I am used to. Bill stopped a lot to take photos and Mike stopped to talk about the flora. Mike is a wealth of knowledge and is a certified naturalist.I always learn something from him. I often walked ahead so that Hansel wasn't in the way.

The route was dry, but there was one small patch of melting snow pack on a north slope near the Juniper flats road to give Hansel some water. I carried water and snacks for us, but I waited until we were on our rest break destination to feed and water him.

We took a long break as we sat on some boulders overlooking Bisbee. What I thought would be a three -hour hike turned out to be a five hour hike, but I did enjoy our conversations. I picked up some beer cans that were strewn along the boulders, which Mike helped carry for me until we got back to our cars by the museum.