This 4-mile walk was sponsored by Jay from the Bisbee Muleteam hiking club. He called it a "rock walk" and stressed that this would be a slow walk with a few talks about the local geology. We were to meet at 9:20am in the Hitching Post parking lot in Warren.
The dogs got me up early with some howling, which prompted me to chase them outside for a bit so that I could grab Gretel for her turn around the 'hood. It was a chilly morning at 51F. We got 3.4 miles in.
We were back home shortly after 7am, which gave me time to enjoy a cup of coffee and feed the dogs. Hansel and I left the house at 8:40am for the urban walk.
We were a group of 17 people and two dogs. Hansel noticed the female Golden Retriever and started whining because he wanted to check her out. She was well-behaved. I asked her owner if Hansel could meet her, but she ended up lunging at Hansel. The meet-and-greet was thus cut short and I kept my distance from the other dog for the rest of the walk. I didn't blame the other dog or her owner. Dogs can be weird like that.s
Hansel ended up whining during the entire walk. He hates being on leash but we were in the town and I don't let any of my dogs walk offleash in a town. That's reserved for isolated trails. I'm sure his whining also was partly to the warming temperatures. Were his paws hot, was he thirsty? I ended up walking either ahead or behind the group to calm him down, or stop to give him water. I couldn't even listen to Jay's geology story of the region because I had to placate Hansel.
I did get to see a new part of Warren and photograph a few skeletons. I never did get to talk much with the others, though. Hansel was not comfortable and he was my primary concern.
Jay led us toward the mining propery near Patio Peak. Our last narrative was here, but by now Hansel was whining so much that I broke away and let him walk offleash on a side trail so that he could sniff and pee before I turned around and joined a few others who were on their solo walk back to their cars.
When the rear guard made it back to the Hitching Post parking lot, the few people who went inside never came back out despite the pizza place not opening until 2pm and it was just past noon.
Hungry and thirsty, I stopped by the Ballpark Brewing Company for two beers and a burger and drove home. That's when I realized how exhausted I felt. Hansel crashed the rest of the day.
