The monsoon continues

Heavy rains were forecasted for several hours in the afternoon. Rain clouds shrouded the mountains at sunrise.

 I took advantage of the late morning when there were a few dry hours between showers and took Hansel and Fritz to the Lehner kill site area to walk the loop. This is mostly a level walk around grassland next to the river. 

The boys had a short fight in the backyard just before we left. Hansel tried to continue the disagreement so I made sure to walk both dogs hard. I'm getting tired of the cuts and tears the dogs give each other. They fight over food and alphadomThe rains are making the grasses and weeds grow tall. Some are already three feet tall. This makes looking at the ground at times difficult. Gone are the fields of sunflowers that would grow here before that April 2021 fire. I walked on the birding trail briefly to let the dogs to the water. It was flowing swiftly again after yesterday's rain. Both dog dip into the water and stay along the banks, avoiding the muddy current.r I continued south on the official trail to the old Case de San Pedro. The trail past the parking lot was heavily saturated and was thus not mowed, but I continued on, making a loop around the field and then returning to the Honda. It was an easy three miles. The rain has brought out the butterflies. i Hereford bridge is again closed due to flooding. I walked on it with the dogs on my way home. Right now the river is easily four times its normal width here. The rest of the day was uneventful. Rain returned mid afternoon, the dogs stayed inside, and I enjoyed watching the doves feed off seed I placed in a bowl near the front window. I wonder how many of the doves are young birds from this year's clutches? They look small and several have white edges along their wings.

Heavy rains again locally and in NWI

Monday night and Tuesday more rain came again and I was ready. I had bought food Monday morning and dogs had their raw chicken treat. While I prefer daytime storms so that I can see the sky better, I will take any moisture. 

 Northwest Indiana (NWI) also had strong storms. The wide paths of wind and rain are known as derechos and one hit my daughter's neighborhood Tuesday night. There was storm damage in Portage and Valparaiso, IN, with one death caused by a gas explosion in Chesterton. Erin and her boys were fine, but the photos were all over the weather channels the next day. NWI is former swamp land, so when it rains, the ground tends to flood easily. There is a small swamp pond not to far behind Erin's home. Her own back yard quickly gets saturated after heavy rains. High winds and flooding is the area's biggest menance. Even my former sister-in-law, Teamy H, received heavy rood damage when a mature tree was uprooted on her home. The poor woman had lung surgery in May for stage 3 lung cancer (yes, she had been a heavy smoker all her life) so additional home damage is one thing she and her husband Jeff didn't need. My niece Tracy posted photos on her Facebook page. Erin is always off on Wednesdays so she got to stay home with three restless boys and no power in the home. Power for the local Valparaiso schools is expected to be out for a week. I'm glad Erin and her family escaped damage. This year's weather in NWI has been especially rought, from bitter cold to high winds.

Bisbee's Zacatecas Canyon

 I had this little hike planned since the rains began last week.  Zacatecas Canyon off Brewery Gulch and its retaining walls fills up with water after heavy rains.  Bisbee was hit hard with the storms from last Monday and Wednesday.  Flood waters were running down Brewery Gulch and the street department had to work feverishly all day Thursday to get ready for this weekend's Pirate Festival.

I'm not into pirates.  I just wanted a "wet" hike with Zana.  It was her turn for a private hike and I think she really enjoyed it. Water was running in the streets so I stayed in the Gulch for 0.4 miles before climbing the stairs by the Mimosa Market up to OK Street, from where I started the official trail.  Debris and folded over grass were still visible from the storm waters.  I let Zana off leash from here.

Zana has become a great hiker.  Not once did she take off chasing anything.  She stayed up front and kept looking back at me.  Whenever the trail got hard to follow (thanks to the overgrown Lehman's Lovegrass) she would slow down and get behind me. Catclaw mimosa with its purple-pink bloom straddled the trail. I was focused on finding the first left turn back down into the Gulch.  My Strava app kept me on trail even when it was hard for me to see where I was going.

The trail was much easier to follow and less overgrown when I got to the intersection where I needed to take a left turn.  Zana ran on ahead and then went straight into the reservoir.  It was filled to the dam line and trickling over.  This was the source of all the water in the Gulch.

I let her swim for a bit before continuing my descent.  This is what I came for, afterall.

I never came across another soul while in the canyon.  The water stayed  with us as we walked downhill.  Two campers were by another reservoir but I didn't want to bother them as they were most likely homeless.

Pirate events began at 9am.  By then I was taking a break with Zana at the Allen and Co coffee shop, where I sat on a couch sipping an iced latte.  Zana acted a little nervous around all the people that came in shortly after I did, and joined me on the couch to cuddle.  She can be a real lovebug at times. Several dogs came through, but she didn't bark (although I had to hold her by the collar).

The hike took us 90 minutes for the 3+ miles.  I didn't get an accurate reading because my Strava app kept stopping, but my Samsung Health app says I did close to four miles by the time I got back to the Honda.

I stopped in Tombstone on my way home, trying out the new Iron Horse Cafe (a new biker bar) where again I had an iced latte, then stopped by a new sandwich shop for a roast chicken breast on whole wheat and Swiss cheese.  My final stop was at the Tombstone Brewery for a quick blood orange wheat.  It's my favorite beer of theirs.

By then Zana was exhausted.  The brewery's AC wasn't working and I was the only customer that first hour, nibbling on my sandwich before finally heading back home at 1:30pm. 

Zana has become my favorite urban hiker.  She's good around people and most dogs and doesn't whine in the car.  She seemed genuinely happy to be back with the pack and snoozing on the floor with them in the afternoon.

Tornado warning!

The day began like most days this summer:  I got up after runrise, sipped a cup of coffee, then took Fritz and Hansel at 1030am to the Lehner Kill site parking area for the mile-long walk to the river.   Fritz was due a good walk.  And he was happy to get out.  Skies were clear. 

The river was back to its normal level despite the rain on Monday.  The birding trail that loops off the main trail wasn't too muddy, either, so I walked with the dogs to almost the Casa de San Pedro B&B. I turned around before the sharp turn to the west.  We returned the way we came.

Rain was predicted for later.  Clouds slowly formed from the south as the day progressed. Sunset was colorful and a storm cloud grew off the southern horizon.  I took the dogs out to the backyard for a quick pee before the storm.

I was sitting in my old IKEA chair when my phone buzzed a weather alert: "Tornado warning 7:16pm  until 8pm. A severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located near Sierra Vista, moving southwest at 5mph."

This was a warning, not a watch.  In my 22 years in the area, this is the first ever tornado warning. Yes, the rain soon began, but the thunder and lightning is what scared the dogs.  Gretel slinked into the bathroom.  Wolfie stayed by his spot by the front door.  The four others stood close to me awaiting further instruction.

I was a little apprehensive about a tornado warning.  While it was already dusk, the sky didn't have the greenish-black hue I've seen before in Texas and Indiana . Winds were calm, mostly. I even walked in the backyard but then realized I should take the warning seriously.  I stayed calm so as not to stress out the dogs.

Additional alerts were for a severe thunderstorm at 7:37pm through 8:15pm and then flash flooding from 8pm until 11pm.

What I witnessed was a non-stop lightning show over the Huachucas and lingering rain, although nothing severe. Bisbee got hit hard with heavy flooding in Old Bisbee

 

A muggy morning.

 Today's sunrise was muted by grey clouds.  It looked like rain and it did drizzle for a bit, but nothing heavy.  I planted a few seedlings and took  a break at around 9am to admire the mountains.

And then four dogs ran past me, straight to Kim's place.  What the heck?  This is the second time this week that they pushed loose again.

I checked the latch,  It was turned up, but the gate was not entirely open as the collar I use to keep the gate from opening wide was still attached to the gate.  The dogs had squeezed through.  Fritz and Wolfie were still in the back.  They are too big to squeeze through a four-inch opening.

Hansel, Gretel and Zana came back to me within a few minutes.  I put them in the Honda.  Only Gretchen was still on the loose.  She took her sweet time to come back to me.  The other three were patient probably because being in the car means they are going to the river.  I didn't want to disappoint them. 

I don't blame Gretchen for breaking out.  She doesn't get the chance to walk off-leash when I walk her because she has no recall.  She loves to run and she likes being chased, but I don't chase her.  I simply wait for her to come back exhausted, with her tongue hanging out.  But obviously because of her break-out record and my neighbor Kim, I can't take chances with her running loose.

It was 10am when Gretchen came back,  She went inside to drink.  I took the other three to the Big Wash.  She looked like she was ready to chill.

I wanted to check out the Big Wash again.  I've  been taking the dogs to the Lehner Kill site parking area all week because the trail is not as muddy as other trails I use.  It's a short hike of just over two miles.  Today I wanted something more challenging,  It had been five days since our last big rain and the trail to the river would be dry enough to walk without getting stuck in sticky mud.

The dogs had a blast chasing each other.  We went to two miles out and then back. The creosote bushes are in bloom again and the trail is overgrown near the water.

We were back home again by noon.  From there I went into town to get new carabiners for the gate so that I have no more breakouts.

It was muggy all day, but despite the forecast, we never got a severe storm or dust storm that was predicted.  The clouds and storm stayed to our east.