Safford 6 / Mt Graham

 Another sunny day in AZ!  We headed up the mountain in mid morning figuring we’d wing it.  No specific plans for the hike, just stop at a trailhead that suited us.  That turned out to be a bit higher up than the last few days, we parked at 6700’.  It was only in the 50s when we parked.  The trail went up from there and before we got a mile I was cold going uphill and we had a bit of snow in the trail.  I had dressed for yesterday, a common malady for some of us.  I convinced Carlene that we (I) needed a lower elevation hike.

We went down to another trail at 5200’ and had much nicer weather.  The temperature was the only problem up above, it was a nice day everywhere.  This trail would have taken us to 8500’ if we did it all but we had no intention of that!  It was 5 + miles up one way.  We went up over a mile, had some great views with lunch and went back.  

A quick trip into Safford after hiking.  Needed propane, Rx, milk.  I’ve been shopping for a couple gas pistons for the bed, the things that hold the bed platform up when getting things in/out from the under bed storage.  Still looking.  The old ones won’t hold the bed up anymore.  I prop a piece of rebar under it now.

Skye was happy to have some snow!

Water!!!

Signs of a recent fire.

We suspect a controlled burn

And here we have a bed hog

Safford / Mt Graham

Warm, almost hot, sunny day in the low 70s.  So where to go but back up the mountain!  We headed to a trail that would link us to the Round the Mountain Trail where we were yesterday.  We figured we could keep adding to the trail segments and eventually see how much of it we could do.

Up the road to where the map indicated there would be a connector trail.  We saw a pull off but no signs for a trail.  We tried a quarter mile farther up and got out to see.  No trail.  Back to the first place.  Hey, in the back of the one parking spot there was a trail!  A mile up we connected with yesterdays trail.  It didn’t take too long to reach our turn around place from yesterday.  Back the other way we continued on the trail up farther and higher.  Eventually the trail petered out and became hard to follow.  Not from lack of seeing the footpath but no room to move amongst the trees!  We’re only talking about 6’ trees, but plenty to mess with walking around.  So called that good enough and came back down.

Back at the first place we parked to find a trail I looked up in the brush and realized something was looking at us, watching.  I thought deer at first but then it wasn’t quite right.  No big ears, not a big animal, but then there’s a big long tail!  Mountain Lion?  They exist out here but are very very scarce and elusive.  Coatimundi?  Yes!  Two Coati were observing us.  You’ll see what I got for photos, not very good, but sighting these guys, it doesn’t happen all the time.  They are the first ones we’ve ever seen.

And then up at the highest elevation of the day Carlene finds a dried Earthstar mushroom, then another and another.  I have never heard of them.  She says we have a form of them at home, but I never heard of them.

Back at camp for the usual chair sitting while the sun sets over the mountain.  With some homemade guacamole.

Sunrise this morning

Morning sun on the mountain 

Looking down (and up) on the mountain road

Look close to see the trail going up that side

Snow!

Is Carlene still on the trial?

Yes, such as it is

Bear scat

Earthstar mushroom

Southwestern Mock Vervain 

Coati in the center, by the rock

Good shot of the back half, his head is behind the tree, but check out that long tail!

File photo for reference 

Sunset on the mountain 

Safford/ Mt. Graham

 A warm and sunny day.  Becoming cloudy as night approaches.

We left a bit earlier today, 9:30, for Mt Graham.  We each thought the other had picked a hike on the mountain last night.  Neither of us had.  So we drove up the mountain road and I stopped at the first campground to ask if this was the place.  We have hiked there twice in the past.  This was the plac today too!  Part way up the trail we came to an intersection and checked the map to see where that went.  Both previous hikes went up the same trail, in 2020 we turned around due to time of day.  In 2024 we made it to thte saddle on the ridge.  So today we took the other route.  The primary trail is the Round the Mountain Trail, which as the name implies goes all the way around Graham.  Quite a long trail.  This choice took us on another portion of the RTM trail.  It all added up to a 5.1 mile round trip.  And colored in a couple more miles on our electronic Topo map.

After that we were back at the truck early enough that we went into Safford for haircuts and then a stop at DQ.  Back to camp to relax.  That is exactly what Skye has been doing this evening.  Little spare energy for toys.

Perry’s Agave

Noon Creek

When there was a fire here it left this shell of a tree

This view looks towards the other trail climbing the mountain across the valley

“I wonder if there is something hidden here”

It struck me that here was Prickly Pear Cactus on one side of the trail and moss on the other

The moss

If the ground is too rocky to sink a post, just bring the ground up around the post