Tucson

 It was a pretty interesting morning as we left our boondock site in Safford.  It seems like Safford didn’t want us to leave!  I had been looking at the way they graded the road at our site when they did the paving project.  I knew there was a chance that the trailer would drag as we came off the higher ground down into the ditch and back up onto the pavement.  I hoped it would be OK, but had doubts.  It turned out to be very well “grounded” doubts!  

We dug in the hitch Jack, I hadn’t anticipated that.  Back up.  Dig a trench for that and the rear jacks and try again. The ground was very solid from driving on it.  Got into the road but the rear jacks didn’t clear the ground. Back up.  I tried to remove the jacks, only 3 screws in each. But it’s frozen.

Carlene notices where someone else went out on another spot that was still soft ground.  We looked at that and I got out the shovels.  I come prepared.  Dug out that spot and gave it a try.  The rear jacks still hit ground so we dug some more and finally got out!  All that time only 2 vehicles came by.

After that going to Tucson was a breeze.  Got a campsite at the Pima County Fairgrounds with full hookups.  Water tank refilled for Empire Ranch.  Went shopping, got the gas pistons for the bed, if you recall that topic.  O’Reilly had them.  And some groceries.

After 9 days in remote country wi heard one coyote call  tonight at the edge of Tucson I hear a whole pack of coyotes outside the fairgrounds fence.  Twice.

Skye has an appointment at the doggie beauty shop tomorrow morning.

Digging out

Our favorite rest area, Texas Canyon, near Benson, AZ

Just a hint of what they do to overpasses out here

In camp.

“What’s next?”

Safford 10, Gila River

 We couldn’t decide what to do early this morning so we stayed in camp doing misc stuff.  After lunch we headed up into the Gila River Riparian Basin.  It’s a big scenic area preserving the Gila and surrounding areas.  Skye got her feet wet in the Gila and at our next stop we found a pond in the Bonita Creek where she got the full swim she’s been wanting.

A couple more sightseeing stops and we came back to camp.  Time for the Super Bowl!

I was going to set up the Starlink for the laptop to watch the game.  Seems like a lot of setup, with a generator to power it.  I’m listening on Sirius radio.  Trying to watch on the phone would be ridiculous.  What ball?  I could barely see the players!  I’m out of high speed connectivity for the hotspot to the tablet.

And now that the game is over I’m just as glad that I didn’t bother.  And I enjoyed the music of the half time show.  Not my typical genre but I do enjoy variety on occasion.

Not a good day for sports.  First Lindsey crashes and then the Patriots crash.  😩

The Gila River

More Coati info

The river actually flows behind this big slab of rock

A big green hayfield

The Happy meter

Safford 9, Mt Graham

 After a day off from hiking we were back at it today!

There was one more trail we had not hiked from the mountain road near Noon Creek.  The trail we hiked twice up towards Ladybug had a branch trail.  Or so the map said.  No signs, but a clear trail on the map and a visible intersection on the Ladybug Trail.  So we just had to try it out.  Well, it was a trail.  Once upon a time.  We didn’t get very far before the trail broke down into a dozen herd paths through the brush.  We gave up on that.  Back to the truck for Plan B.

We didn’t really have a Plan B at the outset, we had to make on up by looking at the maps in the truck.  By that I mean checking the Topo Plus app to see what we thought was interesting.  On the south side of the mountain there are several trails.  We have done a few of them and decided that one we have done before had potential for a revisit.

We were glad that we did.  We did not remember it well at all, so it was almost new!  Last time was in 2023 and we hiked it from the paved road.  This time we drove a half mile up the road before starting the hike.  It was an old road going by a few cow pens and fence gates.  Lots of cattle sign.  Skye decided that she really wanted to feel like a dog today.  She found a relatively fresh cow pie and rolled in it.  Said she needed some better cover scent.  I said a few other things.  She’s lucky she doesn’t understand much English.

We did about 5 miles round trip.  We found 6 cows way up in the canyons.  They wondered what we were up to.  Cattle can be very curious and these wanted to come over to see us, but not too close.curious but wary.  We have hiked through small herds before that wanted to come sniff us!  We walked and watched a lot but couldn’t find any other wildlife.  It’s big open country; we could see farther than we could resolve what we saw.

Skye dried out by the time we got back to the truck sp she didn’t leave any mess on her truck bed.  And once back at camp Carlene brushed her out enough that she looks fairly normal again.

The first trail attempt this morning 

The foreground is the Ladybug Trail

Carlene is on the no name pseudo trail

The second trail. 

Gillespie Trail

Intriguing folds in this rock

Too much brown!

Fleabane