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

Safford 8

 We took a day off from hiking-really!

It was a good day to go into Safford to poke around town, browse the middle of downtown, have lunch in the park, do some shopping.  There is a shop where they make potions form goat milk, their own goats as I recall.  They make an arnica menthol cream that seems to help my neuropathy, that tingling in my toes that sometimes keeps me awake at night when the nerves light up.  Carlene found some audio books in the second hand shop.  I found some Guatemalan coffee from Huehuetenango, a town I lived in for 10 weeks back in Peace Corps.  Then just drug store, groceries and DQ on the way home.

Just a relaxing late afternoon back in camp.  I did make reservations for camping in Maine in August.

I mentioned Peace Corps; this week is the 50th anniversary of my group getting together in Miami to begin that big episode in life.  Some of you saw my post on Face Book.  I emailed a couple of those friends and got a call back from Bruce this evening.  He was my closest PC neighbor.  It was 10 miles from his house to mine, 40 miles back.  The Suzi 125 motorcycles could come down the mountain but not back up!  We talked for well over an hour.  If you know my habits you know that’s a long call for me!  We covered a lot of people and a lot of time.  It was a great conversation!

Safford 7 / Mt Graham

 Right back up to where we left off yesterday.  Yup, same trail.  But 1.5 miles farther for a 5 mile day.  We got up pretty high, 6768’ which gave us a better view than before and in a new direction.  It’s all about the views!  We didn’t take pictures until we got to the new area.  We have noticed a dirth of hikers.  I think we have seen two guys near that upper trail yesterday and that’s it.  We are used to seeing a few hikers but this time of year it is never heavily used.  That comes in the summer.  When it’s really hot in the valley it’s moderate up on the tall mountain.

Skye was delighted with her dunk in the Jacobsen Creek on the way up and again on the way back down.

Back at camp we discovered that we have a neighbor.  Nobody home at the time.  We saw someone sitting outside later.  Out across the way there has been a constant rotation of campers.  Nobody there has spent more than a couple days here.  We’re used to seeing some stay as long as we do.  Now there are two medium size Class A rigs parked together.

The biggest snow patch we saw today

Sometimes she is quite a rock hound

I was impressed by the cacti in the rock

Solomon is small town between Safford and our camp.  Very agricultural, these cotton fields run for 5 miles, and are a good mile wide.  Out on US 70 they run even bigger.  Primarily Gila River irrigation.

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