It Could Have Been Worse…(12-30-11)

Well, we've left El Paso and have moved on to Benson AZ, where we'll  stay for New Years.
       This morning, while we were discussing the hike we intended to take today, Paul asked me if there was anything to see along the route we were going to take. That led to a short discussion of what we would see, etc. It also gave me the idea for the title for my next blog post:     The Difference Between Hiking and Walking. See, the reason he asked that is because yesterday we walked 6 miles, but it wasn't hiking. What are the differences?                                                                                                  
  Well, when I walk, I get bored, when I hike, I don't.  When I walk, I look at my watch every five minutes and wonder why an hour hasn't passed yet.  When I walk, I look at the ground ahead of me, and wish I had brought my Ipod.  When I hike, I look all around me, and not at the ground (which, in retrospect, can be a problem sometimes).  When I hike, I bring my hiking stick, both to help me with my footing, and also to use on any wild animals that might attack.   When I walk, I don't bother with the hiking stick. It just adds unnecessary weight.  When I hike, I happily pack up a lunch, and carry a lot of water in my pack. When I walk I just carry one or two bottles of water and maybe a snack. When I hike, my camera is out quite often and I take lots of pictures. When I walk, I bring the camera, but I am not sure why, because I don't take any pictures.

     The point to all this is that yesterday Paul and I went for a 6 mile walk on the San  Pedro River Trail.  There are no pictures, because nothing seemed picture worthy.  We thought we would actually be walking along the river, but the trail was too far away from it to see anything interesting. That's ok because that hike was just to get us "warmed up" for all the hiking we plan to do in the next few weeks, but we did buy a book of nearby hiking trails yesterday, so we would get to see something of interest while we are here.

    

 Today we were supposed to go on a 7.5 mile hike in Slavin Gulch in the Dragoon Mountains, about 30 miles from Benson.  This is an area that was frequented by Cochise, one of the most well known Apache Chiefs. Fascinating history around these parts. In fact, nearby is the area where Cochise met with the US government to hammer out a treaty.   We were hoping to see that area, Council Rocks, tomorrow.

   To get to the trailhead, we had to drive 10 miles down one of the roughest "roads" we've been on.  The guidebook recommends high clearance 4x4 vehicles, and they aren't kidding!  I tried to get a picture but it was too rough for that.  After finally reaching the end of the road, we started hiking to the gulch. Mentally I was comparing how much fun I was having today, compared to yesterday.
And that's when the day took a turn for the worse.

I screwed up.  I was going over a short barbed wire fence and didn't check well enough to see if the boulder I put my foot on was secure.  It wasn't.   I knew the minute I fell that I had broken my wrist.  Paul immediately took off my rings and watch, before my arm could swell too much.  After downing 3 Advil, we turned back and slowly made our way back to the truck, and back down that lovely road that seemed even worse on the way back! 

We drove a little further than the nearest town because we wanted one big enough to have a decent hospital.  We landed in the ER in Sierra Vista, and they did a great job of checking me out.  After confirming that I do indeed have a radial fracture, we discussed options.  Apparently the bone appears to be broken in two places.  They suggested that we head up to Tucson and see a orthopedic surgeon there, to determine our best course of action.

Tuesday we'll head up for the day since its only 45 miles from us.
Anyway, it could of been worse.  If I had broken a leg, it would have been a lot harder to hike the 2 miles back to the truck!

Chiricahua National Monument, Willcox, AZ

Well, a new experience for us today.  We went hiking in the snow.  It wasn't snowing at the time, but there were a few inches on the ground.

Originally we were intending to hike Chiricahua National Monument yesterday, but the weather changed our minds.  Yesterday it rained most of the day, and the wind was whipping at about 30 miles an hour.  Oh. and it was in the 30s.  As anxious as we were to hike, there was no way it was going to happen.  As it turned out, it was kind of nice to decompress for the day.  We drove around Willcox, did a little shopping, and found Stout's Cider Mill.  We had some awesome apple pie, with cinnamon ice cream, then bought another small pie to bring home.  We also rented Star Trek, and now we know why everyone said it was such a good movie!  This morning, though, we realized that we had left on the outdoor stereo speakers by accident.  We apologized to the people next to us.  They laughed- it didn't disturb them, but they did wonder if we were watching TV  outside in the rain.

We were going to leave for Phoenix today, but we really want to see Chiricahua, so we postponed Phoenix for one more day. This area is known for its unusual rock formations. When we got up this morning, it was still in the 30s, so instead of leaving early, we relaxed over breakfast and left at about 8:30 for the 45 minute drive to the park.  Once we got there, we were surprised with the news that the road through the park wasn't open yet because they have to plow it.  Ooops.  We wandered the exhibits at the Visitor Center until we were told it was ok to go.  There are two basic trails through the area of the park that we wanted to see-one is 7.5 miles and the other is 3.5 miles. We didn't feel comfortable sticking to our original plan of doing the 7.5 mile loop, since there were still a lot of clouds around, it was cold, and we didn't know how slippery it would be in the snow. Although we didn't have any real issues, we're glad we kept it to the shorter loop.  The rock formations were amazing, and as we have found with  a lot of the natural beauty we have seen, pictures and descriptions hardly do it justice.

After eating lunch, we decided that it was early enough in the day that we could make the drive over to Fort Bowie (pronounced booee).  It was a little nervewracking for a few minutes on the drive over there.  We went down a long dirt road, and at one point, the mud was so deep and slick that the truck was fishtailing all over the road.  Paul said it was similar to being on ice....you can't go too slow- you have to go the right speed.  Trust me, sliding sideways down the road (in an F350 with dual rear wheels) was quite an experience. 

It was another 3 miles of walking to get to the fort and back, but at least there was no snow on the ground at this elevation. I have to say,  what impressed me wasn't the fort, it was the little information plaques that were along the trail.  They did a great job of describing what it was like here, and what took place in the 1800s. I think what helped me visualize everything was the fact that not much has changed in this area since then. As I looked around me there were no houses, no people, no manmade structures at all, except what was here 100 years ago. The fort was built in the 1800s to protect  the stage coaches and mail carriers as they passed through "Apache Pass", an area inhabited by Apache indians. At that time in history, Cochise was a leader of the Chiricahua Apaches. There was an uneasy civility between the indians and the settlers until Cochise was wrongly accused of stealing and kidnapping.  That accusation resulted in an 11 year war between the Apache and the settlers.

Very little remains of the actual fort, but walking through the dry river bed and along the trail, I could really get a sense of the incredible history of this area.