This was an event I was looking forward to: a trail clean-up with other people from the community. It's nice to meet others who care about our forests and trails staying clean of trash.
We are early risers and today I was walking the dogs at 5:30am for 1.5 miles. They stayed home today for the clean-up because I wasn’t sure if others would tolerate the dogs. (And besides, I didn’t tell the trail clean-up organizer, Steve, that I was bringing two dogs.) In the end we were glad they stayed at home because the hike out-and-back was 8.5 miles on rough terrain, two steep uphills, and with little water on the way. The dogs would have been exhausted and thirsty and they would have slowed us down.
We left the house at 6:15am without the dogs. “It feels weird not having the dogs in the back of the truck” said Kevin. “I never drive this truck without the dogs with me.”
We had breakfast at the Lone Star Café off Highway 92, a name I’ve yet to figure out why. Was the Owner from Texas? Our server couldn’t tell us that, although she was from Texas. At any rate the food there is good and if I hadn’t had my breakfast I would have been hurting because I learned later that I left my Swiss cheese and tortillas, a hiking staple of mine, on the kitchen counter.
Volunteers for the event met at the Lone Star Café parking lot at 7am. There were eight of us: Steve, his sister Susan, a family of four consisting of Jim, Pam and their young children Jeremy and Jackie. And then there was Kevin and me. Zack from the Sierra Vista Ranger Station, who is in charge of all volunteer activities but who concentrates mostly on trail building, welcomed us with a safety briefing but then had to drive to another site where close to 30 volunteers had signed up for trail building.
Steve and I were a little disappointed that only half of the volunteers who had signed up made it. We were expecting 15-20 volunteers.
We all drove separately to the trailhead ten miles away: Ramsey Vista Campground at 7400’ and started our hike on the Comfort Springs trail at 8:05am. The sky was nearly cloudless and there was a slight chill in the air as we slowly descended along the edge of the mountain, with Ramsey Canyon to our north.
Eight-year-old Jenny amazed me. She trotted up front with Susan, Steve and Kevin while I stayed in the rear and took photographs. She kept a steady pace with her young legs. However, her step mom Pam had surgery a month ago and started feeling short of breath once we made it to the Hamburg trail and Jim decided to turn around with his family. (They ended up bagging a heavy bag on the return). For health reasons this was the right decision. It didn’t look like the children had enough water with them. I finished off two quarts in the eight hours we were on the trail and I had to ration my fluids the last two miles.
And then there were four.
The Hamburg Trail (or Wisconsin trail, depending on what source one uses), is a steep uphill trail along Ramsey Creek for 1.4 miles to Bear Saddle We got to the first major intersection at 9:45am at 8060’. One passes sycamores, maples and pines. A fire in 1983 created flashfloods later that year when dead trees came tumbling down the canyon. Many of those trees still remain as trail obstacles. .
An immigrant trail about a half mile from the saddle caught our attention due to all the trash along the trail intersections. Against our better judgments we started picking up trash here, knowing we had to haul the trash uphill to the saddle and then down to Bear Springs, over a mile away. This trash was new trash, with food still wrapped in plastic bags left in backpacks, This is the kind of stuff that black bears look for when they see discarded backpacks left behind by the illegals crossing in from Mexico.
I left all unopened cans of beans and corn for other Illegals walking that trail, placing them prominently off the trail. I even left behind a jar of hair gel (!). More than likely bears will get to the cans before more illegals find them.
Susan, as petite as she is, hauled two big bags uphill. I hauled two bags as well but had to take many short breaks; the marathon from last week was starting to affect my muscle strength and my thighs were sore. I knew then that I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I was not about to quit. My only option was to slow down.
Tall pines roared around us as we slowly made it to the Crest Trail. Weighed down with clothes, backpacks and discarded food containers, I vowed at that moment never to eat another Mexican meal again. (Let’s see how long that lasts)
We arrived at Bear Saddle at 12:30pm. There was so much trash at this point and we spent a lot of time collecting the trash that had tumbled down the trail into the ravines.
We had a direct view of Mexico and the distant Sierra Madres. Burned-out pines stood above us, swaying in the breeze. Two older gentlemen came up from the Ida Canyon trail, praised us for our work, but then hiked on not taking one piece of litter with them..
The last half-mile to Bear Springs was downhill but the first 100 yards was badly eroded and covered in fallen trees. I had to let the others get ahead of me while I wrestled with my heavy load. I started out carrying two bags of trash, one being much heavier than the other. Steve took that load off of me and carried three bags by himself while I had one bag for a while…until I stopped at the closed mine shaft and picked up another bag of trash. I was the last one at the Springs. Kevin was on his way back uphill.
I collected more trash around the Springs and at 2pm we hiked back toward Bear Saddle and our return to our cars.
This hike wore us both out tremendously. I over-calculated my endurance for this hike so shortly after the marathon from last week. I was weak all day and thus slow, but worked extra-hard with Susan to make up for the other volunteers who ended up not showing up after all. A few extra hands would have made our work today so much easier. We carried out 16 bags of trash.
Steve went uphill to Bear Saddle one extra time to haul two more bags back down to the Springs before we all hiked back to our cars. He hauled the most of us four, but we all worked diligently at cleaning up the trail. We made a noticeable difference today.
I was the last one on the return hike. I chose to take the immigrant trail back, hoping that would cut off some time from the Hamburg trail. If I hadn’t been so tired and slow, perhaps it would have been faster, but by now I was sliding and tripping all over myself. I couldn’t even handle seeing any more trash along the way although there was one more Mexican landfill a mile down that trail with more new trash. I let it be.
This immigrant trail stayed high most of the way before it took a steep descent down a north slope that came out on the Comfort Springs trail. It was a well-trodden trail that was easy to follow, until I crossed a dry creek bed and had no landmarks to orientate myself. All I had around me were tall Douglas firs. Oh shit. Lesson learned: STAY ON THE MARKED TRAILS! I was able to call Kevin who was 15 minutes ahead of me to let him know of my predicament, knowing well that if something had happened to me there would have been no way anyone could have found me. When I got back on the trail I called back to assure him I was OK. I made it to the campground shortly after 5pm, feeling tired, dusty, dirty, thirsty and quite exhausted. The others had waited for me 20 minutes.
We got home at 6pm feeling even more tired and sore. The cats appreciated a can of tuna we found on the trail; it’s not often they eat gourmet food.
“I am sleeping in tomorrow” said Kevin.
“Does that mean we aren’t going to Middle March Road?” I replied, referring to some exploratory hiking we had planned with the dogs in the Dragoon Mountains.
“You can go…I am sleeping in!” he repeated, making a point. Maybe I should sleep in as well and relax in the morning, too, while sipping coffee and watching TV.. I can’t remember when I last enjoyed watching the Sunday-morning line-up of political commentary.
Kevin was asleep within an hour, forsaking dinner. Not me! I raided the fridge.
We are early risers and today I was walking the dogs at 5:30am for 1.5 miles. They stayed home today for the clean-up because I wasn’t sure if others would tolerate the dogs. (And besides, I didn’t tell the trail clean-up organizer, Steve, that I was bringing two dogs.) In the end we were glad they stayed at home because the hike out-and-back was 8.5 miles on rough terrain, two steep uphills, and with little water on the way. The dogs would have been exhausted and thirsty and they would have slowed us down.
We left the house at 6:15am without the dogs. “It feels weird not having the dogs in the back of the truck” said Kevin. “I never drive this truck without the dogs with me.”
We had breakfast at the Lone Star Café off Highway 92, a name I’ve yet to figure out why. Was the Owner from Texas? Our server couldn’t tell us that, although she was from Texas. At any rate the food there is good and if I hadn’t had my breakfast I would have been hurting because I learned later that I left my Swiss cheese and tortillas, a hiking staple of mine, on the kitchen counter.
Volunteers for the event met at the Lone Star Café parking lot at 7am. There were eight of us: Steve, his sister Susan, a family of four consisting of Jim, Pam and their young children Jeremy and Jackie. And then there was Kevin and me. Zack from the Sierra Vista Ranger Station, who is in charge of all volunteer activities but who concentrates mostly on trail building, welcomed us with a safety briefing but then had to drive to another site where close to 30 volunteers had signed up for trail building.
Steve and I were a little disappointed that only half of the volunteers who had signed up made it. We were expecting 15-20 volunteers.
We all drove separately to the trailhead ten miles away: Ramsey Vista Campground at 7400’ and started our hike on the Comfort Springs trail at 8:05am. The sky was nearly cloudless and there was a slight chill in the air as we slowly descended along the edge of the mountain, with Ramsey Canyon to our north.
Eight-year-old Jenny amazed me. She trotted up front with Susan, Steve and Kevin while I stayed in the rear and took photographs. She kept a steady pace with her young legs. However, her step mom Pam had surgery a month ago and started feeling short of breath once we made it to the Hamburg trail and Jim decided to turn around with his family. (They ended up bagging a heavy bag on the return). For health reasons this was the right decision. It didn’t look like the children had enough water with them. I finished off two quarts in the eight hours we were on the trail and I had to ration my fluids the last two miles.
And then there were four.
The Hamburg Trail (or Wisconsin trail, depending on what source one uses), is a steep uphill trail along Ramsey Creek for 1.4 miles to Bear Saddle We got to the first major intersection at 9:45am at 8060’. One passes sycamores, maples and pines. A fire in 1983 created flashfloods later that year when dead trees came tumbling down the canyon. Many of those trees still remain as trail obstacles. .
An immigrant trail about a half mile from the saddle caught our attention due to all the trash along the trail intersections. Against our better judgments we started picking up trash here, knowing we had to haul the trash uphill to the saddle and then down to Bear Springs, over a mile away. This trash was new trash, with food still wrapped in plastic bags left in backpacks, This is the kind of stuff that black bears look for when they see discarded backpacks left behind by the illegals crossing in from Mexico.
I left all unopened cans of beans and corn for other Illegals walking that trail, placing them prominently off the trail. I even left behind a jar of hair gel (!). More than likely bears will get to the cans before more illegals find them.
Susan, as petite as she is, hauled two big bags uphill. I hauled two bags as well but had to take many short breaks; the marathon from last week was starting to affect my muscle strength and my thighs were sore. I knew then that I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I was not about to quit. My only option was to slow down.
Tall pines roared around us as we slowly made it to the Crest Trail. Weighed down with clothes, backpacks and discarded food containers, I vowed at that moment never to eat another Mexican meal again. (Let’s see how long that lasts)
We arrived at Bear Saddle at 12:30pm. There was so much trash at this point and we spent a lot of time collecting the trash that had tumbled down the trail into the ravines.
We had a direct view of Mexico and the distant Sierra Madres. Burned-out pines stood above us, swaying in the breeze. Two older gentlemen came up from the Ida Canyon trail, praised us for our work, but then hiked on not taking one piece of litter with them..
The last half-mile to Bear Springs was downhill but the first 100 yards was badly eroded and covered in fallen trees. I had to let the others get ahead of me while I wrestled with my heavy load. I started out carrying two bags of trash, one being much heavier than the other. Steve took that load off of me and carried three bags by himself while I had one bag for a while…until I stopped at the closed mine shaft and picked up another bag of trash. I was the last one at the Springs. Kevin was on his way back uphill.
I collected more trash around the Springs and at 2pm we hiked back toward Bear Saddle and our return to our cars.
This hike wore us both out tremendously. I over-calculated my endurance for this hike so shortly after the marathon from last week. I was weak all day and thus slow, but worked extra-hard with Susan to make up for the other volunteers who ended up not showing up after all. A few extra hands would have made our work today so much easier. We carried out 16 bags of trash.
Steve went uphill to Bear Saddle one extra time to haul two more bags back down to the Springs before we all hiked back to our cars. He hauled the most of us four, but we all worked diligently at cleaning up the trail. We made a noticeable difference today.
I was the last one on the return hike. I chose to take the immigrant trail back, hoping that would cut off some time from the Hamburg trail. If I hadn’t been so tired and slow, perhaps it would have been faster, but by now I was sliding and tripping all over myself. I couldn’t even handle seeing any more trash along the way although there was one more Mexican landfill a mile down that trail with more new trash. I let it be.
This immigrant trail stayed high most of the way before it took a steep descent down a north slope that came out on the Comfort Springs trail. It was a well-trodden trail that was easy to follow, until I crossed a dry creek bed and had no landmarks to orientate myself. All I had around me were tall Douglas firs. Oh shit. Lesson learned: STAY ON THE MARKED TRAILS! I was able to call Kevin who was 15 minutes ahead of me to let him know of my predicament, knowing well that if something had happened to me there would have been no way anyone could have found me. When I got back on the trail I called back to assure him I was OK. I made it to the campground shortly after 5pm, feeling tired, dusty, dirty, thirsty and quite exhausted. The others had waited for me 20 minutes.
We got home at 6pm feeling even more tired and sore. The cats appreciated a can of tuna we found on the trail; it’s not often they eat gourmet food.
“I am sleeping in tomorrow” said Kevin.
“Does that mean we aren’t going to Middle March Road?” I replied, referring to some exploratory hiking we had planned with the dogs in the Dragoon Mountains.
“You can go…I am sleeping in!” he repeated, making a point. Maybe I should sleep in as well and relax in the morning, too, while sipping coffee and watching TV.. I can’t remember when I last enjoyed watching the Sunday-morning line-up of political commentary.
Kevin was asleep within an hour, forsaking dinner. Not me! I raided the fridge.
3 comments:
Great story about the day. Susan is eager to get out again. Let me know if the hiking club has a clean-up. I'll likely run by Bear Spring a few times a month and take a bag with me - a little bit at a time.
Steve, we should have some trail clean-ups the weekend of 26-27 April. I'll let you know more as I get the info.
This weekend we are hiking Sheep's Head Rock in the Dragoons, a four-mile round-trip that Susan and her son should be able to do well. We are meeting at 7:30am at Po'Folks on the 12th and will car-pool to the trailhead. I will be there with the dogs but I will also take a bag for any trash along the way. Hopefully it won't be a big bag's worth! The Dragoons are also popular with rock climbers.
I am looking after all four of my youngsters this Saturday. Let me know how the hike is - I have been meaning to get out to the Dragoons for a run sometime. When I lived in Tucson I used to go out there to climb some big domes and enjoyed the hikes in - trails weaved in and around all the rock. We always hiked in from the Stronghold on the east side but I'd like to go in from the west if there are some good routes.
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