On Thursday, Joan and Helen found out that the little cantina / bar and grill on the fairgrounds was open for the cutting horse weekend, so late Friday afternoon we popped over for a meal after Helen and Rupert got back from getting some warranty work done on their trailer. This is the first time that it has been open in the 3 stays we have been here. It is convenient to be able to walk over for a meal, but the menu is pretty basic. They must be converting from a cantina to a grill, as there were no Mexican items, except for margaritas.
On Saturday, we drove south on highway 83 to do the next section of the Arizona Trail in that direction. We parked on a small area beside a road running out to an area in the hills with some acreages.
We headed north on the trail until we got to the point we had reached from Suhuarita Rd last week. It is handy to have the Garmin Etrex so we can tell how far we had come in the other direction. After returning to the truck, we headed across the road on the trail going south from there. Along the way we went through an area that looked like it had been a little oasis at one time, perhaps from being dammed sometime ago.
We continued for about a mile on this side of the road before returning.
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| Hedgehog cacti |
Sunday John watched a couple of NFL playoff games.
Monday we did a walk around the fairgrounds. La Mesa RV was rolling in a fortune in trailers and motorhomes for their 'RV Show' this weekend.
Tuesday morning, John decided to drain the gas from the generator and change the oil, to see if that would fix the problem with the generator starting. While he was doing that, Joan found a youtube video about cleaning the fuel filter and the spark arrestor (which keeps sparks from lighting grass on fire). Two of the three nuts on the exhaust manifold were rusted, and one of them wouldn't loosen. The fuel filter replacement looked finicky, so since John didn't want to tackle that, we decided that we would need a professional to do the job.
On Tuesday afternoon, we returned to the Gabe Zimmerman Trailhead, and did a couple of miles north from this point. The trail heads down into Davidson Canyon this time instead of along the rim that we did going south. We were surprised at the green stuff growing along the Cienega Creek in the Canyon.
We walked under a railway overpass, then climbed back on the east side of the canyon back up to the road. After crossing the road, we went under a different set of railway tracks. The other set of tracks goes under the other railway here as well. As a convenience for hikers, a canopy was installed under the tracks to prevent rocks falling from above.
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| Canopy under railway to protect hikers |
There weren't a lot of rocks on the canopy, but one would hurt.
We saw one train going west on the lower track, and three trains heading east on the upper one while we were on the trail.
We got a view of a house on a peak above this valley that you can see for a long stretch from the freeway east of Tucson.
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| Home on a hill |
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| Staghorn cholla budding |
Wednesday, we took the Honda generator into Musselman Honda to get some the generator fixed. They are a dealer in Honda ATV's, motorcycles and generators.
Thursday after lunch we headed to La Posta Quemada Ranch at Colossal Cave Mountain Park, to trailhead further north on the Arizona Trail. There was nobody manning the entry gate, and a sign indicated that entry is free (due to the government shutdown?). The gates are open from 8 to 5 daily, so we needed to complete our hike before the gates were closed. In the parking area at the trailhead is 'The Cowboy' tribute by Buck McCain.
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| The Cowboy |
The AZ trail was well marked. At this point, it is .25 mile spur to the stables across a wash. Then the trail winds up a hill, and over a saddle into the next valley for about a mile.
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| View of Ranch |
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| Trail Ride |
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| Hills to the north |
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| Agave | |
Once over the top we got a better view across the valley of the house on the top of the hill that we had seen on Tuesday.
From there the trail meanders downhill south until it gets to the main wash running down that side of the hill. Near the bottom, we encountered a local hiker coming north. We had a nice chat with him before returning to the ranch. We arrived back at 4:00, so had plenty of time before the gates were closed. We were not impressed with the road into the park, as it is full of potholes.
We were planning on going to Ajo today. However, when we checked with the RV park there, they didn't have any space for us for the next two weeks, so we booked a spot starting next Thursday, and extended our stay in Tucson for another week.
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