My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ace.....I actually thought the same while I was there. I was thankful.....

ITTOG.....indeed it was deep and for sure it's incredible. You can just imagine the number of years that this tribe lived here without the threat of near extinction by the depth of that hole. It's a forever sign of the tragedy that took place in these mountains.....



I've mentioned several times that the area that's named Council Rocks is rather small in area, but that didn't mean that our time here was brief. The dogs and I took the time to inhale the mountain air and to admire the landscape that we were then exploring in. I thought of the behavior of the guys in the jacked up Jeeps and how upsetting that was to me. And I couldnt help see some correlation between that encounter and what the Apaches must have endured, of course my encounter so very minor compared to their ordeal. I left feeling greatful that I get to spend so much of time alone in the mountains with my two best friends.....I really did.....I suspect that the Apaches felt the same.....



On the way back to our campsite I found myself admiring all of the smaller mountain peaks that the sandy road meandered its way through.....



And as we drove along that sandy road I witnessed something that I'd never seen before. At face value I guess it was nothing, but I saw a deer take advantage of a barbed wire fence that had the lower strand removed and replaced with wire that had no barbs. Every deer I've ever seen jumps the barbed wire fence but now it appears that they understand the good work of man.....



We weren't quite ready to call it a day so we decided to challenge ourselves and bushwack up one of those small mountain peaks along that sandy road.....



The real challenge here were the cactus that grew along the south facing slope that we climbed.....



There was one cactus plant in particular that gave the dogs a hard time.....and that south facing slope was covered in it.....



Eventually we made it to the summit of the tiny mountain and we really didn't spend a considerable amount of time up there.....no food or drink.....



It felt good to have a small challenge in our day.....and to see more of the Dragoon Mountains from that tiny mountain summit.....




We downclimbed back through that nasty cactus and we were finally ready to call it a day.....a very good day.....

 

[Sierra Valley]

I am trying to understand why you are upset with the Jeeps that were parked in the parking area?

 

[jameswirl]

If you take another look at his post, he states: “Unfortunately when we arrived, there was a group of jacked up Jeeps parked in the entrance road and they had no plans for us to access the parking lot”. Now do you understand? Inconsiderate people being inconsiderate. Sadly all too common in today’s world.

I am trying to understand why you are upset with the Jeeps that were parked in the parking area?

 

[Ace Brown]

If you take another look at his post, he states: “Unfortunately when we arrived, there was a group of jacked up Jeeps parked in the entrance road and they had no plans for us to access the parking lot”. Now do you understand? Inconsiderate people being inconsiderate. Sadly all too common in today’s world.

Why not ask them to move? I would have. But on the flip side the Jeep club (all 4x4s) I belong to sometimes park like they own a spot. Recently they were told to move by a park ranger. I was probably the only one who had left room to get by. Grrr!


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[Foy]

General O O Howard led the pursuit of Chief Joseph from Idaho through much of Montana, almost to the Canadian border, in 1877. Howard was much criticized during his Civil War and Indian campaigns.

 

[Riversdad]

It turned out to be the perfect day to climb a mountain. As a matter of fact, we had planned to hike to the mine but the weather outlook for the following day was high winds, so we elected to summit on this day instead, and to explore the mine on the high wind day.....

We spent a leisurely hour on the summit eating our lunches and snacks.....I took the "dogs on the summit photos" as I typically do.....

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And of course I took photos of the amazing views.....as I also almost always do.....

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The downclimb was difficult.....more so than climbing up. Somewhere along that downclimb I reinjured my right knee. That's the second time on this trip that I've done that.....it hadn't slowed us down.....until now.....

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I made these route maps (they're approximate) last night while I was bored in the camper. The first two photos show the route from the valley to the saddle on the left side of the peak.....

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And the next two photos show the route (again approximate) from the saddle to the summit. These 2 photos were taken from another summit that we had climbed later on during the week.....

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Amazing that you could do that climb with the dogs. You must have really good cardio for an old guy with an artificial hip.
Thanks again for taking us along as this is one of my favorite places yet.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Sierra Valley.....there's a half mile long entrance road to the massive parking area. For some reason unbeknownst to me, they chose to park in that entrance road where they were having snacks & drinks. They turned their heads toward me for a second, and then went back to their business not acknowledging my existence.....I suspect that they thought I could drive around them but I'm not one that will drive over plants and make new tracks in the sand.....

jswirl.....exactly.....thanks.....

Ace.....I saw no point.....it wasn't as if they didn't know what was up. I preferred to put it in reverse and go enjoy my day......and complain here.....

Foy.....his name comes up a lot in the books that I read.....I probably knew that at some point in my life.....

Riversdad.....I probably shouldn't have done it with the dogs.....I'm just not sure. Tanner was no issue.....it's Trapper that constantly questions her abilities which puts quite a load on me. Lately I've been thinking that I need to slow down (my knee still hurts).....it's a tough call.....



Next for us was a climb to the summit of China Peak (7,125'). Now this peak
can easily be climbed by driving or walking up a Forest Service road which goes to the summit and which we chose not to use. Instead we took the Jeep back to Middlemarch Pass, and then drove a bit further past it to a departing Forest Service road. We parked the Jeep at the junction of these two roads and walked along that Forest Service road for a few miles. It was here that we saw our first squadron (I looked it up.....that's what they're called) of Javelinas.....maybe a dozen at most.....



Now our plan was to bushwack our way to the summit.....make it a bit of a challenge. I had no idea when to depart the Forest Service road and to start our bushwack. When I saw this even smaller departing road, we took it (it generally went in the direction that we were hoping to go).....



Well that didn't work so good cause that road ended maybe 500 yards later.....so now the real bushwacking began.....



We climbed maybe a thousand vertical feet working our way through the trees and shrubs.....



Then to my surprise we stumbled onto a trail that went straight up the mountain.....




.....a trail that I hadn't found anywhere except for Google Maps (which is notoriously incorrect when it comes to trails.....so I ignored it). There was even a people gate right before the summit.....



It wasn't long before we stood on top of yet one more mountain.....we found a tin can and a jar with summit registers and I might add that I'd never seen so much crap placed in a summit can like that. I wondered if that was a 4 wheel drive / ATV thing since you can drive up there ?



We did what we always do on a summit.....the dogs took advantage of the shade provided by the scrub bushes.....



The views.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

.....were actually pretty good.....




In the next picture you can see the 4 wheel drive road that we didn't use.....



We used that trail that I spoke of to downclimb the mountain. At the intersection with the Forest Service road we spotted another squadron of Javelinas.....again, no more than a dozen or so.....



This hike had yet one more surprise (the trail was the other) in store for us.....



How perfect was that ? The mine was right along the edge of that Forest Service road.....so of course we went right in.....



Just as it got pitch dark we came across this bird carcass.....possibly carried in by an animal.....



Eventually there was a "Y" in the shaft.....the one to the left ended shortly.....the one to the right went who knows how far (not us).....



I paced 450 '.....that's how far in we went.....



Honestly.....it was kind of boring. Nothing like a cool natural cave. Just lots of black flies everywhere.....and not much more.....

And that's how we spent another one of our days in the Dragoon Mountains......

 

[chet6.7]

Possibly a geocache.

 

[ITTOG]

I guess if you have an awesome name like Javelina's you can't have a lame name for a group like herd or flock. Thanks for looking that up. I would have never known.

I agree with @chet6.7.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Chet6.7.....yes, I'll bet that's exactly what the tin can is. And the jar is probably a summit log (I didn't open it so I don't know for certain). I'm not familiar with the hobby of geocaching so I had to Google it and it seems to fit the bill.....good call.....I would have never known.....

ITTOG.....I try my best to be grammatically correct (tacototheworld is my hero). I'm always interested in improving my limited vocabulary. Often before I'll post here, I'll Google the meaning of a word and / or a phrase. My downfall is the obvious overuse of one punctuation mark.....the period.....



That night we experienced the second rainfall of the trip and thankfully it was a good one. I woke up several times that night and the rain came down hard. It's difficult to believe that after three months of being back on the road, that it's only rained (snowed) twice.....

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise and another wonderful weather forecast.....




So I decided that we'd head back out once again.....that we'd return to Middlemarch Pass......and hike up that same Forest Service road. But this time when we departed the road, we hiked in an easterly direction (last time was westerly).....along an ATV road.....

The "trailhead".....



It didn't take long to come across more of the disrespectful work of man. I can't imagine the amount of rage that a rancher must feel when he comes to check on his cattle and sees that someone(s) have run over his gate and broke the posts, which ultimately endangers his herd of cattle.....it makes my blood flow hot just to think about it.....and I have nothing invested and I don't much care for cattle.....but I have met some mighty fine ranchers over the years so I do care.....

Rest assured that I did my best to repair that gate on our way out.....it wasn't perfect by any means but I do think that it will do the job.....



The ATV trail was rather short and once we got near the end of it, we turned north, started bushwacking, and headed up a sometimes rocky.....sometimes steep slope. Several times we had to slide under barbed wire fences.....




Fortunately this was by far the easiest of our climbs in the Dragoon Mountains. I'd guess that it took us no more than two hours roundtrip at most.....



We hung out on the summit of Cochise Peak (6,797') for just a short while.....maybe thirty minutes at most..... ate some snacks.....drink some water.....admired the views from up high. The weather was just about perfect for all of this.....



Beneath the stone cairn that sat on the summit, I found a summit register in a clear glass jar which I didn't bother to open.....



After our enjoyable stay on the summit, we downclimbed the mountain.....and headed home.....back to the camper that is. My right knee.....it was still bothering me but not yet enough to slow me down or make me think about reducing my daily walking miles. We had been averaging better than 12 miles per day during our stay in the Dragoon Mountains.....I just couldn't get enough of this place.....I absolutely loved it here.....

 

[ghostdancer]

This was posted by Desert Drifters wife yesterday.

Hi friends,

After much prayer, information gathering, and discussion, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove Andrew from life support tomorrow morning (March 3).

I know Jerry and some of you here followed his desert wandering. Very sad news.

 

[chet6.7]

Is this an Osprey pack with the airscape back panel? Did you cut the ventilation slits? I like the airspeed back panel for breathability, but those packs are a little small.
Thanks.

 

[Ace Brown]

This was posted by Desert Drifters wife yesterday.

Hi friends,

After much prayer, information gathering, and discussion, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove Andrew from life support tomorrow morning (March 3).

I know Jerry and some of you here followed his desert wandering. Very sad news.

I never ran across his travel reports but always sad to loose a fellow traveler.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

ghostdancer.....that sucks so bad. I'm going to miss his YouTube videos so much. They were such a great distraction from what is going on in the world these days.....

chet6.7.....It's an Osprey Manta 36 which I don't think that they produce any longer. It looks like they've replaced it with one a bit smaller at 34 liters. I'm fine with the size of it as it replaced a Mountain Hardwear daypack that I used for years that was even much smaller. Regarding altering it, nope, I haven't touched it.....

Ace.....I don't think that he was so much a traveler as he was an explorer & dreamer......



Finally I come to my last two posts regarding our stay in the Dragoon Mountains. These two posts are not about climbing mountains or visiting interesting sites. These two posts are simply about our times when we weren't doing those things, and we just hung out at or near our campsite.....during our nearly one week stay there.....

On the approach to the trailhead (which became our campsite), we passed by an old water tank with a beautiful patina about it.....



And of course there was the windmill nearby.....I felt that this one was particularly beautiful, as the aging process seems to transform these creations of man into a work of art (sort of).....




Close by these two features was the campsite of Cam and his girlfriend (whose name escapes me). As you can see from the photograph, we immediately had something in common (his was a 1988). We became friendly during our stay here and we talked often. He's a river guide and avid outdoorsman.....these were my kind of people. They slept under that big tree that you see behind our Jeeps.....



And actually, all of the people that I met here, and that camped here, were my kind of people. I found it interesting that so many of us camped so close to one another without a single issue (not a single generator or ATV !).....I was the only RV'er. Here it was all climbers.....they slept on the ground, in hammocks or tents, and a few in their cars.....



I so enjoyed talking with these people that were literally from all over the country. This was definitely a climbers' hang out.....



Most evenings, if not all.....no matter how exhausted we were, we'd take an evening walk just before sunset to the base of the Dragoon Mountains.....there was such a feeling of freedom walking here. It was while on these walks that I really could understand why Cochise fought so hard to keep his land.....



Sometimes on our walks we'd catch a glimpse of a horse or two having an evening meal.....



Often we'd see the deer grazing in the tall grasses on the mountainsides.....so peaceful.....



We shared a few sunsets with Cam, his girlfriend and their dog.....occasionally it's nice to share with someone.....but not too often !