Day 13: Desparados, Miners and the Old West

Amanda is all dressed up and ready to mine copper!

April 25: My progress on the Arizona Trail has, thus far, been considerably slower than I had hoped or expected. Considering my late start on the trail, I wanted to make up some time by hiking harder and longer and instead, I kept falling further and further behind with all the backtracking, walking in circles, then slowing down to meet Amanda at Colossal Cave. Consequently, I was anxious to get back on the trail and get more miles in.

But.... I had a problem with Saguaro National Park. There weren't any trailheads readily available for Amanda to pick me up at the end of the day. Looking at maps, we figured I'd have to hike about 27 miles for me to reach a road where she could pick me up at, and that was a little far for a day hike. I might be able to do it, but it would have been risky without a full pack if I got caught out overnight.

The logistics finally had me deciding not to do it. I'd spend the day with Amanda playing the tourist again. I didn't want to hike 27 miles in a day, even if I could. And spending the day with Amanda would be fun. It usually was. =)

Amanda really wanted to see Tombstone, a town she'd never made it to in all her years of travel. I had been there before and could take it or leave it, but it was a proverbial stone's throw from Bisbee, a town neither of us had been to before. Well, technically, I guess I was in the outskirts of Bisbee when my sister took me to Jimmy's Hot Dogs just before I started the trail, but it was certainly nowhere near the middle of town and certainly didn't include a stop at the Queen Mine--one of the more famous mine tours of the area. We toured an active, open-pit copper mine the day before. Today, we'd tour the underground tunnels of a long retired copper mine. And, I had it under good authority, it included a train ride. Perfect! =)

We headed for Bisbee first. We had to drive through Tombstone to reach Bisbee, but we could stop in Tombstone on our way back. We didn't know how full those Queen Mine tours would be with tourists and kids, and figured it was best to do that first thing. Anything in Tombstone could wait until later in the day.

The only hitch in the drive was where traffic slowed due to a wildfire on the west side of the road. The wildfire didn't appear to be burning anymore, but dozens of emergency vehicles were parked on the side and it looked like several dozen firefighters in their yellow jackets combed the hillside. The rubbernecking wasn't too bad, though, and we made it to Bisbee without any further trouble.

Fires seem to have a knack for following me around Arizona....
Now here's a second one that slightly affected my trip--this
time on the drive to Bisbee!

We arrived at the mine which was already bustling with tourists and paid our tickets for the next available tour. They gave us bright, orange vests, helmets, belts and lights and pointed us to the miniature train that would carry us into the tunnels.

Entering the Queen Mine on our miniature train.

And it was fun, but I don't really have any good stories to write about it either. It's not an active mine anymore so there were no explosions or mills grinding large rocks into smaller ones or chemicals separating the copper from the dirt. There were tunnels instead of a giant hole in the ground, and it was quite chilly inside of them.

Then the tour ended, they took back the helmets, vests, belts and lights, and Amanda and I were on our own again. We wandered around Bisbee a bit--a beautiful little town. But we still had Tombstone to visit, and soon headed back there.

Amanda and I are about to enter the mine! We put on our jackets even
though it was hot outside because in the mine it would be quite chilly!
Both of us, apparently, prefer going in with our eyes closed. =)

They gave us lights for the tunnels, and for kicks, I tried to spell a capital R
(for Ryan, of course!) with the slow shutter speeds the poorly lit tunnels provided.
It took me about half a dozen attempts before I could make it fast enough!

The one sight everyone in Tombstone had to see is the O.K. Corral where the infamous gunfight took place. The corral itself is fenced off and requires an admission to get into--something Amanda didn't want to pay, but she was content walking around the outside and trying to look into the cracks in the fence. A sign on the fence marked the corral and the historic gun battle, but Amanda forgot about the recreation of the gunfight which was scheduled to happen right as we stood next to the sign just a few feet from where the recreation takes place.

Gunfire shattered the otherwise quiet street and Amanda practically jumped out of her shoes in fright. I'm a bad person.... I laughed. Oh, how I laughed!

Amanda poses just outside of the O.K. Corral. Shortly after
this photo was taken, gunfire erupted just on the other side
of this wall scaring Amanda half to death!

We continued wandering the streets of Tombstone and eventually stopped for a late lunch (or early dinner) at the Longhorn Restaurant. I'd contacted my sister who, if you've forgotten, lives in nearby Sierra Vista, but she couldn't come out to visit until later in the afternoon after she got off work. So we mostly killed time reading our books at the restaurant until shortly before Tierra arrived.

There's tension building in the streets of Tombstone....

I sense a gunfight is about to break out soon....

Then the three of headed headed out to Boothill Cemetery. Even my sister who lived nearby hadn't visited the cemetery before so I was the only person familiar with it. We went in finding all of the more famous headstones. Of all the stops in Tombstone, the Boothill graveyard is my favorite. The text on the headstones are often quite amusing! Including such classics as:

• Here lies Lester Moore. Four slugs from a 44, no les, no more
• John Heath taken from county jail and lynched by Bisbee mob
• Here lies George Johnson: Hanged by mistake. He was right, we was wrong, but we strung him up, and now he's gone.
• Cowboy Bill King: shot by best friend

Four slugs would do it. *nodding*

The headstones mapped an incredibly violent city and a hundred ways to die. Deaths by shootings, stabbings, hangings (legal and otherwise), drunks, sickness and disease. One headstone grabbed our attention because of the particularly unusual way this person died: natural causes. It didn't happen very often! Not in Tombstone, at least.

The beard is still growing! And poor George....

Another man was found in an abandoned mine. I did a little google searching
on this guy and apparently he was wearing "nice" clothes and therefore
couldn't have been a miner. In the background, Amanda is posing
with the graves of the three guys killed at the O.K. Corral gunfight.

We spent quite awhile roaming the graveyard not wanting to miss any of the headstones, but it's not a very large cemetery and eventually we finished and made our way back out.

Then Tierra and Amanda got the idea to go wine tasting. I'm not big on wine, but I was more than happy to tag along and photograph the shenanigans.

Amanda (L) and Tierra (R) were allegedly "tasting" wine, but it looked
to me like there was more drinking than tasting going on!

By dusk, though, it was time to head back. We parted ways with my sister who returned to Sierra Vista and we headed back to the Arizona Trail. Amanda had to fly out early, early the next morning and we decided that she'd just drop me off the trail where I'd set up camp. Amanda had flown into Phoenix and needed to drive back that night.

We arrived at the trail crossing on X-9 Ranch Road a little after sunset. It wasn't dark yet, but it would be soon. I walked for about 5 minutes down the trail to get away from the road and set up camp. Angry looking clouds started coming in and, according to the weather forecast, it was supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon. Maybe a chance in the morning hours. It showed nothing happening overnight, but the clouds looked mean enough that I decided to partially set up my tarp--just in case. I wasn't fully covered with the tarp, but if it did start raining, I could anchor down the tarp's corners in less than a minute. I was ready!

Then I went to sleep.

I partially set up my tarp just in case it started raining. I could pull
over the other half of the tarp into a proper A-frame and
had rocks ready to hold the corners down at a moment's notice!

Day 12: Missiles and Mines

The control room of the Titan Missile Museum. From
this room, the United States's most powerful nuclear missile
could have been launched. Fortunately, that never happened!

April 24: Today, I would take my first day off from the trail. A day to play a respectable tourist in (and around) Tuscon.

Amanda and I couldn't sleep in, though. No, we had places to go! I wanted to take her to the Titan Missile Museum, which is one of the most interesting places you'll ever find anywhere. I'd been there before, but Amanda hadn't and I figured she had to see the place herself!

And practically right next door was the Mission Mine, an open-pit copper mine that neither of us had visited before. I don't know how I missed it when I visited the Titan Missile Museum more than a decade earlier, but I wasn't going to miss it a second time.

However--we had no reservations for either of these places so we wanted to get there right when they opened to beat the crowds.

So we drove into Tuscon, then south passing a bad wreck that had northbound traffic nearly stopped. Hopefully that would be cleared up before it was time to head back into Tuscon!

Our first stop was Asarco's Mission Mine. The parking lot was completely empty which we took as a good sign. We went into the gift shop and visitors center where they informed us that all of the tour spaces were full until 12:30 that afternoon. Apparently, a lot of school kids were scheduled to take the tour throughout the morning. Not a problem! We signed up for the 12:30 tour then had several hours to kill....

We spent the better part of an hour looking through the visitor center and learning about copper mines, open-pit mines, and the Mission Mine complex but still had a couple of hours before our tour would begin. Near the end, the place was filling up with school kids.

Not a problem, though! I figured we might still have enough time to tour the Titan Missile Museum and still make it back in time for the copper mine tour. We got back into the car and drove one more exit down the highway, following signs for the Titan Missile Museum. The parking lot there was already crowded with cars, and we crossed our fingers that tour space would be available.

They had open positions for the next tour scheduled to start about 15 minutes later. The tours lasted for about an hour so we should finish and still have a half hour to get back for the copper mine tour. Perfect! I paid our tickets and we looked around the gift shop and visitors center while waiting for the tour to start.

The Titan II missile in the silo.

This facility was a military installation created to deter a nuclear attack. The facility became operational in 1963 and hosted a Titan II missile, the largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) ever used by the United States.

It was also a setting for Star Trek: First Contact in 1996. The missile itself was depicted as the Phoenix, the first warp prototype. Our docent said that nobody was supposed to touch the missile--the oils on our skin would eventually damage it but Patrick Stewart touched it during the movie. "He wasn't supposed to touch it!" the guy told us in a mock outrage. "But what the heck--it's Star Trek!"

The underground bunker was built to withstand a direct attack from missiles launched by the Soviet Union so the entire place is supported by giant springs to insulate the equipment from shock waves. They had all sorts of procedures in place to make sure no missiles were launched by accident or without permission, and they took us through the control room where the launches would have been activated.

The place is absolutely fascinating and you won't find anywhere else in the world quite like it. Fortunately for the world, the missile was never launched and the complex was decommissioned in 1982 and later turned into the museum that it is today. This was the front line of the Cold War.

The Titan II missile from the surface. It was probably aimed at
locations in the Soviet Union but the targets are still classified to the this day.

After the tour finished, Amanda and I headed back to the Mission Mine complex for our scheduled tour there.

We arrived with about 15 to 20 minutes to spare. Kids were everywhere! They multiplied like rabbits! But they were all being herded towards a few school buses and the quiet calm soon returned.

At the appointed time, everyone from our tour group was herded onto a small bus and we headed to the mine itself.

Our first stop was the edge of the mine--a huge, open pit spanning 2.5 miles by 1.5 miles and about 1,500 feet at its deepest. The sheer size is truly staggering. These open pit mines must be, without a doubt, some of the largest man-made holes in the world. We could see giant dump trucks at the bottom which looked like ants. And these trucks were staggeringly large. These aren't highway vehicles that have to fit under bridges or stay within their lanes. These trucks tower several stories high and require climbing tall ladders for the drivers to get into the cabs. I've seen entire houses that could fit into the backs of these trucks! And they barely looked like toys from our vantage point on the edge.

Amanda poses with a tire for one of those enormous dump trucks.

We watched for a while, and I found the spectacle enthralling. We learned some interesting statistics about the mine as well--such as how many tons of copper it extracted each year which didn't really mean much to me. They were just very large numbers! The mine runs 24/7 and for all 365 days each year. Just one tire of one of those massive vehicles costs tens of thousands of dollars and lasts only 6 months. The entire vehicle costs four million dollars and lasts for about 20 years before it needs to be replaced.

Then we were all herded back into the bus and as we were driving to where they processed the ore, the driver told us that explosives were about to be detonated. He pulled over and turned off the bus. We strained to hear the radio at the front of the bus and heard "fire in the hole!" called out. Seconds later, we heard the giant explosion. It didn't sound like a giant explosion. In fact, we could barely hear it at all. The faintest of rumblings. Had we not been straining to hear it, we would have missed it completely. The ground didn't shake--at least not perceptibly--then our driver started up the bus again and continued driving.

Our second stop was where the giant dump trucks carried the broken rock to. We got off the bus again and headed into a large building. Inside, we were in a small, glass-enclosed room that allowed us to see all of the machinery around the rest of the building.

On one side were large rotating cylinders that broke down large boulders into particles as fine as sand. On the other side, the sand is run through an agitator with chemicals that will pull out the copper from the otherwise useless dirt and rock.

The Mission Mine complex is enormous. This is just a tiny part of the
enormous hole that was closest to us! Those black spots
near the right side are dump trucks that are several stories tall!

Another view of the Mission Mine complex. Here the dump trucks are so
small they barely show up as tiny dots in my photo!

It's hypnotic to watch. The copper bubbles flow over the side of the tank into a trough that catches it and moves it to a settling tank. Eventually, the copper becomes 28% pure. Which doesn't actually sound like much, I know, but itrepresents less than 1% of the material extracted from the mine. At this point, the copper needs to be smelted but that's not done at the mine. The material is hauled away to a smelter in Hayden 85 miles to the north. For our purposes, this was the end of our tour and we boarded the bus back to the visitor center.

From there, we didn't have any set plans for the rest of the day. The highway north back into Tucson had been cleared of the bad wreck we saw earlier so we made it back into Tucson without any hassle. We headed to REI for me to do a little shopping (I had a 20% off coupon for REI that was burning a hole in my wallet!) and ate lunch at a wonderful little place called Sir Versas. Amanda came back from the bathrooms gushing about how wonderful they were due to the unusual decorations, but she hadn't taken any photos. (Apparently, she felt weird about taking photos inside of a restroom!) I decided to make a point of checking out the restrooms before I left... then completely forgot to before we left. So... I've got no photos of the restrooms at Sir Vesas. We wandered around the shopping mall a bit before eventually heading back to the hotel. Our day was done!

These spinning drums grind boulders into a texture as fine as sand.

The material is then run through these agitators with chemicals that
pull out the copper from the useless dirt. Those bubbles on the
surface are filled with copper that spill over into a trough leading to....

These tanks that further concentrate the copper.

This dump truck was retired in 1975 because it's too small for
modern-day operations!

I ride an elephant at the mall by REI. =)

Day 1: The Arizona Trail

One last lunch in civilization at Jimmy's Hot Dogs on the edge of Bisbee, AZ.

April 13: This blog has a bit of a time delay--which is why you're seeing the date this actually happened at the beginning of the blog post. In this case, my adventures on the Arizona Trail started late in the afternoon on April 13th.

I'll set up the blog to post new posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Look for the next post in two days, Wednesday morning! It'll be an exciting post, let me tell you. *nodding*

For those of you not familiar with the Arizona Trail, it's an 800-mile footpath winding through the entire north-south distance of Arizona from the Mexican border to the Utah border. It's not a particularly well-known trail, especially compared to it's more famous counterparts like the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail, but I've wanted to do this trail for years! The desert has its own stark beauty, especially when the cactus are blooming. It doesn't hurt that this particular trail runs right through the Grand Canyon either.

It's quite a diverse trail as well--there's a lot more to Arizona than deserts. The trail meanders through grasslands and thick forests, several areas peak at over 9,000 feet above sea level and at this time of year, snow is a very real possibility. In fact, a thru-hike in the dead of winter is all but impossible because of the heavy snow at the higher elevations. Obviously, it's not a summer hike either--the summer heat is brutal! This is a trail best hiked in the spring or fall. The low point for the trail drops to about 1,650 feet by the Gila River--there, snow isn't a great concern, but 100 degree temperatures certainly could be!

And... the trail is essentially complete. That's a big plus for me because, as a general rule of thumb, I hate road walks, and you won't find a lot of them on this trail. At least not on the busy, heavily used roads that hikers loathe.

I pose with my pack at Montezuma Pass. That's Mexico far
in the distance! Note the lack of facial hair. That morning
would be my last shave for quite some time....

Not to mention the chances of seeing a gila monster, I figured, were probably pretty good. I really wanted to see a gila monster. In the wild. And the Arizona Trail runs right through gila monster country.

My start date was delayed a couple of weeks due to having to move all of my websites to a new datacenter. (None of you think that's an April Fools joke anymore, do you? Ha!) I had been hoping to start in late March when I'd likely miss more of the hot weather (although perhaps have to deal with more snow), but my late start date meant I'd likely be among the last of the thru-hikers on the Arizona Trail this season.

But I finally made it out to the small town of Sierra Vista, the gateway city to the beginning of the Arizona Trail at the Mexican border in the Coronado Memorial. Lucky for me, I even had a contact in Sierra Vista--my sister Tierra. I think she moved to Sierra Vista explicitly so she could drive me to the beginning of the Arizona Trail. =)

So I flew out to Tuscon--the nearest commercial airport--where she picked me up the previous day and drove us out to Sierra Vista for the night.

Which is where I woke up this morning. I had a few tasks to do before the hike actually started. Like buying groceries. I needed fuel for the trail, so Tierra drove me to Frys (that's a grocery store here, not an electronics store!). We dropped by the post office, which was closed. No surprise there--it was Sunday, after all, but I had hoped they had one of those self-service kiosks and I could mail ahead some food to the next trail town which didn't have a full-sized grocery store. They had the kiosk, but all of the priority mail boxes were locked away. Eventually, I had to leave the food behind and ask Tierra to mail it for me the next day.

The monument marking the US-Mexican border and
the start of the Arizona Trail. That barbed-wire
fence behind it.... that's the US. I'm actually on the
Mexican side when I took this photo.

I did a few last minute fixes to Atlas Quest, then we drove out to Bisbee for a last meal in civilization at Jimmys Hot Dogs not far from the trail start. And she assured me that the food was well worth the stop. I ordered the Italiano grinder and Coke, and it was delicious. I used the toilets there--the last running water I'd be using for several days, then we packed into the car and headed towards the trail.

On the drive to the Coronado National Memorial, we noticed what looked like a large cloud hovering over the mountains in the distance. It seemed very out of place on this otherwise clear day. Just that solitary and suspicious-looking cloud. Could it be part of a forest fire? Could it be on the Arizona Trail? It appeared to be in that general direction....

So on the way into the Coronado Memorial, we stopped at the ranger station where I asked about the conditions on the Arizona Trail and if there was a fire on the trail. The woman manning the booth (womaning the booth?) said that she didn't know anything about a fire and that the trail was clear. At least as far as she knew. =) Whew. A false alarm.

The ranger did warn me about bears which took me a little by surprise. I didn't realize that bears inhabited this part of Arizona, but I wasn't too concerned by the revelation. I had a hunch that I wouldn't be seeing any bears. She also suggested that I stay away from the Joe's Canyon Trail due to an "incident" with illegal aliens earlier in the afternoon.

The Arizona Trail starts right at the Mexican border, but there aren't any roads or trailheads there. The closest trailhead is 1.8 miles to the north, and Joe's Canyon Trail is another trailhead option that was even further away. It was already late in the afternoon, around 4:00, and I didn't have time to start from the trailhead further away. Nope, I planned to start at Montezuma Pass, hike the 1.8 miles to the border, turn around, and hike 1.8 miles back to where I started then onward to Utah.

Tierra dropped me off at Montezuma Pass, and I picked up my much-too-heavy pack and started hiking southbound.

Mexico!

It only took me about a half hour to reach the border which was marked with a simple barbed-wire fence and a monument. The monument was on the wrong side of the barbed-wire fence, but there was a large hole in the fence so I set my pack down and simply ducked through it. Into Mexico. I wondered what would happen if border patrol agents found me. I was pretty sure that barbed-wire fence wasn't meant to be crossed, but I wanted photos of the monument. And I wanted to at least touch official Mexican ground. I suspect the monument is on the border, but the fence was fully on the American side of the border.

I walked completely around the monument taking photos, noticing that the Mexican side was in Spanish while the American side was in English. Appropriate enough, I suppose. It also looked like a small game trail lead deeper into Mexico. I had no intention of following that, but I wondered if it was a game trail or a trail created by illegal aliens. For now, at least, I was by myself at the border. No sign of anybody anywhere.

I took more photos than necessary, re-entered America, put on my pack, and started hiking to Utah a mere 800 miles away.

I returned to Montezuma Pass then climbed a steep mountain upwards. I needed to get at least several miles north because camping wasn't allowed in the Coronado Memorial, but as soon as I crested over a ridgetop the wind practically blew me off the top. Incredibly windy!

If Arizona is known for anything besides deserts, it's mining, and in those next few miles, I passed three different abandoned mine shafts. The entrances were blocked off to prevent people from entering them anymore, but I still found them interesting and wondered what might be found in them.

I reached what looked like an informal campsite, but ultimately decided it was too windy and continued onward. The next campsite that I could see on my maps was at Bathtub Spring, but I knew I'd never reach that point before dark. It was just too far away and I started the hike too late in the day. I'd just have to camp anywhere I could find that provided at least some protection from the wind.

The trail continued its steady climb upwards which seemed to do nothing but make the wind even stronger, but then the trail ducked a short ways to the right and just below the ridgetop which stopped the wind dead. This little pocket of trail was deathly calm. The only problem... there was nowhere on the side of the trail to set up camp. I pushed onwards but only made it about 300 feet before the wind found a way around the ridgetop and blew me over.

I quickly backtracked and found a flat-ish spot in the trail and decided just to camp directly on the trail. It was late in the evening and I doubted any other hikers would be passing by. The authorities warn hikers to camp away from the trail (illegal aliens often use the trails at night), but I hoped any illegals that stumbled into my campsite would just leave me alone.

I camped near 8,000 feet above sea level and as soon as the sun set, the temperature dropped dramatically. I bundled up into my fleece for the night. I had only completed about 5 miles for the day--not including the 1.8 miles hiking to the border before turning around and hiking north. It wasn't as much as I had hoped for, but it was official. My hike had begun!

This sign at Montezuma Pass warns to "not travel alone in remote areas."
Yeah, I'm going to have to ignore that suggestion....

Apparently there's only a barbed-wire fence at the border because they couldn't
build a sturdier wall due to environmental reasons in the Coronado Memorial, but
outside of the national memorial there is a much bigger and more impressive
fence. And from here, you can see it as a black line running straight through
the low desert. So everything behind that line is Mexico.

The Arizona Trail doesn't give you a breather. Right from the very beginning,
it goes up and up, eventually peaking at over 9,000 feet above sea level.

Moonrise!

Abandoned mine shaft #1. I put my trekking pole next to it so you could
get a sense of its size. It wasn't very large--I'd have to duck to get in.
(If I could get in, which obviously I can't because of the fence in front of it.)

Mine shaft #2

Dusk over the Coronado National Memorial.

Another moonrise photo.

Camping on the Arizona Trail where it's protected from the wind.
Just hope no illegal aliens trip over me during the night!