Hiking

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Hike For July 19: Chiricahua National Monument
Meet at the Silver Peak Trailhead at 7:00 am (AZ) / 8:00 am (NM)

Pat Owens 557-7722 rodeonm@vtc.net

Carol Simon 558-2433 casimon@vtc.net

Jonathan Patt 558-0152 jonathanpatt@gmail.com

This Thursday, seven hikers met to hike a loop in the Herb Martyr area.

We started up Cima Creek from Herb Martyr campground. The creekbed is beautiful, with many large trees, including Sycamores. We stopped to talk underneath one that must have been near a Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher nest, because a bird squeaked and swooped us until we moved on. We also encountered a beautiful small Banded Rock Rattlesnake which promptly hid under a fallen tree.

The drainage leads up to Ash Spring and we saw some of the Chiricahua Leopard Frogs in the ponds there. We continued on the Basin trail over to the Greenhouse Road, then took Greenhouse Creek back down to John Hands. From the trail, we were looking out of the canyon and could see wonderful rainstorms in the lower canyon and Portal, but barely got wet ourselves!

We finished the hike by walking back up the road along the Girl-Scout camp road, then back up the creek to Herb Martyr. There were some beautiful pools in the creek with Speckled Dace & “Toe-biters” (Belostomatids or giant water bugs).

Next week: Meet EARLIER - 7:00 AM Arizona time (8 AM New Mexico) at the Silver Peak Trailhead to carpool over to the Chiricahua National Monument. If we leave promptly, we can get over there to catch the shuttle and hike from the top down. We will discuss options in the morning, depending on participation.

Happy hiking!