Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 11

Friday, November 14
 

We ate a quick breakfast and then headed over to Bisbee to take the Queen Mine Tour. I’d reserved tickets in advance and that was a good thing—our tour was full.

It was great!  We put on hard hats and brightly colored vests and we all were issued miner’s lights that we hung around our necks. And then we climbed on an actual mine train, straddled the bar down the middle, and zoomed away!

  

Okay, we didn’t exactly zoom. (Just exacttly NOT like in the 3-D movies!) But we did chunk and clank our way down the tracks into the mine. The ride was mostly level, or so it felt.  I think we went down a little bit. But we were underneath a mountain (aka big hill) and so we were most definitely way underground.  We stayed level; the ground above us went up.

The tour guide was a former mine worker; he’d worked for about five years in the 1970s. He’d been laid off, along with everyone else, when the price of copper plunged after the Vietnam War ended.  But he knew all about mining from his time and also had memorized a whole lot of history, so he was able to speak from experience and it was fascinating. He even showed us how they dynamited off a big chunk of the wall (called the “face” in miner’s lingo).  First they drilled out a pattern of holes—a ring of five, then a rectangle around them—then inserted dynamite charges in each and arrayed all the fuses of varying lengths in a holder. The charges needed to go off one at a time in a predetermined order. One person would go to the level above the blast site and one person to the level below, to watch/listen for weaknesses; the one in the middle would light the fuses and walk, not run, away; then they’d count the “bangs” to make sure that all of the charges fired.

When they’d all fired (or should have fired), the guys would return and record the results. If any charges were left unfired, they’d have to dig through the rubble until they found it and then use water to wash all the leftover explosive away.

Q: was it dynamite or gunpowder?  Apparently dynamite is a mixture of nitroglycerin, sorbents and stabilizers. Gunpowder is less powerful and predictable. It was dynamite.

Explaining the charges

The fuses

Return trip!

In the afternoon we went to Whitewater draw to see the Sandhill Cranes.  I also thought I saw a lone snow goose way off in the distance, plus some dowichers and ducks and stuff. Nothing I could identify.  The sight of so many cranes was awesome.

We neglected to understand that when there are extensive marshy areas in the middle of a warm desert, mosquitos abound. Very thirsty mosquitos. We got a little ways out along the trail—not an official “trail”, just a footworn walk out to the overlooks—and we were discovered by the mosquitoes. I had a small bottle of bug spray in my backpack and we availed ourselves of it, so we were able to survive an hour out there.

It was already getting to be sundown when we arrived, so we didn’t stay too long. Just until 5:30. We resolved to come again next day—and soak ourselves down with the big bottle of mosquito spray before we walked away from the Jeep. Molly, too—she has her special “Vet Chem” spray. It seems to work on her and even on me, too, in a pinch.

Always remember: where the birds are, the mosquitoes will gather.

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 10

Thursday, November 13

Crazy weird drive to Desert Oasis Campground in McNeal Arizona. We dawdled around instead of leaving early because we thought it was only a 2-hour drive and we couldn’t check in before 2 pm. So we  ended up leaving at about 12 and arriving at about 2:20 or so. No one was there when we arrived, but I called the phone number provided and got a call back almost immediately.  They’d left our site number and info, so we were all set and could proceed to hook up.

The crazy weird part of the drive is that we ended up going right through both Tombstone and Bisbee, and after that we went up up up in elevation to over 5000 feet! It was really cool and rugged country out there, although I didn’t think to take a single picture.  Dummy.

Unexpected tunnel! 

When we arrived at the park I almost immediately saw quail. I didn’t have the binocs but I think they were scaled quail, the ones with the little fluffy white topknots.  I noted at the time: will see for sure tomorrow.  Famous last words, those.

The original plan for the afternoon was to go see the Sandhill Cranes at the Wildlife Refuge, but since we were going to have steaks/fish cooked on the grill for dinner, I chose to skip it until the next day. I hoped that wasn’t a mistake; at the time of writing this, that remains to be seen. So instead Molly and I took a longish walk around the campground on the “nature trail.”

The quotes in “nature trail” are to indicate that it’s not exactly what people usually think of for a nature trail. There is nothing special to see and no informative signs to tell you what you’d be seeing if the plant hadn’t died or the animal wasn’t asleep for the day.  But instead what we saw was a nice little walking path cleared through the desert scrub. A few birds—I saw Phainopepla and mockingbirds, plus a lot of house Finches.

REVIEW: Desert Oasis Campground McNeal AZ  site 22  $162.30 / 3 = $54

Paradise in the draw

This is a lovely little campground in the middle of the desert/brushland, in between mountain ranges to the east and west and even north although you can’t see those well. The campground comes closer to being a “resort” than a lot of places that call themselves resorts. The full hookup sites are very long, not too awfully close together, and laid out nicely. In a row, of course, with neighbors on either side, but still it doesn’t feel crowded at all. Probably because there are only two or three rows of sites with open desert all around.

We had no big issues with the water, electricity or sewer. The water faucet wouldn’t shut off completely, but once we had it hooked up that wasn’t our problem. There was no one in the office when we arrived, but they had printed out our paperwork and a map, and left them in a mailbox for us. When I called the phone number written on their office wall I got a quick call back.  The owner was very, very nice and helpful.

There’s no playground, but there’s a clubhouse and a big common area with a fire ring. No fire rings at the sites and I can’t say I blame them—it’s too risky in this sort of brushy country—but they allowed us to use our charcoal grill.  There are picnic tables for each site; a little paint peeling but usable. The site surface was gravel and the ground all around hard desert floor or gravel. With a few nice plantings of cholla, mesquite, and the like.

All around the campground was a well-marked walking path that they called a nature trail. Not exactly what I call a nature trail, but it was an excellent place for giving the dogs a nice long walk.

There weren’t too many people there on a weekend at the middle of November—it was maybe one-quarter full. And it was very quiet and peaceful. The owner requests that guests keep their outdoor porch lights turned off once they’ve gone inside, so star gazing would have been awesome if it hadn’t been cloudy. There’s no really bright lights nearby although the town (McNeal?) over to the east is kind of sparkly in the night.

Great place!  I’ll be back 

 

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 9

Wednesday, November 12

A stay-at-home day. Mostly.

We did waffles for breakfast, although I supplemented mine with beans, rice, and a 2-egg  omelet with sauteed vegetables. Of course the beans, rice, and vegetables were all cooked at home and brought along in the freezer.  And then on top of that, I ate a whole waffle. Pigs!

So clearly I needed exercise. We drove over to the start of the Romero Ruins trail and walked up to see the ruins. It was a prehistoric village of the Hohokam Indians, dating back to around 500 AD. It was mostly chunks of rock and collapsed walls, but there was an interesting dip in the the ground that archaeologists believe was a sports ground. They’d found the remains of a ball there, and other signs to indicate that it was an arena or play area of some sort.

The remains of a house or some sort of strucutre

A young barrel cactus

A young saguaro

 It was a lovely little walk, although it was only a third of a mile around instead of the .8 miles that was listed in the park map.

Aside: I think that park map is crazy. It listed the route from the equestrian center up to the start of the 50-year trail as 1.5 miles. Which is ridiculous.  I would have rated it no further than one half mile. 

But it was awfully hot when we we got there, and we were easily persuaded to quit when we returned back to the parking lot.  By then it was fairly close to noon—waffle breakfasts take a long time—so  we put Molly in the air conditioning and popped ourselves over to the Walmart. The Walmart supercenter sign is right across the street from the park--you come out of the park at a stoplight, go straight, and you’re there. But the actual building is a good quarter mile away, along a  road that winds through a big shopping center development. All pretty much brand-new and still under construction.

The  Walmart, like the restaurant of the night before, was packed full of old people.  I guess that’s to be expected—this is Tucson in November.  And I guess, if you want to get technical about it, I’m an “old people” too. But I’m not so darn slow-moving!

We survived with our spoils, although once again I was reminded that I need to buy everything I want before a camping trip and not count on finding things at a Walmart stop, halfway through.  They didn’t have jellybellies, for one, or any kind of jelly beans at all. And none of my Spicy Chili Rice Crisps.

After that I got in a very small lunch (on purpose, because Poke for Supper) and had an hour or more to read outside in the sun. At high noon the sun was nearly overhead and it was murderously hot, but by three o’clock in the afternoon it was at a considerable angle and the outdoors was quite pleasant.

Then on to Molly’s long walk. Or in this case, my long walk but Molly got to come along.  She got plenty of good smelling ops along the way but we didn’t see any rodents, varmints, or even (very many) other dogs. Starting at the equestrian area, we took the bridle trail up to the 50-year trail and then followed it for a long way.  Another trail split off—the something-or-other ridge trail, and we were going to go that way but  I saw a person up there on the ridge and decided to take the road less peopled.

 

Our trail went up so high that I could see Tucson and I-10 off to the west, plus of course our campground and the road going to east to the other trails.  It turned out that I-10 was only two miles away from the entrance of the park. It would have been a lot easier to leave the park next day by that route, taking Tangerine Drive westward over to I-10 and then going south instead of going back down Historic Route 80, but google said it was 13 minutes slower to go that easier way. Construction backups, it seems.

 

So we’ll go whichever way the trucker app tells us to go.  And tomorrow we’re off, so we will find out what it chooses.

 It’s a funny concidence, that the Trek blogger Peg Leg wrote this:
Any ailment that only flares up maybe once a week or once every two weeks for a day isn’t that bad.
Coincidence? Just this morning after a very long pre-breakfast walk I had my front right leg pain flare up again. First time in a while. But it didn’t persist.

Reminder to self, another time we should get site 48. It’s a back-in site, but close to the trail and would be very convenient for Molly and me. And I hope there is another time—it’s a lovely place and a great campground. There are lots of little Palo Verde trees, plus other little mesquites. and on the slopes there are saguaros, cholla, ocotillo, and barrel cactus. Nice. Nothing was blooming except a few small wildflowers, but the barrel cactus was in fruit...is it edible? Yes -- The fresh fruit is tart and lemony with hints of rose and guava, while the seeds impart a neutral nutty flavor.
Palo verde:

 

 

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 8

Tuesday Nov 11

Up on time and quick with breakfast. We had tickets to the Sabino Canyon Crawler, a tram tour that goes up the canyon. Google Maps totally messed with our minds—we left at 9:30 for an 11:00 ticket time, and we had about a 40-minute drive to the place. Easy breezy. Except when we arrived, Google insisted we hadn’t arrived!!! It wanted us to keep going, driving along the tram-only route.

We were stuck circling a parking lot full of cars and lots and lots of people, until I finally asked Ed to park and I’d walk up to the ticket office and find out where to go. When I got there, I freaked. (briefly) The ticketing was all electronic and there was no one to ask!

But then I saw the sign for the Sabino Canyon Crawler tram loading area, and just then realized that the lady working on the ticket machine was actually an employee. She very nicely confirmed we were in the right place and had plenty of time to get on our tram. Whew.

It was a lovely ride. It would have been great to get off at the end and walk back, but that wasn’t on the agenda for the day.  Molly was waiting at home.

There were lots of other trails of varying lengths out in the canyon, including half-day hikes. That would have been fun!

But we enjoyed the ride and saw our fill of mountains and saguaros and scary, narrow, low-water crossings.

Then back. I ate a little lunch and wished I’d eaten less (will explain later), then took Molly for a long walk. Before setting out, I looked at the computer clock and thought that we were leaving at about 3:10 for a one-hour walk, but after a while I remembered that my computer clock was an hour fast. So we actually left at 2:10 and walked until about 3:50.  About 1-3/4 hours. Wow.

It wasn’t all that hot and I’d taken a half-bottle of water and Molly’s water dish. So at the halfway point, when we reached the trailhead that we’d driven to the day before, I promised Molly I’d split the water with her if we didn’t find a spigot. But as it turned out, there were lots of spigots. And a restroom—pit toilet style--waterless but also odorless so I can’t complain.

So Molly got a full bowl of water and I got to empty the bottle and refill it with fresh water for my drink.

And then we walked back. Shorter this time, as it always it. On the way I saw several birds but didn’t take the time to see them well. Stupid me.

 

Phainopepla -- a common bird in the desert but you'll never see one at my house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We ate supper at La Hacienda Family Mexican. A great place with lots and lots of food items on the menu, plus a very long wait to be seated. 40 minutes on a Tuesday?  At about 5:15 in the evening?  There were tons of old people there—what can you expect.

Anyway, Ed had Beef Molcajete and seemed to like it; I had Portabella Fajitas, which were great. I had leftovers but never managed to eat them all. If we’re ever in the neighborhood, we’ll definitely go there again.

 

By the way, I believe that was the day when I actually met Debra Winger, the author. She had a Ellie Dwyer advertisement on the spare tire cover on her pop-up camper. Seeing her poking around in the dumpster (they were camped in the row in between the one with the restroom and the one with the dumpster), I mentioned that I loved Ellie Dwyer. And she said that she was starting on Book 8 of the series right away. So it was her!

I didn’t mention that I was actually re-reading the series even then. All I did was holler something like, “don’t let anything bad happen to Ruth” and get on my way.

 

Snowbirding Magnus Style, Day 7

Monday Nov 10

Destination: Catalina State Park, near Tucson. It was a very short drive, as planned, so we had to kill time. We dawdled around the KOA, eating their breakfast which was good but it took a long time to get our food. Then I took Molly for a second walk and we ended up leaving pretty close to eleven.

Although it turned out that the KOA check-out time was 12. No matter, but it’s annoying when the time I looked up doesn’t match the time on their printed document.

 

 

 

 

Sights from the KOA before we left:

 

 

We stopped at a rest area to waste more time. We needn’t have--the navigator app took us off I-10 and a long way through the heart of Tucson. Maybe not actual downtown, but not far from it. Eleven or twelve miles of stop and go traffic lights with heavy traffic. On a Sunday!

But the arrival at the park was lovely. It’s a gorgeous state park, with big sites, lots of vegetation although of the desert variety (prickly and sparse), and  well-marked roads. There weren’t a super big lot of campsites in the two campgrounds, which may explain why it fills up so frequently. According to the signage, our campground B was full for both Sunday and Monday. For Sunday I can believe it but on Monday I would have guessed it at 1/3 full or less.

Still,  plenty of room for us. Our pull-thru site was near the edge of the campground which was what I typically choose, all else being equal. If there’s a site near the edge, then I can walk Molly without having to pass by a lot of neighbor sites with chances of free-roaming dogs.

By the way, I haven’t seen a single one of those so far. All dogs are leashed or tied.

It was about 85 degrees in the afternoon when we arrived, which felt good while sitting but was a little too hot for active exercise. But we went walking anyway. There are quite a few trails in and around the foothills of the Catalina Mountains, so we drove the Jeep down to the trailhead (common to several of the trails) and took the “birding loop”. Not many birds, but a lovely trail. It went across the wash of a dry creek, then gradually up hill and around. At one point there were steps and it went up rather precipitously, but not to an especially scenic view or anything. Just nice.

 Saguaros all over!  Most  of them seemed mature with lots of arms; I saw very few young ones. Hope that’s not a bad sign. I did eventually see a Phainopepla, a cardinal-like bird of the desert; all black with a crest. They seem very common here.  And a few  house finches. And one white-rumped woodpecker, but I couldn’t tell if it was a Northern Flicker or a Gilded Flicker. The underwings seemed orange—so was it a Northern Flicker with red underwings that looked orange or a Gilded flicker with yellow ones that looked orange? Yeah, you guess.

 

But it was still a nice walk with amazing mountain views. And soon enough it was time to go back to camp, fire up the charcoal, and cook Ed’s barbequed chicken. I had leftover shrimp and Molly had dog food. Poor Molly.