Cranes, Chiricahuas, Criminals. Eastern Cochise County

Today, Jessica and I attempted to continue our streak of exciting Saturday's.  Fortunately, thanks to a tip from The Man With No Name, we knew to leave Tucson.  For, it would be all but impossible to get around because of the annual El Tour de Tucson.  So we decided to head out to Eastern Cochise County for boxes and site seeing.

Unfortunately, today was one of those rare Arizona days where it rains and is cold.  (To be fair it is November)  But we went anyways.  We took the I-10 east out of Tucson and past Benson to our first Letterbox at the Texas Canyon.  It was at this point, standing outside and freezing, that we realized how cold the day would be.  But we had already committed.

We made the stop at "THE THING?" in order that Jess may get the two AZRoadie boxes located there.  Again, cold, but, we had finally made it ahead of the rain. 

Once we reached Willcox, we turned off of the I-10 onto State Route 186 East (all though it goes about as far south as it goes east).  Up to this point, we had been traveling on old territory, roads we had already driven when we went to Albuquerque. 

Our first stop in this new area was the Willcox Playa (and the associated box).  The Willcox Playa as far as know is a winter migration area for the Sandhill Crane.  Playa, in this case, refers to a large dry lake bed.  To be honest we were more interested in the letterbox, so I hadn't even thought about the cranes.  But when we reached the site we found several RV's with several bearded and camo-clad men standing around.  Hunters.  And very friendly hunters at that.  As soon as Jess and I exited the car, one of them asked "Wanna see my cranes?".  I was confused, because I was here for a letterbox, I had completely forgotten about the birds.  So naively I consented, and the man proceeded to show Jess and I two birds he had bagged, presumably early that morning.  These were the only cranes we saw while on the playa, although the hunter did mention that we could see flocks of them if we continued down the road.

I do hope that he doesn't show every person who drives up his dead birds.  I have no problem with hunting, and honestly I thought it was really cool.  But not everyone is as tolerant as I am.  Maybe he just thought my camo pants were cool.

Our next stop (again more letterboxes) was in Dos Cabeza's.  Specifically, two cemeteries near the town.  Dos Cabeza's is considered a ghost town, although there are still ranchers and town members who live in and around the city.  One of the cemeteries we visited was the "Pioneer Cemetery" of the town.  Meaning, I presume, that those buried there were once members of the town.  I always enjoy cemetery boxes, especially the old family plots, or old town plots.  Sometimes they contain some really old members.  In this instance there were several members who were buried in the early 1920's and several WWI veterans, but also many newer graves dating to as recent as 2006.

I also enjoy searching for names that I recognize from my family tree, but I don't think anyone of my family made it this far west.

Our next stop was Chiricahua National Monument, located in the Chiricahua Mountains.  But, by this point in our trip the rain had caught up to us.  It had been cloudy for the entire day (which lead to some really cool pictures), but now there was a fairly continuous drizzle.  But we decided to give the monument a try.  Sadly, the main road up through the canyons and past many of the rock formations was closed due to ice.  We made a feeble attempt to walk up the road a bit, but the cold rain was too much.  I hear the monument is beautiful though, so we will be sure to come again.

The last stop before we went home was at another grave.  But this one is special.  It belonged to none other than Johnny Ringo.

The Man With No Name has been working on a letterbox series marking the locations of the Earp Vendetta Ride, and he was gracious enough to give us the clues for Johnny Ringo. 

For a brief history, Johnny Ringo was a member of the Cowboys, an outlaw gang of cattlerustlers in Cochise County during the time of the Arizona Territory.  The Cowboys paired with Lawman Wyatt Earp (and his brothers) form the quintessential Old West.  They were the ones involved in the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone.  After the events at the OK Corral, the cowboys shot Wyatt Earp's brother Virgil.  In an act of vengeful justice, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and several others went out on a Vendetta Ride to find and kill those responsible.

Johnny Ringo was found dead next to a tree by Turkey Creek in the Chiricahua's on July 14, 1882.  One shot was heard, one bullet hole was in his head, one round fired from his gun.  They officially ruled it suicide, although some believe it was murder.

After paying our respects we  took SR181 West to HWY 191, which we followed North through Pearce and Sunsites, eventually making it back to I-10.  We made one last stop at the Texas Canyon to grab our final letterbox of the day (that made 8 total).  Then headed home.  The rain has moved on, and another fun filled Saturday is done.

Squatchis

(for pictures view my wife's blog savingtimeinabottle.blogspot.com)

Saguaro National Park

On Wednesday, in order to break up the monotony of the week, Jess and I went to the Del Cerro Trailhead on the eastern edge of Saguaro National Park to get two letterboxes.  As is typical, however, the two boxes were in opposite directions.  

So we hiked for about three miles round trip to get the one box along the trail that goes up Wasson Peak ( Sweetwater Trail). Unfortunately, it got dark. So we had to save the second box for another day...like Thursday.  

So again, we went out to the same location but took the other direction (Thunderbird Trail).  Overall a shorter hike, maybe not quite as scenic.  But it had an old fenced off abandoned mine, right off the side of the trail!  

Of course the danger signs and warnings only apply to little children and teenage boys.  So I went through the already made hole in the fence to get a closer look.  

According to The Man With No Name, the primary reason for mining in the Tucson Mountains is copper, but apparently trace amounts of Gold and lead can be found too.  Since I didn't actually go into the mine, I couldn't tell you for sure what this one is for, but I like to believe it was for Gold.

Today (Friday) it is raining so we can't go boxing.  But Tomorrow we will hopefully break the blockade and go to the Chiricahuas.

As always, check out my wife's site (savingtimeinabottle.blogspot.com) for more pictures of our trips.

Squatchis

The Mysterious Gold Mine of Thunderbird Trail. (Or something like that)

Oracle, AZ

Yesterday's Letterboxing adventure was Jess and my trip North to Oracle, AZ. Oracle is a mining twn established in the 1860's on the north side of the Catalina Mountains and was once a temporary residence of Buffalo Bill Cody.

 Originally, I considered going south to Cochise County and visiting Fort Huachuca, Cochise stronghold, Tombstone, etc.  But The Man With No Name also needs to make that trip so he can plant some boxes, so we've postponed the Cochise Expedition for now.

So Yesterday, Jess and I took advantage of the weekend to sleep in and then took AZ Route 77 North from Tucson to Oracle.  Our first stop was actually to go to the Biosphere2 located just south of Oracle.

I had visited the Biosphere 2.5 years ago with my parents when we came to Tucson to visit UofA.  But Jess hasn't been there before so I figured it would be fun.

For those who don't know, the Biosphere is a massive ecological dome built in the late 1980's with funding from one man.  The original purpose was to test the feasibility of moon colonies, so the entire facility was designed to be completely isolated from the outside.  Originally, it contained 5 biomes necessary for atmospheric stability, a half acre farm, living quarters, and a livestock area.  The original intention was to have groups of 10 (later reduced to 8) sealed inside for a year at a time, with the first group being sealed in for 2 years. In 1992, the first group of 8 were sealed inside, and they served there 2 years.  The result of there time was very beneficial to the scientific community, but as far as a moon colony, the trial proved to be negative.  The eight people were responsible for maintaining the entire facility and all of its engineering complexity, harvesting and preparing food, and conducting research, among other things.  This resulted in each person having a 66+ hour work week.  Additionally, the farm did not produce nearly enough food for each person.  As later said by one of the inhabitants, they were never deficit of nutrients, but they lacked calories, by almost 1000 each day. 

After attempting this process one more time, and cutting it short, the management changed the focus of the biosphere to be more I the way of ecological studies, First with Columbia university, the. with the University of Arizona.  Currently, If you visit, the University of Arizona is doing a lot of research in the way of water conservation, behavior, effects, etc.

Even if you're not all that much into ecology, the biosphere is still an incredible feat of engineering, and honestly just really cool. The tours take you first through the different biomes, then through the underground labyrinth of all the water collecting, cooling, and heating apparatus.  

By far the coolest part are the lungs.  Because the biosphere is able to be completely sealed off from the world, there must be a way to maintain pressure. Since it is encapsulated by 6600 panels of glass and located in the desert where temperature wil fluctuate through the year from 40* to 120*, if there is no way to maintain pressure, the entire building would either explode or implode.  So they build two large "balloons" that are free to expand and contract as need be.  These are the lungs.

After we finished at the Biosphere,Jess and I continued north on 77 to Oracle.  Our first stop was to Peppersauce Canyon which is located part of the way up a service road to Mt. Lemmon.  This means the road is dirt, narrow, and windy, with traffic coming both ways.  Not the best.  And once we arrived at The campground, we found it packed with a youth group or something.  

I initially intended to hike around the canyon, because it really is beautiful, filled with massive sycamores, and maybe go and see the Peppersauce cave.  But The shear number of adolescent boys running around changed my mind.  We were going to grab the box and go.  But, as luck would have it, the box was empty.  We found the box and lid, but the contents were lost.

Dissappointed we went back down the mountain to a small butterfly garden with two boxes there both of which were in excellent condition. This brightened our spirits quite a bit so we headed home.  

We had two more boxes we wanted to get in Oro Valley, just north of Tucson, in Honeybee canyon.  It took a bit longer than anticipated to get these boxes, but we managed and saw some petroglyphs while we were at it.  

We ended the day with some well deserved In-n-Out before finally going home.

Check out pictures on my wife's blog 

savingtimeinabottle.blogspot.com

Sea Breeze

Completed this 1000 piece puzzle with my lovely wife in just under seven hours.

Additionally, I have made "box density" maps based on counties.  Check them out on the right!

Perspective.

Well, putting all of the boxes I have found out into a list like this really puts it into perspective how much boxing has grown on me.  You know going from 65 boxes over three years to 200 boxes in eleven months. 

As a side note, I think I have found a site by which I can show which counties in each state I have found boxes.  We'll see how that goes.  I simply find the states map to be non representative at all. I have found close to 20 times more boxes in Arizona than any other state, and of those boxes, majority of them are in Pima county.  Hopefully, with this site I will be able to create a distribution map more to par.

Ich hasse laufen, aber ich liebe wandern.

Warum könnte die PRT ein Wandernprofung sein?

Squatchis

My Wife

Well, my wife does a better job at this than I do.
Check it out - http://savingtimeinabottle.blogspot.com/

Warum ein Unterseeboot, weil ein Tag ich es fahren werde.

Squatchis

Blogging....

Perhaps this is the result of insanity or boredom.  Or maybe it stems from dedication.  But my wife and I have decided to start blogging, whatever that means, about letterboxing.  And since the only people who will probably view this ever are letterboxers, I don't even need to explain what letterboxing is.

To begin with, I'll probably just use this as a collection sight where I can organize all of my boxes.  Maybe more will come of it.

Oder vielleicht könnte ich mein Deutsch üben.  Und denn, werden alle die Leute durcheinander, die meine Blog schauen.

Wer weiß?

Squatchis