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)
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