Hike up Bob Thompson Peak, part 4

This view looks westward from Bob Thompson Peak to Montezuma Peak about a mile away, and a ridge runs northward from there to Miller Peak. Just a few hours after we took this picture a fire started on the other side of Montezuma Peak and the high winds pushed it along that ridge. National Forest Service Trail 103 runs along that same ridge and is heavily used by illegals and smugglers. There have been at least five man-made fires in this same spot in recent years, all caused by camp fires they didn't bother to put out. The fire didn't reach Miller Peak, but it dipped down into Ash Canyon and threatened several homes there. It took almost 500 firefighters and half a dozen helicopters three days to get it under control.



This view looks southwest from Bob Thompson Peak toward the San Jose Mountains in Mexico. You can see how steep the hillside drops off. My GPS said that we climbed 2300 feet in about 1.1 mile, but most of the actual slopes were about 40 degrees with lots of loose rocks. It was easier going up than it was coming down.

Hike up Bob Thompson Peak, part 3

Here I am at the top of Bob Thompson Peak. Miller Peak is about three miles off in the background.

And here is Eric at the peak. It was pretty windy up there.

While we up on the peak, we met a Border Patrol agent who had helped apprehend a couple of illegals further down the slope a few hours earlier. He had some interesting stories about the Mexican military running cover for drug smugglers along the border.

Hike up Bob Thompson Peak, part 2

This is my son Eric taking a break on the slope. He carried half of our water and Gatorade, and held up just fine on what is a fairly steep hike over lots of rocks. I think he actually enjoyed the hike.

This is a rare picture of Eric's old man in the wild ... emphasis on "old". He held up OK as well.

Hike up Bob Thompson Peak, part 1

I finally talked my son Eric into hiking up Bob Thompson Peak with me. This is the mountain that rises about 2300 feet above our lot to the west, roughly 7350 feet at the top. It isn't the tallest peak in the Huachuca range, but the view is pretty impressive. We took two of our dogs with us ... the large (140 pounds) Anatolian Shepherd Dog is Arka, while the smaller mixed breed is a stray we call Zorra (Spanish for a female fox) who just showed up about 18 months ago and decided to stay.

The next few pages show several pictures from the hike, including this one taken part way up the ridge line. Mexico is in the background.



A bit further up the climb we found this lookout spot that was probably created and used by smugglers (people or drugs). The rocks were definitely stacked by hand to form a hiding spot and there was a lot of trash around, including several large window screen frames ... for what purpose I cannot imagine.

Snow Storm

These are a couple of pictures taken from our lot the morning after a snow storm in mid-march 2006. Not such a major event, but we don't get much snow here and what we do get usually doesn't last long.

Fence Party

Our four acre lot and all those around us are zoned residential, but most of the land adjoining the neighborhood is still used for grazing cattle. It turns out that, at least in this county, the burden is on the homeowner to keep cattle out rather than the burden being on the rancher to keep their cattle in. Everyone who runs cattle nearby tries their best to control their cattle, but we and our neighbors had to put up about 2000 feet of fence in this particular area at our own expense. We all pitched in the money for materials and several of us provided the labor to put it up. I had never played real cowboy before so it was an interesting experience for me. Stringing the wire turns out to be pretty easy ... the hard part is driving the stakes, especially into the mixture of rocks and soil that passes for ground out here.

This fellow in the picture is the one who organized the fence party.

We rigged a way to spool out the barbed wire from the back of my truck. Thankfully the rocks weren't too bad in this area and I didn't lose any part of the undercarriage or blow a tire.

Here is another neighbor who guided the spool as I drove.

Mohave and Blacktailed Rattlesnakes

OK, here are some more rattlesnake pictures. We've seen a lot of them this summer, I assume because the rains have bred lots of mice and lizards for them to feed on.

Anyway, this first picture is probably the most interesting. My wife discovered this three foot long snake about dusk on the concrete slab in one of the rooms of her parents' partially completed home (they are also building down here). I lifted it up with a stick and dropped it into a plastic barrel (with lid), then drove about a mile away to release it. It had markings I hadn't seen before, so I took some pictures of it as I released it and then looked it up on the internet when I got home. It turns out that having white bands that much wider than the black bands on its tail identify it as a Mojave Rattlesnake, supposedly the most dangerous rattlesnake in The United States. Most rattlesnake venoms cause tissue degeneration, but the venom from a Mojave Rattlesnake is a neuro-toxin. It causes brain and spinal cord damage, and victims often die of suffocation if not treated soon.

And yes ... this area turns out to be part of the normal territory of the Mojave Rattlesnake.

And this picture shows another Blacktailed Rattlesnake, which seems to be the most common variety in our neighborhood. They are fairly passive and actually quite pretty, but this particular snake was the largest Blacktailed Rattlesnake we've seen and it was only fifteen feet outside the dining room window of our new house. I estimated it to be four feet long. Again, I loaded it into the barrel and relocated it a couple hundred yards away, taking some pictures of it as it crawled up onto a rock.