Long Drive Short Walk

2024-02-20

DF and I drove out for a short walk, an afternoon’s exploration. I’d been laid up with a neck and back pain and then nearly recovered, when, I immediately contracted probably covid. You know, one of those just passing through viruses. I didn’t want to get up and over do it the first day. On the other hand, I was stir crazy with frustration.

Thirty minutes from town and then a few miles of dirt backroads, the trail began to splinter, getting worse. The 4runner is crawling over piles of rocks, in berms and zig zagging. Pin stripes can be heard forming in the overgrowth, then deep sand. Don’t stop in the deep sand.

Along the way, just across a field up the hill, seven deer are getting up from an afternoon siesta under a palo verde tree. Our loud motor has disturbed the peace and quiet. The odd loud red thing with two beings have disturbed their rest. We’ve stopped and watch as they lumber to feel a safe distance. Nobody actually runs. They just stop look and listen as the truck idles and two naked shutter bugs grapple with the telephoto lens, rolling down the window and working out elbow room, whispering for some senseless reason.

They are big. There is a lot for animals to eat out here in this lush Sonoran foothill desert. The first thing that we had noticed was that the ground is carpeted with a lawn-like green. The Spring bloom is setting up. The abundance of rainy days have encouraged it. Maybe, this year will be another a super bloom.

Big “Slim” a dead saguaro waves as we pass. “Hi Slim.”

There are two other roads up hills. One is for a relay station. This one, I think, is here just to go up there. Perhaps it is just a challenge for off-road vehicles. The reward would be a high point with a view that doesn’t require climbing on foot.

We have begun our exploration along a powerline ditch. We’ve had to get out of the road a couple of times and drive parallel to it. When it rains, this gets very mushy. There are long deep mud trenches where the two track road goes. I straddle one, but find mud clinging everywhere as we emerge. The wet earth is splattering as the thick tread wheels turn, even as far as onto my front window.

We pass two groups of saguaros, each are like a family, together. They are growing too close. Sometime decades from now, their arms will become entangled and their girth squeezed, needles cutting each other.  This is unusual, in our experience. However, as our day continues, we’ll find this arrangement many times over.

I’ve been attempting to hike out here for years from our friend’s place at Terra Sante. After the long hike, we have always fallen just short of these verdant mountains in dismay. The Army Corps of engineers long ago, rigged the sheeting floodwater from these hills to get caught in a cross flow to water cattle. Downhill, this dried up the valley, which stretches out miles farther. The valley was then further denigrated by cattle. On any windy day, multiple dust devils can be seen in the big swaths of barren dirt and powdery sand.

All of these trenches and berms are obstacles and have made crossing difficult and confusing during our hikes. With few people out here, only animal paths are found, unless an ATV, or dirt-bike churn one up.

Today, instead of walking to it, we are just driving out to this place on this back trail, so there will be time to enjoy the natural beauty and explore.

First the trails that we choose lead down toward the man-made reinforced washes. I see the dirt berms along the larger washes. Off road toys have been using these for sport. Two track trails are everywhere. Instead of driving up on one blindly and possibly dropping off of the other side into a ditch, we decide to walk it first.

One thing leads to another. Soon, we are walking up other piles of soil and rock. These dikes, because they are the tallest places around here, are handy.

I need to get bearings and be sure we are where I think we are. Added to this, I satisfy curiosity and realize how alone and free we are. There will be no need for covering, but for our feet.

There are empty beer cans everywhere. DF laments not having a plastic cleanup bag and the goes back to the truck for one.

The silence is astounding. I hear the buzzing in my ears, but it slowly calms down replaced with noisy inner thoughts. Soon, I can just feel the calm inside and out. The silence is a key to knowing the world as just being with the peace.

At the top of the tallest height, I stop to savor 85% chocolate. The whole experience is sensual, why not just add some taste to it.

We find old clothing. It appears that someone had maybe gotten stuck in the mud. They used clothing, filling it like sand bags. It still lies in a muddy morass.

Standing there in lovely nude attire, with no need or reason for coverings, I think to myself. “What a great idea! Now, that IS a good use of clothing!”

This area gets incredibly muddy, soggy and slippery. I’ve seen seemingly earthen cars devoid of paint colors and windows. Only two swishes of wiper blades reveal the humanity inside. It’s as if they are built of adobe.

DF discovers a bob cat, or maybe a raccoon’s tracks in the cracked mud.

Erosion creates craters, mini canyons.

One must take care when standing on the edge to make sure the earth doesn’t cave in. Tunnels and ledges can make surprises.

We are just beginning our hike. The degradation of the terrain both through many years of exploitation and now recreation, has created a less desirable environment. We are here to explore for access to the less touched mountains and find our bearings. Our quest is to find places to walk and in doing so, to grasp that sense of freedom. I crave the unhindered peace. Already we are feeling unconstrained and our minds cleared by the silence of the moment.

The destruction from recreational vehicles tells us that we are in a huge playground with little other human activity. We will probably find them out here on weekends. We will hear them, warned of their presence a mile away. During the week, like this, there will be solitude and opportunity to be our natural naturist selves forty minutes from home.

I see the mountains behind us in relation to where we have hiked before out here. Those hills are the ones. It is time to realize my long time goal, finally. From here, I can see a huge, lush, saguaro studded desert habitat.

The story continues, soon….

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