Before we started our long drive, we went to a little local park that has a nature walk. We came to this park last year and found that it is a pleasant little thirty minute walk. They have signs all around telling you want kind of plant or cactus is in each spot. We found that many rabbits live here. I imagine there would be a lot of other wildlife like coyotes, rattlesnakes, owls, hawks, bobcats, rats, etc. living here as well.
We saw a few rabbits that the dogs wanted to chase so badly. But they know they aren’t allowed to chase things when they’re on leash. Only the three big dogs seemed interested – Boogie still seems clueless….which is fine by us!
We didn’t see any rats, and Boogie didn’t indicate that he’d noticed any either. But we did see a big rat midden.
Pack rats will gather all sorts of twigs, branches, aluminum cans, car parts, old shoes and anything else they can find lying around to use in building their middens. Pack Rat middens are usually constructed around the base of a tree or Prickly Pear, and no more than one adult resides in each midden. A friend of ours who lives down here has removed a midden from her yard many times only to have one appear again in just a few weeks.
This really isn’t the time of year for much blooming of flowers but this Fishhook Cactus looked like it was in bloom or at least at the end of its bloom.
You can see why they call it the Fishhook cactus if you look closely at the needles. They are shaped like a hook and they are strong. When one of the leashes would get hooked by one of the needles there was no way to just pull them off. They were definitely hooked. It took quite an effort to go over and get the leashes unhooked. We must have gotten hooked 20 times! It’s always something!
I must say, I have no idea how Mike finds many of the places he takes us throughout the year. Today we drove about 70 miles or so to a little (emphasis on little) town called Patagonia. Why this little town still exists, I have no idea.
It looks like it never progressed past the 1800's. It looks like some little stagecoach town. I'm sure no building has been built there for a couple hundred years. There is a Saloon right next to the Stagecoach Motel which is right next to the Marshal's office.
Mike seemed offended when I started laughing at this little town. I couldn't help it - we drove all that way for this! I'm still not sure the significance of this town - or what people do for a living that live there. I'm guessing maybe a hundred people live there.
Mike stopped and went into the Visitor Center (can you believe they even have one!) in the lobby of the very old hotel. He came out with a little map of some possible hiking nearby. I can't imagine we'll run into many people on this hike!
There is really nothing but open space out here. I guess that's good for us as we like hiking all by ourselves. We went many miles and never saw another car. Wouldn't you know, we pulled into the parking lot of the hike and there was a truck there. I wonder how this person found this place...and why?!
We didn't even bother putting the girls on leash to get out of the car. The boys are always on leash until we check out the surroundings well. The hike started out fairly pretty and fairly flat.
But with tall grass like this it would be way too easy to lose the boys so they had to stay on leash. Suddenly we heard this weird squealing noise. We couldn't imagine what it was. Then we saw something across the hill running really fast. Mike thought it was a coyote. As I started taking pictures I thought those were the weirdest looking coyotes ever. Then we noticed a deer go running by and saw the "coyotes" chasing them. The girls wanted to help chase the deer but Mike told them not to and being the good dogs they are, they stopped and just watched.
Shortly after that we heard someone calling and whistling. Mike figured someone must be out hunting with their dogs and that's what we'd seen. One of the dogs went back in the direction of the voice but the other dog kept going and going. We kept hiking and in just a minute met a lady on the trail. She had one dog and was still looking for the other one. Mike told her the other dog had kept going as it was still chasing the deer. The lady apologized saying she was sorry her dogs were being bad and said she hoped her dogs hadn't hurt the deer. Mike informed her that the dogs were nowhere near to capturing the deer and that they really weren't being bad - it's a natural thing for dogs to do! She was so relieved. After a couple minutes the other dog came up behind us on the trail. Here is Freckles on the hunt:
And here is Tater on the hunt (both dogs were about the size of Wazzu and Sparkie):
We continued on the hike and the views got very pretty.
We'd only been hiking for about fifteen minutes when Wazzu started crying and shaking her paw around. I immediately checked her paw and found that she was being bitten by one of those red ants - like the ones that got Boogie a few days ago. I immediately got the ant out of her foot. We had done some research after Boogie's experience and found these ants are called Harvester Ants. It said their bite is extremely painful.
Wazzu sure believes this! We have always taught our dogs that if they have a problem to come to us and we'll help them. Most often it's a sticker which we pull out of their foot and they're off and happy. Poor Wazzu just couldn't understand why I wouldn't help her. She didn't want to walk at all. She'd just sit in front of me with her paw held up in the air and look at me with big sad eyes. But I didn't know what else to do so I just told to her walk.
She'd then walk a little ways - but with a huge limp. After only a few feet she'd stop and and hold up her paw. I felt so bad that I couldn't help her. I could tell she didn't understand why I wouldn't help her. Poor Wazzu.
When we stopped for water a few minutes later, Mike looked through his first aid kit and noticed that he had some sting relief pads. I rubbed and rubbed just hoping this would actually provide her some relief. Boogie of course wanted help and kept sticking his nose near the pad. From his reaction, I'm guessing the pad had a very strong smell. He kept sneezing and sneezing and rubbing his nose on the ground.
The view from this stop was pretty too - it seemed prettier than this picture shows for some reason.
We never hope for the dogs to find a deer to chase - but we were so hoping to see one now so that Wazzu would go off on a chase and forget about her poor foot. From where we were we could see the dogs even if they were to go way off. But we didn't see any signs of life other than the ants.
Even this far into the hike the trail was still flat and very easy to walk on.
It didn't really matter what the trail was like for Sparkie as she was very rarely on it! Here's how Sparkie looked a lot of the time.
By looking at the scenery, you wouldn't expect to find much in the way of flowers or color.
While they certainly weren't prolific we were surprised to find a flower here or there. I'm definitely not a wild flower expert so I can't tell you the names of most of these plants. However, I can share their beauty with you.
This is an Ocotillo cactus that is common in the deserts in this part of the country. However, it's the only one we saw on this particular hike.
Sparkie came back to Mike limping and holding up her paw. He found many stickers in her foot. They came from this type of cactus. Since I took the picture so close up it looks like a big cactus. But it wasn't as big around as my fist. I'm not sure but this may be a beehive cactus.
This little cholla cactus was very cute and unlike most I've seen.
I have no idea what this is and I haven't seen it on any of our hikes but I did think it was interesting and pretty.
I haven't seen this before either, and I really don't like pink, but I thought this was very pretty. It looked lonely as there wasn't another one around that we saw anywhere. (Oops, this picture is on it's side....just flip your computer on it's end and then this picture will look just fine!)
I was really enjoying this trail. It did have a slight incline to it but it wasn't very steep....for a while. Then the trail changed from flat and dirt to rocks and fairly steep.
For some reason, Slugger seems to have tender feet. When we get on rock paths he walks so gingerly and picks his feet up really high trying to find just the right place to set them down. Our hikes then become extremely slow going.
That's exactly why we bought Slugger some new hiking boots a few months ago. On the new updated design, the treads are just like that on human hiking boots.
Slugger actually understands that these boots make it so that his feet don't hurt. He is happy to get them on! Once they're on, he's hiking up the rocks like they don't even exist. Notice how his treads seem to match Mike's hiking boots.
Now that Slugger had his boots on he really wanted to move along. Mike had his work cut out for him now! Notice you don't see Slugger lagging behind anymore....he is out in front of Mike.
But it's so great to see what a difference those boots make. We all really like the new design much better as Slugger has much better traction now.
Good thing the boys were both on leash as the two red boys really blended in well with the red rock.
I really wanted the dogs to have a nice long hike - espcecially since we had the whole entire area to ourselves...and we needed to be gone all day. I went just as far as I possibly could while trying to make sure I could make it back. Not only was I disappointed that we had to turn around but so were the dogs.
So while they had a drink I took a look around at the view. Even way out here it is hazy. I guess the days of clear distance views are over.
Wazzu laid down to rest before the journey back. But she didn't really get much rest as it turned out.
Boogie was nowhere close to tired and thought this would be a great time to attack Wazzu.
He kept attacking her but she just sat there trying to duck each attack.
We started our trek back but were in no hurry as we wanted the dogs to get plenty of exercise. I think it is impossible to wear Boogie out when he has to be on leash the entire time. Even though he had to be on leash he was a really good sport about it. Slugger is a really good example for him in that respect. I think the thing that confused Boogie the most is who he is supposed to be walking with. Most of the time Mike had his leash so he'd stay with Mike. But occassionally I would hold the leash and he didn't seem to understand why he couldn't stay up with Mike.
The views from the different spots weren't all that different but seemed interesting nonetheless.
After about two and a half hours we got back to the car. The dogs were really thirsty even though we’d stopped for drinks along the way. The only time they share a water bowl is when they are super thirsty. I’d say there are as many heads in this bowl as could possible fit.
While the dogs were drinking I noticed something stuck under the drivers side windshield wiper. I wondered how we could get a ticket way out here – and what could we be getting a ticket for.
Here’s the exact note:
Hi Dog Lovers,
My dogs are rescues too (they must have seen the rescue sticker on our car) from the Nogales Humane Society. They are brothers – “Freckles” and “Tater.” They did have fun and you’re so right – being bad isn’t all bad! Have a great trip and enjoy Patagonia.
How nice was that! Well there may not be many people in Patagonia but the one we met was extremely nice. Isn’t it amazing how such a little thing as leaving a nice note can really brighten someone’s day. I guess it goes to show how important little things can be. It probably didn’t take her two minutes to write that note. But it brightened our whole day…and who knows, it may brighten many of our days ahead as we think back on it. Let’s all take a lesson and do something nice for a stranger.
After we left the hills outside Patagonia we took a drive down to Nogales. I’m guessing that’s as close to Mexico as we’ll get for quite some time (maybe ever). We must not have looked very dangerous as the border patrol just waved us on as we returned. The checkpoint we went through must be some sort of secondary patrol spot as we didn’t actually enter Mexico.
We didn’t get out of the car at all on this part of the trip…this was just a drive to waste time and maybe see something interesting. Well, we wasted time at least.
We’d been wanting to go to a pet store for a few days and figured this would be a good chance. Mike found one that was in the path of drive home. We parked and got all the dogs out of the car. Before we even started walking toward the store we noticed that all the store were dark. The whole shopping center had lost power. Some people were stuck inside and others wanted in but couldn’t as the power doors were working.
The dogs were so confused when we just put them right back in the car. Poor guys, they’d been riding in the car for almost four hours. We decided just to go home and hope the RV was done.
We arrived back at the service center about 4:00pm. The good news is that the RV was done! The bad news was that the problem was not caused by a mechanical failure. They said it looked to them like a rat had been chewing on the hose and made scratches and one tiny hole in the hose. (Here's the skinny little $20 4' hose.)
The warranty doesn’t cover it in that case. How or why would a rat get way up in there? We’re thinking we’re going to put an x-pen all the way around the outside of the RV and make Boogie sleep under the RV so he can watch for rats!
Mostly, Mike is relieved that we won’t have to try and be out of the RV all day anymore. That’s a relief to all of us!
Debbie
11/15/07
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