December 6 -- Montezuma's Quail, And A Hike To Ash Spring

The temperatures  have been in the upper 60s lately, with a forecast for 75 on Wednesday, so as it's December, and unusually warm weather, it's hiking time. Unlike the day before, the skies are clear during sunrise, so I don't need to rush back and forth from the front to the back, trying to photograph all the colors. And it wasn't below freezing during the night, so I didn't have to chip off the sheen of ice on the water features. Mom Coues deer and her 2 young ones -- no long fawns; they've grown up these past 2 months or so -- come to use the old, concrete-lined water feature at about the same time each day -- 7:30. I mentioned in a September post that deer cannot be hunted (a) on Forest Service land out (b) within a quarter of a mile of an inhabited building. Well, somebody ignored both those restrictions. I found out while visiting the Visitor Information Center, in Cave Creek Canyon where at the entrance along the road there is an obvious sign saying hunting is not allowed, gunfire was heard there recently, and ATVs were seen; the riders had shot a deer. No hunting allowed. Within a quarter of a mile of an obviously inhabited building. A pickup came to pick up the dead deer, then took off. Unfortunately no one got the license plate # . So yahoos CAN break all the rules -- and "my" deer, while safe, are now just a little less safe in spite of all the obvious restrictions. And even more prone to be shot once they get off my property. Idiots -- and potentially dangerous ones, at that.

I wanted to get an early start as I had what could be a long hike to do. The trailhead is off the dirt Herb Martyr Road. While driving up the winding road I saw some movement just off the road on the left side. It was a covey of Montezuma's Quail!  These are Nemesis Birds for many as they pretty much can only be found here in the Chiricahuas, and are considered to be a "resident" here. But the numbers fluctuate depending on the rain during the previous summer's  monsoon season;  it happened to be a wet one, so the population of Montezuma's is larger than usual. They're crazily patterned, especially the adult male; they've been described as a bowling ball with legs. I seen them as spherical with a head that could have been designed by Salvador Dali --

And you even the young males are cool-looking, though they don't have the Dali Head yet --  

There must've been at least 4 Montezuma's , and all in the underbrush with only glimpses of them out in the open. But as I was in my truck, and stopped, they weren't spooked; they usually explode out of the concealing grass, sometimes from just a few feet away. And you're not even aware they're there until they scare the crap out of you. But they're beautiful and somewhat rare even here, so I thanked them for giving me a good look at them -- finally!  (Last year I did see a male and female cross the road in front of my truck as I was driving ; I clipped the female as they were flying across low and slow, even I was driving slow. I looked back and I had at the very least knocked her out. Friends afterward said I should have picked her up if she was dead as Quail make good eatin'.) I continued driving up the road,and the view of Spencer Peak and Winn Falls in the early-morning light opened up in front of me --

Winn Falls is the white in the shadows to the right of Spencer Peak. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, it's frozen. I arrived at the trailhead -- 

Greenhouse Trail, my favorite trail in the Chiricahuas -- at least for now, until I do more while living here. This is also the trail to the Winn Falls Overlook which I'd done about a month ago. Before heading up the trail, here's a view looking down Herb Martyr Road -- 

And looking up the trail,which begins as an old road -- 

You can access the Ash Spring trail either here, or at the end of Herb Martyr Road. But I'd gone up that way a few weeks back, and there was a big tree deadfall across it which would have been hard to get around, so I decided to start at the eastern end. About a quarter of a mile up, the trail splits, and you hang a left to Ash Spring. There's lot of grass here, and the trail is overgrown in parts. (I should have brought my machete-- I actually do have one, borrowed from a friend for cutting grass around my house.) And there is catclaw; it has spines on it that claw you like, well, a cat's claw. It's also known (appropriately) as "devil's claw" and "wait a minute" tree, the latter because you have to "wait a minute" to get the prickles out to avoid shredding your clothes. No matter what the season, hiking in the Chiricahuas ain't a picnic!  As the trail goes around a mountain, the views are terrific -- 

And that yucca can puncture you, too. 

Then the trail goes through oak and pine, crosses a few dry creek drainages -- and arrives at Ash Spring. 

A local miner named Frank Pack had a homestead here that he built in the 1940's but was later evicted by the Forest Service. Then the house burned down, and only these ruins of the chicken coop remains. Here's the actual Ash Spring -- 

The spring issues from the metal structure on the right, and is encased in concrete. The trail continues -- 

And you enter into a beautiful section covered with autumn leaves -- 

There's an old gate across the trail --

And you enter an area that is in an area known as a "micro-climate" . It's more common at higher elevations, but the conditions exist that create a lusher area than the land around it. You cross the area of pine and oak and come to Cima Creek, a late-autumn picture of beauty --

One of the bad things about hiking when you're older is that you don't take as many chances as you used to. There are rocks in the creek, and you can go across them to the other side, but a few are under the water flow, so as I slipped and fell during a recent hike up South Fork -- nah, I think I'll stop on this side. I take a Clif Bar break and relax surrounded by all this beauty. And there's not a sound -- no wind, no rustling of trees or leaves on the ground -- except for the that of the creek tumbling over the rocks. I reluctantly head back. Past the gate, the autumn leaves carpet the trail -- 

Winding back along the side of the mountain, the light has changed so you get a better view of the scenery to the south and east; Cave Creek Canyon is in the distance here  --

The trail always seems shorter on the way back. Before I know it,  I'm back at the trail junction with the Greenhouse Trail, which at this point is called Basin Trail --  

The trail is obviously an old road -- 

And before I know it, I'm back at the truck and trailhead. I leave you with a small sign at the trailhead. Don't worry, the Forest Service is probably covering itself for liability reasons -- "see, we warned you!" It was put up as a result of the 2011's Horseshoe 2 fire and 2014's Hurricane Odile. But it isn't even half as bad these days as it sounds --