Our RVing days now behind us, the motivation to post blog updates, aside from our birding tours, has become less imperative. Still, there were a number of events in 2019 besides our Costa Rica entires worthy of mention.
Winter in Arizona, or what passes for winter, is nothing at all like winter in Wisconsin. However, given our elevation in Sierra Vista, we can still get a dusting of snow. It just doesn’t warrant owning a snow shovel.
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| Pinkie and Dave visit |
We had visitors from Wisconsin and elsewhere trying to escape winter, although not entirely successful. Pinkie and Dave Hanson, on their way through the area in their RV stopped by to say hello which naturally included a visit to Bisbee. They have a home in Las Cruces and Lincoln, NE, where we have been guests during our travels.
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| Rollie and Chris at San Pedro chance meeting |
A totally out of the blue meeting with another couple, Chris and Rowland “Rollie” Willis. We first met them in Port Orford, Oregon while we stayed at Port Orford RV Village in 2010 where Chris and Rollie were escaping warmer weather in Southern California. They have since relocated to Port Orford. We bumped into them while we were walking at San Pedro Riparian Area.
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| Ron, Carol and Renell at Council Rocks |
At the urging (it doesn’t take much) of good friends Ron and Renell Stewart, we explored the west side of Cochise Stronghold, part of Coronado National Forest in the Dragoon Mountains. This rugged fortress of granite domes and sheer cliffs was for some 15 years the home and base of operations Chiricahua Apache Chief Cochise and his followers.
In 1850, the United States took control over the territory that comprises Arizona and New Mexico. Initially not hostile to the Anglo-Americans there was peace until in 1861 when a young U.S. Army Lt. George Bascom, based at Fort Huachuca, made a serious blunder.
Cochise and several of his followers met with Bascom to deny accusations that they had abducted a child form a ranch. During the meeting, Bascom ordered Cochise and his followers be held hostage. Cochise managed to escape which enraged Bascom, who then, operating on his own accord, ordered the remaining hostages, including Cochise’s brother, hanged. It wasn’t until later that it was proved the boy had been abducted by another band of Apaches. But the damage was done.
Cochise was so embittered that he joined forces with his father-in-law, Magas Colorades, and engaged in a period of social upheaval, waging guerrilla warfare against the American Army and settlers. In 1863 after Mangas was captured and murdered, did Cochise assume the mantle of Apache war chief.
The Army captured Cochise in 1871 and was preparing to transfer Cochise to another reservation hundreds of miles away when Cochise escaped again, renewing his campaign of resistance. A year later, with the help of United States Army scout and Indian Agent, Thomas Jeffords, who had won Cochise’s trust, was a new treaty established allowing Cochise and his band to remain on their homeland.
Cochise, a master strategist who was never defeated in battle, died peacefully on the newly formed Chiricahua reservation in 1874. He was secretly buried somewhere in or near his impregnable fortress, the exact location still unknown today. Cochise Stronghold was named in his honor.
We’ve visited the much easier access to the east side of the stronghold where a campground and hiking trails are located. Getting to the west side was more circuitous and more confusing although Ron had a good idea of where to travel. The highlight was an arduous climb up to Council Rocks, a natural amphitheater where Cochise and his followers could meet without being troubled by military troops. It was near this spot that Cochise made peace in 1872.
Of note are several pictographs reminiscent of prehistoric Mongollon peoples with some more recent art added by the Apache along with several grinding mortars, circular depressions in rock outcroppings created and used for grinding grains, acorns and other food products.
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| Pam and Spencer at the BBC |
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| dining out at the Bright Spot with Spence, Pam, Diane and Glenn |
Spencer Black and Pam Fornell from the Madison, WI area, had been exploring several western parks and managed to stop by for three nights. We took them into Ramsey for a hike and then they were on their own exploring more local canyon trails. Naturally, at the Bisbee Breakfast Club, too.
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| Ric and Betty |
Ric and Betty Zarwell from Lansing, Iowa, were visiting family in Mesa and drove down to spend a few evenings as overnight guests. Again, another visit to our go to place, Ramsey Canyon.
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| Susan and Rex |
Another chance meeting with friends we’ve not seen for a long time, this time on a Sunday morning while we were volunteering at Ramsey. Susan Richards, Tom’s former boss at Lawrence University’s Seeley G. Midd Library, and her husband Rex Meyer had stopped by to see the trails at Ramsey. Now retired, they’re settled in Soccorro New Mexico. Naturally, a visit to Culver’s for an evening meal.
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| Glenn and Diane at Coronado Memorial and then hiking Hunter Canyon trail |
Glenn and Diane Chambliss from Wisconsin, who annually secure a long term rental in the Sierra Vista area, we back in our locale. We managed several outings together - hikes and meals - and at one point were joined by Spencer and Pam for dinner out. Always happy to see our Wisconsin connections.
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| Marti and John |
Marti Hemwall, a former colleague of Tom’s at Lawrence, and her husband John Peterson have been making visits to Tucson from Wisconsin a more regular occurrence. They stopped by to see our new digs and of course with so many of of visitors, breakfast out at the Bisbee Breakfast and drinks in Tombstone.
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| Carol and Larry Dole |
Intrepid travelers the Doles, Carol and Larry from New Hampshire, make it a point to escape in an RV. We first met the Doles while we were in South Texas volunteering at Bentsen-Rio Grande SP and since then on a number of our bird tours. They stopped by to say hello and share some local birding, at Ramsey Canyon, of course!
There were feathered backyard visitors as well.
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| curve-billed thrasher |
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| northern cardinal |
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| sharp-shinned hawk |
March rolled around and found us again in Costa Rica for two back-to-back birding tours, retold in these two earlier blog links:
After returning from Costa Rica we once more shared a local outing with Glenn and Diane, this time hiking Joe Canyon Trail in Coronado National Memorial. One can do the entire loop (6.2 miles) by climbing up from the visitor center parking lot and returning, or, by starting at the top at Montezuma Pass and taking the trail down to the visitor center (3.1 miles). The trail offers scenic views of Montezuma Canyon and the San Pedro River Valley and vistas of Sonora, Mexico.
Seasonally, the memorial’s visitor center offers a free shuttle accompanied by a park ranger to the top of Montezuma Pass allowing hikers to avoid the need of a second vehicle should they only want to hike in one direction (down to the visitor center). The ranger also provides a brief historical perspective but it’s definitely worth a stop at the visitor center to experience an extensive interpretive display detailing the historical circumstances surrounding Francisco Vázquez de Corando’s expedition starting in 1540.
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| Carol staffing the Ramsey Canyon table at Kartchner Cavern's Cavefest in January |
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| January snowfall in Ramsey Canyon |
We continued to volunteer at Ramsey Canyon TNC property every Sunday morning. Carol in the gift shop while Tom spent most of his time as a roving naturalist when he wasn’t substituting as a visitor center greeter. We also continued to participate in our local informal birding group’s nearly weekly outings.
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| Bill and Jeff |
The pattern of friends visiting from Wisconsin continued when Bill and Jeff, who lived just down the street from our home on E. South River Street, Appleton, stopped by for a day to say hello and share a lunch at our home.
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| Tom, Frank and Paul at Ramsey |
Not long after dear friends Frank Beylan and Paul Mach from Las Cruces (who we would also soon see later in the April in Las Cruces) visited for a day encompassing a whirlwind tour of Ramsey Canyon and the visitor center at Coronado National Memorial.
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| Paul, Frank on our back patio |
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| Paul would have been a great addition to Coronado's expedition |
By late April we were packed and ready to depart for our annual Spring visit to Wisconsin.
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| February hike at Guindani Wash Trail, Kartchner Caverns |
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