28 Nov, 2017;
Buenos Aires NWR, Sasabe AZ
Final day in Tucson (for this visit)
For my last day, Amber and I decided to take a hike in the Buenos Aires NWR. While we didn't find the wash that Amber remembered hiking years ago, we did take a nice hike around Grebe Pond near the visitor center (which unfortunately was closed).
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| I was surprised to see some water in Grebe Pond. |
There were lots of birds - I recognized some of the more common ones like Herons, Egrets, Red tailed Hawks; Amber, the birder, identified Merlins, Harriers and many more. We also saw a bunch of Mule Deer.
Two javelina burst out of the underbrush and we got a good look at them as they ran away. I wasn't quick enough to even get a pic of their departing fuzzy butts.
The highlight, for me, was seeing a BOBCAT emerge from the bushes near the water and then slowly disappear into more distant bushes. I've only seen one other bobcat in the wild and seeing this one was a gift!
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| If you look very closely in this fuzzy photo, you still won't see the BOBCAT - I was too busy watching it to get my camera up and focused fast enough. But this is generally where it was :) |
Old cattle chutes are everywhere in the SW
Old cattle chutes are a common site in the SW - evidence of ranching and mining dot the landscape.
I ran out of water!!
I don't think I can remember ever having that happen before. It wasn't a particularly hot day(kind of cloudy) and I took my usual 2 litres - but ran out towards the end of our hike. Guess I'll be filling up my water container to it's full 3 litres from now on!
If I had to come up with one negative for hiking in the SW, it would be how much water I have to carry - water is heavy and by the time I add the 'hiking 10 essentials', my smart phone camera, perhaps a small set of binocs - my day pack feels really heavy!!
