Cochise Stronghold Trail

I hiked this trail in 2019, when I foolishly threw caution down a canyon, often hiking solo in remote areas on 10-mile or longer tramps. This year, in a concession to age and reason (and my wife's imploring), I persuaded my hiking partner Misty to make the two-hour trip down from Tucson, promising a new and interesting geology, and I think she felt it was worth the four hours of seat time.

While this is by no means a difficult hike despite its hard rating (more moderate in my book), it'll tire you out if you do it quickly enough. Most folks climb up from West Cochise (3.5 miles) or the East Cochise side (6.1 miles) climb to the divide and return; I always do the whole damned thing because, well, four hours of seat time. 

Beautiful weather, with warm temps near sixty up at the divide. A slight wind helped to cool us down on the descent. Saw a few fellow primates today, well, two or three fellow primates, and half a dozen knuckle-dragging Trumpers.

Not much to add from my previous trip, and not sure I can improve on it, so I'm stealing a paragraph for this write-up, the general geologic and historic stuff:

The Dragoon Range was formed in the Mesozoic era (also called the Age of Reptiles, 252 to 65 Ma) during the Cordilleran Uplift (65 to 150 Ma). They are composed of granite and basalt, eroded into impressive spires, wonky shafts, ovate boulders, and other Seussian shapes. A very rugged geology, the area became the base camp of the Chiracahuan Apaches, a tribe of about a thousand people with about 250 formidable warriors, led by the great warrior and strategist, Cochise. Cochise is said to have been buried deep in the this area of the Dragoons.

The west side is not quite as beautiful as the east side, but not bad. However, it was a lot steeper, albeit shorter.

The West Cochise Trailhead. Whenever I see signs like this, I want to scream. This is not bear country any more than it is a bear planet. This is Homo sapiens country, and a Homo sapiens planet. We have got rid of most of our competition as we race to extinct ourselves and all the other large mammals.