The Savage Traveler: Winter Travels 2019--Part 12: Time at Gilbert Ray Campground

We got up at 6:45 on Friday, broke camp, and were 6^th in line at 8:00 at Gilbert Ray, waiting for the office to open at 9:00. It was a jolly, friendly group waiting, who bonded with stories and tips on other campgrounds and things to do in Tucson. The office opened and by 10:00 we were set-up in a small but adequate site on the outside of a loop, with nothing behind us but desert and looking at Brown Mountain, a high point in the Tucson Mountains. The site was wide, if not deep, and we love it. Gilbert Ray has electricity at the sites but not water or sewer. And they have flush toilets and cold water in the sinks, but no showers. But we were delighted to find that the restroom across from us has a large wash sink outside with hot water and a long, high sprayer, where it is acceptable to wash hair. We would be just fine here for a week. We took a hike on the trail that sort of circles the campground and biked the campground roads. We have very spotty Wifi and phone service at our site. While sitting there in the warm sunshine, wearing my grass hat with the orange silk flower, I was buzzed by a hopeful hummingbird fooled by the bright color. I spent a long time trying to register and pay for a couple of hikes through the County website, but couldn’t get it to work. After half an hour we decided to take our chances and just show up for a hike on Saturday and see if they’d take us. Marv grilled salmon and I made potato chips in the Air Fryer and we had a nice dinner and settled in for the evening as the temperature dropped into the 40°s. In general, Arizona is having a very wet, cool winter. Most nights are getting into the 30°s and the days make it to the low to mid 60°s. It’s a bit disappointing to us but we’re hearing horror stories of the Polar Vortex, historically low temperatures, snow and ice at home so we really can’t complain!

Sonoran Desert Panorama

Peggy with Brown Mountain in the background

We love the saguaros!

This Gila Woodpecker was knocking his brains out up there.
We found out later he was probably not drilling for insects;
he was marking his territory with the drumming.

The ocotillo flower is swelling but the plant has no leaves.

Iconic Sonoran Desert Sunset

Saturday we got up early enough to eat breakfast and drive to the other(east) side of the mountains to the trailhead of the Letman Trail, where we found Sandy, the naturalist from the county leading the day’s 8:30 hike. She apologized for their deficient website and said we were welcome to join her for the hike. We waited for 12 Americorps teens, who were signed up for the hike on their day off from grooming trails in another part of the park. We hiked for over an hour, up the hillside to the Bowman Homestead, built in 1930 but long since abandoned. Now the 2000 acres are part of the county park. After a short rest we hiked back down completing a three-hour hike. We made BLTPBs (Peanut Butter on a BLT—delicious!!) for lunch and relaxed before showering in the trailer and I successfully washed my hair in the outdoor sink. (It’s the small victories that really make one feel happy.) We found a sports bar where we could have dinner and watch MSU’s home game, where they were predicted to have an easy time with Indiana. Sadly, they had their second straight loss, partly because of abysmal free throw shooting. We bought some groceries and headed back to the campground. It was mild enough (63°) that for the first time we tried sitting outside to enjoy the stars. But the reason it was so mild was that there was a cloud cover so we gave up on that. Because there was a good chance of rain we put away chairs and our big rug, and covered our bikes with a large tarp.