As we left camp at around 9:45 a.m., the morning was overcast and there was a chill wind as we started out this morning, but it wasn’t long before I was shedding clothes and despite the dire forecast it turned out to be great hiking weather.  As we made our way down Posta Quemada Wash we came to an area that had nice large sycamore trees (I think) and I was thinking that I should have gone there to go birding. 

We crossed an area with numerous trail junctions related to the trail rides that one can hire out of Posta Quemada Ranch. Posta Quemada Ranch started out as the Mountain Springs Hotel and Stage Station in 1878, built by Solomon Lick. Charles Day purchased the property in 1933 and renamed it La Posta Quemada Ranch. At around 1990, Pima County took over the cave and the ranch and now operates it as a park managed by the Pima County Parkland Foundation.

Once on the other side of the low mountains separating Posta Quemada Wash and Agua Verde Wash from Cienega Creek, Jerry pointed out a couple of deer across a draw from us.  We stopped and watched them for a short while.

We then came in sight of Agua Verde Castle, or Durham Castle, which was built in the 70s by the owner of Desert Greetings.  According to one unconfirmed report, the classmates of the Durham children would take field trips to the castle.  There is reportedly also a miniature train that goes around the base of the castle and out to the astronomy observatory near the castle.  The castle sits on nearly 350 nearly contiguous acres of land out there, which must be nice!  It looks like an interesting place.

I was dismayed today to have the Achilles heel problem I had on the Glacier trip come back.  I was hiking in my old boots, which had never caused this problem before.  I wonder now if the new boots I had on that trip weren’t the primary culprit of the pain.  It was the same pattern of being fine the first day and having Achilles heel pain the second.  I am going to try backpacking in my low top trail shoes next time to see if I still have the problem.  Thankfully, we only had to hike 6.1 miles today, and over fairly easy terrain.

We got to the trailhead parking and Jerry’s truck at around noon and had celebratory libations for completing our first, albeit easy, segment of the Arizona Trail on our quest to hike the whole thing.  Jerry and Andrea then shuttled me back to my truck and I returned home to unpack.  I had a lot of energy left so I got quite a bit accomplished upon returning home.

We hiked 6 miles today.