02/12/03:
Wandered on down to Arivaca and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife refuge near the Mexican border. The wildlife refuge is supposed to be a large area where a lot of different types of birds winter. The severest drought in Arizona in 1400 years has left most of the lakes and ponds dried up. All I saw was lots of brown grass and leafless mesquite.
Yuma had gone 30 consecutive months with no (nada, nil, zip) rainfall at all. This year they've had .03 inches. Yeah, 3/100 of an inch. That must have been 3, maybe 4, consecutive raindrops. There's a big, slow, low pressure moving in though. Everyone is hoping for lots of rain and snow. They expect the areas that do get rained on to get a lot.
A guy told me he had just seen 8 people filing single file through the desert, probably illegal aliens. I saw 2 men and a woman walking along the road heading north, 20 miles from any town. Later I saw 4 border patrol agent searching in some trees. 1000's cross the Arizona border every week. Ranchers are banding together to keep them from crossing their ranges, leaving gates open, leaving trash, etc.
02/13/03:
Checked out Pena Blanco Lake Recreation Area near Nogales off US-19 yesterday and found camping spot so settled in for the night. The recreation area is pretty with cottonwoods and many steep hills, some with craggy bluffs.
The promised low pressure system moved in around midnight and I got lots and lots of rain. I had lots of hills to go up and down and was mildly concerned the road might have been flooded but turned out to be OK.
I left about 8:30am under heavy rains and headed over towards the Tombstone area. Turned up one national forest road and ran into trouble. Must have been some kind of clay base because I was slipping and sliding all over the place in my 2WD. Got out of there the first chance I had.
Big, black clouds hovering over mountainous regions didn't bode well. This area is more grasslands than desert and I was skeptical about easily finding a camp site. I was only 90 minutes from my Saguaro National Park camp site so went back to a known, safe spot. May hang out here until the weather clears.
02/14/03:
Lots more rain last night and this morning. Expect the same throughout the day and night and ending Saturday morning sometime.