Copeland Mine Road Hike

Our most recent hike is one of my favorite short hikes in the Gila National Forest.  When I need to get the dogs out and I'm not really feeling like a strenuous excursion, I just load everybody up and we quickly head down to Copeland Mine Road.

It's an unmaintained 4x4 road in the Burro mountains, not too far from the Continental Divide Trail.  Usually, no one else is there and the dogs can run and chase lizards to their heart's content.  I generally do a short loop of the road that ends up being maybe a mile and a half, but if I'm feeling energetic there are all sorts of possiblities with this road and it can even be a nice long meandering hike as the road connects with other trails in the forest, and exploring side canyons is always an option.

There's no water available on this trail, but once the monsoons start there are plenty of puddles for the dogs to cool off in.

The trail is generally shady and comfortable, for both man and beast, making it a favorite summer jaunt.  In the winter, however, I tend to avoid this trail because the ease of accessibility makes it attractive to trappers, and after one of the dogs encountered a trap, I just decided to avoid the area during trapping season.

First River Hike of the Season

View Gila River Hike-Off Bill Evans Rd in a larger map

On Monday, the dogs and I joined our hiking buddy Bonnie and her Labs, Pete and Jed, for a casual hike down the Gila River. My dogs spend a lot of time on the Gila either hiking or hunting, but it had been a while since we had been out for some serious exercise. They were ready for some off-leash, out of the yard, recreation. There were many lizards to chase and the current in the river was still pretty strong, so water retrieves required a good bit of effort on the part of the dogs.

The dogs also had a blast chasing whiptail lizards. They never catch them, but sure do enjoy the chase. Ranger optimistically tried digging the little critters out.



All in all it was a great afternoon with enough exercise to wear the dogs out for a day or two.

If you are planning a hike in the area that involves any river crossings, at this point the current is still pretty strong. The water level has fallen from spring runoff highs, so navigation is not as difficult as it was in April, but still requires taking care and paying attention. The deepest channels we crossed on our hike were about 4 feet or so and not too wide. The smaller dogs had to really work hard crossing the river when we were going upstream, but all were able to make all crossings without any help.



The dogs were not intimidated by the current at all. All were willing to fetch as many times as sticks and other objects were thrown with no hesitation.

Honey's first off-leash hike

View Larger Map
Honey has been here for almost two months now. Today, I decided it was time to see exactly how bad she would be off-leash on a hike. I had been warned not to let her off leash because she would bolt and wouldn't come back. I've been working on recalls with her in the yard, in the house and on a 40 ft. long line on hikes and she'd been doing pretty well. With the pack along, and the relative success I had observed on the long line, I decided the only way to truly test her progress was to unsnap the lead.

We hit what I call the Lucky Irishman section of the CD trail here in NM. Its a short section just south of Jack's peak that parallels NM 90 along the SE face of the Big Burro mtns. It's a pretty easy section that goes up and down arroyos and along some interesting terrain with lots of neat rock formations and a variety of vegetation. The terrain isn't too strenuous and the trails have recently been revamped by summer work crews.

Honey did really well! She ranged out pretty far, but she also checked in regularly and came in when I called her. I was happy with that. She stayed close to the pack, if not exactly right in the middle of them. She ran and explored and played, but she also made sure that she knew where I was.

I play hide and seek with my guys on hikes to encourage them to keep an eye on me. If they get too far out of sight, I look for a good hiding spot and wait for them to find me. Usually Ceilidh always finds me first, because she's my tracking dog and she also tends to stay a lot closer to me than the younger dogs. This was still the case on this trip. Ceilidh found me first, then Ranger, then Honey and last of all Bronco Sue. I was happy with the result. I didn't have to go searching for any dogs and at the end of the hike I didn't have to chase anyone. I tolerate quite a bit of ranging and independence with my dogs. The distances I let them range might make others a little nervous.

Dogs for Ducks

Here's a nice article in Field and Stream about several dog breeds, including my favorite, that are good for hunting ducks.