The Huachuca Mountains are one of Southeastern Arizona's 'sky islands', large distinct mountain ranges that rise dramatically from the desert floor. They are usually somewhat compact ranges, running maybe a few dozen miles in any one direction, with very dramatic profiles. It's easy to picture the desert as a sea of water, with these ranges poking above as distinct islands. The name 'sky island' is often meant to evoke mental images of mountains-as-islands, but it is often used to describe ecosystems that are distinct from one another through eons of evolution, even though the ranges may be a few miles apart at most. Southeastern Arizona - mainly Cochise, Santa Cruz, Graham and eastern Pima Counties - seems to be home to an inordinate number of these interesting ranges. Miller Peak tops the Huachuca Range, with nearly a full mile of vertical relief between the summit and the desert floor. In fact, Miller Peak is the most prominent mountain in Arizona that is not the highpoint of a county, beaten out by its neighbor, the slightly higher and more prominent Chiricahua Peak to the east. Despite its secondary status, Miller Peak, and the entire Huachucas, offer some of the best hiking environments in the state. Most of the range is part of the Huachuca Wilderness. The city of Sierra Vista is the largest town nearby the range. Fort Huachuca, an active Army base and a center for U. S. Military Intelligence, is nearby and is by far the largest and most influential installation in the area. Everyone in Sierra Vista is either Army, married to Army, or knows someone in the Army. Beth and I eyed Miller Peak as a hike early on and decided to spend our second wedding anniversary here, opting against a return trip to Las Vegas, which was our original plan.

We left the blast furnace of Phoenix on Friday afternoon the 2nd, covering the 180 miles to Sierra Vista in about 3 hours with little problems, and none of the expected July 4th traffic getting in our way. We had reservations at a Quality Inn and finally got our room, which took forever because the only person at the counter took forever to do the simplest tasks. And to top things off, the room was a sauna. Temps in Sierra Vista on this day had been about 100 even, but I guess they don't get much higher and the air conditioning units they have in each room work for most warm conditions, but not when it's 100. Anyway, my little hand-held temperature/altimeter/compass device (thanks, Beth!) read the room temperature as 89 degrees! We had the damn a/c running full bore but even then the room never cooled down. We asked to change rooms but the downstairs lady couldn't accomodate us. We asked for a fan; no go. We finally pushed one of the beds right up to the vent, which blew cool air. Only by 3 am did the room cool to reasonably comfortable temperatures. It sucked. When we awoke the next morining neither of us slept well, and Beth's knees and ankles were hurting so we decided to not make the hike and instead spend the day doing a driving tour of the region. We drove up Carr Canyon Road to the Reef Townsite Campground - an interestingly exposed and steep drive up narrow switchbacks. We also drove south to the Coronado National Memorial, poked around a bit, and then onto Montezuma Pass, which is south of the Huachuca Range and the entrance-way to the remote San Rafael Valley. We drove through that and on back into Sierra Vista by taking a backway through the Fort Huachuca base. They actually allow people to drive onto it but you have to show all sorts of identification.

Monday the 4th started well - our second wedding anniversary! Beth awoke very early and felt pretty good, so she felt she could make a go for the peak. In recent months she has been afflicted by (probably) Rheumatoid Arthritis. On good days she's good to go on most hikes; on bad days she can barely walk. Today was a good day- for her knees, and more importantly, for her psyche. So we packed up and drove on down to Montezuma Pass, where we'd been yesterday, arriving about 7:30 a.m. in warm conditions, even though the pass is at 6,500 feet elevation. No one else was there, and we spent some time getting packed up. I basically carried a ton of water and some food, and little else. It was going to be a warm one, for sure. Our route of choice was the Crest Trail, which starts (or ends, depending on one's direction of travel) at Montezuma Pass. It is one of about 4 possible ways to the summit. It offers one of the shorter routes with moderate gain- still we were looking at 10 miles and nearly 3,000 feet of uphill to get to the peak. On the downside, the entire route would be exposed to the sun. We started in a bit before 8.

The initial portion of the trail contours east and north of a small hillock, comes to a saddle, then starts a series of long, sweeping traverses and switchbacks up a southerly-facing slope below Peak 7,964. Very little significant tree cover here; mostly low brush and grass. Route finding was cake, and we passed a few old mine adits and shafts up high. We took a couple breaks, sweated a lot, and finally surmounted a principal ridge southeast of Peak 7,964, having covered slightly less than 2 miles and having gained about 1,300 feet to get here. Here, the trail swung northerly. We passed through one level stretch through moderate tree cover... maybe a respite from the beating sun? Forget it. It was just as hot and the damned flies were relentless. We were actually relieved to be out in the open again amid scrubbier manzanita brush, where at least the flies were not as bad. We took a break about a half-mile later, which put us roughly at the half-way point mile-wise, and in view of the beautiful profile of Miller Peak. But it was just plain hot, and we were both lagging a bit in the heat. Fortunately, some clouds started to collect and offer some respite from the heat, whenever a cloud would occlude the Sun. Once hydrated and fed, we got moving again, and then things got real interesting...

Beth and I hiked close by, Beth in front to set the pace and me behind her about 6 feet. As we came close to the range crest, we saw two men come into view. Mexican nationals. Very obviously up to something. They were not dressed for hiking, wearing flannel, jeans and work boots. They did have simple packs, however. They stopped and we approached. I said 'Hola' and as we approached they stood aside, and I asked "Como Estan", they answered 'Bien'. My purpose was to make it clear we would go our way, they theirs and everyone would be happy. What was I going to do otherwise? Make a citizen's arrest? That's what they pay the Border Patrol for. Our encounter lasted about 20 seconds. We moved on north, they south, and once out of eyesight, Beth and I had a good laugh and discussion about what just happened. From that point on we saw much evidence of border crossers in the range, with various bottles, trash, clothing and places of obvious encampment. I was amazed they'd actually choose to cross into the U.S. by running up and over a large mountain, but I guess they'll do whatever they can to get into the country. I guess the presence of a trail is a plus. There's more to this story, so read on.

Anyway, Beth and I made good forward progress, following the trail north until it started up the last mile of steep rocky switchbacks below Miller Peak itself. We took it slow here. The Crest Trail intersects a trail coming in from the north via Carr Peak, and it was here we came upon our first real hikers for the day, two men coming down from the top. In short order, we'd managed the switchbacks to the summit, arriving about noon. We took a much deserved rest here, drinking up and eating. The views were tremendous, of course. However, it was still pretty warm, and the summit was crawling (and flying) with bees, flies and insects of every shape, form, color and pointiness. After some photos we decided we'd descend down past the steep rocky switchbacks and take a rest in a nice glade of trees that had some large flat sections. We'd rested here on the way up and noted the abundance of trash. The area is obviously a way station for the crossers.

After about 40 minutes of slow downhill hiking we arrived back at this glade of trees and took a breather. We heard some rustling and saw two figures emerge from the trees. They yelled out 'hi, how ya doing' and we saw that they weren't crossers but instead two Border Patrol agents, dressed in full battle gear including body armor, helmets and assault rifles! They were friendly and immediately came up to us, asked how we were doing and plopped onto the ground, taking a breather of their own. Then they asked if we'd seen a group 'of 20 or so Mexicans pass this way'. Twenty?!? We said no, but mentioned the two guys we'd seen about 3 hours earlier and about a mile south. They said 'scouts, probably'. So apparently they were on the tail of a large group of twenty 'or so' crossers in the area. They asked how we were doing and we said fine. We asked if we should be concerned and they said that hikers come here all the time with no problem and that the crossers and the smugglers usually want no part of the hikers. The two guys had come up a different canyon and were not terribly sure where they were - they asked (a) if this is the Crest Trail (we said it was) and (b) what peak is that, pointing to Miller Peak. We told them what peak it was and then the one guy finally had his bearings and knew where he was. After a few more minutes they got moving again, and had to ask us which path was the right one, since there were lots of paths in the immediate area. Once they started down, we got started and we could see them blazing ahead of us, maybe a few hundred yards ahead. It was almost like having a personal armed escort down the peak.

Our descent went slow as we stopped many times to let Beth's knees rest, and the heat was really bearing on us heavily. Nevertheless we emerged back to our truck at about 4 p.m., where we relaxed and changed into drier clothes and got ourselves in order for the long drive back home. The both of us were knocked pretty flat by the hike, mainly, I think, due to the very warm conditions we had all day. Both of us got sunburned and a bit of dehydration, which took about a day to fully fix. The drive went uneventfully, and again with less traffic than expected for a holiday weekend. The temperatures in the lower deserts were above 110; it had been a hot nasty day all around, although dry and crystal clear blue. Actually, it was a great experience despite the heat and bugs. The Huachucas are a beautiful range and a hike up Miller Peak is a fantastic day outing. Regarding the border crossers and the Border Patrol... We never felt like we were in harm's way but of course you never really know. Crossers and smugglers attacking hikers is actually extremely rare. Regardless, use basic common sense and take another of the possible trails to the peak if meeting up with border crossers does not sound attractive.