Day 5 - Trail Run, Bisbee, Not-So-OK Corral

Day 5 – Trail Run, Bisbee Mine Tour, and the Not-so-OK Corral – April 27, 2018

I took my first trail run of the trip this morning. The Foothill Trail Loop is about 3.5 miles and climbs up about 400 feet from the campground, which is at an approximate elevation of 4100’. The rocky limestone single-track reminded me of a ‘yellow’ level Ragnar trail loop. The air was cool at sunrise and it was just me and the jackrabbits out there.

After breakfast, we drove down to Bisbee. It’s an old mining town tucked away in the mountains of southeast AZ at about 5300’ elevation. The temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than at our campsite. Bisbee is like many old mining towns we’ve visited in California – it’s a mix of hard-scrabble locals and artsy/hipster/old hippie folk. A bumper sticker in one of the shops summarized the blend:  “Bisbee – It’s Like Mayberry on Acid”. It’s also the home of the fall classic ‘Bisbee 1000’ stair climb/run in which runners go up and down the many near-vertical stairways that are a prominent feature of the town.

We kept our stair climbing to a minimum and opted for the Queen Mine tour. Our tour guide was a former copper miner who actually worked in the Queen Mine back in the early 1970’s just before it closed. We rode a train into the mine and got to see how the miners did it back in the day. In 1915 these guys got 34 cents an hour and that was considered good pay.

On the way back to camp, we stopped at Tombstone, AZ. I’m not sure what we expected of this town, but it was way different than we thought it would be. It was kind of like walking down a carnival midway, with barkers in every doorway pleading for you to come in and spend $10 to $20 dollars to experience some aspect of the old west. Signs were everywhere forbidding you to photograph any of the ‘Westworld-like’ tableaus that were strategically placed all over town (unless you wanted to offer a small ‘donation’ to the merchant).  The famed OK Corral is completely surrounded by a high wall that keeps all non-paying tourists from seeing it. I went into the souvenir shop that leads out to the corral and was stopped by a large character dressed like Black Bart, who was standing next to a sign that said, “Stop Here Unless You’ve Purchased a Ticket”. I couldn’t even look out the window to see the site of the legendary showdown between the Earps and the Clantons. Hey, the movies are better anyway!

Tomorrow: Fort Huachuca