Fort Bowie Finale with a Fire... Fire On the Mountain

Well...we did it! We completed our final hitch at Fort Bowie National Historic Site. During our 3rd hitch, a wildfire presented itself over the Chiricahua Mountains, (Horseshoe Two fire) not far from our hitch campsite. When we returned for the 4th and final hitch, we were forced to move from our campsite due to dangerous conditions with the fire. We ended up staying in housing at Chiricahua National Monument -- which was a nice change. We got to meet several Chiricahua park employees, along with some firefighters, seasonal interpreters and bird guides.

For some more information on the Horseshoe Two fire, go to the following links:

http://www.kgun9.com/story/14600087/horseshoe-two-wildfire-forces-hundre...

http://www.suite101.com/content/arizona-wildfire-grows-to-6th-largest-in...

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2225/

At early stages costing 1 million dollars a day, the Horseshoe Two fire is said to continue to burn until late June, 2011.

The desert weather was intense in every possible way this hitch. The heat was in the upper 90's, the fire produced a ton of haze, and the winds gusted at speeds up to 45 miles per hour. No doubt, it made our work a lot harder. Enduring such extreme weather created quite a bit of delerium...I'm pretty sure my mind wandered back to the late 1800's more than once, convincing myself that I saw Chiricahua Apaches on the ridge line. But we were happy to come out on top for our final hitch, removing mesquite from over 20 ACRES of historical battlefield land!

Please enjoy some photos from our final hitch at Fort Bowie, and we hope you'll follow us as we go on to work at Coronado National Memorial and Saguaro National Park!