I slept in! All the way to 6:45am. I got up, showered and had breakfast with Arle and Sharon. Sharon had scheduled two tours for me today, one at the asarco open pit copper mine and one at the decommissioned nuclear Titan Missile Silo. The first was about 5 minutes north of their house, the other about 5 minutes south of their house. Both were fascinating and and scary. The titan missile’s nuclear warhead was the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT and when detonated could blow a hole in the earth 500 feet deep and two miles in diameter. The asarco mine was a hole 2.5 miles by 2.5 miles and 1400’ deep. One a human lives disaster, the other an environmental disaster.
We stopped at Big 5 to buy a fuel canister for my stove, then drove up Madera Canyon to do some bird watching. This area is world renowned for its bird watching due to its position on the migratory path of many bird species. Then, it was off to dinner with Vince and Leslie Konigsberger. Vince, a great friend, was the counselor at Toledo High School for most of the time I taught there. We had a great dinner and lively conversation reminiscing about our teaching days and discussing what life could look like in the coming years. Vince and Leslie just purchased a house in the area and are debating whether to make it their permanent home or to continue snow birding.
At 7:00pm we headed back to the Lyons. I find myself quite tired. Is it the heat? (90º today) or just all the activities? Regardless, I feel a million miles away from the trail. Tomorrow morning I catch a Greyhound Bus to Lordsburg, stay at the Econolodge, then early Saturday morning I take a shuttle to the border and begin the trek. Temperature Saturday is supposed to be in the high 80s, a tough transition from the 50º weather I am used to in Toledo, but that is the nature of thru hiking. You can’t predict the weather, so you just adapt, push thru and persevere. An amazing day today, Arle and Sharon are wonderful hosts. We will see what tomorrow brings.
Control room at the Titan Missile Silo. This is the place where the simultaneous turn of two keys ends the world.
The missile in the silo.
A diagram of the below ground Missile station.
ASARCO open pit mine. One of many in the area.
Another view of the pit. Can we try to reduce our demand for copper, please?
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