Today was 161 miles from Deming NM to Willcox AZ but with a HUGE & AMAZING stop at Bowie AZ 25 miles east of Willcox.  Just 13 miles from Bowie into the mountains is Fort Bowie National Historic Site.  Fort Bowie, most active in the 1860s and later years, was the site of numerous conflicts between the Apache Indians and U.S. Military.  In fact, it's where the iconic Apache Chief, Cochise, led battles against the soldiers who were trying to find a young boy who had been kidnapped by the Apaches, and also some stolen horses.  Numerous lives on both sides were lost in the battles.  But Fort Bowie is also where the legendary Apache Chief, Geronimo, was imprisoned before being sent to a prison in Florida.  Fort Bowie, in other words, is iconic in the lore of Apache - U.S. conflicts.
      Here's the thing...when you finally arrive at the parking lot for Fort Bowie, at an elevation of 5,000 feet, there is nothing there...except for a sign telling you that the ruins of the fort, and the visitor center, are 1.5 miles up a rough trail further into the mountains.  We grabbed 4 water bottles from the jeep and launched our mile and a half hike, in thin air and temperature at 91 F in full Arizona sun.  In about an hour and a half we huffed and puffed into the visitor center.  But amazingly, we really had no problem with the rugged hike, even though it turned out to be 1.75 miles rather than 1.5.
But after about 30 minutes at the visitor center, and when we decided to go back down, we made a poor decision.  Instead of going back on the same trail, we elected to take another which ran along a high ridge top before heading down.  Not only did we first have to climb up to the ridge, but we had to do it on a very rough goat-type trail strewn with big, jagged rocks.  That went on for about a grueling mile or more before we eventually descended innumerable switchbacks into the canyon where we finally met up with the trail we had used to go up.   By now we were pretty bushed and my repaired hip was barking like a hyena in heat.  Finally, FINALLY, we got to within about 20 yards of the jeep,up the final steep slope, and bottomed out.  That close but we first had to sit on some boulders for ten minutes, drink some water, and eating an old bagel, before going the final 20 yards to the jeep and its airconditioning.  My FitBit indicated that in total we had tallied over 14,000 steps, 6.8 miles.
     But now we know EXACTLY what it was like in Apache country and that is pretty thrilling.