Downtown Bisbee: Good coffee, Fine Food.

Downtown Bisbee has two coffee roasters, and the familiar fragrance of roasted coffee (burnt toast) was often in the air.  We were usually smelling Old Bisbee Coffee Roasters.  Their storefront was not open, appearing to only sell their coffee wholesale.  In the retail outlets, I wasn't able to figure out the roasting date, so their coffee wasn't an option for me.  Bisbee Coffee Company was open for business and stamped its roasted coffee with a roast date.

Since I rant out of my home roasted coffee in Bisbee.  I was grateful to buy a pound of one-day fresh roasted whole bean from the Bisbee Coffee Company, and it was very good.

We had two great meals in downtown Bisbee. The first was at Thuy's Noodle Shop. What a find!  Excellent pho and squash curry--something we were not expecting to find in a small town like Bisbee.  It may have not have been fine dining, but it was excellent food at reasonable prices.

 

Our second terrific meal was at a fine dining restaurant called Cafe Roka.  Only open on the weekends, the food was amazing.  We had the night's special:   clams with french bread to soak up the white wine and garlic sauce.  Some people were dressed up in suits.  But I also saw a cowboy in boots come in with a ten inch knife, flopping on his hip.

Bisbee: Side trip to Lowell

I've read about the Bisbee Breakfast Club on other blogger's posts, so we decided to give it a try.  I had low expectations, but breakfast and the service were pretty good.

 

The restaurant is in the Town of Lowell on historic Erie Street.  Lowell was annexed into Bisbee in the early 1900's.  It was worth
strolling around after breakfast.

 

Refreshing Morning

 

Dave's corn field

After last week's hot and humid weather, I was graced this morning with 58 degrees and a beautiful sky during the early morning walk.  The hardest-working-75-year-old-farmer that I know doesn't have the highest production corn field in the area, but it looks mighty pretty this morning. The bit of fog rising up is from a tributary of Spring Creek, which it meets in Lodi in another mile.

Bisbee: City of Stairs

Bisbee is built into the sides of the mountain, and many of the homes have challenging sets of stairs providing "access."  Rather than complain about it, Bisbee has embraced its stairs, creating an annual race called the Bisbee 1000.

The actual event is in mid-October, but that didn't stop us from walking the 4.5 mile course.  It' a great way to explore this small Arizona city of about 5000 people.  There are a total of nine numbered staircases.

There are all sorts of interesting things to look at along the way.

Unlike most of our walks/hikes, we took our time on this one but eventually finished all of the staircases.  I was proud of Callie for staying out of trouble with several loose dogs around.  There is only one picture at the very end reminding us of her presence.

Bisbee Side Trip: Madera Canyon

The drive to Madera Canyon was an exercise in how Google Maps can take you to unexpected places.  Everything was fine until the advice to turn on to Hwy 62, a dirt road with frequent signs warning of drug dealers and human trafficking.  The dirt road narrowed and then started climbing high up into the mountains.  The drop-off was concerning, and then we met a jeep where it was not possible for two vehicles to pass. The other driver expertly backed up into an atv side trail so we could get by in Julia's Subaru.

Once we came down out of the mountains, all was good.  Madera Canyon is a beautiful spot, and we arrived on a day when day fees were waived.

From the trailhead, we hiked along a small creek.

 

We then began climbing up Mount Wrightson.  The trail got steeper and steeper. We were on the Bog Spring Trail when Julia started worrying getting back down with balky knees.  Soon after, we hit snow and ice, making it easy to decide that was far enough. 

It was still worth celebrating the partial trip up.  We hiked 5.8 miles, ascending 1555 feet.

Bisbee: Whitewater Draw

 From February 2022

Sandhill cranes have made a comeback in Wisconsin and are quite common in the summer.  We have never seen where they winter, until our February trip.  In Albuquerque, we saw a couple of dozen cranes feeding along the side of an urban trail.  Near Bisbee, we saw where thousands of cranes come to winter at Whitewater Draw.  It's only about a half hour from town, so we went twice.