Carr Peak in September

I am remiss in my blogging as of late. It looks as if I haven't gone into my mountains since late August, when in fact I've been on two hikes since my last entry: French Joe Canyon on Labor Day with Kevin and Sadie, and another jaunt up Carr Peak last weekend with a small group from the hiking group.

Big Steve, Paul and Hannah joined me at our usual meeting place at the lower parking lot near the picnic tables at 8am last Saturday. We got to the trailhead at 8:40am. It was already warm then and indeed it was a warm hike all day. It had hit over 100F in Tucson but when we got to the peak at 11:30am it felt like it was over 80F. Not bad for a mid-September hike.

Hannah hadn't hiked in a while and I stayed at her pace. We stopped a lot, rested a bit. No personal bests were broken going up Carr Peak that day, but that wasn't the goal, either. As hike leader I had to make sure all members started and finished on time and safely.

The flowers I saw in August were now past their prime. Golden eyes still bloomed but not with the vibrancy of last month. The red salvias were up but not in abundance yet, and the aspens along the trail, trees afflicted with spotted leaf virus, are already losing their leaves from the disease. By the time the leaves change color next month, there won't be too many left for a color show! There were still some yellow columbines near the aspen grove to excite the group.

We sat at the peak for a long time, just chatting. The Boy Scouts were in the area on several other peaks conducting signaling exercises from Miller, Wrightson and Juniper Peaks. But other than one man going downhill and some Mexican trash, we didn't see much life out today until we neared the parking lot again at 2pm.

The big show this month were the redtailed hawks flying around the peak. A hummer flitted around the summit as well, fighting off buterflies it saw as competition for his red penstemon food source. Only a few ladybugs remained from last month. the peak was quite calm, too.

The drainage creek is drying up but there was enough for Sadie to drink out of. She seemed overheated and the longer we were on the trail coming down, the more she sought out shade. She was tired the rest of the day.