Carr Canyon Road and Reef Townsite

Now that March is here, I must strive harder to hike every weekend. The hiking club had a walk up Carr Canyon Road today, but I didn't joing them for the 7:30am meet-up. That was too early and too cold for me. Instead I left at 9:40am with Sadie to make it to Reef Townsite.

I did better than expected. Although I was tired, I was never out of breath or felt burning lungs. I parked the truck at the road closure and walked the four miles uphill, stopping at the falls for 30 minutes to give Sadie some water. Several other people came in from behind me, but no one else was on the road going north. We were alone.

It was a mild day. I wore a cotton t-shirt, windbreaker and black jeans. The Jacket never came off, nor did I ever feel sweaty.

The road was in better shape than expected but the forest service has been working on it since the fires last summer. The lower trees were burned, the reef was totally gone, but there was a swath of green evergreens along the road once I got to Reef. I ended up making Reef my turn-around point, but not till I walked around the campsite and looked at some ruins. I had never been back to the ruins before! The FS had repaired all the campsites, replaced the burned wooden tables with plastics ones made from recycled goods. No one was up here so I walked around and read the historical signs in peace. From the ridgeline one could see that Carr Canyon itself was untouched and still very green.

Carr Peak has snow on it, but the trail further north looked burned out and hot. I didn't have the energy to attempt the last three miles uphill as that meant six miles total. Maybe had I left after sunrise I could have done so, but by now I had already done four miles and felt that was enough.

With the upper tree level gone now one can see the hidden trailings, old mining paths and holes all over the area. I had never noticed them all before when the trees were alive! The initial impression is of death and destruction, but a closer look reveals new growth around the oak trees, and new pine saplings as well. The dry winter, however, is keeping the birds away as they need to be where the water is.

I did better than expected for not having done a serious hike in a while. But my mood was still sad, thinking about yesterday's devastating tornadoes in southern Indiana/Kentucky that killed 14 in the Hoosier state. (The storm's now blasting across Georgia.) A friend of a high school friend of mie's Air Force co-worker and friend also died quite unexpectedly at age 48 on Wednesday. (Heart attack?) He was an avid runner once he lost weight and picked up running to maintain his weight. His Facebook page is full of loving comments from friends and loved ones. Having a social media makes death seem more constant, but how right is it to have a Facebook maintained of a deceased person?

So these thoughts went through my head as I meandered around the Reef Townsite ruins. I must say it's a pretty campstie with vistas and privacy and many old overgrown mining trails to explore. In fact, I discovered a few more trails off the main forest road that I had never seen before!