I needed to get out and get some exercise before the entire weekend was wasted on shelter work and photographs. Sadie hadn't been on the trail in three weeks due to her raw skin spot, but today I decided to let her come along so that she isn't too kennel-stressed. After wearing a cone around her head for the last two weeks, I took it off of her before letting her into the truck with Sammy, Minnie and Zeke. I could tell she was happy for the diversion; she only once picked on her raw spot. We left the house at 3:35pm and got to the trail at 3:45pm. Moon rise was at 5:42pm. That gave us plenty of time to explore at a leisurely place.
I drove up Carr Canyon Road to park at the Clark Springs trail head. No one else was around so I felt safe taking the dogs out here. Other pull-offs with vistas were already taken so this was my one option without driving much farther up the road. It turned out to be a nice option in the end, as most of the trail was a bushwhack along an illegal trail to an overlook before resuming on the actual trail. We had plenty of daylight to walk without watching every footstep. I wanted to give the dogs some exercise before finding a spot where we could watch the moon rise. There were plenty of hidden rocks under all that tall, dead grass. At times all I could see of the dogs were the tips of their ears.
The Clark Springs is now pretty much washed away from the landslides of two years ago in this area. I couldn't even find where the lush area once was that provided water for the dogs. Burned trees now have new growth around the root base. It's no longer so dead-looking here as it was the first year after the fire. Now parts of the trail are eroding off the steep ridgeline it follows.
All four dogs enjoyed the romp. I always enjoy watching Zeke and Sammy be outdoors. I don't take them out as much as I take out the others. The 2.5 miles I'm estimating we hiked and bushwhacked is about as much as Sammy can now handle. He tends to wobble with his hips and turn his rear legs inward when he gets tired. While the other three frolicked nearby, Sammy stayed by my side.
The Clark Springs trail follows a low ridgeline for two miles before descending into Miller canyon. I didn't have time to hike that far, nor did I bring any water (which was probably a mistake). So I purposely kept the hike short and turned around 3/4 down the trail where the Clark Springs trail meets up with the John Cooper trail, a trail built specifically for mountain bikers. From this point one can see Miller Canyon road and the Perimeter trail head parking lot. It was 5:03pm and time to turn around. (That's another area I haven't been to in a while) The views to the east are pretty, and it's a great choice to watch the moon rise. I brought a jacket along as it got noticeably cooler once the sun disappeared behind the mountains; today's high was only 68F in Sierra Vista. We got back to where the truck was parked at 5:27pm, which gave us just enough time to get to a rocky overlook off the Carr Canyon Road, find a steady spot for the camera, and take pictures.
This is the part the dogs didn't like: they had to wait around until I was done taking pictures. Sadie and Minnie did all the whining, like two toddlers! The two boys didn't mind and rested.
There were clouds overhead so the actual sun set wasn't that spectacular. City lights came on at dusk and car lights snaked down State Road 92 in streams of white and red below me. When the moon rose at 5:42pm as forecasted, it quickly disappeared behind some clouds for the rest of the evening. By then the dogs were ready to get back home and drink water out of the toilet bowl.
It was a beautiful day for a hike. Friday was stormy and gusty, yesterday was cool but today felt almost too warm for mid-November. Meanwhile Chicagoland was under tornado warnings. Erin and Ethan stayed at a friend's house in the basement during the worst part. What's up with all these late-season tornadoes lately?
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