Carr Peak with Sadie, Minnie and Zeke

What a gorgeous day it turned out to be. Yesterday's dark overcast produced no rain over us, and this morning the sky was a clear blue. I kept thinking of where to go with the dogs that didn't require a lot of driving, and in the end I opted for Carr Canyon since Zeke insisted on going along. I figured I could walk up the road with the dogs and turn around at the Reef Townsite. Instead, I discovered that the gate was open to vehicular traffic so I decided to take the dogs up Carr Peak, five miles up the road to the trail head.

Driving in the Buick Century is not easy on a forest road. There are some big boulders and deep crevices in parts of the road. But there is no snow or ice on it right now (which is why the Forest Service opened the road) and we proceeded to the parking lot. We got to the Old Sawmill parking area and started the hike at 11:23am.

I was dressed in yesterday's clothes: jeans, light t-shirt and thin yellow sweater. I packed Kevin's ripped wind breaker just in case. I carried 1.5 gallons of water for us, plus the chicken jerky treats from last weekend. I need not have worried, as there was plenty of patches of icy snow in the northern sections of the trail. With our mild temperatures I don't expect any snow on the peaks in another week. The ground was moist (and surely refreshing for the dogs' paws) in many of the shaded areas.

It didn't feel like January. I would have packed a thicker jacket had I realized I could do the peak today. I moved fast enough and never felt chilled on today's hike. I was dressed in all cotton, too, and never felt wet, either.

I saw birds out today. I spotted one hawk and several song birds in the trees around me. The bald deciduous trees highlight the green of the pine trees. And to my amazement, the aspens are already pre-budding. This is not good news. What if we get a late freeze and the buds die?! We desperately need a few weeks of cold, wet weather for the sake of our forest's health.

Of course the dogs weren't worried. The girls ran ahead, chased each other, sniffed the ground. I never came across anyone else on the trail. The girls were always ahead of me, but Zeke stayed by my side. He's finally learning trail etiquette! While all three dogs stayed close and didn't chase wildlife, the birds in the trees did seem to excite them.

There was no wind on top. It was surprisingly mild. Several butterflies flitted around. And I was the only person who opted to bag the peak today? I lucked out with this solitude. We rested at the peak for 17 minutes. The dogs got more water and the rest of the chicken jerky treats. Minnie wanted to play fetch again on the summit. Sadie would bark if I didn't throw the stick fast enough for them. I learned how to take selfies with the Nikon D7000 and got a few decent ones of me without a dog's butt in my face.

It was the perfect weather for a hike up Carr Peak and I'm glad I did it before the month was over. I hope I can do this again for February. It was 65F at 3pm.

There were no other cars in the parking lot when we made it back to the car at 2:30pm. Most of the people in Carr Canyon were at the lower falls area, and even more so in the lower picnic area. I'm glad I had the peak to myself and could take advantage of giving my dogs unleashed exercise.

This is my first peak of the year. I was a little nervous hiking the uneven terrain after torqueing my right knee last month up Miller Peak. The pain only is bad when I step up; power walking is OK.

My computer is telling me I need to update my Adobe Flash so that I can upload photos. I tried downloading the latest version and I still have no luck with the photos.