Lutz Canyon

After last week's horrific heat wave we are back to cool, overcast skies. I hadn't been hiking much; preferring to take the dogs to Hunter canyon for a two-mile jaunt after work several times a week. It's the only hike Sammy can do now.

I should have gotten out on the trail a few hours earlier and bagged Miller Peak! Instead I hung around the house and didn't leave until Kevin came back from the commissary. It was just after noon before I hit the trail with Sadie, Minnie and Zeke.

My knee did OK on this steep hike but I should have done a different trail as the pain began again the longer I was on this trail. I stopped a few times to rest and give the dogs water. We all drank a quart of water after just one mile and that's when I realized I didn't have enough water to make it to Miller Peak. Same with the chicken jerky treats.

Zeke is starting to be a really nice trail dog. He stays near by while the two girls are always competing for sticks for me to throw. Minnie likes to egg Sadie that way, and that just gets her to bark and whine.

This trail seems to get more damaged with every year. It barely looks like the trail from before the fire. The trail is now badly rutted and eroded. The lower mine equipment is washed away and most of the trees, the pines and oaks in the lower section and the big Doglas firs in the higher sections, along this trail are burned, providing no shade. At least the cool overcast were ideal for the dogs; this time Sadie had no trouble making it to Upper Bear Mine (8124').

The higher we got, the more audible the target shooters were in lower Ash Canyon. But on this trail, there was not a soul. This trail has been so badly damaged that the Forest Service can no longer maintain it. Lots of loose rock on this trail. Most of the water that once flowed here has gone underground since 2011. This is now a very dry trail.

The higher I got, the more I realized how dry the forest is. By now we should be seeing some new growth, but all I saw were some Columbine leafing out. No wildflowers anywhere. Just lots of dead, tall grasses and seedheads. The lack of moisture this winter will make it harder for the new growth to get established.

I rested at the Upper Bear mine with the dogs. The mine has its usual trash in it from border crossers, but the trash didn't look fresh. This may be trash that was in the mine shaft last year when I hiked this.

The wind was cold and my hands were feeling it at this elevation. All around me was a grey layer of clouds, far to the south into Mexico. I was not prepared for this wind so high up, and decided to turn around here. It was 3:30pm and I had to think about daylight. I really should have gotten the courage to get started at 9am instead of noon. I probably made it three miles up this steep grade, just below the Crest Trail.

As I was driving down the road, another car was coming uphill, with two dogs running along side it. A pit bullX and a pug were coming toward me, and naturally my dogs went ballistic. The poor driver saw that the dogs were chasing after me (once they heard the barking) and he had to get out of his car to hold his dogs back. The man surely wasn't expecting to see other dogs, let alone other people, this late in the afternoon on such a remote trail.

I drove Kevin's car today, but yesterday I had my van fixed (it needed two new tires and the engine trouble was a mere leaky gas cap) so my next mission is to clean the van out and use it again. It had been sitting in the driveway for six weeks, ever since we got back from our Chicago road trip.