Carr Canyon Road

Today was the first day this semester that I had a work day off. I took advantage of that. By 9:30am I knew I'd have the morning off and decided to join the Tuesday morning group with Nina. Minnie came along. I got to the meetup place just at 10am. Nina was not there, but five others were. We opted to take off for the uphill climb at 10:10am. I only recognized Susan and Claire, Susan being the Englishwoman from last week. Another gal, Hollie, brought her smaller dog Kelsey along. Kelsey was rescued from Dead Dog Beach in Puerto Rico and walked on leash for 1.5 miles before she returned to her car. Hollie had other plans for the day and had to cut the hike short.

Minnie was a bit show-offish today and kept fetching sticks along the road. Traffic was light and she was off-leash for the most part. She didn't stray far from me. One of the walkers, Lee, enjoyed throwing the stick for Minnie, but Minnie got overheated a mile into the walk. It was mostly clear with no clouds. I had to slow down now and calm Minnie down, and even stopped to give her water. Once we got to the waterfall two miles up the road, I knew I had to sit down with Minnie and let her rest.

But would Minnie rest? Oh no! The water seemed to invigorate her even more! Others in the group joined me at the falls, where Minnie ran non-stop for the stick.

Nina and Robert, by now regular diehards for the Tuesday morning group, showed up an hour later. It turns out Robert's truck had stalled and he had called Nina to pick him up. We had been sitting by the falls for an hour now, chatting and laughing and simply enjoying the cool breeze. Robert is an animated talker who can get most people laughing at his oratory. No one bothered with the time until we noticed it was noon. I climbed up some rocks into the canyon with Minnie just to spend some time. Minnie was cool and wet and totally invigorated by now. I picked up some beer cans left behind by careless partyers.

We had time, it seemed, so I showed Claire the abandoned mine. Lee and Nina joined her to explore the opening, although no one went into the mine because the ground was flooded.

Now we were six people for the walk back down to the cars. I stayed with Nina up front. Claire, Susan and Lee were in the rear. Robert jogged down by himself and waited by his pick-up truck. The clear sky gave way to grey overcast, making the return hike easier on Minnie. She was her normal self now, carrying a stick with her for most of the way.