We have been blessed with two days of rain. I will never curse the rain here as the forest and wildlife need it. I cancelled an afternoon hike up Carr Canyon Road because of the rain, but when it rained again shortly after noon today, I was worried that I'd have to cancel a hike again. Storms don't linger here and weather can change within 30 minutes. I had the Hunter Canyon hike scheduled for 2pm but rain was coming down hard at 1pm when I got home.
This time, instead of cancelling, I opted to postpone the 2pm hike to 3pm. I really wanted to do this hike and postponing this by an hour would hopefully allow the rain to pass. I actually don't mind hiking in the rain. I just don't like starting in the rain!
Claire and Barb cancelled due to the hike, but Nina wanted to do this, so at 2:45pm I took off for the trailhead with all three dogs (!). Was I insane, or what? This was the first time I took all three dogs with me on a Meetup hike, but considering the time and place and having only one other hiker with me, I took the dogs along as protection. As I approached Hunter Canyon I could tell it was still raining hard in this canyon while Miller Canyon, just north of there, was mostly dry.
I pulled over into the parking area with three anxious dogs. I had no choice but to let them out and romp around while I waited for Nina. They did their business and gladly jumped back into the van while I waited for Nina, who arrived at 2:50pm. She looked as concerned as I did about hiking this trail. It was still drizzling, but she had her rain gear with her.
We opted to go ahead anyway. We started promptly at 2:55pm with three happy dogs. I hiked this trail exactly like I hiked it last Friday, along the creekbed (which was dry) to the official trail head a mile away. The dogs chased each other through the tall, wet grass and I bonked myself on a low-hanging tree branch early on. Nina was enjoying this hike, and not because of my clumsiness. We saw a lone Forest Service truck drive up and down the road. We waved at the driver. It was the only other sign of humans we saw on this hike.
And then, a mile into the hike and still inside Hunter Canyon, the clouds broke and we could see blue sky. We both took off our rain gear and continued on. I still had two layers on but kept my rain coat off for the rest of this hike. It never rained again.
Despite two days of heavy, sporadic rain, there was no water in the creek bed. All the rain had soaked into the deep, sandy soil, and the rock slabs only had a few, small pools of water. There was also no signs of further erosion of the creekbed as we slowly climbed up the canyon toward the old mine, where the creek took a severe blow. While climbing in and out of the creekbed was rough for Nina because of the steep embankment, we did manage to get in and out of it. We took a break here to look at the old mine. It's a deep vertical hole that the Forest Service has never bothered gating shut. There's no sign for this mine and it gapes its opening in wanton abandonment.
If it weren't for the mine tailings on the hillside visible from the trail, it would be hard to spot this mine.
From the mine we continued on the trail, which now begins its steep climb up the one big hill before descending into Miller Canyon. The dogs were ahead of us. One we crested the rise and saw into Beatty's Orchard, it was a fast downhill for us all. It took us 90 minutes to get this far, it was 4:45pm and I figured we could rest here until 5pm before heading back. Sunset was at 6:33pm. That is what we did.
We walked back the way we came, even walking on the forest road toward the old targetshooting area to show Nina the damaged trees by the target shooters. How the CFS handled this mess will forever anger me, but that's all water under the bridge. This was a popular campsite for snowbirds every winter until before the 2011. Now it's just a dump and the no target shooting restriction will be lifted this summer.
We got back to the cars at 6:30pm, just as planned. I was a little tired, but happy that I had human company on this hike and was able to show Nina another hike in the area.
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