The full moon promised to be bright for three days, with Tuesday being the closest to full moon with 99.7% illumination. So I scheduled a meetup time of 5pm to allow us to be at the top at 7:35pm when the moon was slated to rise, allowing extra time for slower hikers. Susan M and her friend Julie showed up, Claire, Bill and Rod drove up as we were getting ready to take off. At 5:12pm we all were finally on the road up. This was a group unlike the previous groups of Eric, Nina and Claire. We had the road to ourselves the entire way. No other pedestrians anywhere, and neither were there moon gawkers in vehicles along the road. Where was everyone?
Claire wasn't feeling too good, claiming heat exhaustion, and returned to her car a half-mile up the road. Then Julie began complaining about how boring this was, walking up the road, and I feared she was going to keep up that negative attitude all the way to the top and back. Did she not know this was a road hike?
There were more shaded spots than sunny, which was good for Sadie. We stopped briefly at the middle falls for her to drink, but she didn't drink much. We didn't hear any Canyon Tree frogs this time. Perhaps the mating season is over. The water is slowly evaporating, too. By next month I'll need to bring extra water as the area is drying up. There were lots of water bugs on the surface tonight.
Bill and I ended up walking up front, with Susan, Rod and Julie in the back. Rod was not feeling good because he had a big dinner before starting this hike, but he was a good champ about it. I enjoyed chatting with Bill, who despite his age (he's a retired lawyer from Mesa) still maintains a happy attitude about life and people. He's also very photogenic, with his long white hair and smooth skin. "That's what happens when you have parents from two different universes," said Bill. He looks like a cross between a Willie Nelson and Fabio.
Everyone's pace was good, even Julies, and we managed to make it to the top with ten minutes to spare. But ooh, the wind! Rod's thermometer read 66F, a 20-degree drop in temperature from when we started. Julie didn't bring a wind breaker and complained some more. She wanted to get off the cliff but everyone wanted to stay and wait. "WAIT FOR WHAT?" screamed Julie. "To wait for the moon to rise a bit higher!" said Rod back. I wanted to stay a bit, too, but didn't want to wait until true darkness, either, before resuming our hike back down.
Julie was the only one who didn't seem to appreciate the view from our vantage point. (Perhaps if she had packed a windbreaker, she wouldn't have been so irritated.) Luckily she did calm down once we caught up with her back on the road 30 minutes later. She waited for us at the closed gate, off the road and in the dark. She was in a much better mood then.
We didn't have clouds out tonight to make the colors more spectacular, but we did have a clear moon that quickly rose above the brown haze to glow a reddish orange. The moon rose before dusk, which allowed for some nice blue in the sky at moon rise. This is the kind of moon rise that makes it in glamor magazines.
The moon is now rising much further south than the previous four moon rises and the moon light is no longer reflecting on the rock walls along the road. It was much darker than the previous hikes, which took away from the experience for the others. I turned Sadie's red light on for the entire hike down, and I used my light from time to time.
The wind calmed down some as well once we were off the cliff, but the wind picked up again the last two miles. We didn't see as much wildlife tonight. We spotted one unknown hawk, one bat, two gloworms and heard a screech owl
Bill and Susan were the most excited about this hike. Susan had never been on the overlook, Bill is new to the area and both told me they'd do this again if I led it. Just like the monthly hikes up Carr Peak, every hike up this road is a little different because of the angle of the moon and sun each month.
My phone's app read 12.2 miles for this hike, which seemed rather long. Rod emailed me later saying his GPS registered 9.7, which seems more likely. Bill and I got back to our cars at 9:40pm, making this a 4:30 hour hike. We had only three cars come up or down the road all night. It was 82F outside at the house. Kevin had brought home tacos from Manda Le, which I quickly devoured when I got home. Sadie had her own can of food, too.
All photos of Sadie and me were taken by Bill King, fellow hiker.
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