Carr Reef and the waterfall

We have had some wonderful weather these last few days. The power walk on Wednesday was almost too warm for me, Thursday's walk up to the middle Carr Falls with Marleana was mild and overcast, and today's hike with both HollyO and Marleana a challenging but much-needed hike to one of my favorite look-outs. This was an impromptu hike after talking to Holly about doing a quick hike this morning. Since I had plans on taking my hiking dogs to the local vaccine clinic in town in the afternoon, knew that I had to stay local to get to the vaccine clinic on time. I wanted all three hiking dogs vaccinated for the rattlesnake and H3N2 (dog flu), in preparation for the spring break get-away I'm planning in Prescott in early March.

Marleana, HollyO and I with Zeke and Sadie met promptly at 8am. We were the first cars in the lot. Another couple was returning from their early morning walk. They were the only people we saw on our uphill hike. It was still cool and shaded. Marleana was wearing her shorts and Holly had on a fleece sweater. I wore my favorite hiking shirt with a tee underneath. My thick fleece was strapped over the backpack but I never needed it. We left promptly at 8am. Skies were mostly clear and it looked like it would be hot by the afternoon.

I have walked up this road countless times now, and that first mile uphill can take one's breath away. Again, like Thursday's walk, I was out of breath! That can't be! But we still made it to the middle falls in 41 minutes. The only scare we had was when Sadie ran up a steep incline and didn't come right back for ten minutes, even after yelling out her name. Had she chased something? We heard no barks or whimpers or death cries. This disappearing act is something Minnie and Zeke do. We had seen two koatamundi cross over the road; perhaps that was her curiosity taking over her?

Once she returned back to us, all returned to normal. We stopped briefly at the middle falls for the dogs to drink, then resumed our hike uphill. The icy snow banks there were here along the north face of the road had all melted since Thursday. We had surprisingly little snow or ice the rest of the way. The day temperatures in the 70s all last week surely helped.
HollyO had never been up to the reef, nor had ever been to the upper Carr Falls. That required me of course to take both gals there to share the view. Water from snowmelt was flowing nicely here, disappearing through the slot below on its way to the rocky slabs of the middle falls. Both were impressed.

More impressive for me was the lack of any snow on the reef, which is near 7500'. Even the north slopes had no snow. There were two small drainages with water for the dogs. I was carrying 6L of water in two water bladders, but I always prefer the dogs drink their water from flowing creeks. It keeps me from having to stop to give them water.

We made it to the reef overlook in 2:30 hours. I don't know how much time we spent at the upper falls, but that time was impressive. Having fast company makes me hike faster, too! There was no wind at all. Sitting up at the top was quite relaxing. Both gals agreed. We had the entire valley to look down at. A brown smokey trail traveled across the northern horizon. (Is there a wild fire nearby? I noticed this smoke on Thursday)

The manzanitas looked so green today. The snowfall from early January gave them their color back. The trail was well-saturated and soft, but not muddy. We finally left the reef at 11:05am.

The walk back down was easy. We chatted the entire time. Both dogs were now tired and right by my side. We passed several groups of people once we got to the middle falls for another short water break. A mother-daughter group was heading up to the upper falls, and two young men were backpacking up to the peak for the night. (They should have left earlier in the morning!). The closer we got to the lower falls, the more groups we passed, with everyone wanting to spend some time at the water. I'm glad we started early, though.

We got back to our cars just before 1pm. I got home at 1:15pm, had a quick lunch, then left at 1:50pm with all three hiking dogs to the vaccine clinic at the Tractor Supply Company in town. A marquee in town said it was 80F outside. Geez, that's hot! The dogs barked at other dogs when we first joined the slow-moving line, but they calmed down. Sadie and Minnie took a liking to the young gal in front of me. "Oh mom, you should get a German shepherd!" I heard her say.

I didn't leave the store until after 4pm and $186 poorer, and to reward the dogs for their good behavior, took them briefly to the San Pedro River where they could drink and stretch their legs. Zeke and Sadie acted like they hadn't hiked in days, and Minnie was glad just to get some fetching in. I had to cut my trip here short as there were two other groups of people with their offleash dogs, and one family told me their two pitbulls "didn't like other dogs." I took a nasty fall over a two-foot tall tree stump and landed face first in (luckily) a thick pile of dead grass, but my left thumb took a bad sprain again. My left thumb sprains easily after a bad tendon injury when I was 16 years old and an avid rollerskater.

Trees and shrubs are budding along the San Pedro River. Spring is in the air. I love the warm weather, but was really hoping for
a wet and cool winter to last at least another month. So much for our "el Nino!"

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Trump won the South Carolina primary. Jeb Bush dropped out. I always thought he was the more competent of the Bush sons and would have made a much more compassionate yet strong president than his older brother turned out to be. Jeb dropping out ends the Bush dynasty.

(Photos of the dogs and me taken by Holly Olyds)