Hunter Canyon to Miller Canyon and back

Thursdays is my early day off work. I had a five-mile hike scheduled for Hunter canyon to Miller Canyon at 4pm. That gave me an hour to get ready once I got home. I showed up early at the meet-up place. Susan M, Claire, HollyO, Jay, new guy Cole and SteveT showed up. We started at 3:57pm when everyone who had signed up showed up and was ready. Sadie was my hiking dog.

We were parked just inside the National Forest boundary off SR92. Our cars were visible from the road and took up most of the parking area. We walked across the road to the connector trail, which took us along the dry creekbed and under a shaded canopy for a mile before reaching the actual creekbed. Claire and SteveT were in the rear and soon dropped out. Claire felt week and turned around at the 1.5-mile mark, Steve joined her at the 2-mile mark. That cut the group down to five strong hikers. Claire and Steve did the right thing by dropping out while they still could, allowing us to speed up our pace and make it to Miller Creek at 5pm. We got there at 5:15pm, giving us just 15 minutes to relax and hike back.

The canyon is very dry now. I'm worried about the continued lack of any rain. At this rate, we could face another horrific fire season in a few weeks, when the notorious winds kick in.

SusanM had hiked this canyon years ago with her dogs (now all deceased) and hadn't been back here since the 2011 fire. It was a new canyon for everyone else. It starts with a mellow uphill the first mile, then quickly picks up the grade past the mine with a long, steep hillside trail exposed to the afternoon sun. Even I had to stop briefly twice to catch my breath.



We continue