Sunset from Carr Reef

I could not sleep last night.  At 3am I decided I would not drive to Tucson for the Festival of Books (and risk falling asleep at the wheel) so I opted to not go to the festival this year.  It would have been my 8th time since the festival's inception.  The predicted temperature of 88F didn't help either, or that no real big authors that I read this year would be there.

I kept dozing off all morning, I was so tired, but I pulled myself out of bed by noon and came to life.  I packed a few things for the road trip.  Since I was here at home rather than away in Tucson, and because it would be the dogs' last walk with me all week, I opted to take all four of them with me and drive up Carr Canyon Road to watch the 5:52pm moon rise.  The moon was at 99% today.

Carr Canyon Road was quite busy today, with hikers, drivers and a few reckless ATVers up and down the road.  Most of the traffic was coming down.  I was going up with four excited dogs barking out the window. At 5:03pm I started the 2-mile hike up the ATV trail to the overlook. There was little wind and all I had for protection was my black Mission wind breaker and an UnderArmor tshirt and jeans.  There was no snow left here, and what little water was left was captured in a small rock crevice.

I should have not started so soon, as there was plenty of sunlight.  I entertained the dogs by playing fetch.  While Sweetie entertains herself by running like a banshee all over the place, the other three dogs stayed near me, waiting.  They did get restless.  Sadie gnawed on some sticks, Minnie dug around for sticks, but Zeke focused on me.  I played a few games of Trivia Crack to idle away the time as I sat by some young manzanitas at 7465'.

But the moon never rose.  It was hidden behind a brown haze caused by the control burn on Fort Huachuca.  I finally saw it above the clouds at 6:10pm, 20 minutes after moon rise, when the sun was now behind the mountains and the temperatures dipped quickly.  I was on my descent now, feeling the chill.

I had the overlook all to myself again.  Everyone was gone by the time I got back to the truck and drove back home.  Everyone was off the mountain and they had all missed the moon rise.  While it wasn't a spectacular one due to lack of significant cloud cover, just getting up high to watch the sun fade is pleasure for me.  I owed all the dogs this as once I'm on the road trip, the dogs remaining behind won't get walked until I'm back.