Fiery sky and a full moon

The sky was alive this morning, and I didn't notice that until I got the dogs ready for the three-minute drive to the maintenance road.  And of all days, the windshield was frosted over!  I was cussing and screaming (as if that makes the frost melt faster), but I probably just caused the crack in the windshield to spread further.

But what a sunrise it was!  It started out with a bright red, pink and then orange at dawn.  I got to the road at 6:44am, 25 minutes before sunrise, and saw the sky break out into a myriad of pastels.  I thought of Sean Y from yesterday, who missed a colorful view.  He ended up driving in ten  minutes later, but by then the sky's hues had changed.   Once the sun was above the horizon, the colors faded to shades of grey again.

These are the mornings I look forward to.  My work schedule allowed me to experience this as I had a half day today.  Invigorated by the morning (and the chill, brr!), I walked a three-mile course that took us back along Carr Creek that normally doesn't flow this far east of the highway.  I turned around when I met up with the creek again.  While the creek here isn't very wide, the flow was deep.  I made this my turn-around point.

The creek was gushing here, too, and the dogs enjoyed the water while I bushwhacked with them back to the dirt road.   Parts of the banks were freshly eroded.  In other areas, the soil near the banks heavily saturated.

The terrain here is flat, but the many hidden rocks under the grass make this a slow-moving walk.  In summer months I worry about rattlers under these rocks. Even the dogs got some of their paws stuck in gopher holes that then collapsed under their weight and the saturated soil.

It was a chilly morning.  The day never warmed up.  That didn't keep the dogs from enjoying their romp.  Even Minnie continued to want to fetch sticks and annoy Sadie with them.  Sadie barks at Minnie when Minnie has a stick, but then never actively fetches sticks.  She just wants to take them from Minnie.

It was an active morning and a great start to the day.  My time in school was just as productive, but it never warmed up past 60F and I kept my heavy jacket on.  The sky remained overcast, too. I was worried the overcast sky would diffuse the moon rise later.

Once back home, Susan and I had agreed to meet for a quick full moon hike along the same course I had done this morning at 3:50pm.  She had never been along the course.  She is the first person to see the course I walk and she enjoyed it too.  Even her dog Allie had fun with all the water.

Once that sun set behind the mountains, the chill from earlier returned.  My face and hands turned cold.  It didn't seem to bother the dogs, even when the coyotes began to howl.

Moon rise was at 5:10pm but we didn't see the moon until 5:13pm; it was hidden by the Belt of Venus, that atmospheric band around the horizon at sunset that resembles reddish-brown smog.

And once the sun set at 5:20pm, the colors of the sky became prominent, from deep orange and red, to purple and then deep blue.

We made it back to our cars at 5:40pm, before it got too dark.  Susan and I both agreed that skies like today are what we look forward to, living here in the desert.  You don't get skies like this in Chicago or New York City.  And Minnie was a real champ today, staying with us for six miles total.  All dogs slept soundly, too, once we settled in for the night.  Even Sadie refrained from whining.