Dog Snot On My Windshield: Flowers of Garden Canyon

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Flowers of Garden Canyon

I took a break from walking the dogs at sunrise and just sat on the back patio watching the sun rise, and the cool temperature rise from 60F to 70F in one hour. I didn't walk at sunrise to save my energy for a walk up Garden Canyon with some of the SVHikers: HollyW, SteveD, SteveT and Trace, BonnieM. I took Zeke. I'm glad I walked today, as flowers along the creek were splendid, and the Golden Columbine were in full force. Another group of walkers was ahead of us but turned around at the petroglyph site. We did not see them on the return walk. I could hear water gurgling for most of the walk up the road.

The walk up the canyon was cool with plenty of shade and a bit of a breeze, but that shade quickly dispersed on our walk back down. I was sweating now. This heat will only get worse as we near June.

I wasn't expecting there to be so much water still flowing, so I quickly fell back because I kept taking photos, even going down toward the waterfalls where more flowers were blooming. I even came upon a couple relaxing by a watering hole. The man was in the water, but the woman said it was too cold for her. The man claimed to be in the water for 30 minutes.

The hiking group was sitting in the shade by our cars when I got back to the parking lot. The walk was 5.5 miles and took us just under three hours.

I stopped at Safeway after the walk to check out the craftbeer section, but there were too many customers and I didn't want to stand in line; I had puppies to play with at home! The store carries spiked seltzer from companies I hadn't heard of before. I will shop there during less crowded hours.

There were more lines at Taco Bell and McDonald's. I just drove home and had left overs for lunch.

I enjoy watching the puppies interact with Minnie. Minnie is the only dog that interacts with the pups. While Sadie acts like the grumpy grandmother and Sweetie and Zeke act like jealous step children, Minnie in contrast is very motherly. She allows the pups to get near her. Hopefully she can help me teach Hans how to play fetch.

Susan and I got together again at 5pm to walk the river south from the Casa. Here the river is developing that nasty green weed that smells of dead fish when it dries. Nitrate fertilizers from Mexico dry up along the shore and leave white residue behind. Surely that is not healthy for wildlife drinking the water. The many large debris piles also did not make this walk very enjoyable.

We made it 1.2 miles before turning around. I won't be walking this stretch again until that green weed dries up. Susan and I agreed we will start walking along the Hereford bridge, as the river there going north or south for a mile is wide and clear.