To conserve some energy for this hike, I skipped the sunrise walk and instead walked with Susan in the river, starting at Hereford bridge and going south for a mile. We had a heat advisory for all of southern Arizona and it was already in the 80s when we started our walk at 8:45am. It warmed up to the mid 90s by the time I drove off at 4pm to meet some SVHikers joining me on this walk: HollyW, DavidB, TheresaD (whom I hadn't seen since last October, before her husband died unexpectedly in December), SteveT and Trace. I took Zeke on this walk.
This was Theresa's and David's first time walking Juniper Flats. It was still very hot out. Theresa was up front from the start taking pictures, but David right away had a hard time. The first mile is steep and the steepness made him slow down. "I probably won't be doing this walk again!" he gasped at one point, even after I told him that the grade does mellow out after that first mile. The dry heat got to me, too, and even I took a few water breaks going up the road. Zeke was also thirsty and dived into the muddy stock pond I was surprised still had water in it.
David, Theresa and I were in the front going up the road. We stopped a few times to let Holly and Steve catch up. We could have started the walk at 5:15pm instead of 5pm to avoid having 20 minutes to wait for the sun to set at 7:04pm. It was windy on top and my left eye started tearing. The heavy haze also prevented clear views of city lights coming on. The full moon then showed up behind the haze to our east. We didn't get to enjoy the moon until we started on our descent off the hilltop shrouded in radio towers.
Others had also driven up the road to camp for the night. One group even had a campfire. Only one mountain biker came speeding downhill during our walk, and only one critter caused Zeke to temporarily loose his decorum. I saw a while tail, so that was either a large desert hare, or a skunk. Glad that event didn't turn into a stinky close encounter.
By now David was in full chat mode. Now it was just David and I up front, while Theresa stayed with Steve and Holly. He gave me a run-down of his personal life, his marriages to foreign women (I told him he should join the VFW; my dad claimed he was also a member of the "Victims of Foreign Women" group). His story of how he met Holly's husband Craig back in 1977 at a day camp in Buffalo, NY was rather interesting. Their careers brought them here to Arizona. David talked passionately the entire time while also holding up his flashlight to the ground, nervous about encountering any rattle snakes. I wasn't worried about snakes as there was enough moon light to see them on the road, but it turns out that Holly and Theresa saw at least three scorpions on the road.
David and I finished our walk at 8:08pm. We sat on the white rock wall waiting for the other three to finish. The rock wall was still warm from the earlier heat and the wind that was on the ridgeline had now abated. The night turned calm. When Holly, Steve and Theresa joined us, I passed out some beer and we continued to chat like teenages drinking illegal alcohol after curfew. The street was quiet, with no vehicles at all during our wall sit-on. Holly talked about some of the famous musicians she has met while in Bisbee (Rickie Lee Jones, she added, was "not very nice").
I joined in on the conversation, too, but soon realized that my legs had gotten numb from sitting. I also had to put on my hiking shirt over my cotton t-shirt to stay warm. We all finally decided that an hour was long enough and we departed. What a fun way to end a moon hike.
I stopped at Culver's on my way home for a chicken sandwich, as the hike had gotten me hungry. Kevin was already asleep when I got home at 10:20pm, but the pups were out in the yard. I watched them romp around until 11pm, when Gretel walked into the crate to sleep and I put Hansi in there with her. The pups didn't complain. I turned out the lights and all was quiet for the rest of the night.
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