Carr Peak with Sahne

It's  been a busy weekend with Eric and his wife Margaret in town.  It's her 32nd birthday tomorrow and Eric treated her to a weekend in Tombstone and Bisbee.  Kevin and I met up with them yesterday for a tasty dinner at Vinny's.  The place was busy but not loud.  We were able to have a nice conversation.

I decided to hike up Carr today while Eric and Margaret were doing the touristy stuff.  I originally wanted to take Hansel and Sahne together, but that meant I had four other dogs watching my every move.  Whenever they see me get ready for a hike (they see the car keys around my neck, holding several leashes, and perhaps a backpack over my shoulder and heading to the Honda) and the entire pack wants to explode out the back yard and come with me.

 I had a brief moment alone with just Sahne and got her into the Honda before the other dogs caught on.  Getting Hansel out of the yard without the other spies watching me proved futile.  So I drove off with just Sahne.

And that girl surprised me beyond my wildest imagination.  We got to our usual trailhead at 10:55am.  Two other cars were in the parking lot.  I took Sahne off leash and instead of her running off to explore like Gretel and Gretchen do, she stayed by my side. I never had to stop to call for her.  

My tempo today was OK. While I felt fine, I had to stop a few times to gather my breath. I'm still not at 100% energy.  It took us 1:50 hours to reach the peak.  This is the same time from last month.  I've been taking prescription-strength Vitamin D now for over a week.  Nurse Dixie said low Vitamin D can cause lethargy.

I was disappointed in the autumn colors. There were no blazing wildflowers.  Leaves have dropped and flowers have gone to seed. There were few spurts of autumn color remaining. The entire forest is now ready to slumber for winter.  Even the aspen grove was naked.  It peaked two weeks ago, but back then I couldn't hike Carr because of Zeke.  He died two weeks ago and yes, I thought of him a lot on this hike as this is my first hike moving forward without him.

I can not let Zeke's death stop me from bonding with my new generation of dogs. They need love, attention and training. These dogs will be my last.  I'm bonding with Fritz but Sahne is a hyperactive dog that needs constant activity.  She will be hyper for another 1-2 years.  Zeke was a hyper pup, too, for the first four (!) years, and he turned out beautifully.  So I have hope.

It was very mild today.  Starting temperature at 10:55am was 63F with a slight breeze.  I wore two layers of Quikdry shirts, jeans,  and a Marmot wind breaker over that.  I was never chilled.

I met two men near the summit.  By then I discovered that I had left my leash a quarter-mile away when I stopped for a water break.  Not wanting to go back to retrieve it,  I asked them to just throw it on the side of the trail so I can pick it up on my way back down.  I had stopped there to give Sahne some water.  They complied.  That leash came in handy when I met three women and three dogs further down.  Sahne neither barked nor lunged at them.  I was so proud!

The peak was calm when I approached.  There were two camouflaged backpacks near the summit that some border crossers had left behind.  Why did they hike up Carr Peak?  I've come across border trash while hiking up Carr peak, but never near the peak. The packs were identical, but one was field-sewn for torn straps.  Empty Electrolyte bottles were strewn nearby, as well as several energy bar wrappers.  I collected it all on my descent and carried both packs to my car. 

I met five more people on the descent in two groups.    

We were back at the Honda at 2:40pm.  There were two more big pick-ups in the parking area.  My gas tank told me I had about ten miles of driving left, so I put the transmission in Neutral and sailed down the mountain for those ten miles.  When I got to Highway 92, I still had eight miles left.  I stopped at Speedway two miles north to gas up for $30 ($3.35/gallon) 

I'm very proud of Sahne.  This was her first big solo hike and she did much better than expected.  She was exhausted when we got home, though.  She is just proof that we need to give our dogs some trust to do well.