Full Moon over Reef overlook

 I had a group of eight people sign up for my moon hike!  I was stoked.  Obviously there is an interest in walking under a full moon. This was today's highlight.

The rest of the day was hot and windless.The dogs hid in any shade they could find. I spent two hours at McD's sipping my iced coffee and staying cool before going back home and getting ready for the 5:45pm meet-up.

Hansel, Gretel and Sahne all darted out the front door.  I took Hansel and Sahne, but kept Gretel by the RV. She is a good hiking dog, but doesn't like small dogs.  Sorry, Gretel!

Ellen, KarenB, Bob and Becca with dog Taffy, Laurie, JanetH,  and new member Mandy were the moonies tonight. We had to wait for our last hiker, Mandy.  She arrived ten minutes late.  Since we had a thick, smoky haze at sunset, this wasn't an issue since the moon was covered for 30 minutes after it rose, but for future hikes on this route I will have to allow more time, like 90 minutes, for the 2.75 miles to the overlook.  We started the hike at the middle falls and ascended from there. Moon rise was 7:19pm and we didn't get to the overlook until 7:38pm!  

Ellen was slow, but she was steady, and made it with not that much time difference.

I kept my dogs leashed until we made it to the ATV turnoff.  They snapped at Taffy when he got too close to me, but otherwise they avoided each other. Only two government trucks passed us going up, and one ATV going down.

Only Ellen and I had been up here before.  This was a new route for everyone else.  As expected, everyone was in awe of the view even with the thick haze.  I was enjoying the cool breeze, after a day of stifling heat.

We didn't stay long.  Sunset was at 7:30pm with no clouds. All the clouds at 4pm had dissipated.I wanted to be off the rocky ATV trail before it got too dark and became treacherous.  The others agreed.

We finally saw the bright light on the moon when we were back on Carr Canyon Road.  The road and trees, however, hid the moon for most of the walk.  Still, no one seemed to mind as we were all enjoying the breeze that followed us back to our vehicles three hours after we had started our hike.

I made it home an hour later.  Now I had to walk Gretel, who was alone outside by the gate.  She was happy but quiet to see me. She has matured so much this past year. She walks well onleash.  We walked the mile in the stillness before I called it a night.