Super Blue Moon hike up Juniper Flats in Bisbee

Distance: 6.83 miles

Elevation: 1287'

Significance: views of sunset and moon rise 

This is a hike that Ellen, Janet, Travis and I talked about when we last hiked up Carr Peak.  I made it a Meet-Up so others could join.  Ellen brought TomR and BrendaH along; what a nice surprise!  I haven't hiked with Brenda in years.  Travis had to cancel in the last minute when his mother was rushed to the ER on Monday,  RyanD showed up. KimG showed up, but turned around just past the mile mark. We were a group of six.  Gretel was my dog companion.  This was Tom's and Brenda's first time up this road.

The road is well-graded and wide, with nice views in all directions, but the first mile in 90F heat and a steep grade was rough!

Sunset was at 6:47pm with moon rise at 6:59pm.  I allotted 25 minutes per mile.  We started at 5:30pm but even us faster hikers (Janet, Ryan and I) were still a 1/4 mile from the destination.  (Next time I will allot 30 minutes per mile.)

There were heavy, dark clouds moving in near the peak, with lightning to our north.  These clouds also partially obstructed our views to the West, but there was some color after sunset.  And, more surprising, the red moon was visible despite the clouds over the horizon.

I carried a backpack with water, but slinging it over my right side only made for some discomfort.  My broken, bruised arm did ok as long as I stayed on level ground, but that backpack was not easy to carry over one shoulder.

We made it to the second set of radio towers just in time to see the red moon rise.  Janet saw it first.  I had wanted to take the group to a rocky hilltop north of the radio towers, but opted mot to due to the storm.  One can see the lights of Cananea, Sonora and Agua Prieta as well from the hill. 

We had good views from where we sat, although my Motorola takes awful night shots and did the moon no justice.  Even Tom, Ellen and Brenda got to see it when they caught up to us.

Now we had lightning all around us.  A few stray raindrops fell on us, but nothing significant.  The breeze kicked in briefly, but our walk back down was quiet and calm.  Gretel ran up ahead but stayed close. Janet took off first.  I walked back with Ryan as we studied the cloud formations.  A dragon was swallowing the moon at one point.

We walked past two other small groups parked near vistas to see the moon, but it was otherwise a quiet walk back.

We got back to the cars  in 3:15 hours. We all waited for everyone to get back to their cars.  We chatted some more in the parking lot before heading home.  I stopped at Fry's for more raw meat for the dogs and didn't get home until 10pm.

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Photo by JanetH