Due to several rain storms and work schedules, Bill and I never managed to hike up Carr in July. We did, however, managed to hike up Carr today with Monty McD (a retired SGM with whom I worked at the high school). All three are passionate desert gardeners, so today's hike was more like a "Oh look, that's a Western Wallflower!"
Temperatures were forecasted to reach the mid 90s so we started early. Bill picked me up at 5am, then Monty, and all three of us drove up to the trailhead in Bill's Yukon.
The sun rose at 5:40am as we were still on our drive up the road. Turkeys were roosting in a tree right off the road, which prompted a short stop to photograph the scene.
We began at 5:45am. I was upfront with Hansel and Bill and Monty were behind me. We passed a young woman running up the road. We later saw her at least three more times. She ran up to Miller Peak and then Carr Peak for 23 miles.
I immediately noticed more wildflowers when compared to our June hike. The four storms we had since that last hike (and a few more that were contained to the mountains) brought out so much new growth not only with the flowers, but the many saplings struggling to grow.
Sawmill springs, however, was barely trickling. I was hoping for flowing water, but the trickle was still better than completely dry like last time. I had a gallon of water with me so I wasn't worried, but I knew a dry spring here meant no water higher up. I was right. We need so much more rain in the next two months to help alleviate our drought and refill our aquifers.
We hiked at a moderate-to-slow pace, looking at the flora and taking pictures. We all used Google lens to help us identify the many flowers along the trail. Verbena and Western Wallflowers were in the lower elevation below 7000', along with the Indian Paintbrush and Common stargrass. Common mullein, Golden Columbine, Firecracker penstemon, blue salvia were above the aspen grove. One flower that was quite abundant was the sunflower, but there were so many varied yellow flowers that only differed by their leaf and petal arrangement.
We never suffered from the heat since we started early and hiked in the shade going up. But even at the peak it was calm. No wind, no cool breeze. Just the panorama around us as we noticed smoke wafing in the north. There were no ladybugs mating in the shrubs. A good monsoon usually brings them to the high peaks to mate in July and then lay their eggs in the valley below. This all means we still need much more rain.
We snacked on the peak for a bit, then resumed our return hike going the same way we came. This is when we came across two groups of four people going up as we were descending. Hansel was the only dog and he did well.
I enjoyed the company today. Monty was very informative about the flora and a good hiking partner. We may make Carr Peak a monthly endeavor. September will have autumn colors, October raptor migration and November may bring the first freeze. I will enjoy the camaraderie.
