Today's LL hike was only 3 miles and attended by 13 people. Weather was cool and wonderful. We walked on the Perimeter Trail, starting from the Mitchell Trail trailhead, over to the Dot Grant Trail and back to the North Mesa-Barranca Mesa Roundabout where we had left parked cars that morning.
Across from Ponderosa Estates housing development, we found a lot of yellow golf balls that someone had putted across Rendija Canyon. Picking them up was was as fun as an Easter egg hunt! I now have more golf balls for the putt putt golf course at East Park than I need!
At Guaje Pines Cemetery, the group visited a memorial cross on a hillside above the graveyard. The cross had a plaque that said "Brad". The hikers told me there used to be a guitar at the memorial but it wasn't there today. Don't know who Brad is. Maybe someone's guitar playing dog??
The predicted rain didn't begin until we got to the pedestrian underpass near the North Mesa-Barranca Mesa Roundabout which is right where the parked cars were waiting and by the time we walked through the underpass, the rain stopped. We saw a warning sign posted at the Bayo Canyon trailhead with photos of a dog that was attacked by coyotes in broad daylight. The dog lived but the photos show obvious wounds.
We drove up to the sheltered North Mesa picnic area for lunch; afterward, I drove three hikers back to the Mitchell Trail trailhead.
Then I drove to the Ocean and walked the flat part of the Route to the bottom of Guardrail Hill. There was some rain on the way back but no thunder or lightning.
Now, it's been raining off and on all afternoon, with some hard rainfall. How could a La Niña event, which brings dry weather to the southwest, possibly be occurring this winter when we're getting all this moisture?
I'm afraid that all this rain (yes, yes, I know - the mantra in the southwest is "We need the rain!") will cause the aspen leaves to drop before they turn yellow. The aspen leaves at Ice Lake near Silverton, CO are already completely golden but they are several hundred feet higher than us. One of the LL hikers camped there overnight recently with her husband. She wanted to camp several nights but the husband got altitude sickness so that nixed that.
There has been a full moon the last few nights. I'm enjoying all my day time hikes but realized last night that I'm lately divorced from the wonder and splendor of the night sky. I did step outside the other night and gaped at the moon riding high overhead. The clouds nearest the moon were edged in silver from the bright moonlight.