Spring!

Spring has come to the Marble Mountains. I took the dogs along and drove up to a trailhead today to check things out. Dogwood is in bloom now, and Lupine is everywhere along the side of the road. The dirt road had been graded, so I won’t have to move any rocks to get a horse trailer up there. I saw the first bear track I have seen this year in the dust of the road.

There were a couple of cars in the parking lot, back packers or day hikers. There was a single set of horse tracks on the trail. For several years, not so long ago, it was a better than even bet that I would be the first person up there on a horse each spring, and possibly the first person on foot. Seems like more people are beating me to it lately.

I turned the dogs loose and walked up the trail to the first creek crossing. I didn’t feel like wading it, and in my best days I was never much good at walking logs, so that is as far as we went. The water is still to high for fishing, and the season opens on Memorial Day weekend, but it is a fraction of what it should be at this time of the year. The snow pack in the high country is way below normal, and what is up there is going fast.

Next time I go up there I’ll take the mare along and see what the trail looks like. There are a couple of other trailheads I want to check out too before I pull the trailer up the mountain.