Daisy Mountain Rain Hike

This morning I decided to hike in the rain. I have been wanting to get back up Daisy Mountain for the last couple days but was lacking the motivation. Last night I was working until midnight but that didn't stop me from getting up at 4:20 this morning for a rainy hike.

 

It's been a really weird year. Last year at this time it was already 105 degrees. This year we had a very mild winter but now the cooler weather has kicked in. Last Friday we were at the park at night and got rained out. Yesterday it rained again and all into the late morning today. The record low for this morning is 50 and I'm pretty sure we broke that because this morning at 8am weather.com reported 50 degrees, what means it probably got even colder and it had to have been at least 45 or lower at the peak. Normal rainfall for May is just .14 inches. This year already at least an inch. So how's that for all that GoreBull warming talk that is going to make the earth boil over and be dry?

 

I hit the trail at 5am and their was already light. A couple minutes into my hike I could hear the toads doing their calls. I was going to try to see how fast I could get up the peak but after hearing the toads I got distracted. I was looking everywhere for these toads following their calls, hoping to be one of the very few people to see these things, but I couldn't find them. So back to the trail where the caliche was so thick it was like walking in freshly poured concrete.

 

I got to the second peak in 1 hour 40 minutes this morning. I was struggling with the inclines because my right hip was irritating me today. When I started up from the first summit the peak was clear. By the time I was midway from the summit to the peak I was racing against the incoming clouds to get to the top. Once I reached the top the clouds were coming in fast. It was a really cool sight. I stayed up for a few minutes to enjoy it all before I decided I'm too cold and headed down.

 

Heading down I got really confused. I started seeing burned up Saguaros but there was no sign of fire anywhere else. Finally I started looking harder and could see that there was a grass fire that moved all up the north side of the peak, did a U-turn and came back down the same side. I could see that is how it burned because the underside of the bushes were only burned on one side. Every time in the past I have seen a fire everything has been scorched black. This fire was really unique. The fire looks like it got the grass, started on the bushes but couldn't destroy them, blacked the cactus but couldn't burn them either, and left a weird trail. I'm not surprised that the cactuses didn't burn down to the ground since they are all spongy and full of water but the fact that the bushes were so resilient and still green had me really confused.

 

So my whole way back I was looking at what burned. It looks like the fire went all the way to where I park! It burned hundreds of acres over a path a few miles long but it was only really obvious in just a few places. It looks like it actually went up to the backyards where I park and in between the houses where the trail starts. A big fire yet I was unaware of it and only live a couple miles away and can't find any news reports of it. I do know that it had to have been in the last week since I was up there two weeks ago and it likely happened after last week's rain which is why the bushes survived.

 

Around 5:15-5:20 this morning.  

A couple minutes later.

Just above the first summit

From the peak with the flag.

Really cool site watching the clouds come in from way up here.

This is the where the fire was. You can see the burned Saguaro. It went straight through this entire area yet it left very little evidence. You can see the bottom of the bushes are black.

The one spot that really got scorched.

At the place I call the non grassy knoll. This is where all the geniuses shoot (complete sarcasm there). It started clearing out right before I got back to my car.

Video of the clouds moving in from the peak.