Sunday morning hikes have been a thing since... uh... forever. And in all that time (at least seven years if you didn't click the link) it's been me and my less than wise adult friends. Who else would get up overly early on a Sunday morning to spend time with me in the mountains?
Enter Clara. At 14 she's about done with being a sensible child. She's ready to be less than wise.
We got out the door as the sun rose and made it to the trailhead 45 minutes later. It's not a long hike, but one of the benefits of not hiking with my usual crew is that I don't need to try to keep up. We had the chance to stop and smell the flowers. Or look at them at any rate. Tons of trillium were just past prime, which turns their petals red.
There was snow on parts of the trail and water running down other parts. That makes for an interesting walk, but all the more adventurous. The trail isn't long, but we didn't make great time. I could blame any number of things for our slow travel, but I'll go with the pikas.
We heard the first few chirps as we passed small rock fields. Clara wanted to stop, but I assured her there were better prospects ahead. Part of me was really worried we wouldn't find our furry little friends, but don't worry. We did find them. (Of course, we found them. I wouldn't be writing this otherwise.)
In fact, the large rock field was full of pika. We saw them above the trail and below the trail. Clara had brought her fancy new camera that she saved up for (and that's better than mine) so she took control. She clambered all over the rocks to get to the perfect spot and then sat silently. I was reminded of the Berkeley Park trip from 2013. Back then we found a field of rocks and the girls sat for hours waiting for pikas to show themselves.
Satisfied, we pushed on to the TNAB Tarns. I had promised a beautiful destination and the lakes delivered. So many of my Sunday morning hikes are dashes to get to a summit only to turn around and race home. Clara's not like that, though. And this hike is short enough that even with the extended pika hunt we had plenty of time to lounge at the tarns.
Poor Treen isn't a big fan of the rocks so she couldn't join us. She had fun in the tarns themselves, though. Cold water? No problem. Stinky water? No problem. Ice floating in the water? No problem. The only problem she had was on the way back when she desperately wanted the stick that was just out of her reach, but didn't want to do a big jump into the water. (Don't worry. She eventually kind of eased in to the water from the snow ledge and grabbed her precious stick.)
We passed only a few people on the main trail on our way back. A few were out for epically long runs and others were starting on short walks like ours. I'd hazard to guess most didn't know of the Tarns or the pikas or how unusual it was that Clara was out with me on a Sunday morning. Except as she gets older it's less and less unusual.
Just one more reminder that she's growing up and there's nothing I can do to stop it.
