Brown Canyon hike with Susannah

Drove south east to Sierra Vista today to meet up with my friend Susannah. Haven't seen her in a while and besides missing her, I wanted to take a gander at her new house. There to greet me was her cutie pie puppy Chewbacca or Chewie. Isn't he just adorable?  He even posed for a few pictures which is apparently not his normal behavior.

After a quick stop at Starbucks, we headed over to Brown Canyon for a little hike. I found it difficult to juggle both optics (bins and camera), so I compromised and used the bins on the way up and the camera on the way down. :) I think we did 4-5 miles in all in about 3 hours. My heel seemed to do pretty well - so far so good since that Utah trip is coming up quickly!

Signage near the trailhead.

Susannah is glad we're headed back (and so am I)

An old rusted stove by the side of the trail.

Here's the foundation of the building I'm assuming the stove came from.

A squashed bright green bug

And two live bugs doing I don't know what...

Storm's abrewin!

As we got back toward the trailhead, dark clouds moved in.

These ladies were just starting their ride

Hope they brought rain jackets!

A last look at the flowers at the Brown Canyon trailhead.

We got out before the storm hit and followed our stomachs to the SV Olive garden for lunch. After soup, salad and dessert (!) we decided to head back past Brown Canyon and up into Ramsey Canyon for a lazy look at some hummers. The storm had apparently raged for quite a while in that area as was evidenced by the now flowing stream. While nursing daydreams of buying the Ramsey Canyon Bed & Breakfast (how much IS that place going for???), we watched an aggressive male Magnificent hummingbird chase just about all the others away from the headers. I did get one or two good shots of the birds though, including the busy male himself.

Male Black-chinned hummer (and a honeybee)

Male Magnificent Hummer

Mag hummer feeding