It was very cloudy and gloomy and sprinkling when I left the house. I didn't want to hike because I didn't want to be too far from the truck if it started raining hard. After all, it was pretty cool (in the 70's). I'd freeze if I got wet. The clouds were not very pretty, either. I thought it might be interesting to try to get some good pictures of them.
I headed out Apache Trail. My first stop was the scenic overlook before you get to Canyon Lake.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
A few days ago, I posted a picture of Canyon Lake. The water was very blue. I attributed the color to wind and a blue sky. It was very windy today, but the sky was overcast. Here's what Canyon Lake looked like.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
Here's Tortilla Flat. There's a campground in the foreground.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
I wanted to stop in Tortilla Flat to get a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone, but the place was swarming with tourists. I drove on through. I stopped every now and then to get pictures of mountains and clouds.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
Usually when I got out of the truck, it would start sprinkling. That meant I couldn't take pictures facing upwind. I think I missed some good pictures because of that.
I came across some skid marks going off the road and decided to investigate.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
This is a mountain road. It twists and turns and goes up and down. There are no long straight sections in this area. To go off the road like this, you have to come out of a curve, floor it, and at the last second (which is 1 or 2 seconds after you floored it), stomp on the brakes and slide off the road. How do people do that? Are they suicidal? Are they incomprehensibly stupid? Lindsey was looking at my pictures and said she heard last week about a girl driving a motorcycle around Canyon Lake (on a road that is nothing but twists and curves) and she went off the road and into the lake. "Whoa, who put that curve there?!? I wasn't expecting it!" Anyway, while I was taking pictures of the reflective signs laying in the dirt that used to mark that curve, one of sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies roared by with lights flashing, siren going, and tires squealing. Did he hear about some undocumented workers at the Apache Lake marina, or did somebody go off a cliff further down the road?
About 15 minutes later, an ambulance went by with lights flashing, siren going, and gravel flying.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
I'm on the unpaved part of Apache Trail now. It was kind of rough. Washboard sections, holes, etc. Almost as rough as a Houston street. I don't mind that stuff in my truck (it's a Taco!), but people drive sedans and minivans out here. I wouldn't want to treat my minivan like that. Well, I guess we did drive minivans and a Focus on Houston streets for several years. Anyway, here's a picture of a sedan with low profile tires that somebody drove out here.
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| From 2008_10_04 |
That red truck is on the road. The Pontiac is perched on a cliff that drops 10 vertical feet before continuing a more gradual descent. The passenger compartment is not crushed, so maybe the occupants are OK. If they had their seat belts on. If you are smart enough to drive off a cliff, are you smart enough to wear a seat belt? Probably not. Too bad, so sad.
The Pontiac is near the top of Fish Creek Hill. I was planning to drive down to the creek, but I didn't want to go down a long, steep, partly one lane road if there was going to be a big mess at the bottom, though (remember the deputy and ambulance?). By now it was raining too hard to get any pictures. I headed home. The tourists were gone when I passed back through Tortilla Flat, so I got my ice cream cone. As I was leaving Tortilla Flat a kid on a crotch rocket passed by going the other way. A few minutes later, he zipped around me going in my direction. I suppose crotch rockets are fun to drive on twisty mountains roads. He was hanging a cheek off the seat so he could get around the curves faster. But it's raining. Roads get slick when it rains. I looked over all the cliffs I passed, to see if he was at the bottom of any of them. Never saw him again, though. Click below to see all of the pictures.
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| 2008_10_04 |
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