I haven't spent much time in Bulldog Canyon lately, so I decided I would hike up to the first mountain ridge I ever climbed there. I've driven to that general area several times in the past. I headed out there at about 2 in the afternoon. Along the way, there are a couple of rough spots in the road that are difficult to climb. Usually, I just lock the rear axle and drive up. That didn't work yesterday, though. I even tried getting a little bit of a run up. All I did was stir up dust. It doesn't look as steep or rocky in this picture as it does when you are driving on it.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
No problem, though. I was within easy walking distance of my destination. I parked and before I even opened the door, I realized that I had forgotten my backpack. Dangit. Can I even go for a hike? Well, I've got 3 bottles of water, and I can carry them in a Walgreen's bag. OK, less water than I had planned on, so I can't go as far, so I can't go to the ridge I was planning to visit. Well, I'll just wander around and maybe I'll see something interesting. As I meandered aimlessly in a generally southward direction, I glanced up here and halfway thought about seeing if I could find a way up there.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
It wasn't long before I had forgotten about the little hindrances and was enjoying the view.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
I had been cold in the morning so I was wearing a black T-shirt on the hike. It was close to 80, though, so I felt a little warm in the sun. I took advantage of what shade there was.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
I finally got a picture of the most dangerous animal in the desert (I was attacked by them 3 times on this hike) today. They look so cute and cuddly, but don't be fooled. They lay traps all over the desert, usually in places that you might think you can finally relax, trying to twist your ankles and leave you stranded out in the middle of nowhere. I've seen coyotes, javelinas, deer, wild horses, centipedes, tarantulas, scorpions, gila monsters, and rattlesnakes on hikes. Some of them have warned me away, but none of them have laid traps for me the way this devious little fur ball does.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
Before long, I found myself at the top of the cliffs I had half heartedly thought about climbing as I started out on this hike. It was so pretty, I got goosebumps as I stood there looking around. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a picture of it, but I had to try.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
I could have walked along, taking 360 degreee panoramas every 20 or 30 feet, and still not have begun to capture what I saw. With 2D pictures, the viewer can't tell that there's a large rock in the foreground with cliffs behind it. Without something for reference (such as people) there's no sense of scale or distance. I think of saguaros as the standard candle of the desert, but they aren't always where you want them to be, and their height can vary quite a bit.
Once I got to the tops of the cliffs, it was easy to find shade. There was a light breeze up there. At first I avoided the shade, though. As soon as I would step into it, my skin would feel icy cold. Once my sweat dried, though, the shade was comfortable. People that live on the Gulf coast of Texas have no idea what I'm talking about here.
I wandered around up there for about an hour. There are a lot of small "caves" in the rock.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
The floors of the caves are covered in powdery dirt, and that's where ant lions live.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
Some rocks look almost hollow.
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| From BC_2008_11_08 |
After a while I noticed that the sun was getting low. There would probably be enough moonlight to walk, but not enough to pick a route, and I was in an unfamiliar place. I had to start back. A lot of people that are "lost" in the desert aren't really lost in the traditional sense of the word. They know about where they are, and they know where they want to be. They just can't figure out how to get to there from here. You usually can't go in a straight line. The route you pick may be blocked by cliffs. If you don't have the provisions or stamina to explore for a route, you're doomed. From up on the cliffs, I thought I could see a couple of quick routes back to the truck. Since it would be dark soon and I had no food, flashlight, or warm clothes (all in my backback, in the garage), I had to take the path with no unknowns; the way I came up. Even doing that, I made a couple of wrong turns, but I didn't wander far from my intended route before I figured it out. I got back to the truck before it was dark and still had a bottle of water left.
When I downloaded the pictures I was, of course, disappointed. The pictures look so blah compared to being there. You'll just have to go out there with me some time.
I was planning to make a trip map as I had for my last few hikes, but I ran into problems there, too. I was able to get most of the pictures geotagged, but the @trip PC software keeps crashing when I download the track. I need to write to their tech support. Their software also has a bug that corrupts file extensions of random pictures. At first I thought it was deleting my pictures, but I figured out how to recover them. There were a lot of pictures that I didn't think were worth putting on the web album, but it has 75 pictures anyway.
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| BC_2008_11_08 |
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