2008_01_28 |
Monday, January 28, 2008
Cloudy
Sunday, January 27, 2008
South Mountain
I took pictures to show how cloudy and rainy and foggy it was. They are not worth looking at, so skip them if you want to.
South_Moun |
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Cottonwood Creek
Sometimes while I'm out hiking, I see helicopters heading out towards The Rolls, the OHV area in the foothills of Four Peaks. Today I saw a couple of crosses beside the dirt road that I hadn't seen out there before. I also saw a dirt bike laying on the side of the road and a guy limping slowly along the road with his boot undone. Those people must be having a whole lot of fun, up until the end that is. There seems to be a disproportionately high number of accidents out there. That isn't too surprising, though. There have been several occasions when an ATV or dirt bike has come flying around a corner right at me, and had to fight to avoid hitting me or going off the road. And I don't even drive on the left side of the road like they do.
I must be getting old. All the dumbasses (pardon my French) out there are really starting to aggravate me.
I once asked a Frenchman what they say in France when they curse. He said, "Oh, we say 'Pardon my French'". I thought it was funny. I guess you had to be there.
2008_01_26 |
Friday, January 25, 2008
Near Alex's hill
BC_2008_01 |
Monday, January 21, 2008
Not an uninteresting hike
BC_2008_01 |
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Moonlight photos
BC_2008_01 |
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Bulldog Canyon
BC_2008_01 |
Here's a short video of a small cave.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
A not so restful stroll
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1400, 65
End - 1600, 67
Distance hiked: Maybe about a mile
Elevation change: Maybe about 200 feet
The numbers:
52 Pictures taken
5 Beer cans collected
1 Can of carburetor cleaner collected.
Ramblings: Yesterday's hike was strenuous. My legs were still tired today, and my feet and ankles were a little achy, so I decided I would just take a leisurely stroll today. I don't think I had even gotten 100 feet from the truck when I spotted a notch in the rock up ahead and thought, "Hey, I can get up there. I wonder where it goes." And off I went.
It was pretty steep getting up there. Once I got in the notch, I couldn't go much further. I wandered around up there for a while and then noticed that on the shady side, it was much easier to climb. I got a little ways up that side and then ran out of water. Well, I was tired, anyway.
While I was sitting up there enjoying the view, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. I could tell a couple of people were moving around and I wondered how they had gotten there. I zoomed all the way in and took some pictures, but I couldn't tell in the viewfinder that they were carrying helmets. (There's a lot in my pictures that I don't see until I get home and download them.) About half an hour later, I was wandering towards the truck. I was walking through the wash and had gotten a little disoriented, so I had overshot the truck. Anyway, I noticed a strange print in the wash. It looked like a small butt print, as if a small person had sat there briefly. I looked around the butt print and saw that ATV tracks led up to it and then two sets of deep footprints followed ATV tracks into some bushes, and there was an ATV. Ah, it must be Kelso and Jackie's ATV (see pictures; that's who they look like to me), and they ran out of gas.
BC_2008_01 |
Saturday, January 12, 2008
A long hike
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1305, 67
End - 1650, 63
Distance hiked: About 3 miles
Elevation change: About 500 feet
The numbers:
72 Pictures taken
2 Plastic bags removed from the desert
2 Beer cans removed
1 Quart size glass Gatorade bottle removed
1 Michelob bottle removed
1 deer photographed
Ramblings: It was a very nice day for a hike. I tore myself away from the computer games and headed out to Bulldog Canyon. At first I thought I might try to get to the end of a side canyon I've been trying to get to for a while, but instead I just kept going east until it got too steep. I wound up climbing up to a notch in a wall of rock. The view was nice from up there.
I saw a lot of deer tracks. The seemed to be made by very large deer. I stopped to get rid of some used water once and was gazing at a hillside across a wash from me and spotted a deer. It wasn't moving very fast so I snapped a few pictures. I was putting the camera away and watching the deer disappear over the hillside when a cool breeze reminded me why I had stopped in the first place.
The total elevation change was only 500 feet, but there was a lot of going up and down in between. I bet I climbed at least 750 feet.
Near the top of the climb, I found a beer can. Hard to believe somebody took a beer all the way up there. I guess they were too tired to take the empty all the way back down.
I also found pieces of a desert tortoise shell way up there. A year or two ago, Lindsey and I found a live desert tortoise high up on a steep mountainside. Seems strange that they would go way up there.
BC_2008_01 |
Video finally uploaded
Thursday, January 10, 2008
A tripod helps
BC_2008_01 |
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Another failed attempt
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1425, 65
End - 1615, 62
Distance hiked: A little over a mile
Elevation change: At least 420 feet
Ramblings: Wow, it was windy today. It was out of the northeast, so naturally it warmed up today. I can't figure that out. Maybe I'm really in Australia.
Today I tried to reach the top of the mountains again. And failed again. It was a lot of fun, though. I made several short videos and I'll be putting those on here if they get through "processing" (I'm uploading them now).
Ah, the first video is ready! There were lots of holes in the rock up there, and I didn't think pictures did a good job of showing them, so here's a video.
I got about as far up as I usually do before I encountered an obstacle I couldn't (or wouldn't) get around. I'm sure there's an easy route up there, I just have to find it. I could see another potential route from where I was, but I didn't have enough water (or energy) to try it today.
Here's a video of a bug that I haven't succeeded in getting a good picture of. I've been trying for years, but it won't be still.
Here's a video of a small cave with a "skylight".
And here are the pictures.
BC_2008_01 |