Rainbows

Date: September 22, 2007
Location: Apache Trail, somewhere past Tortilla Flat
Time and temperature: Around 5 or 6, upper 80's
The numbers:
33 Pictures taken
1 Tarantula seen
0 Golf balls found. How odd.

Ramblings: Wow, I wonder if I've lived here so long that I'm starting to take it for granted. On the way back to the house, I was trying to decide whether to get a mint chocolate chip ice cream cone in Tortilla Flat or take pictures of the sunset. Fortunately, I didn't have to decide. I got the ice cream cone before I got to a place for good sunset pictures. Then when I got there, it was raining.

I just strolled around for a while near the road today. In the pictures, you will see one of a narrow canyon. There are a lot of those in that area. They would be the downfall of anybody that got disoriented out there. You might figure out which direction you need to go, but if you find one of those canyons in your way, tough luck. There is no way to cross it, and it could be a long hike to get around it.

I made a movie of the tarantula. My movies lose a lot of resolution when I upload them, though. I'm going to try to fix that before I upload this one.

2007_09_22

Photo editor

No, Lauren didn't really do this. I edited an old picture. Turned out pretty good.

 

Burning tires

Date: September 20, 2007
Location: Lone Mountain, Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: I forgot to look
Elevation change: 750 feet
The numbers:
50 Pictures taken
200 "Film" speed, dag nabbit
67 ants photographed
3 golf balls found

Ramblings: My truck is filling up with golf balls. Maybe I should take up golf so I can get rid of them. Oh, heck, I should just go throw them in a water hazard and save a lot of trouble.

There was a fire today that filled almost the entire valley with smoke. It was pretty ugly. I was headed for Bulldog Canyon and decided to climb Lone Mountain to see if I could get some pictures of the smoke.

As I started up Lone Mountain, I noticed occasional yellow ribbons tied to palo verde branches. Looked like somebody was marking the trail, but the trail seemed much more prominent that it did last time I was up there about 2 years ago. I don't climb it much because I don't like the noise from the nearby gun range or Usery Pass road. Somebody had also placed a lot of cairns along the trail As I got closer to the top, the trail had switchbacks. Somebody had put a lot of effort into the trail. This wasn't some hiker doing something just for fun. It's a very nice trail.

There is a bench (I think) at the top that has "EJ Peak" written on it. I don't know who named it that. It's still Lone Mountain as far as I know.

Several times over the years, I've taken pictures of ants because I thought it might make interesting computer wallpaper. The ants didn't stand out, though, so the pictures just looked like pictures of dirt. I think I've figured out how to make those kinds of pictures work, though.

BC_2007_09_20

Another hike with Alex

Date: September 15, 2007
Location: Apache Trail, near Canyon Lake
Time and temperature: Late afternoon, low 90's
The numbers:
53 Pictures taken
1 car found
1 golf ball found

Ramblings: That's right, low 90's. It didn't feel very humid, either, even though there were some thunderstorms in the distance. Alex wanted to climb a mountain today, so that's what we did. A small one. There was a very nice breeze at the top. We sat there for a while enjoying the breeze and the sights. Alex spotted a car in the distance that had gone off a cliff (they do that a lot on this road). We hiked down to it. As far as Alex was concerned, that was the best part of the hike. The panel from inside the drivers door was on the ground. Alex was playing with the switches and said, "My parents never let me push these buttons". He wanted to take the switches home. I like to take trash out of the desert, but there is so much along that road, we wouldn't be able to make a dent.

Alex_2007_09_15

Wupatki and Sunset

Date: September 8, 2007
Location: Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater National Monument
Time and temperature: All day, upper 60's to lower 90's.
Distance hiked: Three or 4 miles
The numbers:
154 Pictures taken
10 Hours spent in truck

Ramblings: About 3 years ago, I had gone to Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument. I saw several collared lizards then and I wanted to get some better pictures of them. I've been thinking about this all summer. I finally made it up there yesterday. It's a longer drive than I remembered, almost 4 hours one way (I drive slow). I didn't get home until some time after 2130 and I had to skip dinner to get home that early. I was worn out, and my feet were killing me from all the up and down hill hiking. The sad thing is, I didn't see a single collared lizard. The trip was still worth it, though. I saw stuff I hadn't seen last time. Also, since this is Arizona, the scenery is beautiful wherever you go.

The cinders in Sunset Crater National Monument don't hold water; rain just drains right through them. The area receives only about 16 inches of rain a year. Consequently, much of the landscape look desolate. There are forests of Ponderosa pine, but there are also large areas where almost nothing can grow.

One of the most interesting things about Wupatki (to me, anyway) is the blow hole. Under the right conditions (dropping barometric pressure), cool air continuously blows out of the hole. Based on the flow rate, barometric pressure, etc., etc., the volume of the caverns to which the blow hole is connected is estimated to be about 7 billion cubic feet. That's a pretty substantial volume. Imagine a cube almost 2000 feet on each side. Of course, it's probably not one big room and may just consist of a lot of narrow channels. Nobody knows, though. It is sacred to Native Americans, so there has been almost no exploration of the cavern beneath the blow hole. Nobody has been inside of it. BTW, if you ever go see the blow hole, the sign next to it is misleading. It says something about warm, less dense air rising from the blow hole and cold dense air falling it. That's silly. A change in barometric pressure is the only thing that will cause air to flow in or out. I suppose that if warm air is flowing in, it could be cooled by contact with with cavern walls, which would reduce it's volume and increase the flow rate. The main driving force is barometric pressure, though.

Wupatki_2007_09_08

I found a video on YouTube that shows how forcefully the air can come out of the blow hole. Ignore the blabbermouth and watch how the girl's hair gets blown around.

Lauren conquers Spooky Hill

Date: September 5, 2007
Time and temperature: Start - 1815, 94
End - 1935, 90
Location: Spooky Hill, in Bulldog Canyon
Distance hiked: One mile
Elevation change: 170 feet
The numbers:
22 Pictures taken
1 hill climbed
0 sick hikers

Ramblings: You may remember that on August 8, Lauren and I tried to climb Spooky Hill. It was kind of warm that day, and I guess we went a little too fast. She had to stop and lay down for a while because she started feeling really bad. Because of that, though, she spotted the mine that I hiked to on September 2. Anyway, we went to climb it again. She didn't have any trouble at all this time.

We got started a little late, and I think the sun is setting earlier, so I didn't get many pictures. We stayed at the top of the hill until 7:00 so we could watch the Fountain Hills fountain. It was getting pretty dark by then. Too dark to get a picture of it. Here are a few pictures of other stuff.

BC_2007_09_05

An old mine in Bulldog Canyon

Date: September 2, 2007
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1720, 102
End - 1952, 96
Distance hiked: About 1 mile.
Elevation change: 240 feet.
The numbers:
33 pictures taken
1 skeleton found
1 snake seen
1 Mylar balloon collected
1 water bottle collected

Ramblings: I'm trying a new feature of Google Maps that enables me to embed a map in my blog. Here's a map of the hike. You might have to zoom in some.

View Larger Map

It sure feels good to be back in the nice, dry dessert. I decided to try to get to the mine that Lauren spotted back on August 8. After checking my pictures and using Google Earth, I decided where the mine must be and where a good place to park would be. It looked like the mine should be on the southeastern side of Horseshoe Mountain. Oh, you won't find Horseshoe Mountain on any maps, because I just made it up, because it doesn't seem to have a name on any map. It looks sort of like a horseshoe from certain angles, and I needed some way to refer to it. I should probably make a Google map with the names I've given to stuff out there.

On the way up Horseshoe Mountain, I came across the skeleton of a small animal that had lots of teeth. If anybody recognizes the jawbone, please let me know what kind of animal it was.

I kept looking for the mine on the way up and finally spotted it. It took me a little while to find a route up to it. It was pretty steep. I intentionally hiked to the ridge above the cave first and stood there enjoying the view and the breeze for a while.

By the time I got to the mine, it was close to sunset. I had to use the flash to get a picture of the inside of the mine, even though it was only about 8 feet deep. It went into the side of the rock, not down (much). Anyway, since I used the flash, some features are washed out. You can see a smaller notch cut into the back wall of the mine. What you can't see are about 7 holes drilled in various places in the back wall. Each was about 4 or 5 inches in diameter and 1 to 2 feet long. I don't know if they were exploratory or if they were where explosives were to be placed. Anyway, there was a snake curled up in one of the small holes. At the time, I couldn't tell what kind it was. Seeing the pits in the picture now, I'd say it's a rattler, maybe a black-tailed rattler.

What catches your eye about the mine from a distance is the squarish entrance. It looks out of place there and so it stands out. I turns out that the squareness is accidental. See that large rock on the floor of the mine? When it fell, it left a squared off notch at the top of the entrance.

The mine is very close to an area that is popular with litter bugs and other types of people that seem to want everybody else in the world to know when they've passed through an area. Trash of all sorts, shotgun shells, other gun shells, remnants of campfires, shot up saguaros, shot up rocks, and millions of pieces of broken bottles are scattered all along the eastern side of Horseshoe Mountain. Strangely, I could see no evidence that the neanderthals had made it up to the mine. There were no trails, there was no trash, and my footprints may be the only ones in the mine now. There is sort of a trail about a hundred feet south of the mine. You would never know the mine is there from that trail, though.

BC_2007_09_02

A cloud

Date: August 23, 2007
Location: Meridian Road
Time and temperature: Nineteen hundredish, one-oh-eightish
The numbers:
26 Pictures taken
1 Cactus thorn in my foot
1 Helium birthday balloon retrieved

Ramblings: Wanna hear a funny story about my yard? OK, but anyway, I haven't been giving the yard the attention it requires in order to make the HOA happy. We decided to hire somebody to take care of it for us. Well, it's been almost 3 weeks since the last time he was here. He says it's been too hot for his crew. They can't work all day. So I mowed the front yard today. I know I couldn't do that all day.

It's that time of year when it is not only hot, but also humid, and the constant heat just wears you down. All week long, when I would get home from work, all I wanted to do was stay someplace cool. So sad. It's like I'm getting old or something.

While I was mowing, I saw a really nice cloud to the south. I hopped in the truck when I was done and headed up Meridian to get some pictures. Sorry about all the power lines. I didn't have time to get to where they wouldn't show up.

Sunset_2007_08_23

Oh, and just for completeness:

Helicopters buzz the Salt River

Date: August 18, 2007
Location: Salt River, near Blue Point
Time and temperature: Start - 1725, 109
End - 1905, 104
Distance hiked About 2 miles
The numbers:
57 Pictures taken
3 Helicopters seen
2 Kayaks seen
1 set of miniblinds seen

Ramblings: It was a little dryer today. It didn't feel too hot until I got close to the river. That's where the mosquitoes were hanging out, too. The river seems to have changed since the picture on Google Earth was taken. It has a small side-stream that breaks off from the main river for a couple of hundred yards or so. At first I thought the side stream was the river and I was wondering how people could stand to go through such slow moving water (with green gunk on top) that had tree branches dangling in the water all the way across. Then I found the real river. I was surprised at how much water was flowing through it.

You can tell that a lot of people visit the river along here. There's a lot of strange stuff laying on the ground, and large areas where plants have been wiped out.

When I started the hike, a sheriff's SUV went by in Bush Highway with lights and siren going. A couple of minutes later a helicopter came the other direction and went right over me. At first I thought it might be rushing somebody to the hospital, but it turns out it was a sheriff's helicopter. It flew back and forth several times and would sometimes fly slowly over some areas. It was mostly following the river. I wonder if they saw me snapping pictures each time they went by. A couple of other helicopters flew along the river, too. I also heard a couple of airboats on the river. I wasn't close enough to the river at the time to see them or get a picture, though. It might have been useful to have had my scanner with me, but there's a limit to how much stuff I can carry around in that heat.

Speaking of the heat, I wonder if I might have gotten a little too warm. I started feeling woozy just before I got back to the truck and felt that way until after I got home and ate. Maybe I was just hungry. I felt fine, except for my feet. I forgot to take my Celebrex this morning and my feet were killing me after an hour and a half of walking on river rocks and loose sand. They're much better now, though.

Salt_River_2007_08_18

Haboob!

I got home a little early today (dentist appointment close to the house) and there were storms building to the east and north. I was going to see if I could make a stop-action movie of a thunderstorm building up, but by the time I ate (very late lunch, long story) the storms were too close for that. I drove around and took a few pictures.

Storm_2007_08_16

A stroll near Canyon Lake

Date: August 15, 2007
Location: Apache Trail, just west of Canyon Lake
Time and temperature: Start - 1730, 103
End - 1820, 102
Distance hiked: About a mile
Elevation change: Less than 50 feet
The numbers:
23 pictures taken

Ramblings: It was pretty muggy today, so I wasn't planning to go for a hike. A storm was building to the east, so I drove out that way thinking I might get some pictures of rain, flooded washes, or maybe even waterfalls. Ha ha. As soon as the cloud started to produce a light rain, it evaporated.

I stopped at some stock pens near the lake and started wandering around. The scenery was beautiful. It sure was muggy, though. The light rain raised the humidity without dropping the temperature much. There was only a light breeze, interspersed with long periods of dead calm.

Canyon_Lake_2007_08_15

Ack! Hot! Ack!

Date: August 12, 2007
Location: Salt River, downstream of Saguaro Lake
Time and Temperature: Start - 1412, 115
End - 1443, 115
Distance hiked: One mile
The numbers:
15 Pictures taken
6 Pictures worth keeping
0.5 Liters of water consumed
0.7 Liters of Gatorade consumed

Suzanne and I drove up to Payson yesterday and I was amazed at all the bus loads of people going tubing on the Salt River. I thought maybe I could get some interesting pictures of them, but I was wrong. I went out there today because tubing season is almost over. When I got out of the truck, the thermometer read 120, but that couldn't have been right. It was around 115 as I approached my parking spot. I took pictures in one spot for a few minutes and was thinking about going to another place half a mile on the other side of where I parked. By the time I got back to the truck, though, I had had enough. It was just too hot to be out there without being in the water. There were rain clouds on the horizon, but they weren't going to cool things off any time soon.

I snapped a few pictures of mountains and clouds while I was out there. I like them. I guess I would like the pictures of the tubers if I knew them, but I don't so I don't.

Salt_River_2007_08_12

Spooky Hill conquers Lauren

Date: August 8, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - 1800, 100
End - ~1930, ~95
Location: Spooky Hill, in Bulldog Canyon
Distance hiked: 0.9 miles
Elevation change: 140 feet
The numbers:
26 Pictures taken
>6 Lizards seen
1 Lizard photographed
1 PVC pipe sticking out of the ground with a screw duct taped to it seen
1 mine shaft discovered
1 Rattlesnake seen (and photographed)
0 Snake bites (Woohoo!)

Ramblings: Lauren and I went for a hike in Bulldog Canyon. I thought we should go to the top of Spooky Hill, since that isn't a very difficult hike. I forgot to take into account that Lauren is a pasty white WoW person now, though. We were slowly trudging up the hill when she had to sit down. She was nauseated and turned even whiter (if that's even possible). For about half an hour, all she could do was lay there trying not to throw up. I felt bad for making her feel so bad. We were about 30 feet from the top, but when she felt good enough we headed back to the truck. It was getting late so it was time to go home anyway. Also, unbeknownst to us, a party was being planned and we wouldn't want to be late, if we knew about it.

OK, Lauren is looking over my shoulder and saying that since I embarrassed her, I have to mention that I got my Taco stuck in the sand. I've been worried that I would do that for a while. Now I don't have to worry about that anymore. We scraped sand away from in front of the tires and put some rocks there and got out after about 10 minutes of work.

On the way out, we came across a rattlesnake crossing the road. It's the first rattlesnake Lauren has come across in the wilderness. He posed for a picture with her.

BC_2007_08_08

A drier day

Date: August 7, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - ~1820, 98
End - ~1930, 94
Location: Bulldog Canyon OHV area, near Pass Mountain
Distance hiked: About 1.2 miles
Elevation change: 370 feet
The numbers:
21 Pictures taken
2 Beetles photographed
2 Squirrel traps escaped from
1 Owl heard
1 Liter of water consumed
0.3 Horse shoes found

Ramblings: What do you suppose most people did after work today? Watch their favorite sitcom, laughing when cued by the laugh track? Watch a CSI rerun for the third time, to see 6 different re-enactments of the brutal murder of a bright young college student? Maybe they went to a noisy bar and exchanged various communicable diseases with other loud obnoxious people. Maybe they played a computer game, getting all worked up about something that nobody will even remember 1 month from now. Then they went to bed feeling not quite right, but not able to put their finger on what might be wrong. That is not what I did.

I walked among amazing plants, listening to various birds sing, surrounded by incredible scenery in every direction, breathing in the subtly sweet smell of desert plants after a rain. I might do it again tomorrow, too.

I watched a Star Trek rerun as I ate before the hike. I left the house halfway through the show. I'll never know how the crew of Voyager foiled Species 8472's plans to wipe out all life in our galaxy. Oh, well.

The dew point was below 55 this afternoon. That's the driest it's been for a couple of weeks. I didn't get too drenched, even though I did a little climbing. I headed towards Pass Mountain (see map) and almost got to the trail that goes around the mountain. The view is nice from up there.

I was out there until it got dark, and had my night vision monocular with me. It does allow me to see a lot. The infrared LED is useful for illuminating things more than 30 feet away.

OK, it's late and I'm sleepy. Here are the pictures.

BC_2007_08_07

Another Arizona first

Date: August 6, 2007
Time and temperature: Around sunset, low 80's.
Location: Along Meridian Road
The numbers:
13 Pictures taken
8 Pesky mosquitoes

Ramblings: One thing that always comes to mind when I try to think of things that Texas has and Arizona doesn't is lots of mosquitoes. Tonight I drove north on Meridian Road, snapping pictures of the sunset. I even got a picture from the 60 overpass. Traffic was light. I stopped at one of my favorite places for photographing sunsets and got out to take a few pictures. That's when the mosquitoes started pestering me. By Lake Jackson standards, they were next to nonexistent, but there were a lot more than I've seen in the past 4 years (except for on trips to Texas). I was glad when it was to dark for more pictures. I drove north to the end of Meridian, planning to try out my new night vision monocular in the desert. I strolled out a few feet and waited for it to get dark enough, but there were more mosquitoes. I finally got tired of swatting at them and headed home. That's the first time I've been chased off a trail here by mosquitoes. I may go again tomorrow for vengeance, with the electric fly swatter.

Sunset_2007_08_06

Oak Flats

Date: August 5, 2007 (Happy birthday, Kyle!)
Time and temperature: Sunday afternoon, upper 70's to lower 80's.
Location: Oak Flats, Arizona
The numbers:
35 Pictures taken
2 Drilling rigs seen
1 deer seen

Ramblings: Somebody in Texas might not mention seeing a drilling rig, but they are a rare item here. The road went by one of them, and if I had been familiar with the roads, I would have known that a pickup belonging to one of the workers was blocking the road that I really wanted to see. Still, I enjoyed the road I was on. I took 60 east past Superior and turned right on the road to Oak Flats campground. At the campground there is a big yellow sign that says, "WARNING: High clearance vehicles only beyond this point!" I have a high clearance vehicle, so I went beyond that point.

It was a very bumpy road, but I only had to lock the rear axle a couple of times. The rocks had lots of black marks. Seems like you would have to be a real noob to spin your tires that much, though.

One reason I went out there was because I thought it might be cooler, since it's at 4000 feet. The vegetation is certainly different. Not as many cacti. No saguaros. Lots of small bushes that I think are manzanitas. A few pine trees and some cedar. The area looks like it's pretty much solid granite, too.

I didn't hike for a couple of reasons. First, even though it was only about 80, it was a Houston 80; very muggy. Second, it was overcast and I heard thunder now and then. I didn't want to be far from my Taco if the lightening got close.

I mapped some of the pictures in the web album. Be sure and click on "hybrid" so you can see the terrain on the map. Better yet, view the map in Google Earth.

I took a few pictures of balanced rocks and then quit because that's almost like taking a picture of a saguaro in Bulldog Canyon. They're all over the place. One of the balanced rocks was very interesting, though. It's in the pictures.

Oak_Flat_2007_08_05

Lizard hunt

Date: August 2, 2007
Time and temperature: Start - 1754, 94
End - 1921, 89
Location: Near the Massacre Grounds trail head
Distance hiked: Maybe half a mile
Elevation change: Not much
The numbers:
62 Pictures taken
10 Lizards spotted
3 Lizards photographed
3 Millipedes seen
3 Chipmunk attacks
0 Broken ankles!
1 Bat seen
1 Tarantula seen

Ramblings: I've gotten almost no pictures of lizards over the past year, despite having a camera that can really zoom in on them. I used to see lizards hanging out all the time, but lately they seen to run hide the minute they see me. Then I realized that the ones I used to get pictures of were always near a well-traveled trail. I guess they get used to people walking by. So I headed for the Massacre Grounds trail.

I haven't been to that trail for a couple of years. It hasn't changed much. I could tell that there had been some heavy rains out there recently. I expected to find water in an old stock tank near the parking lot. I was surprised to find the water covered with some plant.

I was able to get pictures of almost every lizard I saw while on the trail. Then I wandered off the trail and watched as lizards scurried under bushes or rocks.

As I was driving out, I saw a tarantula crossing the road. I'm not used to seeing them until about October.

Lizard hunt

Sultry weather

Date: August 1, 2007
Time and temperature: Start - ~1800, ~85
End - ~1900, ~80
Location: Bulldog Canyon OHV area
The numbers:
25 pictures taken
1 air filter found
1 golf ball found.
1 jack rabbit seen

Ramblings: It looked like it could get stormy, but I hadn't been to Bulldog Canyon for a while (over a week), so I had to go out there. One reason I haven't been hiking much lately is the humidity. The weather the past couple of days reminds me of Houston. Yuck. Today I just strolled slowly along mostly level ground. The air felt cool. Still, I had sweat running down my temples. OK, I'll quit whining now. It's just that the desert has spoiled me.

Another reason I haven't been hiking much is I don't like to be out during storms. Getting wet wouldn't be a problem; I carry a poncho in my backpack. Lightening is dangerous. It kills a lot of people in Arizona. The dust kicked up by the wind is also dangerous. People get valley fever from it, which is a fungus that can make you very sick and is very difficult to cure. I can steer clear of rattlesnakes. Lightening and fungus are too tricky for me.

Sometimes I come across something in the desert that makes me imagine somebody sitting at home trying to think of something totally bizarre to do that will really make people scratch their heads and say something like, "What the heck is THAT doing here???" So, not being the sharpest tool in the shed, they decide to take a beat up old air filter that they took out of their car 8 months ago and go put it out in the middle of the desert, far from any road. Well, I did scratch my head when I found it. I'm thinking maybe I need some Tegrin shampoo.

BC_2007_08_01

Rainy season

I haven't had many updates lately, for a couple of reasons. There have been regular thunderstorms every afternoon. I don't hike when there is lightening around. I don't like hiking in the rain. I really don't want to be out in the dust. I need to get some pictures of the storms, but I never seem to have my camera with me when I see something worth taking a picture of.

The second reason there haven't been many updates is because our internet connection was very flaky. My suspicion is that Cox started doing something that is incompatible with older modems so they can sell a bunch of new ones.

OK, since I don't have anything interesting to say, here are some pictures of a hummingbird moth and clouds at sunset.\

Hummingbird_moth

Dad's influence, part 2

A few days ago I wrote about how some of Dad's magazines influenced me. Reading was a normal activity in our family. I remember that Mom and Dad were always reading something when they went to bed at night. There were always books around, and they weren't for decoration. I thought it was normal to read for entertainment. I always read something when I went to bed, too. When I was less than 10, but old enough to read, we had a few comic books around. I didn't like reading them more than once, though. The only magazine we got back then was National Geographic and I at least looked at the pictures and read the captions. Often, though, on my way to bed I would stop at the bookcase in the hallway outside my room. The World Book Encyclopedia was on the bottom shelf. I would pick a letter I hadn't looked at for a while, or one of the yearly updates we also got. I would read some entries but most seemed pretty dry to me. I did absorb a lot. How many 8 year olds know who Nikita Kruschev is? I did. How many know what a hologram is? I did, even though I didn't have a source of coherent light with which to view the hologram that came in one of the yearbooks. I knew what the letters in LASER stood for. I guess I was one of the original uber geeks. I didn't know it, though. I was always surprised when one of my friends didn't know something that I thought was common knowledge. I didn't say anything about it, though, because I didn't want to embarrass them about their ignorance.

I remember going into my parents closet once and discovering a treasure trove of National Geographics; issues they had gotten before I could read, even before I was born! I spent hours on the floor of the closet, looking through those magazines. At times I felt overwhelmed, thinking I would never be able to look at them all. Then one day, in the back of the closet, I discovered two more huge stacks. They weren't National Geographics, though. Same size and shape. I think they might have even been yellow. No picture on the front, though, just lots of words. I can't remember the title, but it was something like "Geophysical Review". I know now that it was a technical journal, with papers written by researchers. Those magazines contained cutting edge information on geophysics. I didn't know that then, though. I knew they didn't have many pictures, and the pictures they did have were not very interesting, but I doggedly pushed my way through 10 or 20 issues. I didn't read much. Too many big words. I tried to understand the graphs, and was able to make sense of some of them. (In college, I was astonished to encounter people that couldn't understand simple graphs. Didn't they have anything besides comic books to read when they were kids???) I did read enough to realize that a lot of the articles discussed plate tectonics or continental drift. So I knew what those terms meant long before most people had ever heard them. Why am I not a geophysicist? Well, most of those articles were very boring. That and Dad discouraged us kids from having anything to do with the volatile petroleum industry. I got involved in semiconductor electronics instead. Ha ha! Talk about ups and downs.

Anyway, because of the example that Dad set, I've always had a thirst for knowledge. I've accumulated quite a bit of it, and some of it is even useful sometimes. It's very rare that I look at something and wonder how it works or what processes led to its existence. Thanks to Dad, I understand the world in which I live.

Fizzled storms

Date: July 23, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - 1740, 87
End - 1800, 87
Location: First Water Creek overlook trail
The numbers:
12 Pictures taken
4 Really big storm clouds
1 Haboob observed
0 Raindrops on my windshield or body.

Ramblings: This afternoon there were storms popping up to the north, east, and south. Big storms, growing quickly into huge thunderheads. The wind was blowing, too. I just knew we were going to get some rain. Lindsey and I went out towards Canyon Lake. It was very dark over there and I thought we might be stopped by flooded dips. We weren't, though, and when we got there we could tell it had just rained, but it was very calm and quiet and humid. We walked a short way down the First Water Creek overlook trail and saw some puddles. Didn't hear any thunder. By the time we got back to town, it looked like all the storms were fizzling out. Rats.

FR80

Date: July 22, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - 1640, 98
End - 1824, 91
Location: Just off of NF-80, between Tortilla Flat and Apache Lake
Distance hiked: About a mile
Elevation change: I'm guessing about 250 feet.
The numbers:
71 Pictures taken
1 Movie made
9 Millipedes spotted crossing the road
1 Pregnant woman standing beside the road in the middle of nowhere
1 Pair of scissors found in the desert.

Ramblings: Ninety-eight doesn't sound as hot as 105, but it felt worse to me. It was that low because of the humidity. I got soaked. I sat in the shade for 15 minutes to cool off and was still wet when I got up. The nice thing about the humidity, though, is the pretty clouds. I didn't get any really good pictures of them, though. In fact, after going through all the pictures twice to select which ones to put on the web album, I only had one selected. I went ahead and stuck some more on there, though.

Termites were swarming. I took a few pictures of them. No good ones. I saw a beetle out there I hadn't seen before. It wouldn't be still. All the pictures of it are blurred. I didn't get any pictures of the millipedes because I was driving when I saw them.

I thought I could see the Fish Creek Hill rest stop from where I was, so I drove over there after my hike to see what the place where I hiked looked like from the rest stop. It looked boring, but the view from up there was great. On the way back, about half a mile before I got to the paved part of the road, I saw a pregnant woman standing beside the road. She was looking back towards Fish Creek Hill as if she was waiting for somebody to show up. She didn't seem to be in distress so I didn't bug her. There was a lot of traffic on the road so she could have gotten a ride if she needed it. I saw what was probably her van parked where the pavements ends.

Two of the pictures were taken at Fish Creek Hill. Whoever can tell me which two wins a prize.

FR80_2007_07_22

Dad's influence, part 1

For the past couple of weeks, I've been thinking about how my Dad influenced my life. I think the most obvious thing might be my hobby, photography. When I was about 10, we moved to England and he bought a camera, a Zeiss Icon. He also subscribed to photography magazines. I was always looking for something to read, so I read those magazines. OK, I also looked at the pictures of scantily clad women, but I read about photography techniques and f-stops and shutter speeds and composition and all that stuff. Maybe that's why so few of my pictures consist of a group of people standing together smiling at a camera.

When I was 15, I had one of those cameras that you load a cassette of film into and take a picture and pull the film out and it develops in 60 seconds. One day I put one of my model cars (that had lots of "chrome") on top of a toaster oven and used up an entire package of film (probably $12 worth) trying to get a picture that looked decent. By having the camera close to the subject, the picture was guaranteed to be blurry. I was counting on that to hide the fact that it was just a model car. Unfortunately, I used up almost all of the film before I realized that the view finder didn't have the same view as the lens (unlike Dad's SLR) and so that's why all my pictures were offset. The last one was a lot better than the first, but none were very good. Anyway, Dad walked in to see what I was up to. I knew I was going to get yelled at for wasting all that film. Instead, he looked at the pictures for a few seconds, listened to my explanation of why most of them weren't centered, and walked out my room as if he were on his way to the next exhibit in a museum. Thinking back on it now, I bet that he was on his way to my sister's room and he was probably thinking that he was on his way to the next patient in a nut house.

When I was almost 30, Dad bought another camera (Pentax, I think) and gave me his Zeiss. I was thrilled. A real camera! The built in light meter was broken so I had to use an external, hand held meter. At first I was embarrassed to be using a hand held light meter, but I quickly learned that people thought I was some sort of pro because of that. I used black and white film for a long time and experimented with f-stops and shutter speeds and composition and all that stuff. I had a lot of fun and I still enjoy looking through that first album. I used that camera until we moved to Arizona (about 20 years).

There is so much to take pictures of in Arizona, at least in my opinion. I'm on my second digital camera now and at last count had over 16,000 pictures on my computer. I use the slide show screen saver and sometimes I sit in front of the computer for several minutes watching the pictures before I use the computer. I really enjoy this hobby, and I hope a few other people enjoy my pictures, too. Thank you, Dad.

Canyon Lake sunset

Date: July 16, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - 1810, 104
End - 2040, much cooler
Location: Apache Trail, near Canyon Lake
Distance hiked: About 300 feet
Elevation change: About 40 feet
The numbers:
56 Pictures taken
8 Vultures seen at one time
1 Totally awesome sunset

Ramblings: The storm clouds surrounded the valley after work today, and were closer than yesterday. Lindsey and I went out to Canyon Lake to see if we could find anything interesting. We found an awesome sunset. The clouds always look so cool around here during the monsoon rains. They also look cool in the "winter", and during spring. There aren't any clouds in June. I'm getting off track here.

I parked at the high point of the road, between the lake and Tortilla Flat, and we scrambled up a hill for a better view. It was indescribable, and my puny pictures don't even come close to capturing it. Since I can't describe it, I'll quit talking about it now.

On the way home, while we were still on the twisty mountain roads, the wind and dust hit. The mountains looked foreboding and ominous shrouded in dust. Too bad for you it was too dark for pictures. It looked like there was lightening near the house and we got rained on (just enough to make the dust stick) on the way home. Another spectacular evening in the desert.

Canyon_Lake_2007_07_16

A grainy day

That's right; grainy. Explanation below.

Voting has begun on the new format, and so far 100% are for it. Even Ronald Reagan didn't do that good.

Date: July 14, 2007
Time and temperature: Start - 18:36, 102
End - ~20:00, 98
Location: Bulldog Canyon. Here's a link to an old map (with old pictures) of the area.
Distance hiked: About a mile, round trip.
Elevation change: About 200 feet.
The numbers:
0 Can collected (but I saw two)
1 Plastic WalMart bag collected
0 Cactus thorns collected with the bag
0 Deer seen

Ramblings: Remember the picture of the owl from a couple of days ago? I set the "film speed" (I don't know why digital cameras have a film speed setting) to 800 to get that picture. I forgot to set it back to 80, so all the pictures I took on this hike are very grainy. Strangely, the files are larger than usual. I guess it takes a lot of bits to store that graininess info.

I spent most of yesterday playing Halo. I looked outside around 5:30 and thought the clouds looked good for a pretty sunset. Also, my legs felt strange from sitting at the computer so long, so I headed for Bulldog Canyon. I hiked to the top of Spooky Hill (next to Spooky Canyon, a previous post), which turns out to be a good spot from which to photograph sunsets. I also wanted to watch for deer passing by on their way to or from the Salt River, but I didn't see any. In fact, I only saw a few birds. I did hear coyotes in the distance. I also thought I heard a guy talking. I heard that last time I was up there and decided it was just flies buzzing. The voice always comes from the same direction. It could be people riding horses on the trail around Lone/One Mountain. There were people on horses out there somewhere. In fact, some peabrained moronic knucklehead parked his truck and horse trailer right in front of the Blue Point gate. I managed to squeeze by, but a Hummer wouldn't have fit. I bet some desert tour drivers were highly pissed.

Another reason I wanted to be on Spooky Hill at sunset was to watch for deer. There is a heavily traveled deer trail on one side and a not so heavily traveled one on the other side. I didn't see any deer, though.

About those two cans I didn't collect: They are at the top of Spooky Hill, on a gravely slope over a cliff. If I slipped trying to get the cans I could go over the cliff, and then who would update my blog?

BC_2007_07_14

New format

I thought I would try a standardized (my standard) format for my hiking blogs so that it will be easy for people to find the information they are looking for when they check my blogs. I'll try it for a while and you can vote on whether you like it or not. OK, the voting rules: only votes posted as non-anonymous comments to this blog will count. Anonymous comments, or emails sent directly to me, will be read with disdain and pity, then ignored forever after.

Date: July 12, 2007
Time and Temperature: Start - ~5:40, 110
End - ~7:54, 98
Location: Bulldog Canyon. Click here for map
Distance hiked: About 2.7 miles
Elevation change: About 375 feet
The numbers:
15 Cans collected
2 Plastic bags collected
1 Golf ball and brake shoe collected
5 Cactus (cholla) thorns in hands
0 Cactus thorns in buttocks. Woohoo!
1 Liter of water consumed

Ramblings: I don't usually go for hikes when it is over 105, but it had been a long time since I'd been out in the desert, and I missed it. I almost overdid it, though. The problem is that it's hard to drink water that's over 100 degrees. I felt fine during the hike and afterwards, but it was the middle of the next morning before my bladder filled up. I'm going to start packing a frozen bottle of water and maybe something like Gatorade on really hot days.

The heat is really stressful. I tried to stay on level ground most of the way. I was going up the (steep) side of a wash once, with the sun shining on my back, and going slowly, but my heart was pounding and I was gasping for air as my body tried to get rid of the heat. As long as I wasn't climbing, there was a nice breeze that kept me comfortable. I also stopped in the shade of a saguaro now and then.

I noticed something interesting. If you find a bunch of beer cans laying around, that means you are near a road. People who drink beer don't like to carry it. Apparently, they don't even like to carry the empties in their vehicle.

I came across a U.S. General Land Office survey marker. Rocks had been piled around it. Then some critter piled cholla balls on the rocks. Then spiders wove webs around all of that.

BC_2007_07_12

Robert Louis Brown

Robert Louis Brown
Born April 28, 1924 in Champaign, Illinois
Died June 30, 2007 in Richmond, Texas
Dedicated husband and father
He will be missed

 

Picasa Web Album Maps!

No hike today. It was just too darn hot!

I wanted to tell you about a cool new feature in Picasa Web Albums. You can include a map showing the general location at which you took pictures, and you can even place album pictures on a map to show exactly where they were taken. I've mapped some pictures in a few albums (usually not all pictures in an album, or it would be too cluttered), so browse through and check it out. Scroll to the bottom of an album and click on "View Map". For the places I tend to take pictures, you will need to click on Hybrid in the upper right corner of the map so see anything meaningful. The map will have some pictures on it; click on one for an enlarged view, and then you can scroll through them, too. In case you haven't figured it out, you can get to an album by clicking on the picture in some of my blogs.

You can also click on "View in Google Earth", which is really cool because you can change your viewing angle and get a feel for the terrain.

A bad lie

It was 108 when I left the house for today's hike. It was only 104 when I parked the truck, though. I went to Bulldog Canyon, near the deer funnel. Since it was so warm, I didn't really hike. I just kind of moseyed around the in shade of Lone / One Mountain. There was not any wind most of the time. It was very, very quiet. I could hear birds now and then and the occasional lizard skittering around. A couple of cicadas tried to scare me by going BWAAAAAAAAP! when I got close to them. Once I thought I heard sirens, then realized it was coyotes. More started howling, some of them pretty close by. I stood there listening, and watching a bird that was circling me for some reason (it wasn't a buzzard). It was so relaxing that I had to start walking again so my blood pressure wouldn't get so low that I passed out. I don't know what I would do without the desert to calm my nerves.

As I was approaching my parking spot, I saw a bird perched on top of a saguaro. I wondered why they never did that while I had my camera out. Well, today a bird posed on top of a saguaro for several pictures. I even got pictures of it eating the fruit. Unfortunately, it was in the shade of the mountain and against a bright blue sky, so the pictures are mostly silhouettes. I like the one I uploaded because the sky reflecting off its eye makes it look like it has a hole in its head. I would appreciate it if somebody could tell me what kind of bird it is.

One of the pictures is of something I find in the desert now and then. I understand how beer cans, balloons, and Wall Mart bags get out there. I can't figure out why I find so many golf balls, though. I'm not a golfer, but I think this one would be called a bad lie.

BC_2007_06_24

Stop the carnage!

This post is not for the squeamish. If you are squeamish, close this window and go do a crossword puzzle or something.

Skid is out of town this weekend and asked me to take his trash out and put the can up after it was picked up. Naturally, I take care of other things while I'm there, like getting the paper out of the driveway and scooping drowned animals out of his pool. Today, the death toll was mind boggling. Five drowned chipmunks in just one day. Cute little chipmunks. Well, I suppose the were cute, at one time. But not when I found them. Some pictures are below. I made the first one a flower so people wouldn't accidentally see a drowned chipmunk. Don't look at the pictures if you are still eating breakfast, or lunch, or dinner, or if you have eaten within the past two hours, or if you plan to eat in the next day or two. Don't look at them if you are one of those people who, when they are in the middle of a meal, thinks of something gross and then can't eat any more. Just close this window if you happen to live with people who might trick you into looking at something gross because of their sick, twisted sense of humor, even though they know you won't be able to eat for days afterwards. Well, maybe they aren't all that bad. But don't look if you are squeamish.

Skid put noodles on the sides of the pool, held in place by blocks of concrete, hoping the chipmunks would use them to climb out of the pool. But they don't. Maybe since they live in burrows in the ground instead of in trees, they aren't very good at climbing. Maybe they didn't see that they could use the noodles to get out of the pool. Maybe they think only nerds use noodles. I don't know, but they drowned anyway.

I can't stand it. I had to take drastic measures. I hooked a couple of hoses together and put one end in the pool and the other in the wash. It's siphoning now. I figure the pool will be drained by the time Skid gets home. Oh dear, I just thought of something. I hope the chipmunks don't die from falling into an empty pool. I'll have to fill it in. Tomorrow.

Carnage

A weekend drive

Suzanne isn't on call this weekend, so we went for a drive. We went through Superior, Globe, Miami, Punkin Center, Jake's Corner, Sunflower, and back home. Well, there aren't many towns to name along the route, so click here to open a new window with a map of where we went. The scenery was beautiful the whole trip, but I only took pictures at Roosevelt Lake.

Since we went by Tonto National Monument, we decided to stop and see what that's all about. I didn't have time to go all the way up there today, and I didn't have my backpack with me. I'll have to hike up there another day.

The lake was a pretty turquoise color today. I tried to stitch together a panorama of the bridge near the Roosevelt Lake dam, but it didn't quite line up. The stitch program is not very bright, and not adjustable. You have to take your pictures perfectly, or your result looks like my panorama. Anyway, here are the pictures.

Weekend drive

I only put a couple of pictures on the map. Most of them were taken in the same vicinity.

Unexplored territory

Richard and I throttled the day today. At least I feel like I did. I'm worn out and can't believe I'm not falling asleep right now. After work, we took our ATVs out to Bulldog Canyon. We went in the Apache Trail entrance and went down a road I hadn't been on before; at least not on that part of it. It was very pretty, so I'll have to go back when there's enough light to get some pictures.

I want to make a Google map to show you where we went, but I'm falling asleep now. Maybe some other day.

BC_2007_06_19

A little warm

I thought I was going to explain something I didn't have time to explain several days ago, but it's gotten late again and I still have to make the bed and I'm tired and nobody has expressed any interest in an explanation (does anybody even read this?), so that will have to wait until later.

The high today was supposed to be 107 but it was only 102 when I parked the truck. I decided that today would be a good time to perch on the side of Lone/One mountain (the east (shady) side) and watch for deer on their way to or from the Salt River. You would know why I picked this spot if I was not too tired to explain. I sat up there for at least half an hour, watching for any movement. I saw a lot of birds flitting around. No deer. No coyotes. Didn't hear any coyotes, either. Click below to open a new window with the pictures.

BC_2007_06_17

The first picture shows what is either a shadow or a cave. It's going to be difficult to get up there to find out which. Maybe this coming winter. The next picture shows the pass that I suspect funnels a lot of deer on the way to and from the Salt River. Then there are several pictures of items of great public interest. The last is a panorama showing almost everything visible from where I was. When shooting "stitch" photos, the exposure is set on the first picture and all the following pictures use that setting. That's why the center of the picture looks overexposed. If the camera didn't do that, though, the boundaries between pictures would be obvious. You should be able to find my truck in there if you blow it up to full size. No hints. Well, ok, one. It's the only silver truck in the picture. It's the only truck in the picture. It's the only vehicle in the picture. I had that whole place to myself. Nobody even drove past my truck for the 2.5 hours I was there (I checked for tracks). I guess most people thought it was a little too warm to be out in the desert. It's fine if there's a breeze, though.

Funny videos

OK, this has nothing to do with the desert, but it's a couple of videos that I thought were really funny.

An old new road

Today, Richard and I went down a road in Bulldog Canyon OHV area that I thought I hadn't been on before. When we got to the end, I realized that Lindsey and I had been there last summer. Silly me. I only got one picture that I like.

We were walking around looking at stuff when Richard stopped so suddenly he almost did a somersault. He pointed at what stopped him but it blended in with the surrounding dirt so well that it took a while for me to see it. Here's a picture.

BC_2007_06_13

We watched it for several minutes and it never moved. It never flicked its tongue. We couldn't even tell if it was breathing. We left it alone.

Celebration hike

Today I went for a hike to celebrate not being caught in the RIF. It was very quiet in Bulldog Canyon OHV area today. No wind; only a few birds twittering here and there. On days like this, my footsteps seem so loud. Especially when I'm trying to sneak up on deer. I'll have to write about that some other time, though. It's late and I'm tired.

Click here to see a map of where I hiked today. You might have to click on "satellite" or "hybrid" in the upper right corner of the map to get a view of something besides solid white.

I did see a deer as it sailed through the air over a bush or something as it ran away from my crunching footsteps. I'm going to hide in a spot where I can watch them go by some day. I know just the spot. More on that later. Here are pictures.

BC_2007_06_12

Apache Trail sunset

There were storms south east of here today. Late this afternoon it was cool and breezy. I drove out Apache Trail, just past the Superstitions, to enjoy the cool weather and get some pictures of the sunset.

Apache_Trail_2007_06_11

Spooky Canyon

That isn't its official name. That's just what I call it.

Yesterday there were some high clouds in the late afternoon. I went for a hike hoping that there would be some today, and there were. Bad for photography, but great for keeping the blazing sun from frying you. I headed for a small peak I had decided I should climb a few weeks ago. The summit was only 223 feet above where I parked my truck, but I was huffing and puffing all the way up. I thinks it's the Flomax. When my free samples run out I'm going to quit taking it. I don't think I need it and I don't like the way it makes me feel.

Anyway, I hiked around to the hill and was about to start up a ridge when I was overcome by this feeling of dread. When I looked up the canyon I had this feeling that something very bad had happened there or that there was something very bad there now. Fortunately, I have learned from past experiences like this that it means nothing at all. I'm not psychic. There was probably just something a little odd about the canyon that I wasn't consciously aware of, but somehow I was aware of it.

I continued up the ridge and stopped to check for echoes. The sound vanished as soon as I made it, swallowed by the desert. It's very unusual to find a place with no echoes. It reminded me of that movie based on a Steven King novel, "The Langoliers" or something like that. There's that spooky feeling again.

There was a very nice breeze at the summit. I stayed there for about half an hour enjoying the view and taking pictures and a movie. I came down in a kind of round about way not shown on the map. Oh, the map. Click here to see a map of the hike. Click on the blue icons to see a description and pictures.

On the way back to the truck, I hiked up the canyon a short ways. It was eerily quiet in there. I hiked to a large rock in the middle. I was nervous so I was being very careful, looking all around for rattlesnakes. I was standing there when I heard a growling noise. I was looking around for the monster when I realized it was a car or motorcycle engine being revved in the distance. I heard a loud hissing and looked around for the giant snake, and saw a bird fly by near me. I was telling myself to quit being so jumpy when I heard a loud, inhuman moan coming from up the canyon. It was an awful, terrifying sound, the kind that makes wish you could quit hearing it and forget you ever heard it. Before it ended, though, I realized it was tires on a road in the distance. The canyon seems to funnel in sounds from a couple of miles away. Maybe the reason it "looked" spooky when I first saw it was because it didn't sound right. One of the reasons I hike in the desert is to enjoy the quiet, but that canyon was too quiet, except for the occasional sound piped in from who-knows-where.

Not all of the pictures are on the map. Unfortunately, movie resolution is lost during upload. Here are all the pictures and the movie.

BC_2007_06_10

Lauren in Bulldog Canyon

Lauren and I went for a short hike in Bulldog Canyon this afternoon. She's still a little sore from her surgery but she even climbed a rock. It was still pretty cool today, but I didn't want to do a lot of hiking because of all the dust that is still in the air. We wandered around in an area where lots of people camp and hang out, though there was nobody there today. We had the whole place to ourselves. Anyway, there were pieces of washing machines, lots of broken dishes, millions of pieces of glass, and spent shells galore. If you looked past all that, there was beautiful scenery all around.

BC_2007_06_07

Sunset on FS172

After work today, Richard and I went for a drive along FS172. It's very pretty out there. Today wasn't the best day for enjoying the scenery, though. It was a lot cooler that it has been lately (in the 60's by the time we started back), but it was very windy today and there was a lot of dust in the air.

We were out there for about 2 hours, surrounded by spectacular desert scenery. We had the whole place to ourselves. We didn't see anybody else the whole time. That just boggles my mind. Were we the only ones out of the 3 or 4 million that live near here that were willing to forgo the TV or video games or bar scene or whatever and get out here to enjoy something so real and so beautiful? It doesn't bother me if we are. I don't like crowds.

On the drive out after sunset, we saw some bats. They would fly along about 20 or 30 feet in front of the truck, 15 or 20 feet in the air, for 5 or 10 seconds. I wonder if they thought we were following them.

There are a couple of pictures of Richard, one of the sunset, and several of the desert in the gathering gloom of nightfall.

FS172_2007_06_06

Richard tours Bulldog Canyon OHV area

I've been taking all our guests on tours of Bulldog Canyon but never thought about asking Richard if he wanted to go. He moved out here a few years before me, so I guess I always assume that he has already been everywhere. Good thing he asked me to take him with me.

I parked for a while in a spot where it's convenient to get out and look around. I had stopped there with Kasey and James and Kasey pointed out that my truck looked like it was in a Toyota ad. The lighting was better today (earlier in the day), so I included that picture. Unfortunately, I didn't get many good pictures today. Here's both of them.

BC_2007_06_03

Jet Contrail Sunset

If it weren't for jet contrails, this might have been a boring sunset. They helped add some color to it, though. There are pictures of a couple of other things, too.

Sunset_2007_05_30

James sees Bulldog Canyon

Today James and I went for a drive through Bulldog Canyon OHV area while the girls took showers, put on makeup, etc. He enjoyed it out there just as much as I do. Maybe we'll get a chance to go for a hike out there later this week. Our guests have a pretty full schedule, though. Here are the pictures.

BC_2007_05_28

Finally identified

In March of '06 I asked if anybody knew what the metallic stuff on this rock is. I never got a response. This morning I was surfing the web and found pictures of something similar. It looks like this might be molybdenite, an ore of molybdenum. It's often found near quartz, and there is a lot of quartz where I found this rock. I believe the rock itself is quartz (except for the molybdenite part, of course).

 

Easing back into it.

It's been relatively cool all week, and today the air was a little clearer, too. I had to go out to Bulldog Canyon. It was only 92 when I got there. I've been a little lazy since I was sick, so I didn't start out with a lot of climbing today. I hiked along a low ridge for a little ways, enjoying the view, the birds, the breeze, the sunshine, the bees, etc. Here are the pictures. There's a short video of a bird. Unfortunately, videos seem to lose a lot of resolution when they are uploaded.

BC_2007_05_24

Nothing new

Nothing new today. I added a couple of pictures to yesterday's post, though. I looked at my pictures again and discovered I had more pictures of deer than I thought. They're just hard to see.

Back to the end of Meridian

I haven't been for a hike at the end of Meridian road for a while. I went there today to save some gas. It's very close.

I've seen lots of deer tracks out there, but never any deer. Today I finally saw 5 of them, though. I took six pictures but only managed to get a deer in one of them. They kept hiding behind cacti and Palo Verdes.

I came across a wild beehive in a hole in the side of a wash. I tried to take pictures of them but the bees just didn't show up.

You could find the ironwood trees with your eyes closed today. They are covered with flowers. Just listen for all the bees buzzing and there's an ironwood.

Meridian_2007_05_20

A few more.

There was another storm tonight. It wasn't as close as last night's, so I got out of the truck and climbed a small hill to get pictures.

You would think that if your camera shutter was open for about 40% of the time, you would catch about 40% of the lightening flashes. I only got about 10% of them. I took 149 pictures tonight (a few were of mountains and clouds) and 12 of them had lightening in them. This is why I don't gamble.

Since the lightening was far away and spread across the horizon, I had to be zoomed out to catch any of it. I had to crop most of the pictures so they wouldn't look like a tiny light in a sea of black.

Lightening_2007_05_17