A new mystery plant

I went wandering around in a relatively flat area of Bulldog Canyon OHV area today. I saw, but did not get a picture of, a roadrunner, a deer, a cottontail, and a plump, brown jackrabbit (they are usually gray and ripped). I only saw one lizard today, too, which is strange this time of year. It ran across the road, holding its tail up high.

I crossed several small washes as I walked. Just about every one of them had horse prints in it. Horses cannot go anywhere in the desert without leaving a trail. I worry about the damage they are doing to the cryptobiotic soil. At least the riders seem to stay in the washes when they can. Anyway, I was wondering if deer ever dig up the soil when I ran across some deep deer prints in cryptobiotic soil. They don't usually do that, though. Their hooves dig in when they jump over something, but there are surprisingly few deer prints out there, considering how many deer there must be. I know there are a lot of them because there are places where they pass between mountains to get to water, and the ground is solid deer prints in those areas. Boy, that's a lot of yakking about one picture of a deer print.

I took a lot of pictures of one kind of plant. It's a very small plant that I have never noticed before. What is unusual about it is that it seems to be covered in something that looks like spider silk. Anybody that can identify it wins an autographed print of one of my pictures. Get busy, though, because you have to identify it before I do.

BC_2008_03_26

More pictures from Tempe Diablo Statium

Keith Kendall also took a lot of pictures at the game. He seems to be better at people pictures than me, maybe because he wasn't trying to be sneaky about it. Keith, I hope you don't mind that I made slight edits to a few (brightness changes, mostly).

Keiths_pictures

Just another hike

I kept thinking it was too hot outside to go for a hike today. Don't know why I was thinking that. I went outside and it wasn't hot. In fact, I wore a black T-shirt so I would be warm enough. I was mostly planning to drive to a part of Bulldog Canyon that I hadn't driven to before, but I wound up parking in the same place I parked last time I was in that area. I hiked in a different direction, though. It's a very nice place to hike, too. Very pretty, with good views of the Superstition Mountains. I went in the Packsaddle Road entrance (Click here to open a new window with a map).

As you will see in the pictures, there are still lots of flowers out there.

BC_2008_03_22

Desert tortoise on Lone Mountain

I climbed Lone Mountain after work today. There have been further improvements to the new trail going up there. Small stone benches have been placed at intervals along the trail. You wouldn't notice them if you weren't looking for them, though. They are especially hard to see with all the spring growth around them right now.

There was a humming bird at the top of the mountain. It wouldn't let me take its picture. There were also clusters of butterflies up there. I could hear their wings beating as they fluttered back and forth very fast. I couldn't get a picture of them, either.

As I was headed down the trail back to the truck, I came upon a desert tortoise. He was headed down the trail in the same direction as me. When he saw me, he tucked into his shell. I got out of sight, planning to get some more pictures when he came out of his shell. He cleverly kept a bush between me and him, so I didn't see him leave the trail. I caught him sneaking away, though, and made a short video. Pictures and video are below.

BC_2008_03_21

An afternoon at the ballpark

A bunch of coworkers and I spent the afternoon at Tempe Diablo Stadium, eating pizza and watching the Angels play the Giants. Naturally, I took my camera along. I don't like pictures of bunches of people standing around smiling at a camera, so I tried taking candid shots. The problem with that is that not very many of the pictures turn out very good. In fact, I really like only one of the candid shots. Many of them would require me to hire a body guard if I put them on the web. I'm thinking about making a collage of people stuffing pizza into their faces, as a testament to my lack of skill at photographing people. I didn't realize I was taking so many of those.

Click below to see the pictures. If you see one of yourself that you want removed, let me know and I will do so immediately.

Ballgame_2008_03_20

I got a video of the first run scored by the Angels. You'll see why I don't work for the networks.

Quiet afternoon

The weekend was cloudy and gloomy and cold. Today, it was sunny and warm and a beautiful day. I headed out to Bulldog Canyon for a short hike. The Sky Harbor traffic was going someplace else this afternoon, so it was pretty quiet. Not extremely quiet, though, because the bees were busy and the flies are starting to come out. It was very nice.

The past few times I've gone out to the desert, I have felt obligated to take pictures of the flowers. I already have so many, and everybody else is probably getting as tired of them as me, but they are so pretty I just have to take pictures.

It's very hard to walk around now with all the plants covering the ground. It's taking me a long time to get anywhere because I spend so much time picking a route and then carefully stepping in the barest spots. I miss being able to walk across the barren ground. I'm not complaining, though. The scorching heat will blast all the pretty little flowers to hades soon enough.

BC_2008_03_18

Be careful out there...

On Saturday afternoon, 3/15, a couple of young hikers ran into some trouble in the Superstition Mountains. Around here, you often hear warnings about being careful in the desert. They are usually about the heat and taking plenty of water with you. People just need to remember that when you step into a national forest or a wilderness area or whatever, it is not an amusement park. It doesn't have handrails on the stairs or warning stickers by anything that might be even mildly dangerous, or any of the thousands of safety features built into amusement parks as the result of thousands of lawsuits. Nature will always allow you to go places you really shouldn't be, without giving so much as a sigh of discouragement or a hint of the disaster that could be just moments away. It's up to you to think about what you are doing, and keep thinking about it all the time you are out there, or you could wind up falling 80 feet and landing on your face, too.

Click here to read about the guy that survived such a fall with minor (compared to death) injuries.

Reymert Road

I didn't know it was Reymert Road until I got home and was geotagging the pictures. I have been wanting to drive out towards Superior for a while, to check out the flowers in that direction. I left the house about 8:30 this morning so I could beat the Renaissance Festival crowd. There were a whole lot of flowers all along the sides of the road. Silly Mountain is completely yellow, covered with brittle bush flowers. The brittle bushes didn't have quite so many flowers where I stopped, I guess because of the higher elevation; they'll bloom later.

I drove down Reymert Road for a little ways to see what's out there. There's a rock quarry, and I think you can drive through it, but I didn't. I wandered around on a small hill taking pictures of flowers for a while. The air is very hazy. I don't know if it's pollution or dust from all the wind we had yesterday.

On the way home, I passed by all the Renaissance Festival traffic. It was astonishing. Stop and go traffic from the festival until I exited 60 (12 miles). I wonder how much further the traffic jam went. It must be one humdinger of a festival if so many people think it's worth sitting in a line of cars that long to get there. I guess I'll never know, though. I'm not that crazy.

Reymert_rd_2008_03_15

Too much

Suzanne found the listing on line for the property I saw yesterday. Not surprisingly, it's more than I can afford. I might be able to buy it, but I would have to live in a tent. Click here to see the listing. To summarize, no water, no sewer, $350k.

Looking for a place to park

There's a part of the Goldfield Mountains that I've been wanting to explore. Today I went over there looking for a place to park. The place that I thought I could park had a big sign that said something like "GO AWAY". As I was driving away from there, I saw another sign laying on the ground. It was a "For Sale" sign, in front of an empty lot. Wow, it would be so cool to live that close to the mountains. I probably can't afford the property, though. Even if I could, I wouldn't have any money left for the trailer to put on it (the people that lived there before took their trailer with them).

Click below to see a few pictures of the lot and some flowers.

Meridian_2008_03_10

Flowers along Apache Trail

Suzanne and I rode out Apache Trail today. There are lots of pretty flowers all along the way. We didn't stop and get out to get any pictures until we go to the part where it turns to dirt, though. There sure was a lot of traffic, all along the whole road. Tortilla Flat is jammed with tourists these days. I can't even get an ice cream cone anymore.

Before you go to the pictures, I have a correction for yesterday's blog/pictures. The geotags of the pictures are completely wrong. I didn't go 2.5 miles and then back again. That's the problem with trying to geotag pictures in those low resolution areas. Last night I was thinking about how I had hiked for a little over an hour before I turned back. There is no way I could have gone 2.5 miles in a little over an hour. I was going kind of fast towards the end (I was curious about whether my legs or my lungs would give out first; I ran out of uphill before I found out, but my legs were beginning to feel like jelly), but I stopped a lot to take pictures of flowers and look around. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I went less than 2 miles round trip. I'm not going to correct the geotags on all those pictures; too much trouble, and it won't affect my review anyway.

Speaking of anyway, here are today's pictures. Enjoy.

Apache_Trail_2008_03_09

Flowers near FR80

I wanted to go someplace slightly different today, so I went out to FR80. I hadn't been there for at least a year. I had forgotten how much climbing is involved on that trail. I tried to geotag the pictures. It isn't easy, since that part of Google Earth is low resolution. The geotags are only approximate. I was mostly trying to show where the trail is. According to Google Earth, it's about 2.5 miles long one way. No wonder it takes so long. With all the twists and turns, it's probably a little longer than that. Click below for the pictures.

FR80_2008_03_08

Crosscut trail

It was a pretty, clear day today. There was some wind earlier, which blew the pollution away (from the east valley, at least). I haven't been on the crosscut trail (next to the Superstition Mountains) for a while, so I went out there today.

I wore a T-shirt because it seemed warm enough for that when I left the house. I was warm enough on the trail since I was moving. By the time I got back to the truck, though, my forearms were so cold and stiff, I could barely open my water bottle. It was only 58, with no wind. I just get cold easily. I don't think I would survive someplace where it got down near 0 all winter.

I took a lot of pictures of the mountains, so you're going to get tired of seeing them. Notice how green it is out there. Well, I guess that will look normal to some of you. It isn't normal for here, though.

Crosscut_trail_2008_03_06

Lindsey attempts Spooky Hill

It was another pretty day today. It was a little cooler than yesterday, and very windy. Lindsey went with me, and we tried to climb Spooky Hill (see my map of Bulldog Canyon OHV Area, there's a link to the right of this page). We tried, but we ran out of energy. I'm worn out now. I tried to take a shortcut to the hill, but we probably wound up walking much further than we would have if we had taken the usual route. Silly me.

There were almost no Mexican gold poppies where we went. I got pictures of some different flowers.

BC_2008_03_02

I also made a video of Lindsey opening the gate.

The golf ball

This is what it looked like when I left the golf ball up there on 12/2/2007. It wasn't quite as green back then.

 

Gold poppies galore

Wow, it was a gorgeous day today. I was out hiking in it from 2:05 until about 4:55. Mid 70's, light breeze, no clouds, blue blue sky. I was amazed at how few people I saw out there today. I thought the place would be packed. I saw about 4 ATVs and 3 pickups. Must have been something really good on TV. Too bad I missed it. NOT.

Driving into Bulldog Canyon, I could see that there were Mexican gold poppies all over the place. I decided to hike up to a ridge pretty far in, to get away from the noise of the gun range on the other side of Usery Pass road. It took a long time to get up to the top of the ridge, for three reasons. First, I'm out of shape, but I always seem to be out of shape these days. Second, I had to keep stopping to take pictures. After I had taken about 40 pictures, I noticed that the camera batteries were low. I should charge them more often. I managed to get about 120 pictures before the camera refused to turn on any more, though. OK, third, I was hopping from rock to rock as much as possible, to keep from stepping on plants. I'm glad I didn't twist an ankle. Once I almost fell on a barrel cactus. I had stepped down onto a rock and lost my balance. As my arms whirled round and round, I could hear Linda Hurd doing her imitation of the robot on "Lost in Space"; "Danger Will Robinson. Danger". I think of that every time I whirl my arms around, ever since she said that as I was trying to ice skate in Houston many years ago. Now you should have a good mental picture of what I look like when I ice skate.

Several months ago, I left a golf ball up on that ridge. Ever since then, I've been thinking I should go get it. As I approached it today, though, I decided I would leave it there until I can get somebody to go up there with me to get it. Any volunteers? It was next to the rock on which I had left it. I put it back on the rock. I wonder if anybody else has been up there and seen it.

If I weren't so lazy, I would go to Todd's Desert Hiking Guide and look up the names of some of the flowers I got pictures of. He has pictures of lots of animals and plants on his site, and he seems to be adding to them all the time. The pictures are very good, too. Most of the time when I look up a plant on the web, the pictures are low resolution or can't be distinguished from the background or are too small or all of the above. The pictures on Todd's web site are excellent, though. He also has great advice for any newbies to desert hiking.

Click below for the pictures. You're probably going to get sick of pictures of Mexican gold poppies. But, as Peggy would say, "Too bad, so sad".

BC_2008_03_01

A quick trip to Meridian road

It was another beautiful day. Got up to about 80. It felt so good and toasty getting into a car at lunch time and after work. I went out to the end to Meridian road after work to see if there were any flowers out there. There were millions of tiny yellow flowers along the trail, and some larger yellow flowers on the mountain side. I couldn't tell what kind they were, though.

Meridian_2008_02_28

Motorcycle on Apache Trail

OK, it finished processing. Here it is.

Like a lunar landing, only rougher

Back in the late 60's, I watched everything that was on TV about the lunar missions. From the very first Apollo shots that just orbited Earth, through to the last trip to the moon, anytime there was live video, I was watching. I remember when Apollo 11 was orbiting the moon as the astronauts prepared for landing, the news announcers were talking about anything and everything they could dig up about the mission. That's what they always did, of course, and there was always interesting information, though usually what they put on TV just scratched the surface of the topic; it was just a teaser. I found that very frustrating. After all, we didn't have the internet. I couldn't run over to the computer and find out everything I wanted to know about any topic. Anyway, as the astronauts prepared for the first attempt at a moon landing, the announcers talked about some of the obstacles they would face. I've always remembered one of them; I just wish I could remember what it's called, too. It has to do with what you see, or don't see, when your head is directly between the sun and what you are looking at. Under that condition, there are no shadows where you are looking (except yours, of course). The effect is not very noticeable over short distances (like when you are standing on the ground and looking at the shadow of your head), but if you stand on a cliff in the desert and look at your shadow 50 or 100 feet away, it starts to show up. What you notice is that the area around your shadow looks brighter, and it is difficult to discern much detail. Color differences are obvious, but any contours or elevation differences are washed out and invisible. It's really obvious if you are in a plane flying over the desert southwest. You can't see the shadow of the plane, but you know it would be in the center of the bright, featureless spot below. Anyway, if you are piloting a lunar lander that is heading for a landing spot in that bright featureless spot, you may not be able to make out the large boulder there that will topple your lander when you set down on it. I bring all of this up because I bet that is what happened to the officer driving the patrol car in the first picture below. It was late afternoon and he/she was driving due east, and being February, the sun is just a little south. So the officer was going to pull into the median for some reason, and looked over there to check out where he was going, but the median along Apache Trail is pretty much barren so you don't have to check very closely at all. Without any shadows, the culvert would be invisible. I'm sure that was a very nasty surprise. (Click on the pictures to see a larger version.)

 

Look how green the lower slopes of the Superstitions are.

 

I drove on out towards Canyon Lake. On the way out there, I had an idea for a different kind of video. So here it is; Apache Trail from the viewpoint of my armpit. The wind kind of blew the camera around, so you might get motion sickness.

Oh dear, after more than an hour the video is still processing. I'll have to add it to the blog later.

Mexican Gold Poppies

The weather forecast made today sound like a good day to get pictures of flowers, and it is. Blue skies with a few puffy clouds. I think Mexican gold poppies look best with the sun shining on them.

I almost didn't go out to get pictures. Suzanne was going to go with me, but she bent over to pick something up and hurt her back. It didn't feel right going by myself when she was supposed to be with me. Then, on Usery Pass Rd, a girl on a bicycle swerved in front of me. The only reason I can imagine that she would have done that is that she is suicidal. I was planning to go to Four Peaks road, and as I drove down Bush Highway, I kept thinking about the construction at 87 and how I might have to drive through town on my way back because of that. I was looking for a place to turn around when I came to the road to Butcher Jones park (just north of Saguaro Lake). I decided to see if there were any flowers at that entrance to the Rolls.

Less than a mile into the Rolls, I came to a patch of Mexican poppies on the side of a hill. I spent almost an hour there taking pictures. A couple of them turned out OK. The poppies are the only flowers that are blooming in any numbers so far. I did take a few pictures of an Arizona lupine, but they are all out of focus. Anyway, click below to see the pictures.

Rolls_2008_02_23

The other side of Bulldog Canyon OHV area

When we left work today the sun was shining, there were puffy little clouds around, and the sky was very blue. It looked like good mountain picture weather. Also, I thought I might be able to get out to the desert before the Mexican poppies closed up. I decided to go into Bulldog Canyon on the side near the Superstitions.

On the road approaching the entrance, I stopped to snap a few pictures of the Superstition Mountains. I'm glad I did, because a few minutes later a sheet of thick, dark clouds moved in from the northwest and it got dark.

I decided to try driving up a road that Skid and I had been on with our ATVs last summer. Back then I thought that I wouldn't want to take my truck on that road, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I was afraid it would be. When I stopped and got out to look around, I thought about how yesterday's short hike had made my chest tickle all night. That and the neighbor's dog barking resulted in me getting only 2 hours sleep. The hill I was looking at was a little steep, so it would make me breathe hard, which would make my chest tickle even more tonight. I just couldn't resist it, though, and up I went. The pictures would have been much better if the sun had been shining, but here they are.

BC_2008_02_20

I'm back!

I finally made it back to Bulldog Canyon. I've been doing some traveling, and on the first trip I picked up a cold. It's still bothering me after two weeks. Today I finally felt up to going out to the desert again. Unfortunately, I got there after the Mexican poppies had closed up for the night. I'm planning on taking lots of flower pictures this weekend. I hope a couple turn out.

The desert is soggy from all the rain. It's humid out there; you can see it in the pictures.

BC_2008_02_19

Cure for cabin fever

I've stayed home from work the past couple of days with a cold. I think I'm finally getting over it, which is good since I'm about to leave for Texas. Since I've been cooped up for a while, and since I'm going to be away from the desert for a few days, I decided I'd better take a short drive around today. I almost didn't go because I feel so worn out, but I'm glad I did. I feel more energized now than I did before I went. I went to Canyon Lake to see if it was being filled again. It looks like it's almost full.

There were a lot of tourists out today. It looked like there was a crowd at Tortilla Flat. I didn't drive all the way down there, though. They seem to have put up a couple of new buildings there. Maybe they're restrooms; I think that's why most people stop there. If I ever stop there, it's for the ice cream.

Click below for the pictures.

2008_02_08

Mountains, clouds, and snow

It rained a lot last night and today. The back yard is flooded. I mean besides the pool, there is a lot of water there. Lindsey called me at work this afternoon to tell me that she thought she saw snow on the Superstitions (they were mostly shrouded in clouds all day, so it was hard for her to tell for sure). I decided I had better go check it out after work.

I wasn't even half a mile from home when I looked over at the mountains and saw that the clouds had lifted completely off them and sure enough, the tops were covered with snow. I called Richard to let him know and he told me about a rainbow, but I couldn't see it from where I was. Check his blog for all that. He got some pictures. I was headed towards the Superstitions when Richard called me back to tell me that there was a lot of snow on Four Peaks, too. I could see a little of Four Peaks and decided to head out Bush highway, hoping the clouds would lift from Four Peaks, too. It looked like better picture potential in that direction.

As I was driving towards Four Peaks, I looked back at the Superstitions. The sun was shining on them. The snow on top was brilliant white. The base of the mountains was emerald green. In between were red, orange and brown rocks. I was in heavy traffic. I couldn't get a picture. Man, that would have been a fantastic picture, even if there were light poles and car headlights in it.

I stood on a group of about 5 rocks, hopping from one to the other to see around cacti or palo verdes, taking pictures of the snow and clouds around Four Peaks and the Goldfield Mountains for about 45 minutes. I was thankful when it got too dark to take pictures, because my fingers were too numb to button my coat. It was so pretty I didn't want to leave, but I had to thaw out. On the way home I had to stop a couple more times to get pictures of clouds and mountains. Ah, it's good to be back in the desert.

Click below to see the pictures.

Snow_2008_02_04

Cloudy

It was a beautiful day today, with puffy little clouds all around. On the way home I could see that there were some dark cloulds over the Superstitions, but the sun was shining on them. I thought it might make a good picture. Suzanne and I drove out there. On the way I kept thinking the mountains looked nice and I was going to get some good pictures. By the time I parked, though, the clouds had thickened. I don't think the sun shone on the mountains anymore before sunset. Anyway, here's a couple of pictures. You can see how green it is after all the rain.

2008_01_28

South Mountain

Suzanne and I drove out to South Mountain today. This was not a good day for that. It's been raining all day. South Mountain is not very high, but part way up we were into the clouds and couldn't see anything. We're going to go back on a sunny day.

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_Mountain_2008_01_27

Cottonwood Creek

The weather wasn't as bad today as I thought it might be. Still, I didn't go hiking. Instead, I drove down Four Peaks road, all the way to Cottonwood Campground. I haven't been out there for a long time. There is water flowing in Cottonwood Creek; probably snow melt coming off of Four Peaks. I saw a little snow up on the peaks, but it didn't show up in my pictures.

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

Near Alex's hill

Today was a great day for a hike. For most of the day, there were puffy clouds around, but they were gone by the time I got out to Bulldog Canyon. I wandered over towards Alex's hill. The sun was setting and it was in the low 50's; probably not a good time to wear short sleeves. My arms and hands were freezing by the time I got back to the truck.

BC_2008_01_25

Not an uninteresting hike

Today I went wandering around in a part of Bulldog Canyon that I usually avoid. I avoid it because it's close to Usery Pass road, which means there are a lot of people there, and because it's close to a shooting range, which means it's noisy. I went there despite all that and found a couple of interesting things. One is a crested saguaro. It's been a while since I've found one of those. The other is a deer antler. I seem to find one or two of those every year.

BC_2008_01_21

Moonlight photos

The moon is almost full tonight. I went out to Bulldog Canyon to try to get some pictures of mountains light by moonlight. I had only taken about 14 pictures when my batteries went dead. I would have been disappointed, but my knee was starting to hurt and I needed to get out of the cold. It was about 40 and it didn't feel bad, but I guess it was getting to my knee. Anyway, I could only set the shutter to be open for 15 seconds. I think I needed about a 2 minute exposure. Many of the pictures look completely black. It was hard to tell if I had the camera pointed in the right direction. I also tried using a bright (1 or 2 million candlepower) spotlight to light up the scene, with limited success. When I got home, I tried the Picasa2 "I'm feeling lucky" button on the pictures. It made stuff show up in pictures that looked like they had nothing in them. Check them out here.

BC_2008_01_20

Bulldog Canyon

I got home from today's hike long before sunset, but it sure has taken a long time to get this posted. Constant interruptions. It was a gorgeous day. I climbed up that ridge I was on last weekend. Didn't get much further than I did last weekend. I encountered a steep part that I didn't want to climb.

BC_2008_01_19

Here's a short video of a small cave.

A not so restful stroll

Date: January 13, 2008
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_13

A long hike

Date: January 12, 2008
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_12

Video finally uploaded

On December 28, I made a short video of a small waterfall near Tortilla Flat. I had some trouble getting it online. Finally got it there.

A tripod helps

A week or two ago, I took a bunch of pictures of some mountains in Bulldog Canyon. I thought I was getting a few good pictures. It was close to sunset and very windy and I was getting cold. What that means is that it was getting dark, which results in slow shutter speeds. The wind was blowing me around, and I was shivering. What all that means is that most of the pictures were blurred. Bummer. So I hurried back out there after work today and took some more pictures. I used the tripod this time. It was a little too late, but some of the pictures are OK.

BC_2008_01_10

Another failed attempt

Date: January 1, 2008
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_01

Wandering around

Today I was going to climb a hill near Canyon Lake. When I finally got to the base of the hill, I decided I would have to push through too much brush and trees to get started up the hill, so I wimped out. It was a nice hike, though, and I saw some cool (literally) stuff. Who would have thought there would be ice around when it's in the 50's every afternoon? I made a rather lengthy video of the ice. It doesn't seem like ice would be a good subject for a long (relatively speaking) video, but it was doing some interesting stuff.

The other video that I made at Tortilla Flat is still "processing", so I can't put it on here yet.

Here are some pictures.

Apache_Trail_2007_12_30

No, I don't get tired of Bulldog Canyon

Date: December 29, 2007
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1625, 52
End - 1727, 47
The numbers:
22 Pictures taken
1 Mylar balloon extracted from the desert

Ramblings: Two or three years ago, I went hiking near this same place (just a couple of hundred yards south, actually). It was then that I decided that Bulldog Canyon was one of the best places I have ever been. I still think it is. I'm so lucky to live so close to it. I'm also very happy that my Sweetums tolerates living out here with me. It's like having my cake and eating it, too!

I got out there kind of late. Stupid computer games, interfering with my hiking. Anyway, I didn't want to go too far when it was so late, especially since it was so cool. I'm plenty warm while I'm moving, but after sunset I can't stop or I'll freeze. I think I found a route that will get me near the top of the mountains; something I've been trying to do for a long time. I may pack a lunch and try for the top in a day or two.

BC_2007_12_29

Tortilla Flat video

This first one is a little shaky. I was standing on a rock in the middle of the creek and twisted around during the video, so I was having trouble maintaining my balance.

The other video is still "processing". I'll have to add it later.

Tortilla Flat

I guess it was more of a stroll than a hike. It wore me out, though. I must be out of shape. Wait, no, I have a shape. Mostly tubular. Oh, never mind.

I climbed around on a large hill behind Tortilla Flat. It was nice because I got to listen to water flowing through the stream down below most of the time. It was annoying because I also heard cars on the road and people yakking. It was nice to see something different, too.

I thought that place would be deserted on a weekday, but I guess a lot of people are off work this week. It was really crowded. It was really tempting to drive back and forth across the creek at about 30 and splash water on all the tourists climbing around on the rocks in the creek bed, but I didn't. I saw one guy that tried that, though. There was a truck at the end of a line of cars (see pictures). It stopped when it got to the creek, until the cars had gone across. Then it zoomed across making the biggest splash it could. It had to hit the brakes as soon as it got across to keep from hitting the cars that were only going about 5 mph. I don't think it succeeded in splashing anybody, though.

I took a couple of videos. I'll add them after I get them uploaded (takes a while).

Tortilla_Flat_2007_12_28

Same place it Bulldog Canyon

Date: December 26, 2007
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1413, 57
End - 1630, 56
Distance hiked: ~3 miles
The numbers:
36 Pictures taken
2 Attempts by squirrels to break my ankles

Ramblings: I went to the same place in Bulldog Canyon that I went to last time I went hiking. I wanted to gather up all those gun shells. I took some bags with me to carry them all. I'm sure I got within 50 feet of them, but I couldn't find them. Rats. I did find another pile just like the first one, but not as many shells. Probably shot from the same gun. I gathered them up. They were several hundred yards from the first pile.

As I strolled along, I saw what I thought were pieces of plastic bags caught on tree branches. I went to pull them off. When I got there I saw that they were tied to the trees. They were marking a trail (see the pictures). The trail was also marked by rock cairns. The trail was 10 or 15 feet wide and looked like a herd of elephants used it every day. Why somebody thought it also needed to be marked with plastic, I can't imagine. I started to take the plastic down but then imagined some city slicker wandering lost in the desert until he died and decided to leave it. You're welcome, slick.

There is also a picture of a more subtle trail. When looking at that trail from the top of Spooky Hill, I thought it had been made by deer. While on the trail, though, I could see that it was probably cleared by horseback riders. I can't imagine deer kicking all those rocks out of the way.

BC_2007_12_26

Finally, back to the desert

Date: December 21, 2007
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1430, 58
End - 1623, 58
Distance hiked: 1.5 miles
The numbers:
40 Pictures taken
1 Deer seen
1 Zanol (The American Products Co) bottle extracted from the desert

Ramblings: It's been a couple of weeks since I've been for a hike. I felt a little bad all week, like I was about to come down with a cold. I thought maybe it was because I had been cooped up for too long. I felt much better while I was hiking, but now that I'm back home I'm ready to get to bed and sleep for 12 hours. Anyway, it was very pretty out there today. The air was clear and there were some nice clouds on the horizon.

I just wandered around today. I like to walk around in an area that it seems like not many people would visit. I can always tell people have been there, though. There were horse tracks criss-crossing all over the place where I was today, and some were very fresh. I saw some very fresh deer tracks today, too, and saw one of the deer making them. I came over a ridge and it was in the wash below me. It was a large doe. It was bouncing along on all fours like deer do in cartoons, then it trotted off down the wash. It was gone before I could get the lens cap off.

It wasn't very cold, but the wind was blowing at least 15 mph. I had to put my hood on now and then to thaw my ears out. I'm so glad I don't live someplace that gets cold.

BC_2007_12_21

Water at Tortilla Flat

Last weekend I made a very short video of water flowing over the road at Tortilla Flat. Just now remembered to put it here.

Snow on Four Peaks

We have officially had more rain during the past two weeks than we have had during the previous 11 months. It's very wet around here right now. There was even some pretty thick fog this morning. All the clouds and fog were gone by this afternoon, though, so we could see that there is a little snow on Four Peaks. I didn't have much time to get pictures before the sun set.

Four_Peaks_2007_12_12

Apache Trail, near Canyon Lake

I drove out Apache Trail this afternoon. I think if I'd been out there yesterday morning, I might have seen some waterfalls. I bet I wouldn't have been able to cross the creek at Tortilla Flat, though. When I got out of the truck at the lake, it stunk pretty bad (the lake, not the truck). I hung around a while anyway, and was able to get a couple of pictures of a blue heron. Actually, I took a lot of pictures of it, but you can't see it against the background in most of them.

AT_2007_12_09

Back to Bulldog

I felt like getting out of the house this afternoon so I went back to Bulldog Canyon. When I was there this morning, it was easy to drive around because the rain had compacted the sand in the washes, so I didn't bog down any. This afternoon, though, some kids had been riding dirt bikes up and down the road (and everywhere else). It's like they had been working as hard as they could to loosen the sand up. I kept getting bogged down.

I didn't drive very far down the road. I stopped in a place that I don't usually stop because too many people hang out there. You can tell from the pictures that a lot of people go there, and leave their trash.

BC_2007_12_08_2

Clouds

We had a lot of rain last night. I left the house this morning planning to drive around the neighborhood and see how much water was in the catch basins. I wound up in Bulldog Canyon. Here are a few pictures.

BC_2007_12_08

New hair color

Lauren colored her hair again. I keep wondering who that girl with the black hair is.

 

Lazy day

I went for a short stroll in Bulldog Canyon today. Not enough daylight to do much else. The small washes are full of magnetite after the recent rains. There were a few clouds around this afternoon. I guess it's gearing up for Friday and Saturday, when it's supposed to rain again. We'll see.

I found a large hole dug right next to the road. I've probably found it before, though, so it's nothing new. I also found a saguaro that branched like a tree instead of a saguaro. I've probably found it before, too. Let me know if you remember seeing this stuff before.

BC_2007_12_05

Ghost fire remnants

It was a beautiful clear day today. The brown cloud stayed out of the east valley. The Superstition Mountains looked so pretty on the way home, I had to go take some pictures. They are familiar "poses", but taken with my new filters. I'm finding out that the filters make it difficult to take pictures in low light; some of them turned out pretty dark.

After I took pictures of the mountains, I drove down Apache Trail looking for something else to photograph. I pulled over in an area that was burned by the Ghost fire on June 29, 2005. The area still looks devastated. It takes a long time for the desert to recover from something like that.

2007_12_03

Filterzzzzzzzz!

Date: December 2, 2007
Location: Bulldog Canyon
Time and temperature: Start - 1500, ??
End - 1700, 59
Distance hiked: 1.6 miles
Elevation change: 390 feet
The numbers:
69 Pictures taken
1 Golf ball left behind (I've got to get rid of them)

Ramblings: It was overcast and gloomy the whole time I was in Texas over the Thanksgiving holiday. I was looking forward to getting back to sunny Arizona. When I did get back, it was cloudy here, too. It kept getting cloudier and gloomier. It even rained (a lot, which was nice). The sun finally came out today; beautiful clear blue skies. I had to take some pictures.

Another reason I had to take some pictures is because I got some filters for my camera. A few weeks ago, I was looking through somebody else's pictures and realized he must be using a polarizing filter to get the sky to look the way he did. I looked into getting one for my camera, but couldn't find one for it on the Canon web site. I figured that I would have to buy an SLR and at least two lenses to get the zoom capability I wanted and a polarizing filter. It would cost $3000 or $4000. Then I Googled Canon polarizing filter and discovered LENSMATE. They make adapters and sell filters and lenses for Canon Powershot cameras. So I ordered my Christmas present early. Thank you, Suzanne, it's just what I wanted!

I hiked up to my favorite ridge in Bulldog Canyon, snapping pictures along the way. I took some with the polarizer adjusted and then another one with it mis-adjusted, for comparison. I also took some with the UV filter and polarizer in place and another one with them removed. I really like the way the polarizer makes the pictures look. There are a few pairs of pictures in the web album, with captions explaining the differences.

BC_2007_12_02

Rain! Lots of it!

It rained quite a bit yesterday and today. This afternoon, Lindsey and I drove out Apache trail and took some pictures near the Superstition Mountains. When we got to a wash that had a fair amount of water crossing it at a pretty good clip, I decided to stop and take pictures instead of crossing. Several small sedans zipped across. A couple were missing pretty bad when they got to the other side. Some crossed it at high speed. I wanted to get pictures of those, but another guy and I were standing by the road with cameras, and I think it tipped the drivers off. They all slowed down as long as we were in sight.

We drove up the Firstwater Trailhead road a little ways before we came to the same wash crossing that road. It was narrower - and therefore deeper - there. We didn't see anybody cross there. Did see one guy wisely decide to wait a while.

As we got back on Apache Trail to go home, we could see that the water level had dropped a little. There was also a line of cars, because the Forest service had shown up and closed the road.

Rain_2007_12_01

A couple of vehicles crossing the wash.

Here's how to cross a flooded wash on a bicycle.

And now a Ford Mustang crossing the wash.

Lastly, some folks that needed encouragement.