15 minutes

One day last week, my blog got quite a few hits. I thought I had been "discovered". I checked to see what got the people to my blog and discovered that StumbleUpon was trying to sell advertising to me. If I made any money from people visiting my blog I might consider that, but I haven't succumbed to adding advertisements yet. It looks like a few stumblers are still trickling in, but most of the activity was on one day.

A little deeper into the Goldfield Mountains

I pushed a little deeper into the Goldfield Mountains yesterday. I walked down the wash I had been in a couple of weeks ago and then a little further. I thought the first part of the hike would be quicker this time, since I had already taken pictures there. I should know by now that that doesn't help much. There's always something different or something that I didn't see before that I have to get pictures of.

There were puffy little clouds today. I think that makes for more interesting pictures.

Here's something I hadn't seen here before. It looks like a metate.

As I walked through sandy parts of the wash, I saw what seemed to be too many footprints to be mine from my last hike there. There were new tire tracks from a 4wd vehicle, and it looked like maybe 2 people had continued on foot from where the vehicle had to stop. The footprints didn't go any further than I had last time I was out there, though. That was nice.

Since I wanted to go further than I did last time, I had to resist the siren call of the hills and mountains around me. If I started climbing things, I'd be too tired to go on. Walking in the wash was tiring enough. The solid rock stretches are very uneven, the bouldery stretches are rough on the ankles, and the sandy stretches drain your energy. I got out of the wash whenever the terrain allowed it.

Even "smooth" parts of the wash are tiring.

I hurried past the rock wall so I wouldn't succumb to its temptation. After all, there are places up there I haven't explored yet.

This chipmunk chirped and flicked his tail at me for a while.

It was a strange feeling when I got beyond where I had been before. As I looked around, I couldn't see anything that looked familiar. Also, the only sign of people was a can and a piece of plastic that had been brought down the wash by flowing water. No cigarette butts. No shotgun shells. No discarded underwear. Not even a golf ball. It seemed that the birds sounded different, and I imagined that they were looking at me and saying, "What the heck is that?" It was a wonderful feeling.

Mountains I've never seen before.

The mountains were pretty, with lots of jagged rock. The lighting wasn't very good for pictures, though. A large cloud was blocking the sun. It was only in the upper 80's (which is why I went way out there) and there was a good breeze, and it felt really great to have a cloud between me and the sun. I hadn't had to hide behind a saguaro to escape the sun for at least a mile.

With all this new scenery around me, a little voice in my head was saying that I shouldn't go further, lest I get lost. I decided it was a wise little voice and that I would climb something to look around, then head back. On the way up I had the feeling that I should see Four Peaks to my right and when I got high enough, I did. At least I wasn't turned around, though knowing which way is which out here won't necessarily help you get where you want to be.

While looking at a map earlier in the day, I thought I might go all the way out to that light colored rock. It turned out to be a little further than I wanted to go, though.

It was so pretty and so isolated out there, I hated to leave. I hung around so long I knew it would be dark before I got back to the truck. Well, I had a feeling it might be dark before I got back to the truck before I even left the house.

Looking back at where I'd been.

I'll be back out there when it's cool enough to walk that far. I already have an idea of the new areas I'm going to explore. I've got to see if I can figure out a way to avoid walking in washes, though. I only walked 4.5 miles, but my knees and ankles ache from the boulders and rough rock and my thighs are worn out. I might need to take a tent and spend a few days out there. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_06_12

Dusty sunset from Silly Mountain

A couple of times this past week, I watched the sun shining on the Superstition Mountains as sunset neared and thought that I should be on Silly Mountain getting pictures. On Friday I did that. Clouds were moving in, though. It was still clear in the west, so I thought I might get a picture or two.

Even without clouds, it doesn't look like much sunshine will get through.

The weather was cooling off, which means we had strong winds from the south. (I still haven't figured that out.) It was only about 90. On the way out to Silly Mountain, I thought I could see rain to the east and the north. The air was hazy, but I think that was from dust and not moisture. It sure didn't feel humid.

Another guy and his pal were out there to get sunset pictures.

As I left the house, suns rays were streaming out from behind clouds. It looked really cool. I wasn't in a place that I could get a picture, though. By the time I got out to Silly Mountain, the sun was down in the dust layer and very dim.

It was very windy up there. I was trying to take HDRs. I sat on the ground and braced my arms on my knees, but still the wind bumped me around between shots. Most of the HDRs came out, anyway. Another guy was up there to get sunset pictures. He had a tripod. It looked pretty stout. I don't think my tripod would have held the camera still in that wind.

The sun never did shine on the Superstition Mountains.

The other guy went to the top of that rock on the right to get pictures.

The other two guys eventually came up near where I was to get some pictures. The one with the camera went up to the top of a rock and the other stayed in a saddle near me. The one in the saddle was yelling something to the other guy but I wasn't paying attention. After they left, I looked down toward the parking area and saw two vehicles with flashing lights. I thought back to the guy yelling and realized he had been saying something like, "Hey, Luis, they're here! They're here, man! We gotta go!". Was somebody chasing them?

I was absorbed in taking pictures and wasn't listening to the guys near me or looking down at the parking lot.

All I could see in the gloom was flashing lights. Couldn't tell if they were police cars, ambulances, or what.

On the way down to the truck, I could see that one of the vehicles with flashing lights was still there. It was parked across the street from my truck. I wondered if I was going to get a ticket for being in the park after sunset or something silly like that. They never said anything to me, though. Maybe a lot of people get stranded up there. It's right next to the highway, so any yahoo could stop to see what's there and start climbing and then realize that 20 years of being a couch potato had not prepared them to wander more than 100 feet from their vehicle.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_06_11

Sunset silhouettes

I went to fill up a car late this afternoon and took my camera with me, just in case. After getting the gas, I drove up Meridian to my favorite spot to take sunset pictures, and took a few sunset pictures.

There are a lot of hanging fruit chollas out there.

Hanging fruit cholla flowers.

I took pictures of this skull, or one like it, a few years ago. Nobody has identified the animal it comes from, yet.

Nothing exciting happened. Click below for all the pictures. Oh, I forgot to mention in my last post that it was only about 81 at the top of Mt Ord.

2010_06_09

Back to Mt Ord

It finally got too hot to hike in the valley. It was around 108 yesterday. Time to head to higher altitudes. I decided to go to the end of the road on Mt Ord. I got distracted last time I was there and didn't make it to the end. Also, the last time I was there, there was a lot of traffic on the road. Several cars passed me back then. (Arizonans believe very strongly that if you go fast enough, the road won't feel as bumpy, and smoothing out the bumps is more important than avoiding collisions or staying on the road.) This time, I didn't see another vehicle on the dirt road for the two and a half hours I was out there. Still, I didn't get many pictures on the way up because there aren't many places to pull over and I kept thinking I'd be in the way if I just stopped in the road.

The top of Mt Ord. I can't quite get there, though.

I didn't do any hiking on this trip. I did wander around a little here and there, but no exertion. The highest altitude I got to was only 6800 feet. I had a headache, though, and the higher I went, the worse it got. I think I had a touch of altitude sickness. The headache was gone by the time I got home.

There are some interesting looking alligator junipers up there.

I've misplaced my plant book, so I have no idea what this is.

At one of the places I was wandering around, I noticed a few bugs flying around. They looked sort of like lady bugs, except I'm used to lady bugs that are red and with consistent black spots. These were orange and some had spots and some didn't. I noticed a group of them on the leaf of a plant and took a picture because there were so many in one place.

I thought this was a lot of bugs ...

I started looking around, and everywhere I looked there were more bugs. They were covering rocks and trees all over the place. I think they were trying to cover me, too, but they couldn't find any comfortable spots on me.

... until I saw stuff like this.

I had read about something similar to this on another blog and was going to link to it, but that blog has mysteriously vanished, along with its author. I think that must have something to do with the work he's doing now. Spooky stuff.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_06_06

View from Silly Mountain

I went for a short drive yesterday to get out of the house and maybe take some pictures. I liked the way the sun was shining on the Superstition Mountains and started looking for a good place to get a picture. Silly Mountain was up ahead so I decided to go there.

A bench along the trail at Silly Mountain.

I seemed to remember reading a few months ago that the Silly Mountain area was going to be developed into a bona fide park and not just a place that people stop and do whatever they want. I did a Google search and found out that I had read that article in October of 2007. Hmm. I spent yesterday morning going through a pile of papers that I thought I had dropped on the floor last fall. There was a lot of stuff in there from 2007. I wonder where I've been for the past 3 years.

A view of the Superstition Mountains from Silly Mountain.

There are several trails around the mountain now. The one I had used the last time I was out there (which goes straight up) is blocked off. Since it was close to sunset, I went to a saddle partway up the side of the mountain. I hurried, but I got there too late to get the pictures I wanted. That's OK. I didn't have a plan, and I got to see what's going on at Silly Mountain Park.

Superstition Mountains.

It's a good place to go to get pictures of the mountains now and then, but it isn't the kind of place I would like to hike. Too close to the highway, and surrounded by barking dogs. Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_06_05

More pictures of Bulldog Canyon OHV area

Did I mention that, when I look at Bulldog Canyon with Google Earth, there are large areas where I don't have any pictures? I'm working on filling in those blank spots. Since yesterday was going to be the last cool day for a while, I went out there then.

I think I got only one picture of Lone Mountain.

I headed for a spot I'd been to only once before, before I had a way to geotag pictures. I was going along the base of Pass Mountain, which means there were a lot of ups and downs. Normally when I'm just wandering around out there, I'll walk along ridges or washes so I don't have to work so hard. I'm a lazy person at heart. This time, though, I wanted to get to a specific area, so I went as straight as possible. I tried to move quickly, stopping only to take pictures, because I got kind of a late start. Up, down, up, down, up, ....

I'm going in that direction.

The view in the other direction.

I took pictures mostly in just two directions, because of the angle of the sun and because of the view in those directions. I didn't go quite as far as I wanted to, but it was getting late and would soon be too dark for pictures.

Nice scenery in that direction.

Well, kinda boring in that direction.

Here you can see the wavy terrain.

I took a slightly different, parallel route on the way back. It sure made a huge difference in how much up and down there was. It was almost flat compared to the way out there.

This saguaro is REALLY big. I couldn't find anybody to stand next to it for scale, though. Thank goodness.

The sun was behind mountains for several minutes before I got back to the truck. The low spots in the terrain were filling with cool air. It felt great. By the time I drove out, it was down to 76. It was almost 90 when I got back to town, though. Click below to see all of the pictures.

BC_2010_06_02

Unexplored territory

Unexplored by me, anyway, and it looks like not many other people have been there, either. For a few days I had been planning on hiking the full length of the Black Mesa trail and looping back to the trailhead on a different trail. That would be a very long hike, though, and I'm not feeling real energetic these days. I was looking at the Bulldog Canyon area in Google Earth yesterday morning and noticed how some parts of it are devoid of Panoramio pictures and decided that I need to try to do something about that.

A view of the Supes from the road.

So where do I start, and how? Then I remembered a wash that Richard and I had followed for a short distance once. It seems to go straight into the heart of the unexplored area. That would be a good place to start.

I'll be going in that general direction.

I was up there two or three years ago.

I followed a "road" at the beginning of the hike. It's not an official road. The forest service puts signs up saying that no motorized vehicles are permitted back there, but Arizonans know better than the forest service and they run over the signs and shoot them up and then shoot their empty beer cans and bottles and leave fiberglass (the signs), aluminum, glass, lead, brass, tire tracks, smashed plants, and ruts scattered all over the place when they leave. The knuckleheads should be rounded up and sent to Houston, where their bad behavior would make no difference amid the normal chaos.

Let's see, where was I? Oh, hiking in the desert. It was gnatty. They greeted me like a long lost friend. How sweet. They still exhibit a preference for collecting on my right forearm, as if the heavenly treats to be found there are worthy of risking death. And many of them did die. I had to wash the stickiness off of my left hand when I got back to the truck. Gnats are annoying, but at least they belong there, unlike the knuckleheads that ... oh, don't get me started again.

The barrel cacti are blooming.

A short distance into the hike, I saw a stone arch that Richard and I had seen years ago but I had forgotten about. I decided to call it "Richard's Arch". It's up in a saddle. I'm going to go up there some day for a closer look.

Richard's Arch

By the time I got to here I didn't see any more tire tracks, footprints, beer cans, or cigarette butts. Shazam! I've escaped "civilization"!

About the time I got far enough along the hike to have escaped all evidence of the presence of knuckleheads, something in the back of my mind started telling me that I should think about turning around. Turn around!?!? But I just got here! It was warm, but it wasn't hot (about 95 when I left the truck), and there were plenty of saguaros if I needed shade. I had drunk only 20% of my water. I moseyed on.

I went around the left side of the rock wall in the previous picture. I could continue going north or go west. Both were on my list of places to explore, but neither looked very interesting. I think that's another hint that I was getting tired. I couldn't quit thinking about the rock wall. It begged to be climbed. I could not resist. There was a gentle (relative to vertical) slope up the western side of the wall, which was where I happened to be. I proceeded slowly with frequent rest stops. I think that maybe I haven't gotten used to the warm weather yet. I knew there would be a good breeze at the top and was looking forward to that.

The rock wall. Listen closely and you'll hear it whisper, "Climb me! Feel the breeze at my crest! Enjoy the wondrous view!"

A large flat area on top of the wall.

There was a nice breeze on top. It cooled me off and blew my gnats away. I wandered around up there for a while enjoying the view and taking pictures.

A view of the Superstition Mountains.

I got pictures of only one lizard the whole time I was out there. They seem to be more skittish in places that people don't visit very often. Maybe they get used to seeing people along the more popular trails. The one that I did get pictures of finally ran off. It ran about 15 yards and stopped near a small bush. Then it immediately jumped about 2 feet to its right. I think the wind made the bush move and the lizard thought something was about to get it.

The only lizard that would pose for pictures.

Maybe I should go later in the day next time, when the sun isn't so brutal.

Click below to see all of the pictures.

2010_05_29