Friday, March 26...We Didn’t Start The Fire (Billy Joel)

    Today we planned to meet Bill and Mary Trupiano at Catalina State Park for a walkabout and lunch afterward.  But first things first...check the trail cam. 😎 

   Drove down with computer so we could look right then.  Kim walked out, brought back the card and Cha-Ching!! we had pictures!  I figured we’d get a coyote, packrat, dog or cat.  The images we got were of a raven strutting by the camera about 2:30 in the afternoon...no eating just strutting. Clicking through that sequence of photos reminded me of a Monty Python bit; don’t know exactly why that was but it made me laugh. Then about 3:15 the vultures came swooping in.  So vultures...turkey vultures are what we got on camera.  I saw at least three in one picture...one taking off with a bone in its beak, one just touching down and one still in flight.  

   I seriously thought it would be a ground animal coming in after dark...never even thought of crows, ravens, hawks, or vultures coming in during daylight hours. I feel a little embarrassed about that oversight as crows and vultures are always circling overhead...they’re everywhere out here.   

   Kim put the camera back out in the same spot but this time he set it to video and put a few pieces of chicken out as bait.  I expect that tomorrow we’ll again find that buzzards or ravens have taken the meat and since I’m not keen on feeding buzzards I suggested that we put it back on the game trail.  We scoped that out tonight on a walk and found another location near the game trail that might appeal to the critters of the night.  Thankfully meat is much cheaper out here than it is back home. 

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   Made it to Catalina State Park just at 11...and for maybe the first time in Kim n Karen history we might have been early but as we approached the park intersection Rapunzel insisted that we turn left.  I knew that was wrong because I could see the sign for the park right across the road but we were already in the left turn lane and couldn’t go straight.  She then had us make a right turn into a ranch driveway about a quarter mile from the park entrance and proudly declared that we had reached our destination.  I don’t think so, Rapunzel.  You screwed it up...now move over, it’s my turn.  Did a U-turn at the next intersection and arrived right at 11 a.m.  Right on time but a little frustrated at Rapunzel.

   Our time out here in Arizona has overlapped with Bill and Mary’s time the past couple of years and we’ve managed to get together for a walk and lunch.  Today we walked wandered through Catalina State Park which suffered a fire on October 18, 2020.  By all accounts it was quickly brought under control...the park was reopened to the public two days later on October 20.  Even though every article I found stated that the cause was under investigation I couldn’t find any article that followed up with the outcome of that investigation.  Luckily fire crews were able to keep the fire contained to 47 acres with no damage to any of the buildings.

   I feel like we saw just a very small section of the damaged area on our walk but it was obvious the plant life took a hit.  Trees were probably the most affected...many are blackened twisted skeletons.  Most of the barrel and saguaro cacti I saw seemed to have suffered only surface damage...the spines were burned off or the outer edges of the accordion folds showed a brown discoloration with green still visible on the interior of the fold. I suppose time will tell if the damage went deeper.  Most of the prickly pear were laying in discolored heaps; I know that new growth can sprout from a seemingly dead cactus but I doubt that these prickly pear will see that type of resurrection.

 And I’m also guessing that tiny cacti such as the pincushion may have been totally destroyed by the fire.  But I know that Mother Nature is very adept at healing.  So maybe if we return next year we’ll see new growth happening.

   After our walk we had lunch at the Charred Pie.  We ordered enough appetizers that we really didn’t need to order anything else but of course we did.  Kim and I left there knowing that we wouldn’t be fixing the Lentil soup we’d talked about for supper.

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   Temperature hovered around 60^o most of the day...made for a nice comfortable walking temperature. It was clouding up by the time we arrived back at camp, even sprinkled a time or two.  Did manage to finish my 10,000 steps with a short walk this evening.  No bike ride today because we had a very full day.  Due to the clouds Kim won’t be imaging again tonight.   Weather is predicted to be getting warmer with no clouds.  Good for both bikes and telescopes. 

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