Kim was up until about 4 a.m. with his imaging/processing; he was still sleeping when I went out walking on my own about 8 a.m. Figured I’d check the status of the neck bones and we’d come get the camera later it was warranted. Bones gone...yahoo!
--------------------
When we first came out here in 2016
we geocached locally to the extent that we could...all caches were located on
the other side of I-10. We found some
and not others but after that year I didn’t give it much thought. Just the
other day when we were out driving I opened the geocache app just for fun and
suddenly there are lot on this side of I-10 and specifically down Picacho
Hwy. Yahoo!
We’ve already
found one of the farther out caches and a couple of nearby multi-stage caches. Two more were on my radar this morning
because they were within my walking route...down by Nutt Road. Anything farther than Nutt Road I’m taking the
truck. Found one easily enough on
Picacho Hwy and the other was a multi-stage cache about a ¼ mile down
Nutt...I’m very new to the multi-stage cache but figured no time like the
present to do one on my own.
Found the first
stage quite by accident...it was located off the road in the gravel parking
area of some defunct business. The two hints
were: ‘Wazza tree’ and ‘Post’. Hmmmmm....
In that
location the hints weren’t any help...no trees and no posts, only bushes,
cement, dirt and gravel Searched around
the bushes then looked at the app again...oh,
it’s says it a little farther over that way.
Walked maybe 100 steps to the west...Good grief, now it’s telling me to go back where I was. I took a less weedy route back toward my
original location but was glancing down at the ground because I’ve learned to
do that when not on a paved road. And
suddenly I realize that I’m looking at it.
Down on the ground there was a little gnarly stick (wazza tree) laying
across an open hole which happened to be what was left of a metal post. The cache was suspended from the stick with
wire. Got the coordinates and moved onto
the next stage which was a cleverly disguised flashflight on the backside of a
tree. My first solo multi-stage cache
expedition was a success! Yeehaw!!
--------------------
On my way back Kim called...I told him the
bones were gone. Did I want him to pick
me up so we could check the camera? Sure.
As I’m
walking along I hear a small motor approaching...Sam Elliott on his motorized
bike is making a daytime trip into town; usually we see or hear him in the
early evening. He passed me then circled
around back to ask if I needed help. Not
sure he was in any shape to give me help if I needed it but maybe that’s beside
the point. He was offering help; I told
him I was fine, just out for a morning walk.
Then I asked about his bike...was it a moped from back in the day? Nope, it’s a 21-speed bike from the early 80’s
that he had some fun with. He’s got
another one similar to this one at home. I asked if I could get a picture of
it...sure, just let me get out of the
middle of the road. He moved to the
ditch area beside the road, I got my picture and we were talking when Kim
pulled up.
--------------------
Sit down at the computer, anxious to see
what’s on the card. Ha! There are 2
videos...and it’s just Kim setting up the camera. Bones are gone and we got nothing on video that
showed what took them. What?!
As we’re watching a second time and discussing that maybe the camera was
still pointed too high, Kim said with a
shake of his head, “How can we be so horrible at this?” which made both of us
laugh because this is truly becoming a sad comedy show.
--------------------
So....we took the camera down to Harmon Road
with the intent of placing the wood w/camera right on the flat ground near an
open area and spreading the neck bones out in front of it. Surely we should see something that way. And,
really, at this point that’s our focus...seeing something on the camera.
Found just the right hiding spot at the base of a cactus looking out on an open space. Being by a
So the camera is now a truck ride away, not
a short walk away. And since there are not a lot of distinguishing features out
in that particular field I made note of how to find it again: Look to
the west for the lone cholla straight out from the 4th telephone
pole past Harmon Road.
--------------------
Kim walked home from putting the camera out;
I drove back to camp, sat outside for a while and was serenaded by the community
rooster for a couple of hours.
--------------------
Decided to take a short bike ride. Kim went out to clean the dust off the bikes
and reported that the wind was growing stronger and it looked like rain. Decided not to take a bike ride...took a
truck ride instead. Drove out to the Picacho petroglyphs and knew we’d made the
right decision to stay off the bikes when the horizon turned either dusty or
rainy depending on which direction we were facing.
There are cows out on the land by the
petroglyphs. We saw two...one by the
roadside and one about 30 feet into the desert.
Its face was covered in teddy bear cholla hitchhikers. What a bizarre sight! And I would think it was not an uncommon
occurrence since the cows live among
the various cacti. But OMGoodness, my
heart went out to her. If I thought there was a chance in hell that she would
have let me near her I would have taken those balls of teddy bear off her face. We have both gloves and pliers in the truck. But when we stopped she had a very wary look
in her eyes and I know enough to respect that look.
--------------------
The wind is still strong enough to shake the
camper occasionally. Looks like we’ll be rocked to sleep tonight. 😏 No
imaging for Kim. Clouds and wind aside,
he says he just doesn’t have enough energy for another 3 to 4 a.m. night.
No comments:
Post a Comment