Lazy start to the morning for no other reason than it felt good. Yoga was going good until an older couple wandered by walking their dog. The woman passed by just as I struggled to maintain a pose. Not at my most graceful. I was hoping she’d pass on by not even noticing me but with two steps left before she was out of sight she glanced my way. Dang! Then the man came strolling along 5 yards behind her not paying attention to anything but his dog…he looked at where she would be standing and then suddenly he looked my way. Ding Dang! Really? Did she have to point me out? The whole scene was over in seconds but it took courage on my part to keep going and not drop to the ground. Because hiding was on my mind from the instant I heard footsteps approaching.
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kind of rocks that could sprain an ankle really quick so there was a lot more looking down than there was looking out and about. I found that if I wanted to stay upright I had to stop when checking out the scenery.
It was a beautiful day to be outside. The temperature was in the low 70’s and there
was a gentle breeze which did a nice job of making it tolerable to be out in
the full sun. Occasionally I would also stop in the shadow of a saguaro for a
little relief. Even in moderate
temperatures the sun out here can be brutal.
We encountered several people out mountain biking on the trails. There was a couple that passed us twice and the man looked much more confident in speeding over the rocks than the woman did. In fact, she had that ‘what the hell did I get myself into’ look on her face or maybe she was just concentrating really hard. Not sure I’d be doing those trails on a bike. Saguaro Vista Trail cut through a stand of saguaros and with just one slip of the foot or the tire on the rocky trail a person would be picking cactus spines out of themselves.
It’s interesting that a housing development butts right up against the
boundary of the preserve. I felt like
we were wandering through their backyards.
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Another math problem today…this one because the OnX app indicated about
a mile into our hike that not only had we already covered 92 miles but that we
had done so at 137 mph. Wait! What?!
So
in order to calculate our miles Kim reset the app as we neared the Black Rock
Loop, then when we came back to that spot he reset it again for our walk out to
the truck. Add the loop distance to 2 times the distance back to the truck for
our total miles hiked today: 2.15 +
2(.98) = 4.11
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Arizona Pizza Company for a late lunch after hiking. Hike 4 miles then stuff yourself with a
calzone. Seems reasonable.
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Took
some more goodies down to the trail cam this evening and switched out the cards.
We have both cameras set up on the same trail now, offering a wider view at
what comes in…providing the cameras work, that is. We’ve been having issues
with one of them. But both were working
over the last two days.
There
were four visitors since the last time we checked the cards. Yippee skippee! There
was a javelina on one of the cameras and during the daytime, no less. Last time we baited I put some apples out; it
was smelling around but I don’t think there was any apples left as the other
camera showed a raven making off with apple slices a couple of hours earlier. The javelina smelled around and then wandered
on through. So we had a javelina, raven,
a pack rat and a coyote. It’s been the
same coyote every time…he has a distinct pattern on his back. He’s making out like a bandit because there
doesn’t appear to be any other animal going for the meat…just him. The raven, pack rat and javelina were there
for the fruit.
Put meat, apples and some fragrant mandarin peels out tonight. Hopefully we see the javelina again.
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Didn’t stop at the cell cam today, maybe tomorrow or Thursday. The motion sensitivity is still set at 1 so
the number of notifications has certainly slowed down. The camera is not so
inclined to activate because either the saguaro or the camera itself is
jiggling in the wind. Today there were six
notifications and when I checked my phone all six showed ravens flying around
the cactus. The harassment has certainly
been turned up a notch. The nighttime
videos tend to show the female owl moving around, the male owl bringing food or
insects flitting in front of the camera.
One night there were about 10 videos that had a bright eerie look to
them. Turns out a moth had landed on the
camera and its wing was causing the brightness.
Another time I think a bird may have hit the camera.
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Posted my ‘peregrine falcon’ video on the birding FB page and quite
possibly I have the identification wrong. Some who are more knowledgeable than
I thought maybe it was a Cooper’s Hawk.
I posted a picture so they can see it better. I thought a Cooper’s Hawk looked similar to
the Crested Caracara instead of a falcon so perhaps I’ve been misidentifying
all of them right along. I should stick
to identifying Chickadees and Whipporwills…they say their names.
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Today’s 40 Days of Lent challenge was to pray for a specific problem in
the world and for those who are suffering as a result of it. There are so many to choose from: hunger,
clean water, war, homelessness, disease, race relations and the list goes on. So why stop at just one?
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