| Home Sweet Home: Tuzigoot (Too-ZEE-goot) is an ancient ruin sitting on a hill in the Verde river flood plain - interesting but not exciting. I know the houses I built won't last a thousand years, but at least they had windows. |
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| Jerome RV: Jerome - one of Arizona's historic mining towns - now a haven for ex-hippies and self-proclaimed artists. The "RV" came complete with a sleeping dog and a lot of "power to the people" graffiti. Sharon has hinted that if my hair gets much longer I may be in the market for a similar vehicle. |
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| River Otters: The guide book distinctly said "to look for river otters in this permanent creek" - did the author mean small mammals or did he grossly misspell a word that should begin with a "U"? |
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| Sasquatch: It seems that on nearly every hike I go on, I see this particular foot print, always going in the opposite direction that I am going but never in the same direction? At some places on this trail the imprint was so good that you could read the manufacture's name written on the sole - it is the same brand as mine. I wonder if I will ever meet the wearer? |
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| Weary Traveller: Let's play "Name that Bird"? Usually, trails through riparian environments do not closely follow beside the stream. For some reason, I had decided to leave the trail and to go down to the edge of the creek just in time to see this monster land in the middle of a small pond. He was a long way away from me and I had no clear shot at a photo from the bank. Then I noticed the tree; a cottonwood which had grown out at a slight angle over the water with it's 1st branches about 15 feet above the ground. At my age, I |
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| probably have no business climbing trees; now that I think about it, my mother (and probably my other mother - Susan) did not believe there was such a thing as "a good age for climbing trees", but then that is another story. First I tried to climb the truck of the tree in a fashion like we have seen demonstrated by the Hawaiians climbing coconut palms - slid back down well short of the branches. Next I looked for something to use to fashion a ladder with - no luck. Finally it occurred to me that I might take a |  |
| running leap at the trunk and run up the side of the tree - no luck, hard landing, but the camera didn't break! I peered over the rushes to make sure my prey was still on his pond - he was acting very impatient, I have to get into that tree - NOW. So with a longer run, a bigger leap, two strides up the trunk, a big stretch and with the camera clanging against the branch, my tenuous grasp held. I shinnied up to a crotch in the tree and snapped off three long range pictures. Sadly, the bird had wondered away to the outer limits of my telephoto - I had all the pictures that I would be able to take and I had a more immediate problem - now how in the world was I going to get out of the tree? | |
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We're Watching: I finally found the end of the trail and the springs which feed the creek. Having nearly stepped upon this small citizen of the pond while crossing the stream, I watched him swim under the raft of moss and algae, from were his head poked through to watch this clumsy intruder. |
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