The sun has slipped behind the mountain. It’s 6PM. My after dinner nap was interrupted by a fresh nip in the air. A new neighbor had arrived and it's possible he could have woken me. It was to be my first neighbor. The weekend rush has begun. During the summer, the campsites usually fill up on the weekends. The earliest arrivals get the best campsites. I assumed this neighbor was the first of many to be arriving today.
I woke this morning after a somewhat difficult sleep. Just after midnight I began to debate loading up my things and heading for Albuquerque. My friend from Boston would be there and invited me to stay with them if I arrive in Albuquerque. But I decided to I just take another day here, maybe. The first thing this a.m. was some prayer and meditation. Exercise would be put off until after I worked on the motorcycle. There was an issue with the old Beemer. I knew that I'd have to clean the battery basket. The battery had leaked onto the basket and was threatening to corrode the frame. Cleaning the battery basket and frame are fairly major operations when I'm home in my garage. On the road, I cleaned things up the best I could. I used water and baking soda and a toothbrush. Then I examined the battery. It was WAY overfull. Somehow, before I'd set off on my trip, I'd added too much water to the battery. It's no wonder that I was getting acid all over the bike. Up until this point I'd thought that there was a leak in the battery. I drained a considerable amount acid out onto the ground. I felt some fear of being caught dumping this caustic substance onto the ground in a park, but I didn't see a choice at the time. The total amount was no more than 2 or 3 ounces. The old Beemer looks and seems to run much more happily now. I decided on a test ride.
I loaded the bike with some hiking gear and rode up to Emory Pass. I left the bike, caching my saddlebags in small cavern in a rock ledge, and walked up a pine ridge. There’s a helipad a short distance along the way and then the trail continues around and over a couple of ridges. I didn’t recognize the scat in the trail. Recognizing animal excrement can be a good tool for knowing who and what is nearby. It seemed to be rodent, or possibly deer dung. Further along, there were the usual chatty Mexican Jays. I also saw 2 woodpeckers. The woodpeckers were either the hairy or downy woodpeckers, I didn't know which. I watched a hummingbird come down into an array of wildflowers, hover for a moment, then dive in to take nectar of the flowers. It was the first time I’d seen a hummingbird in the wild. I returned to the bike with a couple of miles completed. There was a rush of wind. The same sound had preceded the storms of the last 2 days. The sound is a warning for me that the weather will soon change.
I gathered wood for the evening and lay down for a nap. I picked a few tunes on the guitar, smiled, and set to starting the evening’s fire.
9/20 (Sun) After my usual breakfast of oat bran and fruit, I packed the motorcycle with some hiking gear and rode out to the Gila Cliff Dwellings area. It was a tremendous ride. I saw lots of hills and curves and magnificent vistas. The arroyos had filled and drained sometime in the last night or so, and left some large silt deposits in the road. I encountered several of these and had to make diversions. There was also some water still in the road. There was a tremendously gorgeous pine forest, some 10 miles from route 152. The ground was barren but for the brown pine needles and the large. Though I’d never been to the redwood forest, this reminded me of the pictures I’d seen. There were spectacular forest views. It was so very hot. I parked in the shade and walked over to the Visitor Center. The helpful volunteer gave me directions and fee amounts for admission to the Cliff Dwellings area. I got some information about the day hikes in the area, and set out for the afternoon.
I hiked through rolling hills in a very dry desert environment. Not devoid of shrubs and trees, but harsh and arid. I lizard peeked out from a rock and rattled over to another rock. He posed for a few moments as I removed my camera. Then he skittered under the next rock. It was really too hot to stay away from the shade of the stone. A pair of horseback riders approached on the trail. I was hailed with a, “Hello there!” even before I could see the horses. It seems as I clattered along banging my hiking sticks I’d unnerved the lead horse. I asked if I should give way, and as the rider acknowledged an affirmative, he kept a reassuring chatter going for the horse saying, “Yes, that’s a man, just like us, not to worry”. I wondered as they passed by if my sticks made me appear as some human praying mantis?
Further down the trail, as it wound around a valley and over a ridge, I came to a large snake rattling his tail at me. Obviously objecting to my proximity, I strayed wide to the opposite side of the trail. He settled down and stopped his racket after I eased past. I dug for my camera and focused but some communication error occurred between the body and the lens and I had to give up. I tried a different lens a few minutes down the trail, and finding it working, I returned to where I’d seen the snake but couldn’t find him. I didn’t make a large effort to set him rattling again though.
I finished my 5 mile hike, fording the Gila River 2 times. My hiking poles provided all the stability I needed in the rushing water. I could envision giving my camera gear a dunking, and really was appreciating the poles. On the hike out, I spotted a group of birds flying from one group of wildflowers to another. They hung upside-down as they drank from the flowers. (PIC) I'd never seen a bird do that before.
I stopped at the only convenience store near the Cliff Dwellings hoping that this was the store Ken had told me about. I hoped it was the store run by Paul who made his own little cups of ice cream. I met Paul and described Ken. He recalled and we started to chat over a yummy little cup of homemade ice cream. Paul was German. He spoke with an accent. He looked and my old BMW motorcycle and said he used to own them in Germany. He told me the story of a local policeman in Germany that rode a BMW. It had a sidecar. In the sidecar was a dog. A shepherd. Paul told me that during an investigation, he’s seen the officer point to an individual and direct the dog to address him. The dog could go to a person in the crowd, look at the officer, and based on the officer’s hand signals, either go to the next person, or ‘encourage’ the person to go to the officer. I picture quite a scene as the officer directs the dog to retrieve a suspect. Paul told a long story about a cougar, or mountain lion he’s had to hunt down and destroy. The convenience store was also a campground for motor homes and travel trailers. There was a hot tub, and a woman in the tub had had to call to her husband to scare off the cougar that was watching her in the tub. Paul said there were 2 distinct types of cougars in the area. One that could weigh as much as 150 pounds, and one that usually weighed less than 100 pounds. He said that this cougar had killed his cat. Paul told in an obviously painful and heartfelt story that he and his wife had adopted a stray cat. It turned out to be a very independent cat. Not overly warm and friendly, but quite territorial. Somehow, this cougar had approached Paul’s home and his courageous cat, standing his ground against a predator 10 times his size and weight, succumbed to the attack. Paul said he heard the disturbance and upon lighting the scene saw his cat’s head in the mouth of the cougar as the cougar turned to see Paul. I felt sad for Paul. Being and expert marksman, after obtaining the correct licensure to hunt the cat out of season, Paul took the cat down after seeing him on his property one more time.
As the sun started to get lower and lower in the sky, I excused myself and headed out for the bike. Paul came out to hear her start up. I think we were both glad to have met.
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