ziphius

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4/16/2013 Topic: Weather Watch ziphius	tommy750 wrote: I usually open up the front door and look outside. Very accurate. Oh, that's right. You guys live on the coast with all that FANCY temperate weather Ok, it is agreed that we all call Tom for weather updates before heading out! Just post your cell phone number here Tom and you will be hearing from us! Jim
4/22/2013 Topic: Cougar Canyon and Boulder Alley ziphius	Hey, it looks like your damselfly is an 'American Rubyspot' (Hetaerina americana), probably a female or immature. They like swift-flowing streams or even flowing irrigation canals in desert areas: http://www.odophile.com/3%20Damselfly%20Portraits/slides/American%20Rubyspot,%20female%200977d.html
4/22/2013 Topic: Seco Del Diablo and Tapiado ziphius	Nice trip report Tom, great photos. I'm always amazed to see water in the desert.
4/22/2013 Topic: Culp Valley and Upper Hellhole Canyon ziphius	One night car camp and rattlesnakefest. Within minutes of parking, we had seen a prairie falcon, which quickly disappeared. Starting with the photo of the 'photo of the trip', shot by Alex near Pena Spring, here is a Vivid Dancer (Argia vivida): Pena Spring isn't more than 0.5 mile from the camping area near Culp Valley and was providing about 1 gallon per minute. I dumped a liter over my head and it was COLD! Some morteros in the vicinity. No pottery or flaked stone sightings. Butterfly shot by Alex: Alex in a standoff with a rattlesnake: We did the descent from Pena Spring to the upper reaches of Hellhole Canyon, including some ascents in the direction of The Thimble so that we could scout out a reasonable way down: Getting downslope wasn't easy: Getting back up wasn't either, especially having to worry about rattlers at every move (we ended up with only 2 rattler sightings.... we expected a bunch more): The canyon bottom was choked with plants, sycamores, and cottonwoods, which made any crossing of the canyon impractical given our time limitations. Within minutes of leaving the campground, Alex spotted a prairie falcon (which might have been the same bird we saw the day before), but alas, it was moving too quickly for photography. edited by ziphius on 12/2/2014
4/23/2013 Topic: Culp Valley and Upper Hellhole Canyon ziphius	dsefcik wrote: Nice TR....the rattlesnake shot is great, up in the air and tongue out... What were the temps like? Daren, yeah, the posture on that snake was very cool, hadn't really seen that behavior up close before. We estimated the temperature to be in the low 80s, based on high temp reports of 81 from Ranchita (~1000 ft above us) and 95 degrees at Borrego Springs (3000 ft below us) that day. - Jim
4/24/2013 Topic: Inner Pasture Day Trip ziphius	Nice photos Daren. Great video too. It took me about a full minute before I saw the sheep in the first photo and then, I could only see two ewes. The mile 41 canyon always seems to have dislodged barrel cactus at the bottom that have broken open and been eaten. I bet they head-butt them from the slopes above and then let gravity do the work of cracking them open for an easy meal and some moisture. IP seems to be a sink for mylar. - Jim edited by ziphius on 4/24/2013
4/24/2013 Topic: Inner Pasture Day Trip ziphius	Your first video shows extremely rapid flight (fleeing) behavior. Did you notice the sheep before they noticed you, giving you the chance to start the video rolling by the time they took off?
4/25/2013 Topic: Inner Pasture Day Trip ziphius	Daren, thanks for the added BHS details. I also saw tracks on the IP valley floor back in Dec/Jan, not far from the 'machine bolt cave'. I was assuming they were BHS sheep and not deer at that time. PS - Saw my first deer in AB near Culp Valley a few days ago...
4/28/2013 Topic: Dos Cabezas and Goat Canyon ziphius	Awesome trip report and great photos! Your son will never forget that trip.
4/28/2013 Topic: Culp Valley and Upper Hellhole Canyon ziphius	Nolan, The snake was reared up on its own... luckily, it stayed that way for about a full minute for good photo ops! Yes, I saw a couple of decent, flat sites at Culp, just drive around the circumference of the area a little. You've also got the option of parking at Culp and hiking in to more secluded spots, without much of a mileage / time investment. Nolan (anutami) wrote: Nice rattler, we are on our 3rd rattle snake sighting at our house !!! Usually the big daddy's are pretty docile. Did you provoke that one for a photo op? That is a great shot. I am bummed how rattlers have been given a bad wrap and are so easily "discarded". We will usually relocate them unless a nasty baby one. I drove through the culp valley campground a while back and all the sites seem horrible. Tons of erosion and they all have extreme grades. Are there any sites worth visiting? edited by ziphius on 4/28/2013
5/6/2013 Topic: Good Android GPS Software ziphius	So all you Android users..... what does your monthly bill average? I still don't have a smartphone and am thinking of making the leap, if only to combine phone/GPS into one package. Daren, is that what you use for your longer backpack trips, or do you bring a conventional GPS with you?
5/9/2013 Topic: Rockhouse Canyon / Toro Peak BackPack Trip ziphius	Looks like an epic trip Daren! I know how hard it is to get those damselfly photos.... nice one!
5/15/2013 Topic: Sheep & Lower Coyote Canyon Trip ziphius	Nice to see all that water John! You really covered a lot of ground and saw some areas I've been looking forward to backpack into. Nicely done. Jim
5/20/2013 Topic: Siemens Shuts Down Wind Turbines after accident ziphius	Biologists should check to see how many snakes and lizards were crushed by the fallen blade.
5/31/2013 Topic: Indian/Cougar/Sheep Canyon Day Hikes ziphius	Those are some healthy-looking rams Daren. That's an area that I've been plotting to backpack into from the west, near Comb's Camp. I still need to figure out additional locations of reliable water for a winter trip out there. Nice cougar track, that's on my bucket list to eventually see one in the flesh. I bet if you just sat around on a moonlit night, with your back to a boulder, you might see a cougar walk by in that wash. The big circular graffiti / pictograph, what's your opinion on that one? By the way, the upper reaches of Hellhole Canyon are quite vegetation choked too, I'll be returning there from Culp Valley when the weather cools in autumn. - Jim
5/31/2013 Topic: Sheep Canyon Pot Farm ziphius	Daren, The 'extreme hiker' mentioned in the story wasn't you, heh? It is frustrating to have all these backcountry pot farms for obvious reasons, but the one that gets me most is that when I put in the time and effort to get to someplace remote, I'd like to leave all traces of civilization behind, with a reasonable expectation of not being shot at or killed. The story makes it sound like the enforcement folks aren't tough enough to hike into these areas, so we're kind of up-against-it. Your comment that you and Gary knew to stay out of certain areas makes me wonder if we should have a public service thread on this forum that specifically lists known trouble areas. The Pacific Crest Trail forum has such threads ("don't go off trail between miles 26 and 32 near Kitchen Creek"). Some of us aren't as familiar with the AB backcountry and you can't just Google the locations of backcountry pot farms, heh? Reminds me of the big pot bust in the Cuyamacas some years back: Citizen pot bust in Cuyamaca State Park (a little Rambo-esque reading) - Jim edited by ziphius on 5/31/2013
5/31/2013 Topic: Indian/Cougar/Sheep Canyon Day Hikes ziphius	dsefcik wrote: We originally planned to do a loop backpack trip from Lost Valley down to Alder and then back up Sheep but we were advised to stay out of the area for reasons in Bill's post. Man, that is exactly one of the routes I was planning to do, it's so peaceful in that Lost Valley / Chihuahua Valley area. Some nice pockets of water too.
6/3/2013 Topic: The reason you rarely find mortars with morteros ziphius	Guys like this are taking them home to their front porch: http://www.arrowheadology.com/forums/arrowheads-indian-artifacts/37563-san-diego-mortars-manos-ect.html It's a little harder to steal the actual morteros, but people have tried.
6/3/2013 Topic: The reason you rarely find mortars with morteros ziphius	dsefcik wrote: I read thru a few of the threads, that is a very disheartening site...posts like "these were my keepers for the trip" and pictures showing handfuls of points. One particular thread on that site was a query asking if anyone ever 'hunted ABDSP" (their vernacular for collecting points). No one replied, which makes me think the answer is a definite 'yes'. I'm actually part of the problem, once starting a thread here that used the word @rrowhe@d, so that a simple Google search with that word and anza borrego leads right to the thread and the general location discussed in the thread. I think my days of posting "triangular flaked stone" finds is over. In fact, maybe we should delete that whole thread to protect the resource. Bob? Daren? edited by ziphius on 6/4/2013
6/3/2013 Topic: The reason you rarely find mortars with morteros ziphius	Yikes Nolan, I hadn't realized there were THAT many references to AB on that forum, though I suspected as much. Yikes. I won't be showing or telling of any more @rrowhe@ds in my posts.
6/4/2013 Topic: What are you reading? ziphius	Thanks for the tip on the Foxfire series DRT. I finished this book awhile ago, but thought it might interest folks who are into desert archaeology: edited by ziphius on 6/4/2013
6/12/2013 Topic: ABDSP forum rally ziphius	I'm in! We should replicate Daren's Santa Rosa Mountains ridge hike....
6/12/2013 Topic: The Desert Magazine ziphius	Nolan (anutami) wrote: That is great! Thanks for sharing Love this part "A desert historian once suggested there is a running debate among desert aficionados about whether the desert attracts eccentrics or whether there is some mystical quality that turns normal people into odd- balls once they get there. Perhaps the truth is some- where between the two and always will be some- where between them." Great quote.
6/14/2013 Topic: The Desert Magazine ziphius	Bill Haneline wrote: One of my favorite things to do is go is to go into our nice cool Borrego Springs library and sit down with the old Desert Magazines! That must be kind of a surreal experience, reading about the desert, while in the middle of the desert, in air-conditioning!
6/18/2013 Topic: Anza Borrego Misc Summer Backpack Trip ziphius	Great shots Daren, glad you are using the big camera again. I guess it was cool enough for long denim pants at some point, heh? Looks like we might have some starting material for a "Men of Anza Borrego" calendar, Mr. June.
6/18/2013 Topic: 3D Panoramic Virtual Tours ziphius	They work great, love 'em.
6/18/2013 Topic: Anza Borrego Misc Summer Backpack Trip ziphius	dsefcik wrote: Jim (ziphius) wrote: Great shots Daren, glad you are using the big camera again. I guess it was cool enough for long denim pants at some point, heh? Yeah, the S100 just wasn't doing it for me so I got more camera crap to carry... It was 104 on my truck thermometer when I started up into the hills, and that was at 5pm. It is just too brushy out there for for shorts, the desert bites back. Yes, but.... denim? I realize you are immune to heat though. Get yourself a pair of bomb-proof nylon pants (they won't rip). I bash right through catclaw with them. Try these: Extreme Adventure Pants by Railrider edited by ziphius on 6/18/2013
6/26/2013 Topic: The Biggest Load of Bullshit I ever Heard ziphius	Ah...that must be part of the reason that Sempra Energy stock was up 2.5% today. Just another example of a corporation taking wealth from the masses and concentrating it among the few. Sempra has raised its dividend payments to shareholders an average of 10% a year over the past 10 years. Want to get some of your utility bill money back? Buy shares of Sempra and be one of the insiders. We knew that we would foot the bill for San Onofre... I just didn't think it would be this soon. edited by ziphius on 6/26/2013
7/12/2013 Topic: Bighorn Sheep Count 2013 ziphius	I see Scorpius at the lower right. Some skinny animals there man.... I wonder if the aggression of the rams around water holes occurs no matter what the water situation, or if it is especially heightened during these times of low water availability. Nice videos, but boy, they really give some insight to the desperation of the animals. What were the counts like at your site Daren?
7/17/2013 Topic: Bees. Lots of Them! ziphius	Yep, with the decline of honeybees worldwide, the human species could be in big trouble: Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon No bees, no pollination of crops! Hey DesertWRX, good to know someone is spending time out there this summer.
7/22/2013 Topic: Desert Rain ziphius	I kept looking wistfully to the east yesterday, hoping that the desert was getting some rain and wishing I was there.... A check of the rain gauge data for the past 24-hr period indicates both Borrego Springs (1.68 inches) and Canebrake (1.71) got a lot of rainfall: 24-hr rainfall totals I hope some of the sheep watering holes got filled up. Any reports from 'boots on the ground' out there?
7/23/2013 Topic: Desert Rain ziphius	Nice to see all that water @ Fish Creek! Looks like Borrego Palm Canyon got over 2 inches in the last 3 days, the area up near Warner Springs and Coyote Creek got quite a bit too. Riverside County got hit yesterday. I found a better link to rainfall totals for the San Diego County region: National Weather Service Link edited by ziphius on 7/24/2013
7/24/2013 Topic: Desert Rain ziphius	dsefcik wrote: Jim (ziphius) wrote: Nice to see all that water @ Fish Creek! Looks like Borrego Palm Canyon got over 2 inches in the last 3 days, the area up near Warner Springs and Coyote Creek got quite a bit too. Riverside County got hit yesterday. I found a better link to rainfall totals for the San Diego County region: National Weather Service Link The link did not work... I think I fixed it: National Weather Service Link Nice photos from Daily Borregan, kids having fun playing in the water midsummer..... edited by ziphius on 7/24/2013
7/30/2013 Topic: Desert Rain ziphius	In that southern UT video, I found myself wondering how many rattlesnakes must have been moved many miles in the debris flow. Rattlers sometimes show up on southern CA beaches after heavy winter rains, washed downstream. Sometimes there are a lot of them: Surfing snakes hit the beach
7/31/2013 Topic: Desert Rain ziphius	dsefcik wrote: Is this just a phenomena of man induced landscape changes or is it something that has been happening forever? Jim (ziphius) wrote: Rattlers sometimes show up on southern CA beaches after heavy winter rains, washed downstream. Sometimes there are a lot of them: Surfing snakes hit the beach I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing this is a natural phenomenon. Especially during El Nino type rains, when erosion can be so heavy upstream that snakes (and other critters) get washed out of their hiding places.
8/5/2013 Topic: Desert Rain ziphius	Not Anza Borrego, but a really cool AZ flash flood in a slot canyon. The 1:20 video mark is especially awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_VD5GxluHN8 edited by ziphius on 8/5/2013
8/12/2013 Topic: John Muir Trail - definitely NOT related to AB ziphius	That looks like a great trip David. Nice to spend that much time in the outdoors. How much weight did you lose? My colleague did the trail last summer and came back pretty skinny! I've heard those marmots will chew on hoses on cars at some trailheads, some folks wrap their cars in tarps in an attempt to thwart the critters. Yeah, I'd be curious to hear about your trip logistics, pack weights, etc. Congrats. - Jim
8/19/2013 Topic: Oldest North America rock art site identified ziphius	http://www.livescience.com/38865-oldest-petroglyphs-rock-art.html
8/22/2013 Topic: Oldest North America rock art site identified ziphius	Slightly related, a 'new' photographic tool to create gigapixel images, applied to a petroglyph site in Texas. Based on stitching together high-resolution images, used by Mars Rover. The resolution is absolutely scary! Zoom in and find the petroglyphs, approximately just north and west of of the center of the area, in the 'warmest brown' region. Extensive number of glyphs! You can also zoom in on the scale / legend in the lower right corner to see how they obtained the imagery from the ground: http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/136529
8/23/2013 Topic: Bighorn Sheep Count 2013 ziphius	Thanks for posting that rainfall map Tommy. It sure was fun watching the lightning last night. May all your tinajas be full of water Daren....
8/26/2013 Topic: Flash Flood Chasing ziphius	Great trip Tommy and I loved the video! Next time, bring one of those plastic toy army men with you and prop it up in your field of view for some scale perspective! What a flood!
8/27/2013 Topic: Flash Flood Chasing ziphius	Almost forgot..... nice sidewinder! I haven't seen one yet!
9/3/2013 Topic: How many straws are drinking from the Colorado? ziphius	The disappearing Colorado River, featured at the Banff Mountain Film Festival. The Colorado stopped flowing into the Gulf of California in 1998, after flowing to the sea for 6 million years. 12 minutes. The Colorado River: Running Near Empty edited by ziphius on 9/3/2013
9/12/2013 Topic: Eagle mortality and wind farms ziphius	Article about wind farm eagle mortality levels from US Fish and Wildlife researchers. Some of the comments following the article are also worthwhile reading. edited by ziphius on 9/16/2013
9/16/2013 Topic: Quick Trip to Borrego Springs - 9/14-15/2013 ziphius	Wow, that is green! Glad you got out there.... it's been TOO long since I've been out there. Hey, something caught my eye in one of your photos, circled below. Sheep? edited by ziphius on 9/16/2013 edited by ziphius on 9/16/2013
9/18/2013 Topic: Golden Trout Wilderness ziphius	Looks like a great trip Daren! I like the boar. What kind (if any) of moisture barrier do you have between the ground and your sleeping bag? - Jim
9/20/2013 Topic: Forum Member Nolan in Truck Camper Magazine ziphius	In all of Nolan's posts, his kids look like they are having SOOOO much fun! Nice article.
9/23/2013 Topic: Broke Down in Anza Borrego: Sept. 21st, 2013 ziphius	Nice tour Wrangler. Good thing you had extra fuses on the trip!
9/30/2013 Topic: Upper Fish Creek ziphius	Very nice Tom! Those are California Patch butterflies! Quite the mysterious aggregation on that one rock. I forget what the caterpillar is... my girlfriend and I saw many of them in the Oriflamme Canyon area last week. Apparently, the natives ate 'em. edited by ziphius on 9/30/2013
9/30/2013 Topic: First trip of the season ziphius	Nice that you guys saw some deer out there! Let the desert season begin!
10/1/2013 Topic: Upper Fish Creek ziphius	tommy750 wrote: Jim (ziphius) wrote: Very nice Tom! Those are California Patch butterflies! Quite the mysterious aggregation on that one rock. I forget what the caterpillar is... my girlfriend and I saw many of them in the Oriflamme Canyon area last week. Apparently, the natives ate 'em. edited by ziphius on 9/30/2013 Found it, the White Lined Sphinx Moth caterpillar. Internet is amazing. Would assume eating those is an acquired taste. Thanks for the butterfly ID. Agree, seemed weird seeing all of them on that rock. Maybe someone dumped out their coke or beer there Tom Maybe an animal took a pee on that rock and initiated a butterfly party. Looks like some tracks right near the rock...
10/8/2013 Topic: Let the season begin ziphius	Finally got out to the desert for a couple of one-nighters. First trip was a nice night hike up into Oriflamme, where my girlfriend had hiked into earlier in the day after a meet-up hike near Granite Mtn. I managed to find her in the dark, a couple of hundred yards away from where I thought she might set camp. Woke her up too! I'd had stuff to do during the day, so couldn't get out there until around nightfall. I got a late afternoon one-word text message that simply said "Oriflamme" and was on my way. I started out in the dark, but the moon came up about 45 minutes into the hike. Still, there was enough starlight to walk the road out towards the cottonwoods. Next morning, we worked our way up Oriflamme for some distance until it became too vegetation-choked to remain fun. We were looking for the waterfall that Schad mentions in his book, but didn't get to it, figured we needed to go another 1/2 mile. Morning sunrise and light: [ Cottonwood: Scary beasts: Fun in the sun: Also camped one night in Blair Valley and walked out to the pictographs. Hundreds of thousands of California patch butterflies were everywhere in Blair Valley, amazingly, I managed to not take a photo of any! But I photographed this little grayish/green guy: Looking forward to getting out there for a longer trip soon! edited by ziphius on 10/8/2013
10/8/2013 Topic: Let the season begin ziphius	Nolan (anutami) wrote: Nice!! Any water in oriflamme? Nolan, no water in Oriflamme, even in areas where we had encountered running water last December. I'd figured that the summer monsoon in the mountains and desert would have left some water at least. But maybe we just didn't get far enough upstream to find the water this time. Last time I was in Oriflamme, there wasn't any surface water near the cottonwood grove, but when we traveled another few hundred yards upstream, it appeared.
10/10/2013 Topic: Blair Valley & Cool Canyon ziphius	Very nice trip! Thanks for posting. Those caterpillars are everywhere right now, Blair Valley, Oriflamme, Cool Cyn.... my girlfriend researched them and found out they belong to the white-lined sphinx moth. Apparently, the natives would harvest them in great masses for food. The thousands and thousands of butterflies that are out there right now are California Patch butterflies, they seem to be crawling over every fresh scat or moisture patch that you find out there right now. That wasp in your photo looks interesting... not sure what flavor that is.
10/12/2013 Topic: Davies Valley To BM Kirk ziphius	tommy750 wrote: Talked to a BP agent recently who said they found them abandoned. He wasn't sure if they were carrying people or drugs. I wondered if there had been a shoot out since they're riddled with bullet holes but he said BP used them for target practice. That movie is why I'm walking right past any dope or money lying out in the desert! Tom. Tommy, I'm pretty sure it is ok to pick up a bag full of drug money as long as you remove the tracking device before taking it home! Very nice trip and photos, thanks for posting! - Jim
10/15/2013 Topic: Indian Hill Trip 10/5/2013 ziphius	Looks like good stitching software... nice trip. Too bad there wasn't any water at that tank, heh? I've never been to the tank area, where is it relative to the pictographs?
10/15/2013 Topic: June Wash, Indian Gorge and Blair Valley ziphius	Looks like a great trip! I've never seen that yellow butterfly / moth before. Yep, barefoot and granite definitely are a good combination!
10/17/2013 Topic: Ultralight at Fonts Point ziphius	tommy750 wrote: Seems like ABDSP is attracting some international visitors this time of year: http://www.ivpressonline.com/news/local/quicknews/authorities-seize-ultra-light-pounds-of-marijuana/article_373114ec-35fe-11e3-91c0-001a4bcf6878.html Here's another ultralight crash near Niland from earlier this summer: http://www.ivpressonline.com/news/local/valley-police-beat-agents-seize-small-aircraft-k-in-drugs/article_05028df8-1078-11e3-a9a9-0019bb30f31a.html Sounds like they just need to lighten their loads a little bit, maybe just try to carry 40 lbs of weed next time. Seriously though, I saw an ultralight aircraft near the Otay border months ago and suspected it wasn't a hobbyist out for a Sunday flight. Ultralights have become a serious problem in the drug smuggling arena. Smuggling is occurring in the most remote areas, even the far offshore Channel Islands, such as San Nicolas Island, which is entirely operated / owned by the Navy: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/mar/02/panga-found-on-san-nicolas-island-3-arrested/
10/21/2013 Topic: Coyote Mts Sheep ziphius	Nice sighting Tom! Interesting status review too, with the new year-round presence in the Coyote Mountains. Maybe the sheep know about some undocumented water source in that region, heh? So, were you literally hiking in Fossil Canyon when you saw them? (judging from the name of your 2nd photo)
10/21/2013 Topic: Green Desert ziphius	Gorgeous!
10/25/2013 Topic: San Felipe Wash to Old Kane Springs Road ziphius	"Continuing on our way, we suddenly came upon a water hole around a bend in the wash. I jokingly mentioned over the radio that someone should drive through it, but didn't think anyone actually would." edited by ziphius on 10/25/2013
10/30/2013 Topic: Pinyon Wash / Split Rock / Harper Flat ziphius	I see those 'California Patch' butterflies are still converging on scats as they were weeks ago when I saw thousands of them during the course of the day. We thought they might be attracted to the moisture in the scats, but after a short hiking break, we had another theory. One of our party had hiking poles with cork handles. When she put down the hiking poles, the butterflies converged on the handles in masses, similar to the scat behavior. The cork handles were not wet, so we were thinking maybe it was salt from her sweat they were after.
11/5/2013 Topic: Coffee disaster averted ziphius	Awesome Bob! You gonna put that can on your product review blog? - Jim
11/5/2013 Topic: Harper Flat via Pinyon Wash ziphius	Great photos and trip Nolan, looks so wide open out there! That butterfly (which I just learned a couple of weeks ago) is a Queen milkweed butterfly (Danaus gilippus), related to the Monarch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(butterfly) Bob, I haven't worked up the courage to pick up a tarantula yet.
11/5/2013 Topic: Pinyon Wash to Split Mountain ziphius	Great trip Bob! Did you have an extra hose to replace the blown one out there? I like that campfire setup.
11/6/2013 Topic: Little Blair to Alma Wash Backpack Trip ziphius	Looks like a great piece of country Daren. Glad you got to have your son with you. Congrats on finding another radiosonde, another field trip to the National Weather Service office, heh? That bighorn ram carcass is very cool. What general area was that in? Did you visit / photograph any petroglyphs? - Jim
11/6/2013 Topic: Little Blair to Alma Wash Backpack Trip ziphius	dsefcik wrote: Jim (ziphius) wrote: Congrats on finding another radiosonde, another field trip to the National Weather Service office, heh? That bighorn ram carcass is very cool. What general area was that in? Did you visit / photograph any petroglyphs? - Jim Yeah, I will be dropping it off at the RB office next time I head north. If you look closely at the ram photo you will see hooves sticking up out of the sand, there was a second bhs buried, mountain lion cache. We followed nice big fresh kitty prints for about a mile in the wash and then we found the ram, we didn't stay around tto long. No petroglyphs. Ok, I think I've counted 4 sets of hooves on the main animal, is the extra hoof above and to the right of the animals right horn? That's a beautiful carcass. edited by ziphius on 11/6/2013
11/7/2013 Topic: Little Blair to Alma Wash Backpack Trip ziphius	Pretty easy to see the 2nd carcass now! Lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky bast*rd!! Most mountain lion researchers have to examine an abundance of radio signals from collared cats to find out where the mountain lion is caching its food. Then...they have to crawl on hands and knees through thick brush to actually get to the cache. This is one of the coolest things that you could ever hope to find in AB.
11/12/2013 Topic: Big Spring and Galleta Meadows ziphius	Took my daughter for a short-hike and tourist adventure to Borrego Springs. One place I had never visited was Big Spring. Before heading out, we spoke with someone at the Visitor Center who said the whole area had burned this summer, exposing the bones of sheep and other animals around the immediate area of the spring. We were told that a lot of bones were taken by souvenir hunters, which deprives folks who come along later the experience of seeing things as they naturally occur. The view down to Big Spring: A few bones remained, though none of the skulls that apparently were there after the fires: There were a few cat tracks too. Classic, three-lobed heel pad, large 3.5 inch diameter beauties. My daughter asked why we were following the mountain lion tracks. I said we were going that way anyway. The general scene: Lots of flowing water and a giant water bug, of the family Belostomidae. I remembered that they have an extremely painful bite (not from personal experience), so didn't attempt to handle it! Got some video of this guy, hope the link works: Some apricot mallow and other plants: A few shallow morteros were exposed by the fire, apparently covered by sugarbush previously: There must be a lot of calcium carbonate in this water, because we came upon a lot of calcified plant roots and concretions of calcium along the stream: Here, you can actually see a plant root entombed by calcium: Looks like a combination of fire and flood took this fan palm downstream: My daughter trying to break up a fight: Dad's turn for a silly photo. Maybe a new avatar photo: Bird nest in the Galleta Meadows area: Be different: Mud tracks: More statues, we visited most of them I think... nice relaxing trip and best part....my daughter wants to go back...! edited by ziphius on 11/12/2013
11/20/2013 Topic: South Carrizo Creek to the Arroyo Tapiado Mud Caves ziphius	Welcome to the forum! You will find a lot of good desert information here. Sounds like you had a blast. Looking forward to your future posts. - Jim
12/1/2013 Topic: Inner Pasture - Searching for the spring ziphius	I like the old-school photos Daren. Great color on the tarantula. No idea on the insects, I think you've documented a species heretofore unknown to science. I once searched an area to the left (east) of your first photo and found wet ground, with sugarbush, catclaw and a willow growing, not at the exact spot that the topo shows a spring, but wetter than the topo spot. I got the impression that if I had got down on hands and knees and got myself deep into the catclaw, that perhaps I could have found some minor amount of seepage. I'm sure you saw this spot too, roughly where the 'g' in 'Spring' appears on the topo. That was during a February trip when I went up Red Top and found some running water about half way up the drainage leading to the base of Red Top. edited by ziphius on 12/1/2013
12/1/2013 Topic: Orocopia Mountains ziphius	Boy, that looks like a great area to explore! I like the tracks in the mud, wonder how many sheep are out in that area? Too bad the Chocolate Mtns. are off-limits, they will never get all the ordnance out of that area.... closed forever. edited by ziphius on 12/3/2013
12/1/2013 Topic: Sunset Mountain / Pinyon Wash / Harper Flat ziphius	Alex and I backpacked into the Sunset Mountain area for a one-nighter and also introduced my buddy Ramsey to camping. Ramsey has hiked everywhere, but had never tent-camped before. (Alex here: Jim suggested a collaborative post, which I suspect is his way of coaxing me to finally join the forum. I’ve certainly been enjoying your trips reports from the sidelines!) Due to post-flood conditions, we had to leave the Rubiconda at the highway and hike in from there. That soon worked to our advantage. We followed the hillside instead of the road, and, not too far into Pinyon Wash, we came across a bunch of tracks, like a railroad crossing in the sand. We were looking down at the tracks when I happened to glance uphill to the south and saw a bunch of sheep, including one large ram. Thirteen sheep, just staring at us. We stared back and didn’t grab our cameras until we had soaked in the great views and by that time, the sheep had become concerned about our loitering and we got some photos of sheep butts. After setting up our camp in a tributary canyon to Pinyon Wash, we hiked to a spot Alex had found part way up Sunset Mountain the week before. She wanted to bring me back to check out what she had found: Alex did a broader sweep of the area to find legs, which were missing from the main carcass, while I continued to photograph. She found a leg bone about 20 yards away… Ramsey had stayed behind in camp during this time, doing a good job of guarding everybody’s stuff (he wasn't allowed to come along on the ram carcass visit). Our trip coincided with the full moon, rising just after sunset in a notch to our east and setting just before sunrise down the drainage from our camp. We had a great view of the moon setting when we woke up: It looked even better in D-Stretch: After breakfast, we decided to check out another spot Alex had found the week before, a wildlife guzzler, complete with catchment basin and wildlife camera: We were careful to creep up there slowly, not wanting to spook any sheep that might be around....none sighted. We had a nice view up-drainage from our camp from the guzzler, where we had walked under the full moon the night before. We walked further in that direction later in the morning for a loop hike out to Harper Flat and back down Pinyon Wash. We found some really cool pottery fragments along the loop hike. Alex almost stepped on a horned lizard – our other main wildlife sighting besides the usual jackrabbits. See it? On the hike back to the car, the afternoon sun brought out in sharp relief the recently etched flood channels and post-rain flowers: My favorite moment of the trip, besides the sheep (both alive and dead), was at the very end. It was a moment that Alex had to tell me about though, because I didn’t fully experience it. We arrived at the car at the end of the day Sunday, parked just off 78. A steady stream of off-roaders was zipping by on their way home, big trucks with dirt bike trailers. I was standing at the car, next to the packs, while Alex was off looking for enough privacy to wee. A big truck with ORVs came zipping by and somebody yelled something at us from the cab. I could tell it wasn’t meant as a compliment, but didn’t catch the words. Alex walked up, annoyed but laughing: she had heard them yell TREEEEEHUUUGGGGERS! I couldn’t stop laughing. They definitely figured us out! edited by ziphius on 12/1/2013
12/2/2013 Topic: Sunset Mountain / Pinyon Wash / Harper Flat ziphius	Bob, Smallest horned lizard I'd ever seen, Alex had keen eyes to spot that thing, as we were in full stride on the way back to camp. I like the color variation in the two that you posted here. Yeah, the horns on that ram were amazing. I was fortunate enough to see some ram horns up close at that carcass too and lift them up to feel their weight. Just the outer sheaths that had come away from the skull were amazingly heavy. - Jim surfponto wrote: Looks like an awesome trip Great you got to see the Bighorns out there. The one male in the lead has some crazy horns. The Horned Lizard is great.. I think I have only seen two of those in all our trips out. edited by surfponto on 12/2/2013
12/4/2013 Topic: Sunset Mountain / Pinyon Wash / Harper Flat ziphius	Nolan (anutami) wrote: Awesome trip! did you complete the entire loop around Harper flat? I have yet to be called a tree hugger, but look forward to the day We barely touched the surface of Harper Flat, just doing a short loop at the northern end of the flat and exiting back into Pinyon Wash. Definitely a place I want to poke around some more! edited by ziphius on 12/4/2013
12/4/2013 Topic: Mese Verde National Park ziphius	Wow, what a trip. Great time of year to visit too! Looks like maybe you got some pizza at Escalante Outfitters when you were snowed in? Alex and I did a great backpack through Death Hollow a couple of years ago: edited by ziphius on 12/4/2013 edited by ziphius on 12/4/2013
12/7/2013 Topic: Hunting in the In-Ko-Pah Mountains ziphius	Some of those are just impossible to see without the filters. Would all of those pictos reveal themselves with the standard D-Stretch software 'cycle,' or did you really have to custom-tweak some of the settings?
12/9/2013 Topic: Goat Canyon Trestle Hike, November 2013 ziphius	Great trip and some nice tough terrain. Some water in the morteros too! Hiking up Mortero Palms Canyon to the overlook at Goat Canyon earlier this year makes we want to bring the big pack up there and camp somewhere near Jacumba Peak.
12/15/2013 Topic: NOAA Radiosonde Found ziphius	Cool one Tommy, another victory for Science!
12/16/2013 Topic: NOAA Radiosonde Found ziphius	Tommy, I just noticed the fancy Oris watch in your photo! Care to provide a review?
12/16/2013 Topic: Found Camper Part in Sheep Canyon ziphius	Yikes! Glad everyone is ok!
12/16/2013 Topic: N/E ABDSP ziphius	The 'could it be?' photo looks vaguely like an extinct volcano. ?? Awesome country out there, amazing piece of pottery you found too. I wonder if the myriad of sleeping circles are visible on Google Earth.
12/19/2013 Topic: The Mud Palisades & Anicent Forest of Fish Creek ziphius	Wow, I didn't realize there was THAT much petrified wood out there. Great grinding stone too. The mud palisades look awesome. Yep, that will be a memorable trip for you guys. About how heavy was that piece of petrified wood? Great shot of the young Olympians running up Fish Creek.
12/24/2013 Topic: Carrizo Mountain & Indian Hill: Dec. 13-15th, 2013 ziphius	Nice trip Wrangler. I once poked around the southern part of the Coyote Mountains in mid-summer after a flash flood, looking for fossils in the deep shade of the canyons. Not too bad if you stay in the shade! Have you seen any bighorn in that range in your trips out there? [ I see from your blog that you've encountered bighorn tracks. ] edited by ziphius on 12/24/2013
12/24/2013 Topic: A priceless desert find by a kid ziphius	Very cool story, great thread. Makes the prospect of desert exploring and discovery come alive. It's the finding, not the keeping of things that provides the best memories. If I ever find something like that, I'd keep its location a secret, even from the authorities: "National Park Service archaeologists removed the pots and transported them to the Western Archaeological and Conservation Center in Tucson, which is administered by the National Park Service." Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/07/25/20120725border-patrols-ancient-pottery.html
12/24/2013 Topic: Best Mylar Ballon Trip ziphius	My best mylar yet. Near Big Spring. Happy Holidays everyone. edited by ziphius on 12/24/2013
12/24/2013 Topic: Christmas Wishes ziphius	Love it....er.....hate it. Happy Holidays! edited by ziphius on 12/24/2013
12/30/2013 Topic: N/E ABDSP Part II ziphius	Pretty cool stuff rockhopper, it must be fun to get onto one of those trails and just follow it for however long you can. So... what is the mystery spot if it isn't a meteor crater? I looked at the same spot on the 7.5 topo maps and it looks like a big ice cream scoop of a hole. Also found a few extremely straight trails out that way through the varnish, great way to scout for interesting trails. Any chance of a zoomed in photo of the closed area map? edited by ziphius on 12/30/2013
12/30/2013 Topic: Lost & Found Memory Card ziphius	No expectation of privacy....even in the desert!
12/30/2013 Topic: What are you reading? ziphius	Charles Bowden: "The desert fires my appetite for life and here I know this fact: the desert is where I want to die, where I do not fear death, do not even consider it. Here death is like breathing. Here death simply is." Blue Desert and Desierto edited by ziphius on 12/30/2013
1/3/2014 Topic: Indian Hill 11/30 ziphius	Great trip and photos. Carne asada and a dog really top it off! I just bought a NEX-6 and downloaded the time-lapse application for it. A lot of fun. Congrats on finding the blue sun cave.
1/4/2014 Topic: Calcite Mine ziphius	Nice trip, nice photos. Wish I had more time to be out there right now.
1/17/2014 Topic: Hot Springs, Mud Volcanoes and ABDSP week 2 Jan. ziphius	Nice post rockhopper. I didn't know about the hot springs out there, very cool. I still want to do a trip to Obsidian Butte.
1/20/2014 Topic: Mine Wash Trail Cam ziphius	Nice coyote specimen! Alex once woke up with one staring at her from close range (no tent).
1/23/2014 Topic: Illegal camping ziphius	Attaboy!
1/29/2014 Topic: Egg Mountain: Island in the sky Paradise ziphius	Good to see you 'back in the saddle' with the temporary camper. Nice metate! I had to look up Egg Mtn. on caltopo.com, I'd heard of it before, but never knew where it was. Hey, anybody know if the road up into Bow Willow is 2 wheel drive friendly? PS - Welcome aboard Florian. edited by ziphius on 1/29/2014
1/29/2014 Topic: Fish Creek New Years 2013 ziphius	I like the perspective you got on the flower photo. Looks like a nice, peaceful trip.
2/8/2014 Topic: West Mesa ziphius	Nice tour Tom. Is that memorial something you just happened to stumble upon, or is there some history that led you to search for it?
2/11/2014 Topic: Night timelapse from the last few weeks ziphius	Excellent Dan. Welcome aboard. Looks like you've got the software ability to add in panning during post-processing. What's the camera set-up? I'm starting to use my NEX-6 for time lapse ... need to get out to the desert ASAP! - Jim
2/11/2014 Topic: Night timelapse from the last few weeks ziphius	danwatt wrote: No software used for panning at all, just editing. All movement was done on sliders and mounts that I've built. Old-school. Even more impressive.

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