Afternoon Along The Route

Wonderful walk along The Route.  Dillied and dallied picking up sticks and stones, eating my lunch along FR2998, investigating strange construction occurring in woods, collecting pine  cones - Ponderosa and Douglas fir.  All the intense colors of autumn are gone now and the landscape is in its arid winter mode. Yet and still, I'm always struck by the color and texture of the grass in the golden afternoon sunlight - and even by the long shadow of a rock cairn.  How to explain how I felt this afternoon - at peace.

Armstead Spring: Ice Maker

This is looking down into Water Canyon from FR181/American Spring Road, where the road and canyon meet. Armstead Spring issues, day and night, never-ending, out of a rusted iron pipe with its valve box handle permanently open. An ice accumulation is forming from the steady dribble of Armstead Spring.

Cloud Pregnant With Possibilities

Walked up Zero Road East on Pajarito Mountain today. This dark cloud confronted me at the back of the mountain.  Saw a hiker I knew and asked "What's that cloud thinking?" She didn't buy into the possibility that the cloud had anything in mind but I'm positive that cloud was thinking SNOW!!  It was cold enough.  I felt vindicated when on the way back down the mountain, I saw a few snowdrops!  Hey - it's a start!!

Townsight and Lone Spruce lifts finally have their chairs back in place from when the lifts were damaged by the June 2011 Las Conchas wildfire.  Pajarito Mountain Ski Area worked long and hard to make that happen!

Aspens Along the Camp May Road Trail

I check out the fall color every year on these young aspens along the Camp May Road Trail.

First, I took their portraits from the east.

Then, I went to the west to photograph them and along came a jogger so I snapped her photo.

Carotenoid and Anthocyanin Rich Aspen

This flaming tree was seen from the Cerro Grande Route on a group hike last Wednesday.  In autumn, there is always speculation by hikers about why some aspen leaves turn red.  The red leaves are eye-catching and out of the ordinary from the usual yellow and orange.

Here's a brief layman's explanation as garnered from this and this websites:  The yellow and orange are there year around in the aspen leaves but are masked by the green chlorophyll formed during photosynthesis.  In the fall, the aspen stops photosynthesis by building a "corky" layer between the leaf stem and branch.  The green color now disappears and then the yellow and orange that was there all along is visible.  These colors are from carotenoids like carotene and xanthophyll, as found in carrots and yellow peppers.

Ah, but why the red aspen leaves? The red is from anthocyanin, like in Red Delicious apple skin.  The anthocyanin is not in the aspen leaves year around.  My understanding of this is on a simple level.  I'm sure it's more complex: When the "corky" layer forms between the leaf stem and branch and the aspen leaves are thus cut off from the water and nutrients of the tree, anthocyanin is made from the sugar now left in the leaves, turning the leaves a brilliant red.  Anthocyanin formation is enhanced by bright sunlight, dry days, cool but above freezing nights and also by the particular genetic makeup of the aspen clone.

OK - does this mean I can get my daily quota of carotenoids and anthocyanin by eating tasty, sugar-filled aspen leaves instead of carrots, yellow peppers and red apples?? Today, to find out, I tasted a tiny bit of red aspen leaf.  I immediately realized it was spit-it-out-right-away-bitter!  Any sugar trapped in the leaves must be infinitesimal.  I suspected this but had to be sure!! (To be honest, I'd once tasted aspen bark to see why elk like to nibble it - it had the same ack-OMG-I'm-poisoned taste but with a nice finish of wintergreen after I spat it out!)

Bandelier Morning

I'd hoped to title this post "In the Time of Tarantulas", a really catchy title!  The title was inspired last week while walking in White Rock and seeing a lone tarantula cross the sidewalk.  This is the time of year that male tarantulas  "march", "looking for love"!

On today's group hike down the Frey Trail into Bandelier's Frijoles Canyon, I had such high hopes that I'd spot "marching" tarantulas on the mesa top.  Didn't see a one!  I did see a small herd of deer but just as soon as I got my camera out, all five demurely hid behind a bush!

Disappointed, I resorted to what I usually photograph - inanimate objects!

Morning light on ponderosa bark in Frijoles Canyon.  The tree was all but begging me to photograph it and I did, taking 4 photos, but this was the only one that showed the bark detail in the highlighted area.















Handrail shadows on steps to Long House.  Took 4 photos of this too.  The shadows almost look like a pueblo pottery design.

Elfin Fall Colors on Pajarito Mountain

Trail Master of the Blue Dot

On Friday, started down the Blue Dot Trail, late afternoon.  Was dubious - looked like there'd be a thunderstorm.  Imagined myself, alone, tripping on rain-slick basalt, bones broken, spending the night, fighting off coyotes and mountain lions.  Even dry, the tread surface is unforgiving - full of loose stones that act like roller bearings.

Despite melodramatic misgivings, I made it safely to the bottom of the Blue Dot, and then walked north to a little beach along the Rio Grande.

On the way back, I came around a rock and saw a rattlesnake laying across the trail.  It was really quite beautiful with it's cream and brown coloration.  Less appealing was how, instead of slithering off like a good snake, it coiled by the side of the trail and incessantly rattled, daring me to pass. OK, now what if was toting a gun?  Seems to me the best survival tactic would be for the rattlesnake to have gotten out of Dodge as fast as it could!  

Most of the rock in White Rock Canyon is basalt but this looks like tuff.

Small bosque

 Western diamondback rattlesnake rattling along the Rio!

Buckman Mesa from Blue Dot

Fall Colors

Walked along FR181/American Spring Road today.  As I neared my car, I was struck by the bright color of these apples that someone dumped at the side of the road.

On the theme of fall colors, here's some that aren't.  I took this photo in June at a meadow along FR181/American Spring Road.  At first I thought it was a firefighter's boot tossed into the tree.  When I got closer, I saw that someone had thrown a piece of ugly, orange metal into the tree to use for target practice.  That's a mean thing to do to pretty aspen!!  Today, I thought I'd try to knock the trash down (without killing myself).  First, I found on the ground some long branches and then tried, several times, to push the metal out of the tree but it's hooked so securely over a branch that I couldn't do it.

Rattlesnake Tails

Er...rattlesnake tales that people told me:

Someone's great-great grandmother died of a rattlesnake bite early in the last century. She wore tall boots that she kept outdoors.  One day when she was putting on her boots, she got bit by a baby rattller hiding inside.  She died of gangrene.

This one may be apocryphal:  On a ranch in Texas, post holes were dug to put up a fence but the project was delayed and the holes filled up with wind blown debris.  Much later, a cowboy was clearing the holes and got bit on the thumb tip by a rattlesnake.  He promptly cut his snakebitten thumb tip off with an ax.  (My remark was "Now why didn't I think of that??")  Moral is:  always carry an ax in rattlesnake country.

Man saw a large rattlesnake that had been run over - it even had tire marks on its back but was still alive.  He picked the snake up from behind its head, planning to swiftly move it off the road but the snake somehow twisted around and bit him on the finger.

Woman saw on the floor what she thought was a toy.  She picked it up but it turned out to be a rattlesnake that bit her.

Several near misses when hikers were "visiting a bush", preparing to "drop their drawers", then heard the rattler's warning and saw it coiled, uncomfortably close, in a striking position.

Another Texas rattlesnake story:  After a large rattler was killed by chopping off its head, a man picked up the head and the rattlesnake promptly sank its fangs into his finger. Dead men may tell no tales but dead rattlesnakes can still bite you bad!

Family walked back to their campsite in the dark.  Women stepped over what looked like a log but, instead, was a huge rattlesnake that bit her leg.  Her leg became enormously swollen.

Woman golfing at golf course got bit badly on leg by rattlesnake that popped out of one of the golf course holes.

Man was walking with his kids when they saw a rattlesnake.  He wanted to appear brave so he marched over to the rattler, to "deal with it".  As he neared and saw the coiled snake and heard the buzzing rattle, his heart began beating rapidly with fear.  He said "Let's go kids!" and they made a wise and speedy retreat!