The following day plus, involved working our way up toward the rim, but not so focused on task to miss several mini-slot opportunities. After ascending and descending a lovely non tech canyon, we found a camp for the night. Rich knew where water was. Over an hour later he came back, having climbed way up a slot to get the precious liquid. While he worked, I moved 20 feet at a time, following and soaking in the afternoon sun. Spring had very much arrived way down in the ditch and after a long winter, I was grateful. One redbud tree had hundreds of honey bees working it. I mean it was LOUD! Twas unnerving approaching it, yet the bees were quite focused on the lavender flowers.
A pleasant eve huddled about, in conversation, was followed by sleep. For the 3rd day in a row, Jenny brought a birthday celebration to Rick Demerest. One day it was party hats, then mocca mousse and this day? A Mylar balloon. Did she really carry an inflated balloon all the way through our adventure? No, but she did FIND one in the canyon and it was for a birthday, no less. Some people just have the touch. And it wasn’t even Rick’s birthday yet. That would be 4 days after the trip was over. I am humbled by what he is able to do. Such rugged passage with such huge pack, on the cusp of 70.
The next day, we headed up another faulted canyon. Two separate Redwall sections? The rock is blue toned and we are delighted. Following a theme we named it Toofer, as in “Two for one.” We ate lunch after heading cross country toward another short canyon
To be continued
Pictures
What is this called?
The man, the myth
Go girl!
Leader of the pack
Dance steps
More dancing
In Toofer
Colorful
masterful
Falcon?
Happy Birthday man
Slideshow
Impossible to find the RSS link
Bootboy
Fouquieria splendens
It’s called ocotillo cactus or ocotillo bush.
It also has many colloquial names