First Hedgehog of the Year!

 I've been here since the end of July, and last week I finally saw my first hedgehog!  It was the middle of the day.  I was on the bike path by the river.  I heard a noise and there he was, just off the path, nosing around energetically in the fallen leaves and grasses.  I watched him for a long time, taking a bunch of photos.  He wasn't afraid of me.  I even touched him very gently and he didn't seem to mind one bit.  A few people came by and I'd point him out.  Some were like, "Nice," and watched for 10 seconds before continuing on.  Others were like, "I have hedgehogs in my garden" and didn't even slow down.  But I probably watched for 15 minutes.  

A very happy day.

When I told my students about it, most of them laughed at my enthusiasm and talked about how hedgehogs had fleas or how you see the pests everywhere.  One claimed that a hedgehog had attacked her chicken!

But I still think they're adorable.    

Kayaking on the Morava River

I'd been scheming to go boating on the gentle Morava river in the Czech Republic, but I wasn't sure if it was going to come together.  It did!

First step:  camp in Moravičany so I can get a nice early start.  Some views from near my campsite:

Second step:  Rent a kayak and gear (I rented from Tydra, but there are various companies)

Third step:  Paddle, drift, repeat.  Portage around the weirs.  Paddle, drift, repeat. For 28 river kilometers.  Enjoy the greenery and the wildlife (lots of good birds, some fish, a snake, two fighting hares, and some not-shy nutrias)

Fourth step:  Learn better kayak techniques.  I have more experience with canoes than kayaks, and very little river experience (mostly lakes--and seas), and I didn't have the BEST control of the kayak.  So I exerted more energy than was necessary.  Before my next Morava boating, I'm going to figure out better strategies...or maybe I'll convince a friend to go with me and rent a canoe instead.  :)    

Speckled Rattlesnakes

I've posted before about how cool speckled rattlesnakes are, and how the individual populations in the different mountain parks around Phoenix have evolved different colorations according the rocks where they live, the better to camouflage themselves.  Well, here's the first one I ever saw, at Skyline Park, where there are a lot of gray, cream, and light brown rocks:

  

Here's a (blurry) picture of one I just saw last weekend at Camelback Mountain, where the rocks are mostly red and brown:

Pretty amazing, huh?  

Butterfly in the Desert

 Today at Thunderbird Conservation Park:

Grouse?!? in Arizona

On the way up Humphreys Peak, near Flagstaff, Arizona, I came upon about five of these lovely birds.  Grouse?!?   I've never seen grouse in Arizona!  

After I got home, I looked it up.  I'm assuming these are dusky grouse, which my Dad has apparently seen in the wild in Arizona.  But it was a treat for me.  As I was alone on the trail, I got to watch them for a good ten minutes.  Not a bad way to spend your time.  

  

Chipmunk Thief

At the Flagstaff, Arizona Arboretum:  

Me:  Hey chipmunk, are you stealing from the poor little hummingbirds?

 

Hummingbird:  We're just sharing. It's all good.  

Bear on the Mogollon Rim

So, I was backpacking a couple of weeks ago off a forest road on the Mogollon Rim, northeast of Payson, Arizona.  I set up camp and then went on a "safari," walking slowly and quietly along the dirt road, hoping to see deer or elk.  I hadn't gone far when I saw an animal!  He was near the edge of the road, half hidden in the vegetation.  I was excited for a moment until I realized it was just someone's big black dog.  But there was no person there.  And when I got a better view...it was no dog!  And there's only one other big black thing it could be.  A bear!  A BEAR!  

Now, I realize that in some places bears are super common and sightings are hardly even exciting anymore.  But despite all my camping and hiking in Arizona, I have NEVER seen a bear in the wild here.  I was far enough away that I wasn't really scared, just excited and wary.  I stood and watched him fuss around near the edge of the road.  Then he walked into the road, stopped, looked at me, wandered a few more steps, stopped, looked at me, and then sauntered off.

I was amazed.  But also...I was not very far from my camp.  A third of a mile, in fact.  So, the ONE time I see a bear up here is also the ONE time I'm camping completely alone and the ONE time I'm camping without a bear box or a vehicle to put my food in. I had a ratsack with a heavy duty supposedly smell-proof plastic bag inside, and it was hanging from a tree, but not really high enough to be safe from bears.  My system was more concerned with rodents. 

So I double-checked that there was NOTHING smelly at all in my tent, and then I spent the rest of the evening and night perking up every time I heard a sound.  "Bear?  Bear?"  But no, it was all good.

And the peace and quiet was beautiful.

Because I was backpacking and wanted to lighten the load, the only camera I had with me was my terrible tablet camera, so...my only pictures look like sasquatch hoax photos.  But here they are:

  

     

      

Day 1: Backpacking in the Grand Canyon

Though I hike and camp a lot, I haven't backpacked since I was a kid, when my dad and/or brothers hauled the heaviest loads and planned and organized everything.  So I put a lot of thought and planning and anticipation into this trip.

I was a little worried that my high expectations would lead to disappointment.  But the experience far exceeded my expectations.  It was fantastic.  And I am absolutely doing it again.

Here's a little of Day 1 (on April 22, 2024).  Sorry for the picture quality of some of these.  I didn't take my good camera with me because it's big and heavy, and for my first time backpacking, I was trying to cut down weight where I could.

Sunrise on the South Kaibab from Ooh-Aah Point.  The sight was lovely, but it was a sad time too because I met a group of ten long-time friends who had coordinated their schedules, planned for fourteen months, and flown from Virginia...only to find that their reservations at Phantom Ranch had been cancelled due to a waterline break.  So sad.  They were making the most of it, doing day hikes, but I felt so bad for them...and I selfishly felt lucky that I was backpacking instead of staying in the lodge, because the campground was still open despite the problems with water (and I'd bought extra water-purification tablets two days before, when I heard that the water would be off, so I knew I'd be okay).   

Cedar Ridge:

Me approaching the river:

Setting up camp at beautiful Bright Angel Campground, right along the creek:

After dropping my heavy stuff in camp, I took a little pleasure hike up a couple of miles of the "Box," on the North Kaibab trail.  Very pretty, with high walls on both sides and the creek rushing down the middle.  I'd never been here before, because on my previous hikes from the rim to the river and back in one day, there was no time or energy for side trips.  

One the way back, I witnessed a little show-down between a rock squirrel and a rattlesnake.  More on that here:  https://www.melindabrasher.com/2024/04/grand-canyon-rattlesnake.html.  

By this time, it was getting pretty hot (95 degrees), so I spent the middle of the day chatting with neighbors and cooling off in Bright Angel Creek, maybe fifteen feet from my tent:

In the evening, I went to the boat beach, waded in the cold, cold Colorado, and made a little sand castle.

On the way back, I met this not-so-little guy:  

 

Everyone was so friendly in the campground.  It felt a lot like staying in a good hostel, where you meet new friends and do things together.  So much fun.  

My across-the-footpath neighbors were a mother and adult daughter who had never camped before last year, when they backpacked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Talk about bravely jumping right in!  They liked it so much they came back this year.  They told me the moon was amazing from my campsite, so I invited them to come over later for a moon-watching party.  They accepted, and we talked about books and compared notes on being newbie backpackers.  

Then there were the two men I'd met on the way down, who planned to dry-camp elsewhere, but were waiting in the shade of my down-stream neighbor's campsite until temperatures got bearable enough for the rest of the hike.  The three of them were apparently having such a good time chatting and getting to know each other that the two gave up on their plans and accepted my neighbor's invitation to share his campsite (approved by the ranger, of course).  I spent some time at their site, chatting with one of the men (who has climbed Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua and a lesser-known peak in the Himalayas) about his favorite trips ever:  a safari in Africa and a hiking trip to Banff.  Both of which are high on my list. 

I met a mother and father with an eleven-year-old daughter who was pumped to be here, and who was avidly doing the Junior Ranger program.

At moonrise I stood in the middle of the footpath and marveled over the spectacle with a man who had planned his whole trip around the full moon.  

But the most surprising encounter I had was when a young woman walked by who looked an awful lot like the AZ Trail thru hiker I'd met weeks earlier on the AZ trail near Colossal Cave.  We'd hiked together for about four miles, and I loved her "there's not just one right way to backpack" attitude, her cheerful willingness to answer my many questions, her casual bravery about thru-hiking alone, and her enthusiasm for some of the same things I'm enthusiastic about.  I'd joked then that maybe we'd meet at Grand Canyon, but she planned to be all the way to Utah long before now.  So it couldn't possibly be her, right?  I wandered down the campground, looking for her, and right near the end, out popped another thru-hiker I'd met the same day, back at Colossal Cave.  "I know you!" I said.  "From Colossal Cave. I asked you all sorts of questions."  "And your dad gave me oranges!" he said.  "Yes!"  Then I looked over and saw the young woman sitting at a table.  I addressed her by her trail name and recognition lit in her eyes too.  I couldn't believe it.  Both of these amazing thru hikers had planned by be through the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago.  Yet here they were.  For one night.  And here I was.  For one night.   And it was the SAME NIGHT.  The world is a small place.  Apparently they'd been delayed by major snow near Payson, which was the only reason we had this happy reunion.  We sat and talked for quite a while, and I met two of their other thru hiker friends.  They all inspire me to no end.

Something else amazing:  the almost-full moon.  It was so bright it felt like a floodlight.  My downstream neighbors, whose campsite was still in the moonshadow, asked if I had a flashlight shining on my tent.  I told them it was just the moon, and they almost didn't believe me.  Until it reached their own tents.  

When I went to bed, it was still so hot that I took off my rain fly (which, in hindsight, I never even should have brought in the first place), took off my socks, pushed my sleeping bag aside, and lay down on my air mattress in my shorts and bare feet.  I did pull my sleeping back partially over me like a blanket in the middle of the night, but I definitely didn't get inside.  

It was a wonderful, wonderful day.    

Grand Canyon Rattlesnake vs. Rock Squirrel

Here's a rock squirrel facing down a rattlesnake in Grand Canyon. The squirrel kept swishing his tail at that rattlesnake.

There's some evidence that they purposely heat up the base of their tails this way, to either make the heat-sensing rattlesnakes think they're bigger and more intimidating than they are or to make the rattlesnakes strike at the wrong part of the body.

This squirrel kept swishing his tail, totally ignoring me, and moving to different locations around the snake, as if he was herding it off the trail. When he finally succeeded, he went a few feet off and flopped down flat on the ground, legs splayed, as if he were exhausted.

I wondered if he had a nest he was defending. But this day, it was me he defended. The rattlesnake totally blended in with the dappled dirt (see picture 3--the scene when I first arrived). If I hadn't seen the squirrel first, I might have stepped right on or in front of the rattlesnake.

And we all know how that can end.

Amazing encounter.

This was right outside of Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I later met another backpacker who'd almost been bitten by one at his campsite at Cottonwood Campground on the North Kaibab. I believe both were the Grand Canyon Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus abyssus), sometimes called the Grand Canyon pink rattlesnake, found only here.

Just another fantastic part of my backpacking trip this week. More posts to come.

Tiny Chuckwalla on Piestewa Peak

Look at this little guy I saw today at Piestewa Peak in Phoenix.  He was the tiniest chuckwalla I've ever seen.  Too young to know that he should be afraid of us, Too young to go do what chuckwallas normally do.  So I got to watch him for a while.

The second chuckwalla I saw today was good at doing what chuckwallas normally do:

 

Around the World in 80 Birds, by Mike Unwin

This is a great book.  The writing is engaging.  The illustrations by Ryuto Miyake are beautiful.  Each chapter is short but fascinating, dealing not just with the biologically interesting facts but with cultural associations.

If you enjoy short surveys of interesting topics—especially birds/animals—you'll love this. 

Another squirrel friend

This squirrel entertained us each morning outside our room at Kohl's Ranch, near Payson, Arizona.  So cute.  And so very intent on eating as much as possible.  

Willow Springs Lake, Arizona

This is beautiful Willow Springs Lake, on the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona.  

And here's our little friend:

We went on August 13, straight from Phoenix where we'd had record heat for a record length of time (30 straight days of 110 or more, record number of days above 115, nights with lows of 97)  

 So when we got to the lake, we got caught in a monsoon.  The wind was blowing something fierce, and we got wet and...COLD!!!  It was amazing, being cold. 

Hummingbird in Phoenix

 While I was hiking at the Piestewa Peak area in Phoenix, I spotted this beauty:

I love  hummingbirds.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Book of Answers, by David Wentworth Lazaroff

This is interesting, well written, well-organized, and useful for those living in the Sonoran Desert.  It also has great pictures and useful appendices.  

It is a bit old (1998), so I fear a few of the sections may be slightly misleading because the author was speaking about the habitat destruction and climate change of 25 years ago, and I'm afraid that at least one of those things has sped up.  I would love to see a new edition with just a few small updates, because it's a great book.

4+stars 

Mogollon Rim Wildlife

Osprey, looking at me:

Antelope squirrel, looking at me:

Elk, looking at me:

Photos all taken in summer, in the Rim Lakes area (Willow Springs Lake and Woods Canyon Lake)

Wild Horses on the Mogollon Rim

 Okay, so these aren't really "wild horses."  My dad calls them "feral free-ranging domestic livestock."  Most were domestic horses at one time that were dumped by people who couldn't take care of them, escaped on their own, or were set free during forest fires because the owners didn't have time/resources to move them out of danger but didn't want to keep them trapped in case the fire came.  Now many are the descendants of those once-domestic horses.  All they've known is freedom.

There's a lot of controversy over them.  Are they pests causing problems for ranchers and native wildlife?  Should there even BE ranchers on public lands?  Do the horses need to be culled or captured and taken to refuges? If so, how can we do this most humanely?  Or are they now part of the local ecosystem and need to be protected like any other wildlife? 

Mostly what I know is that they're beautiful and a treat to see.  

These three later wandered into our campsite, bold as anything, and we got to watch them for a long time while we ate.  Mogollon Rim Dinner Theatre.

  

Escape to the High Country

 A couple of weeks ago I escaped the heat and want to the Mogollon Rim.  It was great (though very muddy after all this fantastic rain we've been having).

Day one:

Under the Rim, by the Horton Creek trailhead:

Rather large mushrooms:

Another fantastic dragonfly (see my post a few days ago with the flame skimmer).  I think this is a twelve-spotted skimmer:

Dramatic clouds at our dispersed camping campsite:

Rain off the Rim at sunset: