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It all started out because I can cook. (I say this with some pride because I spent much of my adult life not able to cook. I never really learned while growing up, and figured that I'd hit on the perfect solution when I was in my mid 20's by marrying a genuine Culinary-Institute-of-America-trained chef. It was after the divorce that I decided to try my hand at combining ingredients in such a way as to nourish, not kill. And as it turns out, almost a decade of living with a guy who is an amazing cook rubbed off. Having a good relationship with him post-divorce also helps, because I do still come up with some genuinely bizarre questions.) But I digress....
In October, I was feeling restless and invited myself on a camping trip with my sister, fellow kossack kriser. The trip was a field trip for a grad student class that her friend was teaching. I offered to help cook dinner and breakfast for the 20+ people attending. One of the guests was kriser's boss, who pulled her aside and was impressed that I just dove right in and commandeered the camp kitchen. So kriser put a bug in his ear about me helping out on their next research camping trip. Right before Thanksgiving, I got the invite. This is how I came to spend December 4th-6th in the most beautiful desert area I've ever seen.
The research site is in the Sierra Pinacate region in Sonora, Mexico. This place is gorgeous, and it's got such interesting history. Kriser's boss, Paul, has been conducting research here roughly 3 times a year since 1974, when he discovered the site almost by accident. To get there, we left San Diego just after 7:00 in the morning. We crossed into Mexico at San Luis, just south of Yuma, AZ. From there, we drove for a couple of hours on a Mexican freeway before turning off at a totally nondescript dirt road. The next two hours were spent in or near 4WD. Until that point, I thought this was going to be a cushy trip, because, hey, it's CAR camping! I get double camp pads! A real pillow! My 2-person tent! Actual clothing changes! Wine in bottles! It's the lap of luxury!
Hah! It may be car camping, but this campsite can only be reached if you're dead serious about wanting to be there. One of our group had a flat tire about 90 minutes in, and we ended up setting up camp mostly in the dark due to that delay. (And both kriser and I had some serious rainfly issues as a result of the low light. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.) We had dinner and pretty much everyone went to sleep shortly after. I was in my sleeping bag by 7:!5. I doubt I was still awake at 8:00. I was not alone.
Here are some photos from our campsite. The big rock formation in the 2nd and 3rd photos is a lava bubble, and it was the backdrop for the camp kitchen. The campsite is next to a very large aa lava flow.
Sunset colors, viewed from camp
Lava bubble:
Closeup of lava bubble:
I was pretty much alone in getting a good night's sleep. (I LOVE my sleeping bag!!!) There were numerous complaints amongst the group about the cold overnight temperatures. According to the national weather service, the overnight temperatures in the area got down into the 20s. I don't know how accurate this was, but Friday night was definitely cold. Saturday night was warmer - though still very cold to be sleeping outside.
Right after breakfast, kriser, her boss, and I headed out to the work area to do what we'd come to do. Count cacti. Cylindropuntia bigelovii to be exact. More commonly known as Teddy Bear Cholla.
I'm still shaking my head at that name. I mean, it is accurate - the cacti, as you can see, DO look sort of like everyone's favorite stuffed animal. It's just such a cruel illusion. There is NOTHING fuzzy about these things. This was my first experience with cholla of any sort. Cholla have a wicked learning curve. They're not called the jumping cactus unfairly. And when someone who knows about these things (in this story, kriser) tells a newbie (me) to respect them and remove them from your person as soon as possible, I hope you'll trust me and take this as the most excellent advice that it is. I don't know how many cholla buds we picked out of my hiking boots as kriser and I wended our way through the work area, counting 950+ cholla. But I do know how many we picked out of my calves. Two. Two too many. As you can see by the picture below, these tangerine sized buds have LOTS of spines.
And the spines are barbed, which means pulling them OUT of your flesh HURTS. So when someone tells you that you want to be aware of the state of cholla buds on your footwear BEFORE you squat down, this is possibly the best advice since Mr. Robinson advised Dustin Hoffman's character that the future was plastics in The Graduate. Because if you don't remove those cholla buds, they can and will transfer to much more uncomfortable places. Injury to which would make any looming trip involving off road driving and then 8 hours in a car highly unpleasant.
Not that this happened to me. I'm just saying that this is really good advice. That you should follow without question. Let your inner lemming go.
Teddy Bear cholla weren't the only type of cactus in the area.
Here's a picture of the work area, which was just beautiful:
Saguaro:
Senita:
Ocotillo:
Chain cholla (also known as jumping cholla):
Barrel cactus:
Saturday night, kriser took some of the group off blacklighting for scorpions. I've done this before - it's really cool. Scorpions fluoresce under black light. It's freaky in a way, because they blend in so well with their environment that you wouldn't see one if you shined the light from your headlamp on it, but under a black light, they stand out like neon. (I will admit to allowing this thought to creep me out more than a little during an after dark potty excursion....)
Sunday, we broke camp early and headed out - a different way than we'd arrived, since the border crossing into the US at San Luis is apparently a nightmare. We crossed at Sonoyta, which meant that our route allowed us to do a little touristy stuff. First, we stopped to see the ancient footpaths that have been dated via pottery shards to human usage more than 10,000 years ago.
It doesn't look like much, but when you consider that this path has been around literally for thousands of years, it's pretty humbling. The top right portion of the photo shows the 'road' in.
Then we stopped at the Elegante crater, a maar crater caused by the volcanic eruptions that created the Pinacate region. The crater is 800 feet deep and over a mile in diameter.
So, that's what I did with my weekend. Hope you enjoy the photos! :) Now, without further ado, here are tonight's top comments!
From pvlb:
This comment from chickindolfin is hilarious.
From calichristi:
This comment by parisgnome in the Diary Harry Reid is Lying really stikes home what is taking place in the U.S. and was a great answer to the comment above.
From trashablanca:
homogenius eloquently describes his view of President Obama to a blogger who diaried for Obama during the primary wars and now is feeling buyer's remorse. I am in complete agreement with homogenius' assessment and said many times last year that those cheering then for BO would be cursing him now. Shocking, isn't it?
From BeninSC:
geomoo brings some 'Zen' to the aggravation over the public option debate in the last day or so.
From sardonyx:
abarrenfuture makes the point that it's never easy being the good guy...
Karma for All has an exercise to get perspective back.
my picks:
This comment, by jhw22 highlighting a zinger from the Grayson diary on the rec list made me laugh out loud.
As did this comment from JekyllnHyde.
This thread, started by slinkerwink struck me as both hilarious and pathetically accurate.
Top Mojo tonight is brought to us by brillig please be sure to thank her!
Top 30 Comments excluding tip jars, first comments and stuff:
1) Other Moral - Don't be a hate-filled prick. n/t by sowsearsoup — 185
2) This is more of a mainstream Dem fail by fizziks — 166
3) Moral of the story... by Taxmancometh — 161
4) And there's still time . . . by Orange County Liberal — 151
5) It's forcing Americans to buy junk insurance by slinkerwink — 137
6) Baby, it's cold outside by MinistryOfTruth — 131
7) It's okay, I did not come to fight with Kossacks by MinistryOfTruth — 131
8) They don't choose to be a hate-filled prick. by Eileen B — 107
9) If Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV) likes it, by VirginiaMom — 98
10) Very nice by Keith Olbermann — 96
11) yup by taylormattd — 95
12) here was another great moment (paraphrased): by SuperBowlXX — 94
13) I'm with Markos on this by slinkerwink — 93
14) You know, usually when someone by edwardssl — 91
15) Just a few thoughts by Dallasdoc — 91
16) When everyone is mandated... by 4kedtongue — 91
17) campaign cash by Turkana — 87
18) But isn't it about negotiating? by Jim P — 87
19) Wow. by raboof — 86
20) That 90% jumped out at me, too. by dkistner — 83
21) First step? Last step is more like it. by JayGR — 83
22) Tax them until their EYES HURT by MinistryOfTruth — 81
23) bad, bad, bad diary... by kalmoth — 80
24) What a beautiful dream. Then the phone rings. by FishOutofWater — 77
25) I don't know how she manages by MrPlow — 73
26) Lol by taylormattd — 72
27) I understand completely. She does ... by Meteor Blades — 72
28) I saw that. She was amazing. She exposed by marabout40 — 70
29) omg... she chewed him up & spit him out. by shel3364 — 68
30) If you sent this Democratic Congress off by thegood thebad thedumb — 68
Top 30 Comments with no exclusions, aka the Tip Jar list :-):
1) Tip Jar by bhfrik — 480
2) Tip Jar by Gov Howard Dean MD — 474
3) Tips for for being pissed off, not pissed on by MinistryOfTruth — 403
4) Tip Jar by shanikka — 370
5) Tip Jar by Green E — 361
6) Tip Jar by NeuBrew151 — 341
7) Tip Jar by slinkerwink — 306
8) Tip Jar by TomP — 233
9) Tips/Flames by Rimjob — 230
10) Tip Jar by thereisnospoon — 228
11) Tip Jar by twcollier — 213
12) Tip Jar by DynamicUno — 204
13) Tip Jar by brooklynbadboy — 191
14) Tip Jar by ProudLiberal7 — 187
15) Other Moral - Don't be a hate-filled prick. n/t by sowsearsoup — 185
16) This is more of a mainstream Dem fail by fizziks — 166
17) Moral of the story... by Taxmancometh — 161
18) And there's still time . . . by Orange County Liberal — 151
19) What are they thinking? by Lefty Coaster — 148
20) Tip Jar by Scarce — 148
21) Tip Jar by MsSpentyouth — 144
22) Tip Jar by Hammurabi — 137
23) It's forcing Americans to buy junk insurance by slinkerwink — 137
24) Baby, it's cold outside by MinistryOfTruth — 131
25) It's okay, I did not come to fight with Kossacks by MinistryOfTruth — 131
26) Just for You. by Pluto — 129
27) Tips for a skosh of the real world? by droogie6655321 — 123
28) They don't choose to be a hate-filled prick. by Eileen B — 107
29) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 105
30) If Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV) likes it, by VirginiaMom — 98