September 23 -- A View Inside Faranuf, And Another Bike Ride

But first, as almost always, a view during sunrise of Cave Creek Canyon; there were very few clouds, so the sunrise off to the east was a bit wimpy --

Just after breakfast, I decided that I'd shown quite a few photos around the outside of Faranuf, so here's of the inside, the living room to be exact -- 

From left to right (the smallest dining table in the world is behind me) are my classical guitar and stand containing music -- I'm re-taking up the guitar after about a ten-year absence; the table with TV and DVDs underneath (I don't have TV reception as, frankly, I don't need it); the sliding glass door looking out to the back yard with its bird feeders, and view of Cave Creek Canyon (which is why the "love seat" is facing out the back); my spotting scope; a rocking chair with ottoman; and a Rex Allen movie poster, signed by Rex Allen himself. For those who don't know, Rex was a movie cowboy star in the 40s and was a local boy, having been born in Willcox, on the west side of the Chiricahuas; they named a street after him. So that's the main room -- and yes, I'll be getting more things up on the wall, including my photos...

After dropping the trash off with Tom and his sanitation truck (Wednesdays and Saturdays, $2 a trash bag), I hop on my Diamondback hybrid bike and take off west past Portal and up Cave Creek Canyon. It's a perfect day for cycling -- temps in the upper 70s with a slight breeze, only a few clouds in the sky -- and I take a photo of part of the Silver Peak complex -- 

I pass the Visitor Center, Idlewild Campground (all the campgrounds in Cave Creek Canyon are closed due to the "possibility" of more flooding) and stop on the bridge over Cave Creek and across from Stewart Campground. The creek is somewhat swollen with water from the recent rain, so is running fast and cold; there's my bike I call "Diamondback" in the foreground --

And here's a more expansive view of Cave Creek --

This is all within about 8 miles from Faranuf, and that's a pretty amazing thing for a guy who's lived in the city all his life, where to get to "the outdoors" you have to go at least 30 miles before you leave the urban scene behind. At this point, I was just about to head up the road when a Gray Fox comes racing along the road with what looked to be a mouse in its jaws. I silently saluted him for having a successful lunch, then headed on. The main paved road veers to the right just before Sunny Flat Campground (again, closed) and I head straight, up South Fork Road, one of the most fabled stretches of road in all of "bird-dom" as it's the spring and summer home of, among other rarities, Elegant Trogon. But today I have the road all to myself. It used to be open to vehicles all the way to the picnic area and the trailhead up South Fork, but Hurricane Odile in September 2014 did a lot of damage, undermining banks and uprooting trees, and even causing South Fork to jump its bank and cross the road. So it's only open to foot traffic now, and after the rain even foot traffic has a hard time getting past the Forest Service cabins -- 

That's the "road" with an ephemeral creek running down it. I decide it's impassable to me and Diamondback, so I head back down the road. While doing so -- walking my bike most of the way, because the road is still littered with rocks and is in generally poor condition -- I come upon a cascade flowing down the other side of the road; it too is ephemeral, only lasting a week at the most, but is oh so pretty -- 

Beautiful. There are wildflowers and lush growth everywhere you look -- on the first day of autumn. However, there aren't many birds, perhaps the odd Flicker or a raucous group of Mexican Jays. I make my way back down the paved road into Cave Creek Canyon (designated Forest Service Road 42) and stop for views looking back up canyon and Silver Peak, with late-morning clouds forming --

I arrive back at Faranuf at 12pm. I've set aside the afternoon to do small things around the house -- hang a print on the living room wall, make sure Desert Willow have plenty of mulch (a critter of unknown type had been digging in it the night before, making a hole and scattering dirt and mulch around), and planning out my next improvement project for the back yard, which involves improving the bird seed trays. The way they are now, whenever they get wet the bird seed turns into a wet, hard mass as the wood takes awhile to dry out -- and is, frankly, cheap and porous. Not a very sanitized way for birds to eat. But the hummingbirds are still flocking to their feeders, though I'm not re-filling them as much as before, so migration has died down. But I do see two birds in my back yard that I'm very familiar with from the South Bay of Los Angeles -- White-crowned Sparrow and Yellow-Rumped Warbler, the first time I've seen them here in the Chiricahuas, period. Probably fall migrants passing through, though according to my bird book they're early as they're here in winter. After dinner I end the day sitting on the back porch, watching the last birds of the day, including a Canyon Towhee mom feeding her fledgling. Tomorrow I'm thinking it's time to finish weed-whacking Faranuf's driveway...