What the...Then at sunrise it was obvious that it was coming from the sun --
I posted the first photo on a Facebook Cochise County page, and someone commented that it was a "solar pillar" and was very rare here. So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found out that it was caused by ice crystals in the atmosphere that were reflected off a light source. The overall name is "light pillar: as the sun in this case is the light source, it's a "solar" or "sun" pillar. I posted the photos on the FB Friends of Cave Creek Canyon page, where I'm one of the editors, with the admonition that here in the Chiricahuas you not only have to look on the ground for special flora and fauna, but also have to look up at the skies for spectacular clouds such as the anvil clouds I saw earlier in the week -- and solar pillars. Amazing, but living here at Faranuf and the Portal area has continuously been that way...
After breakfast it was time to climb aboard Diamondback, my hybrid bike, for a ride up to Cave Creek Canyon and South Fork. First I cycled to Lori and Mark's house, which I'm watching while they're off on a birding trip to Guyana. Alas, there was a dead bird on the front porch; I could only assume that it hit the front screen door. As I have a permit to collect bird specimens for Kimball Garrett and the ornithology section of Los Angeles' Museum of Natural History, I put the body in a Zip-loc and put it on top of a potted plant for retrival later; I was NOT going on a 3-hour bike ride with a dead bird body in my rear carrier bag! I went past the community of Portal, where 12 hours earlier we had the Irish music concert, and headed down spectacular Cave Creek Canyon. It was a beautiful morning, with temps in the high 70s and the usual little or no traffic on the road. Then I saw a Subaru coming the other way --and it was my friend Noel Snyder, husband of Helen. Noel, along with Helen, is a noted raptor specialist, graduate of Cornell University, and a cello player. (Everyone here has done "something" in the past.) As you can only do on the Cave Creek Canyon road, he stopped right in the middle of it, and while we chatted he pointed out Madrone trees alongside the road, and said when they have berries they attract, among other birds, Elegant Trogon. And years ago you could find Eared Trogon -- also known as Eared Quetzal -- at them, too; VERY rare birds these days. After about 10 minutes of looking for other Madrone trees a lone car finally came along the road and Noel (born on Christmas Day, hence the first name) drove on. I proceeded up canyon, turned onto the dirt South Fork Road, famed among birders (no taped recordings of bird calls allowed, as there are nesting Trogon here during spring and summer), and made the pleasant discovery that the graders from the Forest Service had smoothed out the road. It, along with much of Cave Creek Canyon, had been laid waste by Hurricane Odile in September 2014, with South Fork and Cave Creek turning into raging rivers that tore trees along the stream banks and flooded some homes on the flood plain. South Fork Road, though a dirt road, was walkable and drivable all the way to the end of the road at the picnic area, where the trail up South Fork began. But after the flood, the road was severely damaged and South Fork actually jumped its banks and diverted over to the OTHER side of the road -- and the road beyond the Forest Service cabins was turned into a rutted mess filled with debris and water, completely undriveable except for jeeps with high clearance, if even that. I met some lady hikers along the way who were getting in one more hike before leaving the area. They were asking about overnight "wild" camping in the area as they were backpackers, and said they did a hike up Silver Peak when they came upon a recent deer kill -- and had to turn back because there were signs that the mountain lion who'd killed it was still around. (And so, touchingly was the dead deers's mother.) The ladies proceeded up the road, while I took photos on the bridge just before the cabins --
That of course is my trusty steed Diamondback, with South Fork in the background. Here's South Fork without the bike in front of it --
And South Fork on the other side of the bridge --
There are a few trees whose leaves are turning, but everything for the most part is still lush and green. Here's looking down South Fork Road --
It's a shady road, perfect for bike riding on a somewhat warm day. Then I headed up the road. It had been graded to just beyond the cabins -- and after that it was still a mess, though not quite as bad as before --
But still completely undriveable. No-one knows if the road will be graded all the way to the picnic area as it will require considerable work -- and the creek is still crossing the road. I can't go any further with Diamondback, so I head back and get a view looking down the road with part of the canyon wall --
On heading back down South Fork road I come across a husband and wife from Olympia, WA who are staying at Rusty's RV Park in their Winnebago. They're full-time RVers, so we discuss the in's and outs of RV living, and the Washington State area where they lived as my parents had retired to Port Townsend and then Sequim before moving back to San Pedro. They were in the area until Thursday, so I told them about Rustler and Barfoot Parks, but they said they were having fun just BEING there; everything was new to them. We said our goodbyes and I rode back to Faranuf. In the afternoon I waited for the Coues deer family to come back, hoping that they would use my water feature now that it was back in its original, slimy condition -- but, alas, they never showed up. The clouds came in over the Chiricahuas and it rained lightly, then cleared up. After dinner I went back to Lori and Mark's house, and decided that since the dead bird I'd put in the Zip-loc looked to be just a House Finch, I'd say "ashes to ashes" and throw it into the underbrush where it would be food for ants or other crawling critters. As shall we all be eventually...Today (Columbus Day, the 12th) I'll be meeting friends from the Lance Owners of America club in Rodeo where they are following a convoy of restored 1945 military vehicles that's make a cross-country tour -- and possibly go to the Chiricahua Gallery there -- if they're open on Columbus Day -- to see about submitting some of my photos for display there. ( I have to be deemed "worthy" by a panel of 3 "judges".) But Sunday -- what a day, once again...
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