February 14-15 --- A Bike Ride, And Faranuf Gets Visited By Javelina And Bovines

One of the neat things about living here on the east side of the Chiricahuas is the clouds. The Chiricahuas are a large mountain range -- the longest south of Arizona's Gila River, that more or less bisects the state -- so it can create weather patterns, mainly by winds. Air gets pushed up the mountains, and clouds form. And sometimes they're unique --- While waiting for the sunrise on the 14th I saw parallel lines in the sky. I thought to myself, what on earth is THIS?

As it turns out, they're called "cloud streets" , and are oriented parallel to the wind. Amazing. I've seen towering cumulonimbus (anvil) clouds, a solar pillar -- and now cloud streets. The following sunrise was anti-climatic, but still a pretty one ---

I'll be volunteering to help man the visitor center here at Cave Creek, so I went to the "VIC" (Visitor Information Center) for orientation with Ron, the only paid staffer there. Besides dispensing information to tourists, there are daily chores such making sure the mice traps are set, cleaning the cobwebs out, dusting the inside, putting the "Open" flags out -- and then the VIC is open. It's usually manned by only one person, and it can get quite a few visitors at one time. On that particular day, there must've been about 10 all at once, though some were a family. It was fun and a real education -- and I'll be volunteering there on Thursday. 

The sunrise on the 15th was a memorable one, looking to the northeast -- 

The morning was taken up by a bike ride up the paved road through Cave Creek Canyon, then the dirt road of South Fork, one of the premier spots for birders in all of North America. Because of the tall canyon ways, the sun this time of the year doesn't hit "CCC" until around 9:30, so it was a mite chilly in spots, especially when you're wearing cycling shorts. But it's a beautiful ride -- and to think this a all within about 15 miles of Faranuf. Here's Cavc Creek; you can still see a lot of damage from the flooding caused by Hurricane Odile in September 2014, where the banks of the creek were ripped out and trees crashed into the creek, which at that time had becoming a muddy, swiftly flowing river -- 

Here's the bridge spanning the creek, near Stewart Campground; that's "Diamondback", my hybrid bike --

And here's Diamondback with one of the canyon walls towering over "him" (yeah, I have a habit of anthropomorphizing my wheeled possessions) . This is at the new end of the South Fork road. It used to go another 1/2 mile or so up to a picnic area, but the road was washed out during Odile, and Cave Creek actually jumped its bank and went over to the other side of the road. The power of Mother Nature on display...

The Forest Service who repaired the the road through CCC ended it here and made a berm to stop traffic from going any further. It was a beautiful day, with temps in the low 70s and no wind, so I did some birding and saw Red-naped Sapsucker, some Bridled Titmice, 2 Brown Creepers and a White-breasted Nuthatch. Pink-sided Juncos were feeding on the ground, and Mexican Jays squawking overhead. I love it here!  South Fork Trail now begins here at the berm -- 

Here's the sign for the trail --

And this is the old road, now a trail, on the other side of the berm. It's rutted and covered with rocks, so the Forest Service decided it wasn't worth repairing. It does make for a nice hike, and the beginning of the trail up South Fork and into the Chiricahua Wilderness.

When I got back to Faranuf, I had some unexpected visitors. Animals seem to come and go as they please, and unless you get some sort of electrified fence, you really can't keep them out. There is barbed wire around my property, but they seem to get underneath it. I went around the corner of the house to put out Discovery's awning to protect it from the sun -- and was surprised to see a herd of Javelina -- 

Well, its better to view them from my back deck, which is raised off the ground. Just to be on the safe side, as like all wild animals they can be unpredictable, and there have been incidents here when people have been gored. But these seemed pretty mellow; all they wanted to do was eat the bird seed; between them and the deer, laying out the seed is getting kinda expensive --

 Here's one that still has his winter coat, but it looks like he's having a Bad Hair Day --

And they DO love to wallow, especially on a warm day like that one. I thought he was just going to drink from the water feature --

Then he put all of his body that could fit into the water --

As they were leaving, I saw a mom and her little one --

I have to admit the babies are kinda cute, but NEVER get between a mom and her baby, unless you have suicidal tendencies.

I've had other surprise visitors to Faranufs back yard too, though only for a moment. While brushing my teeth, I looked out the back window in the bathroom and saw a juvenile Sharp-shinned hawk do a strafing run across the open section of the back yard, where the birds were feeding on the ground. I really hoped the Sharpie was unsuccessful, but he did fly pretty low, and over the birds. And the raptors have to eat, too...Then later that day, I was sitting on the back deck when a Flicker came out of nowhere and looked like it was coming onto the deck. He wasn't expecting me to be there, so he veered off and went to a tree. I'm sure he was just as startled as I was. These are good visitors; I don't mind them. But there are those you'd prefer to keep off your property. Last night, just after dinner and sunset, I looked out the kitchen window and saw 3 cows in my driveway. Drat!  A friend had mentioned that some cows had to be moved off my land as the front gate was open when I was gone. I've closed the gate since then -- so how did these get on my driveway? I went outside and towards them, saying "shoo!" (well, I've never herded cows off my property before), I didn't want them to get riled up and come towards me; thankfully they were quite mellow and my shooing worked. Then I saw that part of the barbed-wire fence around my 4 acres was down, and that's where they came in. After I'd finished my shooing I put the fencing back up; it was held up by a wire loop on the corner of another fence. Hopefully now that won't happen again. The things you must do when living in the country...