Tonto National Forest and Horses

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Coon Bluff Trail, Horses, Horses of the Salt River, Salt River, Tonto National Forest

Here in Gold Canyon we live at the edge of the Tonto National Forest, the fifth largest national forest in the country (almost 3 million acres). To give you an idea of its size, from the south to the north is around 175 miles, and from east to west is about 100 miles (one and a half times the size of Massachusetts!). The landscape includes Sonoran Desert in the south, and the piney forests of the Mogollon Rim in the north (where it abuts the Coconino National Forest), with an elevation that ranges from 1,300 feet to 7,900 feet. All manner of wild beasties live in the forest – deer (of course!) both whitetail and mule, black bears, coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, ring-tail cats (actually a member of the raccoon family; raccoons are here too), skunks, javalina (who came and ate one of my favorite cactuses this week, the stinkers), pronghorns, elk, bald eagles, roadrunners, falcons, owls, kestrels and many other bird species. And horses – but more about that in a little while.

Pretty much all the hikes my hiking buddy and I take are in the Tonto (it means ‘stupid,’ I’m sorry to say), and we haven’t made a dent in the available opportunities. We are pretty much limited to trails in the southern part of the Forest, though we have gone as far afield as Payson, about our distance limit to still leave time for a day-adventure.

Most recently we have been exploring hikes along the Salt River, which runs from Roosevelt Lake through Apache, Canyon and Saguaro Lakes, down to the Agua Fria and Gila Rivers. (Roosevelt Lake, 33 square miles, is the grandpappy of the Lakes, formed by Roosevelt dam, which was built in 1911. The downstream dams which formed the other lakes were built later.

All these lakes provide wonderful recreational facilities for nearby Phoenix and neighboring areas.) People who fly into Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport often get a birds’ eye view of the lakes:

Always nice to have a window seat, don’t you think?

Last week, in spite of 100 + F temperatures, we made two forays to Coon Bluff Trail, which is south of the Lakes on a bluff overlooking the Salt River. From the top of the bluff we could hear the traffic from Bush Highway, and could see Fountain Hills spread out to the northwest. Red Mountain was a near view to the west, and looking the other way we had a far distant view of Four Peaks over the river and beyond some nearer hills.

The Coon Bluff hike is a 4- mile loop, which should be a piece of cake.. We had trouble finding it on our first search – we went to the wrong parking lot. In spite of an early start on our second attempt,  we felt we had to turn back before we completed the loop. It was our first visit to this trail, and we were not certain enough of the way to continue in such high heat. A return visit will be made when the temperatures permit! Here are a few photos taken along the way:

A balanced stone

Hiking Buddy surveys the countryside

Hiking buddy and I photograph Red Mountain

That settlement in the distance is Fountain Hills.

Okay, ‘where are the horses?’ I hear you ask. Well, they’re right here along the Salt River.

The theory is that they were brought to the area by Spaniards accompanying Father Eusebio Kino in the 17th century. Some escaped and have made their home here ever since.

In 2015 the US Forest Service announced a culling program of the horses, citing public danger. There was a huge outcry, and in an effort co-ordinated by the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group the tragedy was averted. Lawmakers and the governor passed The Salt River Horse Act which protects the horses, and assigns their care and management to the Management Group.

There are so many marvelous photos of these beautiful horses; the ones above are a paltry sampling. If you love horses, and want to see more of them, visit the Management Groups website and check out Wikipedia’s photo page.  Pamela Rutherford made a lovely video of the horses, which you can see here. It is in two parts, the first of which is quite wonderful.

Nothing beats seeing the horses in person, though. We were lucky to see them on both our trips to Coon Bluff. The first time we saw them up close; they are not afraid of people, and while you can’t touch them (or at least shouldn’t try), you can certainly approach and speak to them. The second time we saw them from afar. We were on top of the Bluff, and they were little dark specks in the river below.

The Salt River, her lakes and her horses are just a few of the many delights The Tonto National Forest offers. August might not be the best month for tackling a hike in the south, but taking one along the river has its rewards:

(This post is dedicated to my pal Pumpkin Pammy.)

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Kittens, because I can…

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Kittens, Paws and Claws Care Center

It’s kitten season at the Shelter (as it is most of the year). Who doesn’t like to look a photos of kittens being adorable? (quiet, you dog people!) The kittens in these photos have been adopted, but there are plenty more where these came from. (One photo is badly out of focus, but the kitten was so amusing I had to include it.) For lots more wonderful pics of cats, kittens and dogs, check out the Shelter’s Facebook page.

Enjoy!

Thursdays at the Shelter – Pet Parade!

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Dog parade, Dogs, Halloween dog costumes, Pet parade

Halloween is just around the corner, and to celebrate, some of the folks at La Dolce Vita community in Apache Junction held a pet parade. They were nice enough to invite our Shelter to come, bring some adoptable dogs, and set up an information table, which we happily did.  We brought 5 dogs (one of whom had to go home early because he got too excited about being at a PARTY) and our usual supply of leashes, pins, info on how to adopt, and so forth. Here are our dogs:

Can you guess which one had to go home?

 

The dog yard at Dolce Vita is divided, so our five, then four, were able to romp and play on the grass without distracting the beauty pageant entrants. Except, of course, for the puppies, who were in someone’s arms the whole time we were there – because they are adorable! It is always a terrific treat for a shelter dog to get out, roll in the grass, chase balls, and engage in other doggy behavior. (Which is why our Shelter has a “Dogs’ Day Out” program, a topic for another post.)

The larger section of the dog play area was decorated with, mysteriously, a cardboard bull, surrounded by fake bull poop. A puzzle, but the dogs seemed to like it.

And now, in no particular order, are the entries in the Pet Parade:

Denver Bronco’s fan.

Yes!!! There was one cat!

This one is confusing because she is shy – she is wearing her hat on her face.

I happen to know who won the competition (at least I think I do, and I have to say, I was surprised). Which dog would you give the 1st prize to?

Thursdays at the Shelter

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Cats, Kittens

Last spring one of the Shelter’s volunteers, the divine Miss P., hosted a fund-raising event in her community. It was wildly successful and she raised a ton of money, all of which she donated to Paws and Claws.  Here she is, wearing her Crown of Magnificent Accomplishment with the Head Kennel Tech from the Shelter at a very serious recognition event hosted by Shelter staff.

Her wish was that the money be used to build a cat room. Or rather, to renovate our meet-and-greet room, which also serves as a photo studio (used by the Shelter’s fantastic photographer, Audrea Donnelly), and turn it into a room where cats can roam freely, sit in windows, fight with one another, and in general look so appealing that they will be adopted.

Shortly after the above photo was taken Miss P fled our hot valley for cooler climes. She will return in a few weeks (even though it’s still way too hot), and when she does, she will find the room, almost completed and fully occupied. The cats were able to move in a few weeks ago, just in time for our Clear the Shelter event. The renovations included dropping a new ceiling, replacing a solid wall with a glass wall, and adding a new door. In addition various bits and pieces of cat-friendly furniture have been drifting in.  The room isn’t quite finished yet; still to come are climbing shelves on the walls, and moving out some unneeded furniture. But this is what Miss P will find when she gets back:

Unfortunately this pic is a bit out of focus (like the photographer??)

Some kitties like to be in their kennels, some prefer to be out.

These babes have grown so much they are almost ready to go home now.

Uncle Gene. For a short time he was our mascot, but he has been adopted. What a lover – we miss him.

The room, working as it is meant to!

These two photos were taken on Clear the Shelter Day. The ones old enough to go home were all adopted that day.

Just this last Saturday when we arrived at the Shelter we noticed a raggedy looking large box by the front door.  I paid it no heed, but one of the other volunteers looked in and found a terrific cat tree, brand new and still unassembled. She brought it in, and we set to work. It was slow going until a lovely couple came in and jumped in to help. In short order the tree was together and installed in the new room. Many thanks to the anonymous donor and to the couple who did 90% of the assemblage, thus saving the wits of two ‘older’ volunteers!

This was a complete photobomb. That little tuxedo kitten put himself there while the photographer was instructing the volunteers to smile. THANK YOU for putting the cat tree together!!! It had a Lot of pieces.

 

Thursdays at the Shelter, Snake Edition

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Paws and Claws Care Center, Rattle snake

Thursdays at the shelter have become Thursdays and Saturdays – it’s too much fun not to go twice a week. My usual drill is cleaning cat cages, which has recently become easier with less stringent procedures (kitties don’t like the smell of bleach and Windex, it turns out). This is great because it leaves a lot more time for brushing cats and clipping their claws, getting them all buffed and fluffed before adoption.

Today there was a new wrinkle, though – L was cleaning the outdoor kennels when she looked down and saw… a Rattle Snake!!!

It’s been very hot here lately, so the snakes are out of hibernation; people with yards, hikers, anyone who is going to be outside has to be vigilant from now on, both for themselves and their pets. This snake was quietly coiled in the corner, and seemed not to be at all upset about anything.

Enter K.C., the daring Animal Control Officer. Animal Control in Apache Junction has to deal with a wide range of animal problems, well beyond the usual stray dog. Rattle snakes, for instance.  K.C. is an old hand with the snake grabber.

At one point the snake made a desultory escape attempt, but K.C. was undaunted.

There’s more than one way to catch a snake.  This method, by the way, is NOT recommended for anyone. K.C. knows snake behavior and knows exactly what he can and cannot get away with. You do not want to get bitten by a rattle snake. According to K.C. you will need a costly airlift to a hospital where you will be given about 50 vials of anti-venom, at up to $2,000 a vial. In the US a snake bite might cost you as much as $150,000.   Why is it so expensive? Evidently it does not have to be.

A rattle snake can get to be as long as 4 – 4.5′. Each year a new rattle grows on the tail. Using these guides, K.C. estimated this snake to be about  five years old. He’s a male snake, fat and happy. The snakes rattle as a warning or in alarm. Otherwise they quietly await their prey.

After capturing the snake, putting it in a bucket and securing the lid, K.C. took it to a distant wash and released it. This snake, at least, won’t end up on the menu at Rustler’s Rooste in Phoenix.

Here’s what a rattle snake in a bucket sounds like:

Thursdays at the Shelter – Kitty Burrito

Every now and then one of the motherless kittens needs a little special attention. This fellow had a bottom he was unable to clean, so… bath time! Ace volunteer Freida uses Dawn dish soap to bathe kittens. It’s a very gentle process; nonetheless the kittens don’t seem to like it much. Odd.

Once they are clean it’s time to wrap them up in a towel to dry. Freida goes a step further and cooks up a heating pad which goes around the towel, keeping Mr. Kitten toasty warm as he dries. I may be wrong, but I don’t think there’s anything cuter in the whole world than a kitten burrito.

After the First Monsoon

Monsoon Season begins on June 15 in Arizona. If you are thinking ‘monsoon’ like the monsoons in India, think again. The Phoenix Valley gets, on average, a hair over 8″ of rain a year. Mumbai, on the other hand, gets a hair under 80″. But when you live in a desert climate, any rain at all is more than welcome. This is especially true this year when we have broken high temperature records more than once and the trees and cactuses are clearly suffering.

Yesterday, after a record-setting 116 F, our first monsoon rains arrived, with the usual exciting crash-boom. Unlike the brief winter rainy season when rain can settle in for half a day, monsoon rains uniformly arrive at the end of the day, and generally don’t last very long. Today we heard the first thunder at 5:45 p.m., and by 6:30 Speedy was standing in our community’s pool with his drink, his snack and his book.

I don’t want to make light of the damage even these brief rains can do: sometimes the rain comes down in torrents. Because the ground is so hard and dry here, the water runs off. During and after a heavy monsoon the run-off can flood low areas of road, and even wash cars away. Last year area golf courses suffered great damage when the rains brought down trees and boulders from the higher ground and deposited them on fairways.

The sky is always dramatic after the rain, especially as the sun sets. The birds are doing what they do at twilight – making a racket, flying home for the night, or, if they are the nighthawks that frequent our neighborhood, swooping and diving as they catch new hatches of insects (they are hard to photograph, for me, anyway).

I watched the doves as they got their last meal of the day,  the odd-looking fruit of a nearby saguaro (which will turn quite red and look very silly in the near future). Then they gathered for their evening flight to wherever it is doves go at night.

It was a lovely evening, a fine beginning to Monsoon Season. Bring on the rains!

Thursdays at the Shelter

I had envisioned writing frequently about the exciting events at my favorite animal shelter, where I volunteer once a week. But it turns out you can say only so much about cleaning poop out of cat pens, and I pretty much exhausted that with the first post on the subject. Yesterday, however, was a day quite out of the norm.

“Good morning,” I said to Karla when I arrived. “Puppies!” she replied.  Huh? Turns out in the last week the shelter acquired through various means 22 puppies. To put this in perspective, since the first of the year we’ve had exactly 2 puppies that I know of; they were born at the shelter to a pregnant stray.  Well, is there anything cuter than a puppy?? Kittens are just as cute, and yesterday we had 4 new little kittens with their eyes barely open, tottering around the way kittens do and squeaking their high-pitched mews. But I was so thrilled with the idea of 22 puppies I never even thought to photograph the kittens.

There were small puppies:

 There were dirty puppies in need of baths and a mani-pedi:

and there were some larger puppies who were full of puppy curiosity and puppy kisses and puppy yips:

and then, because who can resist a pair of baby blues, I offer you this gorgeous dog:

But wait! There’s more!!

A few days ago Animal Control brought in a tame parrot (at least I think it’s a parrot – if you can identify it, I’d love to know for sure). At the shelter there is a back room where sick animals are sometimes kept, as well as animals that are awaiting reclamation by their owners. This little fellow was as smart as could be – he knew how to open his cage. Even I have trouble opening these cages, but he figured it out in short order.

When my fellow-volunteer Holly saw the scene below she said, “that’s not good.”

Fortunately no harm came to either bird or cat. Each displayed a modicum of interest in the other, but there was no action. (That cat, by the way, is a big burly tough guy – at least he wants you to think he is. In spite of his cuts and bumps, he is a lover.) Four of us spent about half an hour trying to catch that darn bird to put him in a cat carrier from which we thought he would not be able to escape. He would have none of it. I don’t know who was more exhausted, the bird or the women trying to corral him.

Help came in the form of the bird’s owner, who arrived with the bird’s own cage, a delightful Victorian fantasy in white wire. We set the bird cage on top of the cat cage and stood back – birdy hopped on the outside of his cage, gave us a last knowing look and went inside. He’d had enough, I suspect, and I know we had.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you volunteering at a shelter is all cat poop and dog hair. Sometimes there are puppies and feathers, too.

SO Excited

We are very, very excited. Our tangelo crop is ready to harvest. Now all we have to do is set aside a day or two for the work involved and invite some friends over to help.

Yep. That’s it. Maybe more next year??

The Flying Boys of Costa Maya

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Costa Maya, Danza de los Voladores, Flying boys, Mayan customs, Mexico

 Recently I went with two friends on a cruise of the Western Caribbean. It was my first cruise, and was an eye-popping experience, from the the size of the ship (1,112 feet

long) to the enormous quantities of very good food provided daily, to the variety of entertainment on board (an ice show! imagine!! It was a really excellent one, too!!!), and the variety of excursions we were offered on shore.

Our second stop was in Costa Maya on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.

Recently a port was built to accommodate cruise ships, which includes a shopping village, and which is a jumping off point for excursions to some delicious less-developed Mayan ruin sites such as Chacchoben, which we visited. The Mayan ruins are a subject for several other posts – they are as fascinating as they are ancient and mysterious.

As you can see from the Google Earth screenshot above (thank you G.E.) the area around the cruise port is sparsely developed.  There’s been more growth lately, but so far most of it is centered around cruise ship arrivals and tourist dollars. (That off-center T in the water is the cruise ship dock.) I gather when there are no cruise ships the little village is closed up. It does not seem to be much used by locals.

This faux village has a central square, and in the middle of the square is a 30 meters tall pole with climbing rungs. Wikipedia gives a detailed account of the history of the Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers). It originated some hundreds of years ago at a time of great drought. The ceremony was developed to appease the gods and bring back the rain.

The dance is usually performed by five young men (the ones we saw were ‘apprentices,’ aged 18-22, but they looked pretty darn professional to us. Six marched in, four climbed the pole). They march into the square, one of them playing a small flute and banging a teeny drum (note the yellow cords hanging down).

Then they begin to climb the pole. This is heart-stopping – it seems impossible that they can climb so high, and that they can perch on the teeny structure at the top, which can revolve.

Once they are at the top they haul up their ropes in a very particular way and wrap them around the pole. Then four of them address the cardinal points of the compass, while the fifth stands in the middle. In our instance there were only four, and they all flew.

The four tied their ropes to their legs and stepped into space, slowly spinning around the pole as they descended in a stately and controlled manner. Impossibly, the drummer/ flute player continued to play both instruments as he flew down.

It is done in a very particular way. They must circle the pole exactly thirteen times. Thirteen times four (number of flyers) = fifty-two, the number of years in the ‘calendar round’ (see the Wikipedia article for more detail). Here they are, gracefully descending.

I apologize for not getting them all the way down for you, my camera ran out of battery (grrrrr).

It was an amazing thing to see, looking far simpler than it is, I think. The Danza de los Voladores has been named an Intangible Cultural Heritage by Unesco in 2009. As a result, the Mexican government has a responsibility to protect and promote the Dance. If you have a chance to see it, don’t miss it.