25 February 2024 | We are back in Gainesville, FL: Tregoning is in Mersin Marina, Mersin, Türkiye
Alison Stocker | Photo: Snow-capped Mogollon Mountains in Gila National Forest, New Mexico
By the time we reached Morro Bay on the evening of Tuesday (12th February), we had only two weeks left before we had to be back in Gainesville. We had to drive the width of the continent and we had many friends and relations still to visit but, in theory at least, it should all be possible if the Prius continued to behave impeccably, and all else went according to plan. Although the weather had improved since we were in San Jose, there were forecasts of another wintery storm system to cross California and potentially follow us eastward. But my more immediate concern was finding sea otters.
After running south along the main street of Morro Bay, on Wednesday morning, I returned along the waterfront looking for my favorite mammals. I saw some across the lagoon among the distant boats but, based on Susan's photograph, I felt sure that I should be able to find some that were closer. Then suddenly I came across the mother lode...literally a group of mothers with pups floating close to shore beside the fishing dock. A small sign on the fence asked people to be quiet because this site was a sea otter nursery and it was so cute to see several mothers floating on their backs with their pups resting or squirming on their tummies. Since I did not have my camera, I returned to the motel hoping that they would still be there when I returned with Randall after showering.
Sea otter nursery by the fishing wharf in Morro Bay with a pile (raft) of otters
Yes! They were still there floating peacefully on this calm morning when were returned. Of course, even though I took plenty of photos and video clips, I could have stayed there watching them for hours. But breakfast called, so we eventually dragged ourselves away, promising to return the following morning for another dose of cuteness.
A mother sea otter with her pup resting its head on her chest
Driving inland, we had a delicious lunch with Linda and Randall's cousin Greg at their ranch house made out of straw bales. Plenty of family stories were traded as we ate and watched the birds feeding outside the large windows, including California towhees, curve-billed thrashers, and many California quail. On leaving, we drove through Shandon where we visited the graves of Randall's parents and maternal grandparents. Thanks to the recent rains, the surrounding hills were much greener than they had been on any of my previous visits.
Recent rains had flushed the normally dry hillsides of central California with lush spring grasses, such as these hills in the Diablo Range
On way to Morro Bay from Shandon, we stopped at a nursing facility in Atascadero to visit Randall's cousin Roxanna, who has been seriously ill for the last couple of years. She seemed genuinely touched and happy to see Randall and to meet me. Although her health was poor, her mind was still sharp and many more family stories were exchanged during our very enjoyable conversation. We subsequently heard that she died exactly a week after our visit, making us very thankful that we had been able to see her when we could.
Before leaving Morro Bay on Wednesday, we returned to the sea otter nursery only to find it empty. Empty of otters, that is, there were still sea lions barking on a distant floating dock, common loons, and western `grebes. We continued to Morro Rock at the mouth of the Bay, the northwesternmost of nine named volcanic plugs (although there are actually 23 in total) between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay. We were hoping to see peregrine falcons on the steep rock face but had to content ourselves with sighting around the Rock of surf scoters, western gulls, bufflehead ducks, and eared grebes. We also saw a few sea otters floating in the kelp beds, not as close to shore as at the nursery, but still a satisfying opportunity to say farewell before we headed further south.
After driving south through San Luis Obispo (where Randall was born) we passed through Santa Barbara (where he got his undergraduate degree at the University of California: Santa Barbara). Looking for former surfing sites of his along the coast, we stopped at Santa Claus Beach, where we walked across the railway tracks to find several long-legged willets wading in the diminutive surf. Given Randall's surfing history in the area, I was intrigued by a sign that said that great white sharks occurred in the area and are protected by state and federal law.
A variation from the warning sign about the predatory dangers of mountain lions seen further north, this sign on a beach near Ventura, CA, is about the protection of great white sharks from people
Arriving at Ventura Marina, we were thrilled to be reunited with Cheryl and Steve, a lovely couple of sailors we had met in Kona, Hawai'i in 2011. We had not seen them for over a decade, but it did not seem that way as we talked about our travels and their amazing global circumnavigation as the support boat with Hokule'a, a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe, sailed and navigated in the tradition ways
https://worldwidevoyage.hokulea.com/voyages/our-story/
We had originally intended to stay for the night, but Cheryl was about to have a minor surgical procedure so she was understandably concerned about not catching Covid which would cause this to be postponed. So, we ate outside at a marina restaurant (facing our partners), and then wandered around some nearby ponds looking at the birds. These included gadwall, cinnamon teal, ruddy ducks, mergansers, pied-billed grebes, great blue herons, many black-crowned night herons, and more unusually for the area, a yellow-crowned night heron.
Cheryl and Steve from SV Gershon II at Ventura Marina
(In case you are wondering how I decide of the many people that I mention whose photos to include in the blog, given the nature of the Sailblogs website and its potential for readers who are sailors, I tend more often to include photos of friends we have met cruising.)
On saying goodbye to Cheryl and Steve, we turned eastward, skirting around the north side of Los Angeles. With the afternoon traffic increasing and slowing us down, we finished the day by stopping at motel in Moreno Valley, just east of LA. This afternoon grind reduced the distance to our next motel stop in south Tucson, Arizona, and allowed us time to stop for a couple of hours at the Saguaro West - Tucson Mountain District section of Saguaro National Park. We made a brief stop at the Visitor Center, drove around the Bajada Scenic Loop, and then, as the sun was setting, walked around the Desert Discovery Nature Trail.
A forest of saguaro cacti and a typically shaped individual in the West Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park
The following morning, we visited the Saguaro East - Rincon Mountain District section of the National Park. We walked along the Freeman Homestead Trail where we did not see a large number of birds, but we did see verdin, phainopepla, curve-billed thrasher, and a gila woodpecker. Many plants looking lusher than usual, such as the bright green leaves of the ocotillo, and there was even a trickle of water in some of the usually dry stream beds. We were sorry not to see or hear cactus- or canyon wrens, but we did hear and not see a new species to us the pyrrhuloxia, a desert-dwelling cardinal. We subsequently followed the Cactus Forest Loop Drive with occasional stops to admire the views of distant snow-capped mountains, adjacent rocky outcrops, or to follow the Desert Ecology Trail.
Neophyte branches on a saguaro cactus, an ocotillo that usually looks like a bunch of dead sticks but was covered in bright green leaves after the rains, and a flowering barrel cactus
On our way to the Park, we had passed by an area which appeared to have hundreds of unpainted airplanes packed tightly together. This turned out to be the Historic Aviation Bone Yard, a.k.a. the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, which was started at the end of World War II and is now a 2,600-acre (11 km2) facility. With nearly 4,000 miliary and government aircraft, it is the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world, benefitting from a low rate of corrosion in the desert climate. According to Wikipedia, there are four categories of storage for aircraft:
Long Term - aircraft are kept intact in "inviolate" storage for future use with no parts removed; Parts Reclamation - aircraft are picked apart and for spare parts; Flying Hold - aircraft are kept intact with regular running of their engines, lubrication of bearings and servicing of fluids; Excess of DoD needs - aircraft are sold off whole or in parts.
Continuing eastward on Interstate 10, we soon arrived in Willcox, AZ, where we stopped for the night with Randall's cousin, Laurette and her husband Mark. Both flautists and retired school teachers, we wondered if we might get a full concert. That was a bit optimistic but we were very happy to hear Laurette demonstrate her piccolo. Many more family stories were swapped and they asked many, penetrating questions about our aquatic lifestyle...which seemed so distant from their lives surrounded by desert. While we talked, I was excited to watch various birds, including many sparrows and white-winged doves, arrive at their bird feeders. We were especially thrilled to add three new species to our life-lists, the pyrrhuloxia, Gambel's quail, and Bendire's thrasher.
Two new bird species for us at Laurette and Mark's feeders: left - the desert-dwelling cardinal called pyrrhuloxia (to 9 inches or 22 cm) and right - male and female Gambel's quail (to 11 inches or 28 cm)
The following morning, Laurette and Mark drove us to the Crane Observatory by the ponds just south of the Twin Lakes Golf Course. Many of the western populations of sandhill cranes spend the winter in Arizona, New Mexico, and along the Mexican border. We heard a few sandhill cranes on the ground but could not see them unless they were flying overhead. We did see hundreds of American wigeon feeding on the golf course, a trio of snow geese, ruddy ducks, and northern shovelers. It did not take long before Laurette seemed keen to buy a pair of binoculars and start their own birding records.
Having said farewell to Laurette and Mark, we head a little further north, stopping for more birding at Roper Lake State Park. Being the middle of the day, few birds were visible, and there was certainly no sign of the vermillion flycatchers that Randall was keen to see. By a barbecue grill in a campsite, however, we did watch a pair of brown birds that we did not recognize. Happily, we realized that they were Abert's towhees, another new species for us.
Continuing to the northeast, we climbed a twisty road over a low range to arrive in New Mexico at the western edge of the Gila National Forest (pronounced "Hee-la"). Stopping at a viewpoint, we found a plaque to Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) noting that this foresighted forester and wildlife manager had in 1924 established, within the Gila National Forest, the Gila Wilderness - the world's first designated wilderness area. Our northeastward view of the Gila Wilderness included the snow-capped Mogollon Mountains (see introductory photograph). The tallest peak within this range, Whitewater Baldy, is 10,895 ft (3,321 m).
We ended our day's travel in the tiny community of Glenwood in the San Francisco River valley. Somehow Randall had not received the address from our hosts, Roger and Kate, so we had to stop and ask people in the street and at the fish hatchery if they knew Roger. Luckily, it was a small enough community that we were eventually directed to the correct house. Randall and Roger had worked together in Glacier National Park in the 1970s and had not seen each other for several decades. Kate and Roger very kindly allowed us to stay in their newer, hilltop house with a commanding view of the Mogollon Mountains, while they spent the nights in their older house (from which they were slowly moving) down by Whitewater Creek.
Following Kate into a culvert under the road at the start of our walk in Harve Gulch
On Sunday, while Randall and Roger were happy to sit around exchanging stories about their past activities and mutual friends, Kate and I went hiking with their dog Scout in Harve Gulch. As a young man, Roger had been a researcher of raptors in the Gila Wilderness and many other areas, so he knew the wild mountains and their populations of peregrine falcons intimately. He and Randall had played together in a bluegrass band during their time in Montana, so they had both been keen to get out some guitars and jam. That evening, we were joined by their guitar-playing son Kyle and his young family, for a delightful evening of music.
The following morning, I went running up an unpaved road to a small airstrip, just west of the Catwalk Recreation Area. It was a good workout grinding uphill for over 3 km, but pretty nice coming back down. As I ran, I studied the various pawprints in the recently formed mud. Most were probably dogs, foxes, or bobcats. I was a bit concerned about mountain lions (a.k.a. cougars) although Kate had told me that she had run the same route many times. Although deaths are rarely caused by cougars (27 deaths out of 167 attacks in North America in the last 100 years), biologists surmise that people are more likely to be seen as potential prey when they bend over or squat than when they are standing. Runners who have been stalked by a cougar, may be more likely to be attacked if they bend over to pick something up or tie a shoelace. If I was going to be running in this area regularly, I would buy slip-on shoes...
Later that day, we returned to the nearby Catwalk Recreation Area where Kate led Randall and me up the trail to an impressively robust boardwalk attached to the sides of the narrow Whitewater Canyon. Randall and I both noted that compared to the long boardwalk that we had explored in Homa Canyon in Türkiye in October, the supports and fences for this catwalk, which was replaced after extreme floods in 2013, seemed much more solid. Although Kate and I were keen to follow the trail further up the canyon, part of it was submerged under icy cold water. Lacking waterproof footwear, we reluctantly turned around. This was a pity as we would have seen the type of areas where Roger (as a young man) had repelled down cliffs to study peregrine falcon nests.
Kate peering down to the creek in Whitewater Canyon below the catwalk on the Catwalk National Recreation Trail: as a result of the recent rains, following the trail further up the canyon would mean wading through cold water
In the afternoon, we drove a little south of Glenwood to the property, in the floodplain of the San Francico River, where Kyle and his wife Meggie have an organic vegetable farm. Amazingly, in an effort to be sustainable, they are building their house out of home-made adobe bricks and they cultivate the land using horse-drawn equipment rather than tractors. Wondering where they found suitable equipment, the answer, which should have been obvious, was from Amish farmers. That is also where they got their four horses (for excellent pictures see their website at:
https://mdexter7.wixsite.com/friscofarm ).
Kyle and Meggie's organic vegetable farm in the floodplain of the San Francisco River which they cultivate using horse-drawn equipment
We left early the next morning, for the long drive to Amarillo, Texas, on a scenic route to Albuquerque through Gila National Forest that Roger had suggested. There were many impressive mesas and cliffs along the route and, as recommended, we stopped at La Ventana Natural Arch in El Malpais National Conservation Area. El Malpais (Spanish for "the badlands") is an extensive area of volcanic features including many layers of lava flow, the oldest dating back about 115,000 years, and the youngest to just 3,900 years ago. Underneath the lava flows, were various layers of sandstone. La Ventana Arch and surrounding bluffs were mostly eroded from Zuni Sandstone which was formed from sand blown across a vast desert to form dunes about 160 million years ago. A thinner sandstone layer near the top was of Dakota Sandstone, laid down about 96 million years ago under the water of the Western Interior Seaway. A series of uplifts and collapses caused massive cracks in the Zuni Sandstone which filled with water. Freeze and thaw cycles would have expanded and contracted those cracks causing fragments to break off and resulting in the 125-feet high, and 165-feet wide arch (38 m by 50 m), the tallest in New Mexico (the Snake Bridge arch is wider).
La Ventana Natural Arch - the surrounding cliffs are impressive but sadly one is not allowed close enough to see the sky through the arch
During our long drive across the northern part of Texas to Texarkana, we randomly stopped at the small town of Saint Joseph for lunch at the Chisholm's Chophouse. Arranged in the Spanish style with a large central square, there were several preserved buildings around it, including the Stonewall Saloon, established in 1873 and named for General "Stonewall" Jackson. The town's first permanent building, it had been a saloon and trail drivers' rest stop from days between 1867 to 1884 when cattle were driven from San Antonio, Texas, along the nearby Chisholm Trail, to railheads in Abilene, Kansas. After county prohibition in 1897, the building became offices and a bank.
The Stonewall Saloon in St Jo with hitching posts outside and the neighboring Chisholm's Chophouse
After our night in Texarkana, we stopped to look for birds in a park in the southern part of town. The flashes of the bright red of northern cardinals and the sky blue of blue jays were becoming much more common as we headed east. We also had a good sighting of a red-headed woodpecker, and new to us, several white-throated sparrows.
We crossed the mighty Mississippi River on Greenville Bridge, then headed south through the small town of Rolling Fork. With roofless buildings, snapped-off trees, and piles of debris, it was still very evident that this town had been badly hit by a big tornado in March 2023. With maximum windspeeds estimated at 195 mph (314 kph), the tornado traveled with an average forward speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) for 59.4 miles (95.6 km), killing 17 people and injuring 165 others. Even a year later, it was a very sobering reminder of a dramatic force of nature.
Meanwhile, the current weather was surprisingly fine. This was surprising because the winter storm that had been forecast to sweep across the nation from the Pacific had, thankfully, stayed to the north of our route. We were lucky because there was plenty of snow on the Sierra Mountains in California. By the end of February, these areas had seen winds over 100 mph (160 kph) and more than 7 feet (nearly 3 m) of snow. So much snow fell in February, that it is anticipated that there would be no widespread drought in California for a couple of years.
We soon arrived at the duck-hunting camp, near Satartia in the Mississippi Delta (floodplain), of our friend Kurt, whose camp partner, Eric, was also visiting. Having all been professional colleagues, in the evening we shared plenty of stories from working on projects or attending conferences. The cabin overlooked former catfish ponds in a tract that Kurt is actively managing to increase biodiversity and, of course, to attract waterfowl. He gave us a grand tour of the property but there were surprisingly few ducks, only a couple of mergansers. There were, however, plenty of redwing blackbirds, northern cardinals, swamp sparrows, and blue jays.
Left - Deciduous trees in Mississippi with Kurt's hunting camp to the right: Right - flatwood pines by Week's Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, AL, visited with Gidget and Joe
Leaving camp the next morning, we headed southeast, stopping in southern Hattiesburg to eat our picnic and look at the Canada geese, ring-necked ducks, and various other waterfowl at Duncan Lake Park. The following two nights were spent as guests of Gidget and Joe near Fairhope, AL. Again, we knew Joe from our professional days, so in addition to trading stories and pictures of our respective travels (they spend the summers hiking and fishing in Wyoming in their camper), we also reminisced about events and friends from various conferences.
Gidget and Joe drove us through the attractive, artsy town of Fairhope, on the east side of Mobile Bay. It was busy on a Saturday morning so we did not stop but enjoyed a good walk with their dog Jensen to Weeks Bay on the Fish River. Watching ospreys diving for fish, pelicans flying in and out of the bay, and eastern bluebirds in the pine flatwoods, started to get us in the mood for returning to Florida the following day. It was a six-hour drive back to Gainesville and the excellent company of Nancy.
We had thoroughly enjoyed our tour around the US and SW Canada seeing so many wonderful people, but we were ready for a bit of a rest from traveling. We have several more medical check-ups and procedures to attend/endure and plenty of supplies to purchase to take back to Tregoning. However, with just over a month before we leave Florida, we are also looking forward to spending more time with our friends here, especially those we had missed seeing in November. Then we will dust off our passports and take-off on our next overseas adventures...