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TR Posts: 67
4/24/2012
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Went out to Borrego this weekend, by way of the Sunrise Highway. It's getting to be my favorite route. My wife and I stayed a the Laguna Mt. Lodge about a month ago. But that's another story and different pictures.
Saw a paraglider along the Pacific Crest Trail.
I decided to hike Rainbow Canyon. It took my three tries to get away from the LandCruiser. First, the lumbar pact was so heavy it was falling down around my knees. So I lightened the load. Took out the binoculars, and the first aid kit. Though the later would turn out to be a mistake afterwards. But I wasn't going to cut down on the two liters of water. Anyway, after going back a second time for bug spray, I finally got underway.
Nobody seems to mention the barbed wire fence that you have to cross. Not a big deal, execpt for all the gear I had to unload and load up again.
Anyway, saw lots of flowers, some quail, couple of lizards, and one jack rabbit on the way back. Here's a few of the flower pictures.
Not realy sure what kind of cactus this was, though it looked like a tall cholla.
Agave in bloom.
These next few are for my wife. She loves the colors.
Wouldn't you know it, Daren would come up with a fish hook with more fruit on it. I had never seen this before, and I was really excited to see it beginning to bloom and bear fruit. Bob, I had heard that they were good to eat, but left it for someone or something the needed it more than I.
This was the only monkey flower that I saw. I was really surprised as usually they are very prolific.
But there were lots of jumping cholla balls.
A particularly good paintbrush bush.
This is one of a covy of quail. They would run along from cover to cover. And wait till I got right up beside it, and they would take off.
This was up on the canyon wall. It seemed to be growing out of an agave. But I don't know what it was.
A cholla finally got me. Actually, I got myself. It was on the toe of my boot, and I brushed my boot up against my calf. When the cursing stopped, this is what I found.
One for Daren. An obligatory scat picture.
And of course the first of the dry falls. I was moving so slowly, takiing pictures, and had to take the time to pull all those cactus spines out with my Leatherman's pliers, I wasn't up for climbing the falls. Besides Schad says that it becomes less interesting above them. Or atleast that was my rationalization. I now have any excuse to go back again.
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/24/2012
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TR, you kill me..I love your posts...
The barbed wire fence can actually be somewhat bypassed by walking a little SE towards the wash. The fence is stomped down to the ground and you can just walk over it. Your encounter with the cholla balls is typical for me, they get stuck on the shoe and then brushed up against your leg as walk. My usual method of getting them off is with 2 rocks, one on each side and a quick yank/pull but damn they hurt! I have followed the canyon up to Blair Valley, I personally like the whole canyon, it opens up to a wide sandy wash at the top, I saw some deer there last summer. There is another dry fall ahead, a double fall actually, you should go again when you feel up to it. There was a large hawk nest up in the canyon wall last summer when I went.
Nice pics, thanks for posting!
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/24/2012
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Oh yeah, was gonna add that the bugs are bad now and probably will be for a few months. I was getting pretty bent out of shape this last weekend over them, they were all flying in my eyes, nose, ears, mouth...I hate bugs but they love me.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
4/24/2012
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Looks like someone did some rock piling to get up and over the dry fall.
TR wrote:
And of course the first of the dry falls. I was moving so slowly, takiing pictures, and had to take the time to pull all those cactus spines out with my Leatherman's pliers, I wasn't up for climbing the falls. Besides Schad says that it becomes less interesting above them. Or atleast that was my rationalization. I now have any excuse to go back again.
--
http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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