Say Yo to a Threatened Species...

Meet a Desert Tortoise (Gopherus agassiziiand Gopherus morafkai).  

One would have a greater chance of seeing Sasquatch or Nessie the Loch Ness Monster than one of these units. Besides being rare, they spend 95% of their time in burrows. Out of sight, out of mind. 

I felt blessed to be on the receiving end of this close encounter of the Tortoise kind. 

There numbers have been greatly reduced by the usual suspects: loss of habitat (run over by strip malls, roads and subdivisions),  ATV'ers (run over by motorized vehicles), diseases (infected by pet tortoises released into the wild), and predation (Ravens really do a number on the soft shelled juveniles). 

In other words, it's not easy being green/gray.

In all the years and miles of wandering in the Southwest deserts, this is only the third one I've ever seen.  

However for some reason, this one made the tastiest soup!

Only joking! I would never harm a hair on its thumb sized head. That is if it had hair.

I hope one day you get the opportunity to see a Desert Tortoise. Hanging out with Horace the Tortoise made my day. It should do the same for you.

They live from 50-80 years. They know how to pace themselves. Maybe slow and steady wins the race after all. 

Cheers from Frigid Flagstaff, Arizona 

Jeff

Last photo: the road does go on forever.

A Stark Reminder:

Bad things can happen in National Parks. 

When a park's name is Death Valley, I'm extra careful. 

However it doesn't matter how safety conscious a hiker is; sometimes Mother Nature can turn bitch. Like the time I was exploring here in February, 2016. Who knew the rock I was standing on would slide? Why wasn't there a warning sign? 

Because it's a wild place and that's the way it's meant to be.

A typical day for me is to inhale two pots of coffee, washed down by breakfast and head out. I'm not really sure where I'll end up. Oftentimes, I get side tracked. No one knows where I am. 

A lot of the times, I'm unsure of where I am too! I think a lot about Aron Ralston. He's the dude who amputated his caught between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place arm in a Utahan slot canyon. No one knew where he was either. In fact, no one noticed he was gone. 

People are BUSY.  They don't have the time or energy to ponder about other humans precise locations. My black comedy joke with my family is, "if you don't hear from me in a few years, read my last blog. At least you will have an idea on where to start searching for my bleached bones." 

I don't wish to ever write a blog or book about limping out of a scary situation. Doh!  I've already did that! 

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/02/as-i-was-falling-over-backwards.html

Now I have a gimpy left knee. It's better than what the final alternative could have been. 

I'm running out of my Nine Lives. 

With all these morbid thoughts in my brain, I don't take unnecessary chances. When I see a rough route in an unnamed side canyon, I'll look at it from below. Is it worth the risk to see where it might lead? The answer is "No!" If I got into trouble there, Search and Rescue would never find me. Unlike Mr. Ralston, I don't carry a Swiss Army Knife in case I needed to perform an emergency surgery. 

My point to all this? There are risks in everything we do. Try to hedge your bets to see another day. Injury or Death can really screw up your future plans. 

I'll paraphrase World Class mountaineer Ed Viesturs, "Getting to my destination is optional. Returning back to Barley the Van is mandatory." 

Speaking about Survivors! Check out this male Wood Duck doing laps at the Stovepipe Wells pool. A wetlands duck in a vast desert? Talk about misreading your map. 

Be safe out there,

Jeff

Death Valley is sort of Dead...

Compared to mid-February when I was fortunate to be here at the height of the Super Bloom.

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/02/super-bowl-vs-super-bloom.html

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/02/i-bloomin-in.html

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/02/parting-is-such.html

All those lovely blooms have now gone to seed. However, that's not what's making Death Valley seem lifeless. There's hardly any people here. Measured by the National Park Service's barometer of crowds, the Selfie-Stick Index, the Park is a virtual Ghost Town.

What's the Selfie-Stick Index you ask? Why it's the number of visitors welding Selfie-Sticks/100. The Index was pegging in the 80's when the Park resembled a Flower Shop. Now it's down to a more manageable 20-30 range. This makes walking around the overlooks a lot safer. Have you ever been "cloths lined" by a Selfie-Stick? 

I'm now in Barley the Van, getting a bit seasick as we get jostled by northerly Banshee breezes. Unfortunately, it's not the "When this Van is rocking, don't come knocking,"  kind. Rats! It's also raining. A lot. But, it's a warm rain. Oh yeah, there's flash flood warnings too. 

These photos were taken above DV today, before the wind and the rain came by. 

Excuse me while I blow up my water wings. 

This sure beats White Death. 

Jeff

PS. If you care to visit, get here soon, it's 20 degrees cooler than normal now. That won't last and neither will I. Triple digit temperatures will be returning next week. The NPS closes all the campgrounds in the Valley by May 10. I suppose it's a way of preventing heat related bad things from happening to the clueless. Think of it as a form of Heat Hibernation. 

PPS. Last photo, there were pupfish swimming near Barley this morning.