Thursday, June 25, 2009

Navel of the Universe (part II)

Got up this morning and rode the Continental Divide Trail again. Still struggling with altitude here, but gawd, do I love riding in the Gila! The trails were in perfect condition after our light rain yesterday.
Took a few pics with my "back-up camera", a Canon A530.

After pedaling out from town (5 miles of steady climbing), I started out on the Gomez Peak Trail system.

This is a typical trail in the Gomez Peak system. Nice swoopy turns, and rock outcroppings to make it interesting.

Fresh coyote (?) scat. Probably shat in the last 12 hours or so.

Prickly pear flower providing food and moisture for all sorts of critters.

This is an interesting patch of ground approaching the "finger gate" On the right side of the pic the ground is covered with lichen. Usually lichen grows on rocks. This patch has been there since I first rode this trail back in the early 90's.

The Gila! Looking north-northwest toward the wilderness area. The knob in the center is a Preacher's Point. It is a waypoint when riding "Horseshoe Bend" on Bear Creek. It is a mini-epic jeep road type ride that I haven't done in 15 years. I first explored that area with my old Jeep CJ-5 when in high school. I used to drive all around that country alone...without telling anyone where I was going...of course that back-in-the-days before cell phones. There is some wild country out there!

Right about here, I scared up two mule deer, then a little further down the trail, I came across 5 adult wild turkey and 3 "turklets".

Cholla are in bloom as well.

Typical trail conditions for the "Hill of Death" part of the CDT. Lots of golf ball-sized rocks.

Large critters spotted:
- mule deer
- raven
- wild turkey
- turkey vulture
- numerous pinon jays
- javelina

The CDT "South" is always great ride!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great pics Mimbs! Good stuff.