Family time

Since my grandson's visit is nearing its end, I took him to the oasis yesterday morning. He immediately went to climb my mountain (his first time), indicating he'd probably be gone a couple of hours. He refused to take water. Didn't want to carry the weight and sure he wouldn't get thirsty in that amount of time.

When he hadn't returned in four hours I began to worry and fear the worst. I shared my concerns with birders that were there at the time. After I went to my cabin to see if he had tried to call me (there is cell service on top of the mountain) a birder came rushing up to tell me she saw him wandering around on a slope. It took binoculars to spot him.

I immediately drove to the trailhead, which was the nearest I could get to where he was. When we got within talking distance of one another he told me he had lost his Go-Pro camera somewhere around there. Seems he had walked all over the top of the mountain, and after starting back down, had inadvertently lost my trail. (A person doesn't realize how important it is to stay on the trail until they lose it.) Soon he found himself descending a steep slope, so he swung his camera strap around to his back to keep it safer. Apparently in the process, it unknowingly came out of its pouch. By the time he had gotten down and realized it, he not only didn't know where it had happened, he didn't know where he had been, so he spent two hours scouring the steep slope about where he thought he had shifted the pouch.

Well, of course, I whisked him off to the cabin and loaded him with food and water (he hadn't eaten all day). Then he got the idea to go back with my binoculars and try again. He told me he'd be back before dark, but otherwise wouldn't stop looking.

After leaving him, once again, at the trailhead, I hadn't been back at the cabin long when he comes in triumphantly carrying his camera. Seems he had just barely started up the trail, decided to look through the binoculars, make sure they were adjusted to his vision, and start scouring the slope. Without his glasses or contact lenses, which he hadn't brought along, his distance vision isn't good. The camera, the size of a cell phone, was in a bright orange case just to make it easy to locate. As soon as he scoped the slope he glimpsed a speck of orange, and made haste straightaway (no trail or switchbacks) to it. He ended up with blisters and scratches, but happy.

This morning while I was watering trees I had him do a little project that I'd been wanted done for quite some time. An old concrete feeder base, not being used since bears destroyed the feeder, was an eyesore and I wanted more concrete flooring in the new blind. So I had him install it there.

On the way back to Alpine we stopped by my sister's house, where we snapped a few photos.

Then, in Alpine, a few more.