How's this for a landing?

I went to bed too early last night, didn't eat much, woke up by 3 AM, hungry and unable to sleep. Got up, cooked the chili I had been planning to make today, ate two bowls of it, finally dozed off. So by 7 AM I was feeling puny. Real puny. But the trail must go on, so I made it to the landing. Set up my red stool and before I could sit down a female Lucifer Hummingbird came to check it out. I finally figured out how to set my camera on the timer and managed this "proof of landing" shot.

From there I trudged onward up the ridge. Shoddy trail work, but way better than no trail. Maybe later I'll rework some sections, or not. Only lasted two hours today. It was so humid. I do hope to make the upper landing tomorrow, although the trail will bypass it.

Here's my first Eastern Pondhawk for the year.

Saddle trail on my mind

The red is approximately where I think the trail is currently and the aqua is approximately where I think it is going (revised since actually scouting the route). From where the aqua line ends it goes around behind that rock outcrop (that's above the upper landing) and out of sight in this photo. It can't go straight to the saddle because of the arroyo. So it'll circle around the arroyo. But it'll be following the Aoudad trail and easy to rework. And shouldn't require hardly any steps. That's the plan anyway. I think the saddle is nearly one block wide. The left side of it is hidden behind that rock outcrop. I have posted photos of it before though (most recently on June 12).  Daylight tomorrow.........

Got to CMO mid-afternoon (104°). Serviced the hummingbird feeders and looked for odes and butterflies but didn't see anything interesting. Need rain bad.

Alpine forced rest and recovery

Even though I spent over 14 hours the last couple of days (7 on the trail and 7 watering trees in the 100° + heat), I'm ready to get back to the trail work. That isn't going to happen until Thursday morning though.

So I'm searching for odonates and butterflies here in town. Found what I think is my first Alpine American Rubyspot.

And I'm pretty sure this is a Plateau Spreadwing.

I've been wanting to post these before and after photos from the last day I worked on my sister's Blue Oak Trail. The most fun part of the trail for me was picking and sledgehammering this outcrop from the trail. Here's the before:

And the after:

The outcrop had been blocking the trail. I made sure I didn't harm that bush underneath the arrow. These photos were taken several weeks apart and the bush is greener in the last one.

Up and at it

Got an early start on the trail and lasted 3 hours. I didn't make it to the lower landing, but got close.

I could easily have made it if I hadn't been so nit-PICKy about the trail quality. Roughing it in isn't my style. I can't leave a place alone until it suits me. The part I'm working on now may be the worst part of the trail to do. At one place I couldn't pick enough rock from the slope so had to widen a spot or two with rubble. 

Here's looking down and back on part of what I did today. There are lots of steps cut into that slope, but the photo deceivingly makes it look flat. On the above photo it doesn't show how steep the slope below the trail is either. That was a horrible slope to climb before the trail because it's all loose rubble. I'm looking forward to being able to sit in my red folding stool at the landing. As you can see in the next photo, I've been lugging it along with me.

Funny how the peak at the bottom of the ridge looks so steep and the section by the trail doesn't. They're both the same degree of steepness though.

Back at the oasis there's tons of Soapberry blooming.

And what a delight to see these purple hibiscus blooming near the beginning of my trail.

UPDATE: ID'd by Patricia Manning as Paleface Mallow (Hibiscus denudatus).

The killer climb

Here's the hummingbird garden as it looked at daylight before I headed up the mountain.

It was already 72° so I didn't have the advantage of a cool first couple of hours. It took me 4 hrs to do the climb. 90° when I got back down. Tomorrow I plan to take it much easier, maybe just work an hour or so.

I made it up to the saddle by sheer willpower, or hard-headedness. Good that I did because I would have gone the wrong way up. I tried to go over the ridge a ways above the landing, but although I climbed up that way today, no trail up would be possible.

After you get over the ridge you're forced to climb down a steep slope and then up toward the saddle again. Exhausting and needing hands and feet to do. Following the ridge on that side isn't doable. Too many sheer cliff faces. To keep the climb uphill all the way, and not up and down, requires going up on the south side of the ridge and crossing it near the top, past the big arroyo. Henceforth, the landing will be called the "lower landing." I have to go past it to a higher "upper landing," then angle across the ridge. Pictures are so deceiving. On the next photo you can barely see the huge deep chasm between where I'm standing and the ridge. One cliff wall is barely peeking out (below and between #1 and #2).

#1 The low part of the ridge that I originally anticipated crossing.

#2  The place on the ridge I later figured I'd angle across from the "lower landing." But to do that I'd have to make a trail on a steeper slope than I would on the south side of the ridge.

#3  By cutting steps into the south slope and crossing here I won't have to go downhill but can rework an Aoudad trail from this point to the saddle. So that's the plan. Tomorrow I hope to make it to the lower landing with the trail. I've learned that even crude work with the hoe makes a lot of difference in being able to navigate the terrain, so I'm thinking about just roughing it in and refining it later.

I forgot binoculars today so didn't look for Lucifer nests. Here is a photo I took of a Mexican Blue Oak tree growing inside a crevasse near the saddle. I didn't have the stamina to climb closer for a closer photo, but if I ever make it up there again, I will.

This afternoon I saw my first frog being eaten by a turtle. Some kind of Leopard Frog, but I don't know the kind of turtle.

UPDATE: Here's the kind of Leopard Frog it was. Thanks, Scott, for the turtle ID: Mud Turtle.  Perhaps Yellow Mud Turtle. I've been told I had them here. I just don't know turtles.

All rested and ready

I finally located this photo taken the last time I went up to the south saddle. It was Oct 30, 2013.

In white is the treacherous path I took that day, vowing to never do that again. I had followed the base of the wall around to the saddle after a near vertical climb. Really dangerous then, and with my knees now bad, no longer doable. Red X is the landing that I've decided to bypass, yellow is where the trail currently is, more or less. Turquoise is where I'm hoping to continue the trail if it is feasible after I check it out tomorrow. The photo is deceiving, making it all look flat, whereas, it's rugged terrain. We shall see.

In Alpine I photographed this Cyna Blue (Zizula cyna) with my camera's exposure compensation set correctly. Sure makes a difference. When it was off I messed up some great shots.

I think this next shot is of a Southern Spreadwing damselfly.

Here's the Desert Firetail after I got the exposure compensation adjusted, although I think this is a different pair (and different position).

Reining myself in

I decided until the trail is done I'm going to do two days there and two days in town to keep myself from overdoing. If I hadn't come to town last night I'd have been up working on the trail at daylight  this morning. I definitely should not do more than two consecutive days of that now that it's so far up to where the work left off.

My plan is to go all the way to the saddle next time I'm there, and flag the best way back to my trail. And spend some time there looking for nests. No work until the following day. That's my plan.

In Alpine, I figured out why my photos were all coming up blue. The AWB (Auto White Balance) was set wrong. Grrr!  Here are a couple of photos of Desert Firetails doing their thing. This was before I adjusted the WB so I did my best to correct it on photoshop.

And a different kind of fire, these Red Hot Pokers (tritoma). 

The green beans in the garden are loaded with little beans.

And the apple tree is dripping with apples again this year. I made a yummy apple cobbler today from some I'd picked up off the ground. Too green yet for much else, but can't bear to waste them.

Tough going

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going." I kept that adage on my refrigerator the whole 2 ½ years I was building my house. I thought it was what got me through. Now I'm thinking maybe it was mostly youth that did it. The trail going is tough. I was exhausted just getting to where I left off yesterday. I had planned to go back up tomorrow, but decided not to. I've had a mild headache ever since going up yesterday. My body needs time to recover. I really hate that too because I'm so motivated to do it. I don't mind the pain in my joints, as long as they still function. But my knees just don't function. They're the problem.

Here's the trail where I left off today. Just mostly jagged uneven rock. I'm picking steps into it as best I'm able. It may not look like much improvement from ascending the slope without a trail, but it makes a huge difference. Climbing stairs vs struggling around rocks and bushes, skidding and sliding, no stable footing, on knees that don't work. Either way I have to use a walking stick.

This next shot is taken from the ridge toward the saddle. It's misleading because there's a lot it doesn't show.

There's a big jagged dip between the ridge line and the  mountain wall, outlined in red in this next shot. I've been through that pass. No way to put a trail through there. But I need to check it out again, just to be sure.  The yellow line is in the general area of where I plan to cross the ridge. I decided to bypass the landing and angle upward over the ridge. I do think it would be best to climb to the saddle before I go farther so I can get a better feel for where it's best to go. I'm going to try, but on the day I do that, I won't be able to work. The floor of the mountain top is about 4400' and the top of the wall is about 4700.' The saddle is in between those two elevations. (The oasis is just under 4000.')

Here is the lower part of the ridge. Even if I could cross the ridge here, the going on the north side would be much more difficult.. 

Back at CMO, too tired to spend much time. Very hot day too (over 100°). Here's a pair of Orange Skipperlings doing their thing.

Onward and upward

Back to trail work. Making good progress. The solid red line is what I did today and the dashed line is what I hope to get done in the next couple of days. It's about an equal amount to what I did today (although distance makes it look like less), but that last stretch to the landing is going to be cut into the side of a very steep slope and may go slow. I made that big switchback today, but think I shouldn't have. It wasn't too steep if I had gone straight up. At the time it seemed like the less strenuous a climb, the better, but now I'm having second thoughts. Too late. Can't change it now.

Before I progress beyond the landing I have to scout the route to the saddle. So far, I haven't had the energy to climb past the landing but hopefully with a trail to the landing it shouldn't be difficult to make it over the ridge and down (or across?) to the saddle, which is my destination. Before I commit to the side of the ridge I'm going to check, once again, to see if there's any way I can put the trail atop the ridge. As I recall, it's too rough and rocky on top, but once I get nearer I'll take another look. Soon I hope to post a photo of the saddle. And Lucifer nests below it. They're there. Somewhere.

Several people have asked me how it can be easier to build a trail than to just climb the mountain. I can't explain it, but it just is. Climbing the whole thing at one time is too exhausting. But hoeing, and occasionally picking, for 2 hrs a day is not that hard. Getting to where I left off is getting harder every day. I don't know if I'll be able to make it past the landing, even with a trail. But I have a better chance of making it with a trail than without one. I only work on the trail for 3 consecutive days, then I go to town for 3 days. I work for 2 hours a day, but it's possible that I'll have to cut down on the working time as it takes longer to arrive to where I need to start work.

Ann and Julie are working on the other side of the mountain on a trail past the Blue Oaks to the pouroff. They aspire to eventually be able to walk the loop. From the pouroff across the mountain valley (Brian calls that valley "Little Green Gulch.") to the saddle I'm working towards, and down my side. The only problem with doing that is getting back to your vehicle. Better to do it when someone is on hand to shuttle you to your vehicle.

Meanwhile, back at the oasis, I saw a Giant Darner but could not get a photo. Lucifer Hummingbirds are still very plentiful and consuming lots of sugar water. I heard the distinct "fitz-bew" call of a Willow Flycatcher and finally got a photo of it although I was looking into the late afternoon sun so the color is bad. I was surprised ebird flagged it as rare. I've had them before but I guess not in June before.

I can't explain why the sides of the tail appear to be white. They shouldn't be. Maybe the way the light was hitting it. Empidonax flycatchers are maddening. If I hadn't heard the call I wouldn't have attempted to ID it.

At least the bill is consistent with a Willow Flycatcher.

Alpine doldrums

I'm trying to find something positive about being stuck in town for a couple of days but it's not easy. Walking around our place I photographed this interesting mushroom. That's it.

Now back to sleeping too much, eating too much, and too much TV.