It is the final countdown and I can honestly say I am ready to get this over with. We are squeezing in a final dog show this weekend up north. Linda is trying her hardest to get the boys qualified for next year’s CPE agility nationals – actually delayed the surgery to get these last two weeks of shows in. Raven is as steady as always and Ruger is trying to make up for last weekend’s rather hmmm…scatterbrained performance. When he is on, he is ON, when he is off…good thing he is so damn cute ha. Ron and I were also able to get one last field outing in yesterday to close out the mid-year cycle. We are in the dog days of birding and pretty slim pickings at the cross section of the birds I still need and the winged ones that are braving the Midwest heat. Managed to notch a new +1 for the year bringing the Average Year total to a shocking 390! It has been a difficult road since that fateful day on Oct 12th (5:26am to be exact) and at this point, the ankle has clearly given all it had left (struggling to hold weight today). The real hardship is knowing that this is one of the big ultra race weekends of the year and I miss suffering with my peeps in the heat and hills out on the trail.
Today will be my last post as Brad will take the helm likely through the rest of this month and maybe beyond depending on how things go. Thought I would go with a final featured feathered friend that has also brought its share of frustrations over the years.
The fact you can tell that is a bird is in large part due to absolute luck. Hit the jump to learn more about a bird sure to bring a chuckle to all high school boys.
Well, I thought I was prepared for the outcome of my MRI results. Truth is… I wasn’t. It wasn’t the revelation that my ankle was “not right”. That I was quite aware of based on what I’ve been dealing with since about 5:28am on October 12th last year (link here). Since then I’ve gone through a litany of issues – a major struggle being able to convince the medical community there were issues beyond their rosier assessments. I’ve covered that in the past, no need to rehash that. I finally got an orthopedic surgeon that understood my plight which has lifted my spirits tremendously, then he interpreted the findings in the MRI and my heart sank. The situation is bad, very bad. The tibia breaks have healed, but there is “missing” cartilage, tendon and ligament tears and spurs on the fibula from the trauma. That news was not the only proverbial kick in the groin. The treatment schedule was even more devastating. Surgery mid July, followed by 6 weeks NO WEIGHT, then 4 weeks of boot followed by 4 week of brace with heavy therapy involved in that last 2 months. Running done for the foreseeable future, 2025 racing season lost, impact on 2026 ultra levels concerning. My head was a mess playing those schedules out and I remember looking at Linda as we both came to the realization that our annual haunted trail party was in serious jeopardy. Three of my four passions were just pulled out from under me with one mighty pull. Linda and I are still running the timelines and getting prepared the best we can. The sickening thing is I could have been past all this had we started back in December.
I was scrolling through my queue for something to feature today and then the obvious choice came up.
Hit the jump to see more pictures of my early running icon.
It has been a busy week here at Intrigued HQ. Progressing nicely through the backlog of fixes to props that experienced a malfunction on the trail last year – that amount has been steadily decreasing each year as we continue to “harden” our designs and implementations. The main issue tends to be the trek down and then back up from the valley each year as all the jostling tends to awaken the “spirits in the machine” so to speak. Was able to add a new section of shelving in the outbuilding yesterday to accommodate our every-increasing sized props. Linda declared the prop development has to end when that fills up. I simply pointed at all the leftover 2x4s. I can hear the voice from the cornfield “Build more shelves and the props will come” hehehe. Also getting ahead of all the homestead upkeep. A lot of this push is due to successfully getting my ankle surgeon appointment moved up to tomorrow and bracing for the likely bad news. Trying to keep as much work off of Linda as possible if I’m put out of service for a while. I know I’ll need to rely heavily on Brad to keep you entertained during that recovery, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Sit back and enjoy a few NABs found on our trips out West.
Howdy folks! Somehow we have managed to fly through July already. Part of that fly-by was thanks to a pretty busy month here at Intrigued. Intrigued’s 4th celebration, Brad and Jan out in the field and there were several running events packed in there; Jan’s St. Jude run, my failure at Cry My a River and as of last Saturday, our 20th consecutive running of the Bix7 up in the Quad Cities. Admittedly, wasn’t so sure how the Bix would go based on my previous performance in the heat and Bix is traditionally an oven of a race being deep in July. Fortunately, temps stayed Midwestern mild in mid to high 80s for the actual race and all went well, very well actually (temps did go back up to normal post race). A great way to wrap up my road race career, it is all trails from this point on! While I get a bit of recovery in, Brad is going to bring us an adventure from another steamy location.
Take it away Brad…
Jan and I have the Annual Parks Pass, allowing us unfettered access to all of the nation’s national parks, forests, monuments, etc. We’ve purchased one each year since we retired and have more than paid for the pass with savings on park entrance fees several times over. When we had the opportunity to visit another National Park, we jumped at the chance to pile on the savings. If you don’t have your Annual Parks Pass by now . . . well . . . you know who you are.
The desert around Las Vegas is just that; a desert. We shook it up a bit by visiting the largest reservoir in the US, or even in North America: Lake Mead. For those keeping score at home, Lake Powell has more surface area, but Lake Mead holds more water. Both are suffering from extended drought conditions and increased demand for water. Kids don’t let the water keep running when you brush your teeth. After leaving the visitor center, we headed towards the Wetland Trail in Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
A few minutes into our hike along a ridge, I spotted something flitting in and out of a hole in the side of a cliff. A swallow was my first thought, but being 50-75 yards away, all I got was a small brown smudge on the sensor near the middle of the photo
Look closely and you’ll see the tiny image of the bird near a hole where the rock changes from gravelly aggregate to red-striated sandstone. Did you see it? Good.
This wetland trail area looks a bit like a capital letter “X”. The parking lot is near the top with the trail running along a ridge down the middle of the top half of the X. The marshy area is down the left leg of the X. The right side of the X was completely dry, even when it met the other side near the middle of the X. The trail along the peak of the ridge was mostly loose gravel. Several signs stated that this trail was not maintained and to hike at our own risk. The top part of the trail was OK. But as we neared the junction of the X and began the descent, I was very aware I was carrying a 9 lb. camera because the swinging weight was affecting my footing. Jan must have had a harder time of it. I imagined I was hiking on a non-stick surface covered in loose marbles. We descended the loose gravel switchbacks to the bottom of the wash ending up by the running water (left side of the X). Jan headed upstream along the marshy area and I wandered downstream a bit. At the bottom of the trail the right side of the X connected with our ravine then branched off again. This other ravine was probably the one I had seen from above early on.
As I wandered into the other ravine (right side of the X near the center), I saw a branch sticking out of dried mud. I think it was the remains of a tree that had been washed down the ravine during the biblical rains from Hurricane Hilary the prior summer. This was the same storm system that left standing water in Badwater Basin at Death Valley (future story).
A little brown smudge landed on the end of the branch. Naturally, I started clicking away. The smudge was still a bit far for a good photo, so I walked slowly until the bird began to fill the frame.
Life Intrigued 