Tag: Spring Mountain Ranch State Park

Hidden Reach

Hello everyone! Going to let Brad have a small break from covering for me while I’m on the mend. Difficult enough bringing you the recent rapid fire posts, but having to deal with all the standard stuff around the headquarters is a daunting task without the added burden of keeping our unruly legal department under control – may have to up his bonus this year, but don’t tell him that. As far as an update on the surgery front, there has been a small hiccup with the transition from the surgical dressing to the surgical boot that has brought some unexpected discomfort (oddly more painful than the surgery itself). Other than that, surgeon says everything looks good. He also reiterated the “no weight for 5 more weeks” edict within earshot of Linda which threw a giant wrench in my well contrived plans – back to the drawing board. Seems like everything I want/need now is just out of reach from my crutches and scooter which is starting to annoy me – oh, except for my running shoes that are beyond just “out of reach” to the point I have no idea where the hell they are now. Linda’s devious I tell you, devious. Let’s see, pull up browser, type in H-O-K-A.com and get me some new sho…oh crap, here she comes…backspace, backspace, backspace, H-A-U-N-T.com, “Who, what, me!?! No, no, I’m, just looking for new haunted trail props” – this is going to be a long 5 weeks. Note, I did make a new haunt-to video which I’ll mention at the end in case you are interested.

While searching through the photo queue, I noticed something in one of the image sets that made me laugh in reference to my current situation. Perfect, welcome to tonight’s featured feathered friend.

Northern Flicker found at Desert NWR, Las Vegas, in January 2024

Hit the jump to see a Northern Flicker characteristic I have never seen before!

Continue reading Hidden Reach

Return to Roadrunner

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.

Greater Roadrunner found at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, Blue Diamond, NV in January 2024

Hit the jump to see more pictures of my early running icon.

Continue reading Return to Roadrunner

Rufouspalooza

Greetings everyone! May is turning out to be the same as April..well, March and February and Jan..you get the picture – BUSY! The long travels are on the backburner for now and pretty much for the next couple of months it will only be short excursions for dog shows etc. Close to half this year, so far, has been in other states so it will be nice to toil at the homestead for a while. Kudos to those full time RVers out there, if we didn’t come back to “space” I think Linda and I would drive each other crazy ha. This also means the hard work begins. Plenty of outdoor work to get done around the house and in the woods plus the annual Haunted Trail event is just around the corner (in haunt units of time), so the haunt lab is now in full production mode. On top of all that, our haunt department has finally pulled the trigger on their haunt themed YouTube channel. In the past we have used the Intrigued Mothership (lifeintrigued.com) to feature our various prop projects, but those have been getting more involved over the years and the word format was causing major finger fatigue. What I didn’t expect was the amount of time required to move to the video format – new tools to learn, more planning, more editing and most of all, being back in front of the camera. Pretty rusty since those days in the corporate grind. Fortunately, all things that go bump in the night are my passion so it is still a lot of fun! I’ll include a link to our first prop tutorial video at the bottom of this post in case you are interested.

Sticking with that theme of hard work, today’s featured feathered friend can make you want to pull your rufous feathers out in the field.

Green-Tailed Towhee found at Catalina State Park outside Tucson, AZ in January 2024

Hit the jump to read more about this rather elusive new check on my birding life list.

Continue reading Rufouspalooza

Another Sapsipper

Yikes, it has been a while since we last spoke. Things have been really busy around Intrigued as of late. This week we launched the new Haunt Channel to start using the video format to showcase our Halloween themed creations. I thought blogging took a bit of work, but video is a whole new ball of worms that will take some getting used to. Also had a chance to get out and bird to pump up my county, state and US tallies. Things are looking up on all those fronts and the current total of 249 species for the Average Year is making me really happy – Ron is probably cursing it ha! (link here not updated). The biggest consumer of time has been in recovery mode. Since being released by the surgeon, I’ve been putting in the hard work to get back in the game. Beyond the gym work, been walking several miles a day and today was the first day I was able to intersperse some short jogs. The usual July ultra is off the table now due to the lack of runway, so the new target is the October ultra. One must have goals no matter how ambitious. In honor of the color my face must have been today, say hello to today’s featured feathered friend.

Red-Breasted Sapsucker found at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, Blue Diamond, NV in January 2024

Hit the jump to learn more about this red hued member of the Woodpecker family.

Continue reading Another Sapsipper

Not a Chance with Linda

I has been a very long time since I was “birded out”. After three solid weeks of birding through the southeast, I have to admit I’m probably there. I’ve walked nearly a third of the miles I usually run in a month and that is saying A LOT. Was it worth it…well, I was sitting at 240 for the Average Year when we embarked on the migration trek and thanks to some unexpected good fortune before we even made it to Dauphin Island, the count now sits at 292. For those that have been following along, yes, that is a mere 8 little birdies away from the initial goal – and only 4 months in. Unfortunately, The Beast developed a glitch and my rotator on my previously repaired shoulder feels like a knife stab on every training run stride.

Gear can be fixed and pain eventually subsides, you’re really here to see the incredible feathered feature of the day!

Juniper Titmouse found at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park, Blue Diamond, NV in January 2023

Eh, to be honest, this one is not that incredible and thanks to an unexpected surprise, it isn’t even a new bird to the blog. At least it has a cute crest. Could be worse, there were a few little brown jobbers in the queue ha.

The intent was to focus on the background for this rather drab looking birdy per the norm with new checks on the life list. Processed all the pics, added them to the new post, went to add the tags and “what is this..the Juniper Titmouse tag is already in my history” Sure enough, Juni made its appearance back in August 2014 (from a trip back in Nov 2012) – link here.

Hit the jump to see more of this bird that will NEVER make it into Linda’s tin. She has a strict policy of only tinning the colorful ones.

Continue reading Not a Chance with Linda

Clowning Around

Howdy folks! Last we talked, we were heading out to Dauphin Island for the Spring migration. Big thanks to Brad for manning the Intrigued Headquarters while we hopped through base camps during the first leg of our adventure. You will be hearing more from Brad as we head “back” to Dauphin. Those that do not fear the blue “wedge piece” might think we overshot as are current site is just outside Gainesville, Florida. Reminiscent of Jeep’s popular spare tire cover – “Not all who wander are lost”. Definitely not lost, we are here for a dog agility event and tomorrow we’ll start heading back through the panhandle, quick airport stop to pick up Ron and then make our way to Dauphin. Have I mentioned lately how great retirement is ha. That isn’t to say there hasn’t been a good bit of birding along the way… understatement – there has actually been a LOT of birding to the point of already being completely exhausted. Birded Kentucky, birded Alabama, birded Georgia and for our first time ever, birded northern Florida. In addition to a world class farmer’s tan, I’ve given an adrenaline shot right to the heart of the Average Year efforts (link here – note, not current). The official count now sits at 260 after adding 20 checks since are departure – several of them lifers. Feeling a lot more confident now being a mere 40 species from the 300 goal and still haven’t reached Dauphin.

I finally have a few hours to relax while waiting for the dogs to take their runs. Being on the road and a number of their energy calming walks clipped thanks to an outrageous number of Gators in this state, this event might turn out to be a clown show.

Acorn Woodpecker found at Spring Mountain State Park in Blue Diamond, NV in January 2023

Hit the jump to read more about our funny looking specimen.

Continue reading Clowning Around