Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

Enough of this sleeping in and taking it easy. Today I decided to check out Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument before my bike ride. Kasha-Katuwe was made a national monument in January 2001.

I had not heard about the monument until I saw information about it in the Albuquerque "Official Visitor's Guide". Since it is located 55 miles north of Albuquerque - I had to check it out. Think you know that I am big on National Parks, National Monuments, and National Historic Sites.

In order to get the better feel of the location, I walked the Cave Loop Trail to the Slot Canyon Trail. Had to check out the canyon so walked into the canyon a little - enough to take a couple photos. Had to stop several times to rest my leg/knee and catch my breath. I actually was surprised how far I was able to walk (considering the bike path climbing yesterday).

To hike the whole Slot Canyon Trail, would mean 630 foot climb in the mile trail length. I would have liked to hike up and see from the top, but figured it would be over my knee's ability. And, my breathing was laboring enough with the altitude.

Back to the Cave Loop, I was thinking of walking the rest of the loop, but the trail seemed to get a bit steeper and I still had to walk back to the car. Walking back, I could see that there was a lot of elevation change on the trail.

Next stop was to drive up to the Veteran's Memorial Scenic Overlook. The 3 mile gravel road was no problem. Great views from the overlook.

Chores and R&R at Bull Run (Again)

I declare the camping season open! Sure, the weather hasn’t been great today; but it could have been worse. Sure, we spent more time working than playing today; but we could have been at home doing the same thing. This is our first outing of the season and a necessary one since we don’t have the luxury of keeping our coach at home. This is the weekend we get things set up so we can enjoy future outings with the sole purpose of having fun.

Bull Run Regional Park (BRRP) is about 16 miles (25.5 km) from where we live. Since we keep early hours at work, we were able to leave the house shortly after 3:00p yesterday and miss most of the west-bound traffic that tends to clog the freeway during rush hour. An hour later, we were checked in at the campground and trying to figure out if our assigned site (104) was going to work for us.

It’s an easy drive from our house to the campground.

When we stayed at BRRP last year, we had an electric-only site on the outer loop, with plenty of privacy. This time, we reserved a less-private, full hook-up (jurisdiction rate $43.58 with tax) so we wouldn’t have to worry about water usage while we worked to make the Phaeton spic-and-span clean.

Best laid plans and all that. When we pulled into the site, it immediately became obvious that we’d have a heck of a time getting the rig level. We were willing to give it a shot, but then Mui noticed that the water hook-up was broken. A phone call to the camp store fixed that problem within minutes. By then, however, we were sure the site wasn’t going to work for us. So, while Mui filled the fresh water tank, I returned to the camp store and arranged to relocate to a 50-Amp, electric-only site (jurisdiction rate $34.12 with tax) on the outer loop.

So far so good, right? Wrong! We got to the site, leveled the rig, deployed the slides, and went to hook up the power. No Power!!!! Nada!!!! Zilch!!!! A phone call to the camp store quickly brought someone by to take a look. A flurry of switches flipped — still no juice. More switches flipped — power on … no wait, it’s off again. Long story short, the power was finally restored to the pole, but there was no power in the coach! What to do? With overnight temps projected to dip below freezing, can’t not have power. Then, like magic, there was power. Mui’s theory — all that switch-flipping must have confused the surge protector and it took a while for it to reset itself and allow juice to flow into the rig.

We're in #29, next door to the site we stayed in last time.

It was 7:00p by the time we were finally settled down for the day. After a quick dinner of leftovers we’d brought from home, we relaxed for a bit, watching an old episode of Without a Trace on TV. By 10:00p, we were under the down comforter snoozing away. Well, Mui was; I had a bit of difficulty falling asleep at first because my body just refused to get warm — happens to me sometimes if I let my body temperature drop too much. After a while, I too must have dozed off as the next thing I remember is Mui getting up shortly before 6:00a.

The outside temp was 33F (1C … actually less). As you can imagine, that made it awfully difficult to leave the warm cocoon of the bed. But we roused ourselves, cranked up the thermostat to warm up the coach, and were soon having breakfast. Later, while I cleaned cabinets and put things away, Mui took a quick trip back to the house to meet up with a buyer for one of our “Craigslisted” furniture items. (Yes, the downsizing has begun.) It was worth the trip; the buyer decided to also buy one of our wool rugs! And not to worry; Mui was put to work with his share of chores once he returned to the rig.

Since we didn't need to tow for this short trip, we brought the hybrid instead
of the toad; more carrying capacity.

By lunch time, most of the work was done and we were ready for the R&R portion of our weekend. What to do was the question since it had been raining on and off all day. Just then, the sun peeked through the clouds. Before it could go back into hiding, we took a walk around the campground, checking out sites for future visits. The consensus — the electric-only sites on the outer loop are the best for privacy. We also glimpsed the cabins that are available for rent (staying in one of them would have been an option had the power situation not resolved itself last night).

The passenger-side is heavily-forested; nice when the foliage greens up.

We returned to the coach just as it started to rain again. While Mui read for a while, and then snoozed for a bit, I played with the post-processing of the photos I took around the campground. (I shoot Raw, so I have to process them before I can upload them for the blog.) I have a free-copy of Picasa on my laptop, and I have to say that I am impressed enough with what it does to consider paying for the upgraded version of the application. That said, I don’t like processing images on a laptop when the angle of the screen changes the way the colors look. I’ll have to look at this post on my Mac at home before I make a decision.

Scenes from around the BRRP campground.

By the way, BRRP does not have wi-fi. Last week, we decided to test Millenicom for our internet connectivity. The fact that there is no long-term contract was the deciding factor for us. We’re starting with the 20GB data package, which uses the Verizon 3G network. So far, we’re very happy with the speed. For this short weekend trip, we’re taking turns using the thing-a-ma-jig (aircard, if you want to get technical) that gives us the connectivity. We plan to take our router when we go on our 10-day trip coming up later in April. Plugging the aircard into the router should give us simultaneous connectivity. That, and figuring out how to monitor our usage, is TBD.

Anyway, dinner time is at hand. The rain has stopped, and the sun is out again. The temp has risen to 50F (10C), but it will start going down again soon. I think we’ll skip al fresco dining tonight.

Arrive at Association Island, Henderson Harbor, NY

Arrive at Association Island our home for the Summer. The drive across the causeway is impressive.



The Arial view from the brochure is most impressive.

View of Island from Overlook on Route 3

Home Sweet Home

The Maintenance Man

Marina

Sunset

Happy New Year - eventually

A very belated Happy New Year! We've returned from what was truly the frozen North. Our slow dial-up connection was even slower than usual, prompting suspicious thoughts that the service is being relegated to a creaking server in a back room, as broadband use increases. Too slow to view sites with photos, let alone do any posting or replying to good wishes - for which thank you , so we had what turned out to be a blissfully computer-free time. Many books were read beside the open fire. Long midwinter sleep was enjoyed. Brisk walking took place in below zero temperatures, followed by cooking and eating large meals. However, no whisky was consumed, not even on Hogmanay. To salvage a bit of Scottish New Year tradition now that we're back home, I poured a dram of Macallan single malt for this photo, which my husband then very nobly drank.
This is a stingy, south of Scotland measure of whisky. If we were on Speyside, the dram of neat whisky would fill between a third to a half of the glass. I confess to not being a particular whisky fan. I love the smell of it, but a glass is too much for me. This despite starting my working life in a distillery, where all staff were entitled to a lunchtime dram of whisky. Nowadays that tradition has been toned down to a monthly bottle allowance, which is far preferable from a health point of view.

Reaching skywards

These tall chimneys need a ladder attached to them for ease of maintenance. I love the spiked finials - or whatever they're called! Everything about this roof seemed to be reaching up into the cloudless morning sky.

Foxes Feast on Food

Two foxes (of a rare sub species) are currently moving up and down the mountain from Paradise all the way up to the summit. While the mountain is their natural environment, the food they have been eating this year has not been coming from the mountain, most of it has been taken from climbers and day hikers at Camp Muir. Foxes have been consistently searching out food left in backpacks and tent vestibules.
Sadly, we have experienced what happens when foxes become habituated and dependent on humans in the park - we lost our friend Pickles.
Mount Rainier is home for these foxes, meaning we can't relocate them nor would we want to. At this point we are trying our best to have the foxes and climbers interactions be kept to a minimum. Please help us with this effort by maintaining a clean camp and storing all food zipped up, inside of your tent. Day hikers and skiers please be tidy during snack breaks and clean up your scraps (both food and wrappers). Thanks so much for your help!

Lift-Off!

Check out these Bald Eagle shots I captured on my way to Grand Marais this morning. I was heading in early for a clinic appointment (tested postitive for strep throat... bummer!) when I saw this Eagle perched in a tree that was on the verge of falling over. These photos are proof positive that it always pays to have your camera gear in the car with you, and in this case, to have some extra time. I was traveling about 15 minutes early for my appointment so when I saw this Eagle I had plenty of time to pull over, walk down on the beach and get some pictures of him.