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Flash Floods & SARs

The last couple of days have been pretty hectic around the Gila and we may have more excitement tonight. As I write this, I try to remember that many parts of New Mexico are having issues with big rains and flash floods.

Both last night and the night before there have been lots of rain in the upcountry, resulting in flash flooding down at our level. Yesterday at about 10:45 a.m. I was in the visitor center when someone called my attention to a huge raft of logs jamming the entire Middle Fork of the Gila River just outside. We had a lot of people around the VC because we had two Search and Rescue operations going on, too. (More about that later.)

I immediately got on the radio to our contact station (where people go to start their trek to the cliff dwellings). Our supervisor and his wife, Marie, a park superintendent, were there and were pretty incredulous. They had just hiked along the Middle Fork and could not believe that anything this dramatic could have happened in the few minutes since they had arrived along the West Fork of the river. It was a few very tense minutes until we all realized that only the Middle Fork had flashed.

Anita and Dave, who have worked and volunteered here a long time quickly called key residents downstream and warned them of the impending doom. A SAR helicopter pilot reported that all the rubble had blocked off the opening to the Gila Hot Springs area and when the logjam broke everything downstream would be washed away. By everything, of course I mean the residents, too. To add to the tension of the day, a few hours later we learned that 5 people had launched on the Middle Fork with inflatable rafts, kayaks, etc. on a 3 day trip! We truly did not ever expect to see them alive again. The mountain of swift moving water and debris would certainly crush them.

We were lucky yesterday because we had a big SAR team from Silver City here. They found 2 women backpacking and brought them out. The amazing thing was that they were not even looking for them! They were in search of a couple and their almost 3-year old boy who were several days overdue from a week-long trek into the wilderness. He was reportedly an Oxford professor and we mused for days about why such an intelligent man would have left the rag top OFF of his vehicle, parked at one of the trailheads! They were found on a bluff and helicoptered out.

She and I cried together as she told me that they never expected to get out alive. They had camped as high up as possible, but the raging flood washed away their tent and all possessions. She told me that they had just managed to scramble up a very difficult bluff to reach high ground, but fully expected to be swept away, too. How they escaped carrying their little boy and climbing, too, is amazing. Mom and son are shown with the team below. Dad was being debriefed.

The destruction to the floodplain is amazing. I will try to put some of the best photos below. Another SAR volunteer and I provided all the photos and video to the press, but they still do not do justice to the sound of the raging waters. Other frantic activity centered on rescuing the forest service livestock (yes, including the two I had fed a couple of weeks ago). They were trapped in their corrals at the barn, thoroughly panicked and soon to drown. They ran for high ground as soon as the gates could be forced open against the raging flood waters and debris and are safely up in their pasture above our residence area.

Later in the day, the SAR team was going a little stir-crazy with nothing to do. So instead of waiting for endloaders to move the debris from our only road out they pitched in and moved it themselves. They had to use 4WD trucks and other devices to move some of the huge trees, but they got ‘er done! (and went home to their families!)

Last night big storms rolled in during the night and this morning I woke up to the sound of trees shattering along the river banks and being swept away. So, another big flash flood happened this morning!! We were already closed for the day due to some minor road damage, but today’s flash flood closed us for another day (tomorrow – Monday) and separated our group. Those who lived at the Gila RV park could not safely cross to the monument. They monitored the rise and fall of the flooding from their side of the devastation, then were released to go enjoy the day at their rigs. As soon as a helicopter could get in the air up here they found the 5 kayakers alive!

Interestingly, another storm is predicted for tonight, but now it seems like “just another day in the Gila!” As I hiked around tonight at sunset, I was thinking of John and Delona who were able to get out of here early this morning. I’ll see them again at Big Bend in January, but I know they will be reading this. I love you guys, sure missed you on tonight’s walk, wish you safe travels and Godspeed back to Big Bend so we can have more fun together.

So good night from me and the pigeon taking refuge at the VC tonight! Poor little thing is far, far away from where he is supposed to live and is now considered an “invasive species”.

Signal Peak Hike

Yesterday I slept until almost 8:00 a.m. – truly amazing! Zuni tried to wake me up a couple of times, but when I finally opened my eyes I understood why I slept so long. The whole Gila was shrouded in a thick fog. By the time I got up, dressed and ready to roll the fog was burning off the immediate area and I got packed for hiking.

My destination was a simple 2.5 mile hike up Signal Peak to see the fire watch tower. By the time I got to the trail head the weather had cleared up, the sun was shining brightly and a 72 degree breeze stirred the pines. What a picture perfect day!

The hike took me 2 hours and 15 minutes – lots of huffing and puffing and stops to photograph anything that did not fly or run away. Shortly after summiting (I love to use that term as if I ever climbed like a mountain climber! Ha!), another hiker came along and we chatted. He had hiked Tadpole Ridge yesterday and overnighted in the huge thunder storm that came through. He said it poured for over 2 hours. The evidence was in all the debris and new troughs on the trails. Today he was doing Signal Peak with full pack to practice for his rim to rim of the Grand Canyon next week. He was also a site steward (checks up on archeological sites to see if anyone has messed around or looted them). He works for Marilyn Markel, the lady who helped get us involved with the archeological digs this summer!

Anyway, the trip down the mountain only took 50 minutes! Worth the extra time to get up there, though. Here are some photos from today, starting with the fog as seen from Coperas vista, lots of lizards, mushrooms, slime and puff balls!

That’s all for today! Off to work!

Tadpole Ridge Hike

Yesterday Jari, Greg, Jeff and I hiked a high and dry forest service trail and are giving it a AAA rating! The weather was beautiful, the trail ranged from rugged to woodsy, steep to flat and, in general, was perfect! Jari and Greg hiked a about 2/3 of the trail but Jeff and I went the whole distance – 17 miles round trip.

Flora and Fauna: The most amazing was the little green froggie that Greg spotted hiding under an oak leaf. Later in the day I spotted the lady bug orgy happening in a downed oak branch. . .

Here are some photos of the intrepid hikers, the wonderful scenery, and great weather. We really lucked out because there were lots of clouds to protect us from the sun but no monsoon storms. We also saw bear scat about every 50 yards but no bears! Dang – I really wanted to get a photo of one. Jeff and I also strategized on what to do if we saw one! His question was, “Do you want to get a picture first, or scare it away?” Of course, the photo! But we also discussed the location of the bear mace, the importance of standing our ground, how to operate the little air horn I carry (that was a waste of money as it barely tooted!), etc.

Since the trail was only about 20 minutes from Silver City Jeff and I went to the Buckhorn in Pinos Altos for a delicious buffalo burger and fries, then on to Walmart for groceries and Chevron for gas. I drove and we got home at 9:00 p.m., having to dodge only one deer and two javelina on the way through the wilderness. Plans for doing trail maintenance training today were scuttled because our park superintendent (who was to have been our instructor) had been up last last night. Five visitors had been stranded for several days 17 river crossings away from safety and had to be rescued last night. They had run out of food Sunday afternoon, so the team took them MREs (which they reportedly raved about! Naturally if you have been without food a couple of days nearly anything would have tasted great!), and shuttled them out of the wilderness using two mules for the crossing. Jeremy (superintendent) said it took about 45 minutes per crossing due to all the gear, the inexperience of the visitors with stock & river crossings & all the challenges, etc.

Labor Day weekend coming up! We expect as many as 600 visitors per day so time will tell!

Military Road Trail – Two Hikes!

Last week coworkers, Chris, Jari, Greg and I decided to hike the 9 mile trail from the Military Road trailhead to Grapevine campground. The trail kind of faded out and we had to turn around and go back to our starting point. The afternoon storms were building and we got caught in a huge storm complete with hail! Sorry that our cameras were packed away to keep them dry and we did not get any photos of the hail piled up along the roadways. What a scare! Chris, her dog Spike and I huddled under a low juniper tree to put on rain ponchos but Jari and her husband made a run the last 1/3 mile or so to the car. We all got soaked to the bone but none of us got struck by lightning – thank God!

Today, another coworker, Jeff, and I decided to hike the same trail and managed to get to our destination!!! Jeff suggested we follow the fencelines. So combined with my compass to keep us going the right direction we made it! No lightning storms either! By the time we returned to the visitor center at 3:00 p.m. though the entire cliff dwelling area was a huge mass of lightning strikes. They had closed the trail to the dwellings at about 1:30 today and were not able to reopen due to the lightning and driving rain at their location. Jeff and I really lucked out today!

First last week’s photos:

I forgot to mention that the last two photos above are of mushrooms. The red one was about 4″ in diameter and the little white one was less than 1″ in diameter. Here are some of the photos from today:

Below is a photo of Jeff showing the way the fence builders have used boulders suspended from the fence wires to hold the fence in place at some locations:

The funniest part of the day was right before we got to the only two river crossings as we approached Grapevine campground. It reminded me of when I stepped over the gopher snake when I was hiking a couple of months ago. Jeff was in front of me and all of a sudden he yelped and jumped a few feet over to the right. Then he started laughing when the snake just lay placidly! It is a desert striped whip snake and it truly did not move at all:

At the tail end of the trail we hiked through some lovely forested area and a bald eagle startled out of a tree and flew away. We changed into water shoes and made 2 easy river crossings and were elated as we wound up where we were supposed to be – Grapevine campground where my car was parked!! Yippee! A great day!

Around the Contact Station

The contact station is where all the visitors to the Cliff Dwellings have to stop and pay their fee, get an orientation from us volunteers, etc. These are just some photos of life around there, the constantly changing array of flowers and some of the bugs, spiders, and assorted wildlife that appears there daily. Enjoy!

Over one weekend recently I got to feed two of the trail crew horses, Birdsong and Gordo. Poor horses were getting eaten alive by the flies. I have to toughen up because they spend their lives out in the wilderness. It was fun taking care of them for a few days and treating them to a few applies. They would not take them from my hand, but readily ate them after I put them into the trough and turned my back!  Here is Birdsong:

A few more pictures from the contact station a few days later: (The first 2 photos are of Long-Flowered Four O’Clocks)

A Little More from Today

Just a few pictures from my hike today to the Heart Bar Wildlife Refuge adjacent to the cliff dwellings . . . no state money for restoration of the Heart Bar property after the fires of two years ago, but pretty flowers all the time this year. Someone asked recently what they do at the Hear Bar and a staffer here jokingly answered: “Raise elk!” I haven’t seen any since about a month ago when I counted 27 of them.

Gila Storms Continue to Rumble

It is now August 7 and the monsoons continue to rumble through. Life is bucolic. Sometimes for fun I order my favorite videos off Amazon. I got a surprise when I ordered the movie “Departures” and it showed up from Thailand! Another surprise when I had to go into the preferences and change the primary language to Japanese from Thai and the subtitles to English! Funny!

On July 31 Chris, her dog (Zuni’s friend) Spike and I took a hike up to White Rocks. I had been there before but it is a good workout. This time I wanted to take pictures, but a midday storm once again rolled in! Not safe to be up there when the lightning is putting on a display! Here are some photos of Spike on the trail, flowers, and searching for dwellings along the cliffs.

The caterpillars just above are reportedly going to be sphinx moths after they grow up. Miles of the trail were crawling with them all headed in one direction! It was an amazing nature site to see! They were as big as my fingers and crawled real fast, occasionally losing their balance and rolling over for a moment before righting themselves and forging ahead. Mesmerizing and kind of yukky, too!

At the end of our hike, Chris and I came back through the corrals and pastures of the National Forrest Service pack animals. It was the late afternoon and I am sure the mules were looking forward to dinner. They were also extremely curious about Spike! Chris was very scared of the mules and I kept shooing them away, but curiosity always got the best of them! The mules are very used to having dogs with them on their treks into the wilderness. I am sure they just wanted to be buddies! Chris is 51 and has never had children, and Spike is her first pet. She says that one of her mother’s favorite lines about her is “Ah, spoken like a woman who has never had kids!”.  She is as protective of Spike as I am of Zuni.

From the cliff dwellings on one of my work days: Here are some pictures of coworkers Jeff (L) and Greg (R), flowers and watching for the approaching storms in anticipation of closing down for safety reasons.

Meanwhile back at the contact station I posed Rita the Raven, Petey the Packrat and Jack the Jackrabbit. They help us do tours some days and help keeps kids attention when we are giving them safety orientation before the kids head up to the dwellings. Even adults love them!

Two days ago I was going to walk up to the Lightfeather hot springs, but decided I did not want to get my feet wet. Here are some photos of the overgrown trail and the flowers which perfume the trail.

Over the weekend we had our first Search and Rescue (SAR) of this season. Three 20-year-olds went by canoe on the Gila river for a 1/4 mile trip. They failed to show up at their pick-up point and their parents reported them missing at our Visitor Center. In the evening our park superintendent, Jeremy, and Chris, who is a trained SAR person in New Mexico hiked all night and failed to find them. As soon as a helicopter could get into the air Sunday morning they immediately found them 9 miles downstream. They were all okay, despite the young woman being a diabetic. Like so many people, it was rumored that there was alcohol inbibed pre-trip and they truly underestimated the wilderness.

Yesterday, I wanted to take an hour or two hike up around the corral behind where we live. It is where Chris and I saw the mules the other day. My little hike turned out like Gilligan’s “three-hour tour”! I got turned around – obviously my internal compass is deficient – and I spent 5 hours hiking. My first thought was “Oh, no! Don’t let me be the second SAR of the season!” Fortunately I was able to figure ou my path and get back okay. Good for my physical fitness level, though!

That’s all for today, folks! Back to reading and other stuff around the house, then 4 more workdays!

Wow! 3 months done!

Three months! It almost seems impossible that this amount of time has passed here at the Gila! We have settled into the monsoon season which seems to have started on about June 29. I believe we have only been able to keep the cliff dwellings open only 4 of the past 26 afternoons. All other days we have had lightning close enough to shut down. (Insert lots of visitor grumbling here.)

The bookstore manager, Randall, was telling me today that the monsoons will start producing more rain and the rain will begin to move from afternoon to after dark. This has sure been true the past couple of days. It makes for good sleeping weather – thunder and the intense drumming of rain on our little roof lull Zuni and me to sleep. The morning temperatures are in the high fifties or low sixties, and thick fog rises up from the low areas between the mountains. One morning all the mountains were enveloped in fog. But by 10:00 a.m. daily the skies are vibrant blue with a few puffy white clouds. The temperatures start zooming up to 85 or more and air conditioners whir to life. But by noon thunderheads billow up, black walls of storm press in from all sides, the temperature drop to 70 and the whole cycle starts all over again!

Where previously the hills were all brown tinder, everything now is green and lush. We even have tiny mosquitoes accompanying the flies! With apologies to Mother Nature I bought flying insect killer at Walmart to protect myself so I could sit outside in my lounger and enjoy the weather a bit.

I love the drive through the mountains to and from Silver City. There are always a few deer grazing roadside, the occasional turkey strutting across the road and of course the surprise bobcat chasing a potential meal of robin. This Monday I saw a mother and dad Montezuma quail with 8-10 babies crossing the mountain road. The male quail are very distinctive – I liken his markings to a 4 year old who has discovered mommy’s eye make up! So far in my travels I have seen California or Gambel’s quail, scaled quail (in Big Bend) and now Montezuma. Since they are normally very fast moving and I cannot activate my camera fast enough, I’ve nabbed some photos from the internet:

Scaled Quail – like I saw on the Black Gap Road in Big Bend:

Gambel’s Quail – seen several times in my travels:

Today I was carefully removing some things from storage under the RV. One always should be wary of scorpions, spiders and snakes in this environment. Wood piles, under rocks and ground level storage areas – like under the RV – are prime habitat for the critters. Low and behold I encountered what I thought was a 3-4” long scorpion!  It lacked the curly tail of a scorpion and had more prominent stick-like legs. It moved real fast and I could not find it again after I got my camera. The full-time residents tell me it is a “vinegaroon”. Non-poisonous. It comes out this time of year and loves to eat other bugs:

I almost forgot that Zuni’s dog-friend, Spike, and his mom, Chris, came over to visit last night. The “kids”  enjoyed tearing up a squeaky chew-toy:

It is 8:30 p.m. and the thunderstorms are really cranking up now. It is time to get ready for work tomorrow. I’ve got the tour so Petey the packrat and I have got to brush up on our presentation skills! Good night! Here is a picture of the storm moving in before it started to dump on us a few minutes ago:

Approaching July 4th

It has been a couple of relatively quiet weeks here in the Gila, so I will just share a few photos of recent stuff. The saddest news that almost everyone knows of is of the 19 firefighters who died fighting wild fires in Arizona. So many of the young firefighters (average age 22) come to the Cliff Dwellings on their days off from fighting the nearby Silver Fire. The firefighters are always so cute when they stop by the visitor center picking out Zuni-made earrings for their sweethearts and sometimes for themselves, too. Male or female, they always put on their earrings and ask how they look!

Since I have not been at work the last 3 days I am not sure whether recent rains have quenched the Silver Fire. It had grown to just over 125,000 acres last weekend. After reading “Fire Season” I understand the US Forest Service philosophies of fire fighting better. As the Silver Fire is burning in the wilderness with 100+ years of forest debris fueling it, it is probably in general a “good thing”. Apparently unless the fire is threatening people and homes the forest service is more likely to let the fires burn themselves out. Since naturally started fires (e.g. by lightning) occur at least once every decade, nature’s way is best. The litter needs to burn before it accumulates to the point where it burns so hot it destroys old growth trees (as it is doing now!). Other plants sometimes need fire to open the seeds, etc. and the cycle of life continues. It takes us people a long time to learn our lessons from nature.

Below, pledging in new Junior Rangers and a pretty lizard on the trail:

Just before the day of the full moon, here it is rising through the smoke of the Silver Fire. After that the smoke completely obscured the moon and moderated our daytime temperatures to the 70’s!:

One of the “dig days” was simply doing surface collection. John Heisey referred to it as legalized pot hunting! It is a tool used by archeologists to see if a site has potential for a dig at a later time. Here is a lousy photo of a lovely little parrot head bead and a small arrow point. I did not get a photo of an exciting big spear point blank. Perhaps Aaron will dig here next year. . .

My favorite agave – the Havard Agave on the way into Silver City:

A chilling day at the camp!! I was minding my own business when a caterpillar as large as my finger with a wasp attached dropped out of the cottonwood tree to the ground inches from me. The wasp was killing the caterpillar and the caterpillar was thrashing around wildly for almost 2 minutes before the it succumbed. I never saw the wasp use its stinger – just biting it!. When the wasp detached and flew away, the caterpillar was clinging to a small twig which I moved away to a secure location about 18″ away from the “kill site”.

The wasp returned in a few moment and it was ANGRY!! It was buzzing around me and acting in a threatening manner, so as carefully as I could I dodged the wasp and moved the caterpillar closer to the kill site. By now the wasp was agitatedly pacing the ground looking for the caterpillar. When it finally found it, he had started from the kill site and walked the “path” to the caterpillar. The wasp was now calm and each time it flew away and returned for more, he landed at the kill site and walked the exact path to the caterpillar each time. Amazing!! It must have created a chemical trail that it followed. By the fourth trip, the caterpillar was gone! I don’t know if the wasp was filling up and regurgitating the load of caterpillar, but each time he flew away there was just a small bit of guts hanging from his mouth area.

And then there are the really slow days around camp when I take photos of the birdies and flowers that I am growing . . .

Another dig that I got to see at the Harris site – a great Kiva. If you recall what the dig site of us amateurs looked like, compare the precision of the dig below. Dr. Barb Roth (a leading archeologist) would only allow real archeologists dig at this site and now I can see why! She was excavating a great, “adults only” (i.e. – truly ceremonial) kiva which required extreme care and precision to uncover various adobe floor levels and nuances of construction that were not evident to my untrained eyes. I loved how Dr. Roth was completely covered with dirt and kept calling for more buckets as she dug! The grinning guy is Igor, who was color matching the various soils to known “standards”.  I was also impressed with Dr. Roth and her team – how friendly and willing to share their knowledge!

Well, that is about it for today! I’m having friends over for pasta tonight then back to work for the July 4th weekend!