A friend noted recently, "you really like to hike." Yes, yes I do. It makes me feel alive. Like a child, jumping around on rocks, crawling under fallen trees, and exploring new views. I've heard it wisely said, "we are nature, just animals. And when we are outside that is our natural habitat.. that is where we belong," and I cannot make a more true statement.
Two Saturdays ago I joined a group of people doing a search and rescue hike in the desert. The goal is to find and mark evidence of Migrant travel through the area we sweep. Often, these searches also come across people in any condition from healthy travelers to people in distress to remains. They told us to look for white rocks, what a human skull looks like all by itself in the desert. Humans like other animals are not automatically fit for all climates.
We spread out in a line, about 20 yards between each person, carrying extra water, snacks, and first aid materials in the anticipation of finding someone in need. Pushing our way through the brambles, mazes of cholla, and forests of ocotillo, we swept the foothills of a mountain side finding countless water jugs and blankets left behind by travelers. Fortunately, there was nobody to be found on this particular day, but by the recently discarded food packages and footprints in the mud we knew this was frequented path for Migrants.
Below are some happy highlights from the last two weeks!
(1) Sunset at Gates Pass (missing in the picture are the newly engaged Cade and Gretta!). (2 and 3) Sushi making! (4, 5, and 6) Enjoying hearing from authors, eating yummy falafels and running into about half of Shalom at Tucson's Festival of Books! (7 and 8) Waking up to snow for the second time this winter!
Side note: I have run out of storage room on my free wixsite account, so I am slowing deleting photos from my earliest blog posts. This should not affect anything unless you are in the habit of rereading my old blogs. :)
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