tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91998487422675625872024-03-12T22:47:56.612-06:00Watching the World Wake UpWatcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.comBlogger404125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-67179874382382621092011-02-04T07:00:00.000-07:002011-02-04T07:00:17.284-07:00Fault-Blocking, Stories and the Meaning of Life<p>My first day of “retirement”, I took the Trifecta to school, ran some errands and then wanted to get out. It was a cold, windy day, with intermittent snow showers, but no real accumulation- bad for biking, not great for skiing- so I went for a hike. I talked Awesome Wife- who’d just come home from work*- into tagging along as far as the zoo, where she kissed me goodbye and turned back while I crossed Sunnyside Ave. and started climbing.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Yes, work. Ironically, the week I stopped working was the week she started working. It’s not what you think. AW was a half-time reading specialist in a local elementary school last year, but her contract wasn’t renewed this year due to lack of funding. The recent influx of federal education money enabled her school to re-hire her. She’s thrilled.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> I had my first “retired moment” Wednesday. <strong><a href="http://www.skibikejunkie.com/">SkiBikeJunkie</a></strong> and I took a long lunch to ski up in Little Cottonwood Canyon. We were late getting back and SBJ had to run back to work. I had a couple of errands to run, but I was hungry, and stopped into a local Barbacoa to grab a burrito, which, as usual, I planned to take with me. But as I was walking away from the counter, I realized that I didn’t have to <i>be</i> anywhere, and I stopped and ate right there, while leafing through one of the local alternative papers. It was both cool and kind of weird…</span></p> <p>Most of this project has occurred in and around the Wasatch Mountains, and the lion’s share of the trees, birds, shrubs, mammals, mosses, lichens and other things we’ve looked at are here because of this massive 11,000 foot-high wall in my back yard. For that matter, it’s why <i>I’m</i> here. The wall of the Wasatch, and the perennial water source it provides, is the reason why the Utes camped by the shores of Utah Lake, why the Mormon pioneers stopped here, and why it harbors one of only two major cities* in the Great Basin. Before wrapping up the project, we should probably have some idea why the Wasatch is here, how it came about, and why it is the way it is.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Reno is the other.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFtcirc2I/AAAAAAAAJNM/G83KQF4VSNA/s1600-h/DCMapRoute4%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="DCMapRoute4" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="DCMapRoute4" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFub1s57I/AAAAAAAAJNQ/W5ZOLwphf-U/DCMapRoute4_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="442" border="0" height="279" /></a> I quickly reached the top of the Roller-Coaster and continued climbing up the faint trail leading North. The trail is steeper here, but it was cold enough to more or less hold the mud together and provide solid footing.</p> <p>Throughout this project, huge numbers of the things I’ve blogged about, especially in Spring, have been located in what <a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFvIX954I/AAAAAAAAJNU/vtj-viKw854/s1600-h/IMG_8547%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8547" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8547" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFvzofo6I/AAAAAAAAJNY/BoT_6TcB5og/IMG_8547_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="180" /></a>I’ve generally referred to as the “foothills.” But the West slope of the Wasatch doesn’t really have “foothills” in the strict sense. For the most part, the West slope of the Wasatch is characterized by high peaks rising dramatically from the valley floor. When I first moved here, this was one of the big surprises. Back in the Denver area (<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SA44EOC_PSI/AAAAAAAAASY/un3OPYehGaI/s1600-h/Timeline.jpg">Life 1.0</a>), I lived and recreated mainly in the foothills of the East slope of the Front Range, which gradually work their way up over 20-30 miles to a high crest. But from the floor of Salt Lake Valley to 11,000 foot peaks is only a couple of (crow-flying) miles.</p> <p>What’s interesting is that the other side of the Wasatch- the East slope- isn’t like this. It sort of gently tumbles down to Park City and Heber through rolling forested slopes (which is why there’s so much better mtn biking over on that side of the Front.) And what’s even more interesting is that if you check out the next 2 ranges to the West- the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/big-scramble-another-hybrid-oak-and-dog.html">Oquirrhs</a> and the Stansburys, they’re set up exactly the same way, with a steep West face and a gentle East slope.</p> <p><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFwS6QZRI/AAAAAAAAJNc/LJp1hFol454/s1600-h/Ranges%20Slopes%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Ranges Slopes" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Ranges Slopes" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFw-Saz8I/AAAAAAAAJNg/xBRHb8fxkK8/Ranges%20Slopes_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="444" border="0" height="245" /></a> The Wasatch Range- depending on how it’s defined- extends over 200 miles from Fayette, UT to Malad City, ID. Along its course the West-facing front is regularly interrupted by a series of minor East-West protrusions, or “bumps”, that geologists use to break the range up into segments. Our segment, the Salt Lake City segment, is bounded by the Traverse <a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFxuMNVRI/AAAAAAAAJNk/f7oln5XJhtE/s1600-h/WFront%20SLC%20Segment%20cut%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="WFront SLC Segment cut" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="WFront SLC Segment cut" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFyUSxnOI/AAAAAAAAJNo/0JLfzxAA2HA/WFront%20SLC%20Segment%20cut_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="233" align="left" border="0" height="389" /></a>Mountains in the South (Point of the Mountain, Suncrest, Corner Canyon) and the Salt Lake Salient in the North. The SL Salient is the whole City Creek Canyon/Ensign Peak/radio towers area, and is composed largely of tertiary conglomerates, which I explained in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/city-creek-part-3-rocks-global-warming.html">this post</a>*</b>. The dividing line between the Salient and the Wasatch Front proper is the Rudy Flat Fault, which runs right more or less up Spring Gulch, the next minor draw after Limekiln Gulch** as you follow the Shoreline trail to the Northwest. The SL Salient, this little “aberration”, is my extended back yard, and comprises most of the “foothills” I’ve been blogging about.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*The tertiary conglomerate story in the salient is actually more complicated than I realized at the time of that post. Much of the salient is composed of 2 different conglomerates, which while similar in form, were laid down about 18M years apart. Essentially, over behind the Capitol you’re on what’s called Tertiary Conglomerate 1, which is about 35M years old, but between City Creek and Spring Gulch you’re mostly on Tertiary Conglomerate 2, which is only about 17M years old.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Which in turn is the minor draw just North of Dry Creek.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> One of the confusing things about major faults to non-geologists is that they involve lots of little faults. For example, another little fault- the Warm Springs Fault- defines the Western edge of the SL salient, and it’s what you drive along when you take 89 up to Bountiful. For that matter, you have a bird’s eye view of another minor (unnamed) fault from the top of the Roller-Coaster, which runs right up the Death Climb gulch.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFzHdTWBI/AAAAAAAAJNs/vW6o5dwZCP8/s1600-h/DC%20Fault%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="DC Fault" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="DC Fault" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtFz7P-n2I/AAAAAAAAJNw/KwIG-XggaQA/DC%20Fault_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" height="334" /></a> The steep pitch above the Roller-Coaster only lasts for 5 or so minutes before you reach what I call The Shoulder, a short, open ridge that’s a perfect spot for a picnic or a nap on a Spring day. On this day though the wind was whipping and I donned sunglasses to protect my eyes from the sideways graupel*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Apparently, that <em>is</em> how you spell it. I never knew till I had to look it up for this post.</span> </p> <p>In 1995 when I moved to Utah, my first job was located in an old 3-story office building in downtown Provo. I remember one afternoon we had a visitor who my boss was showing around. As they looked out the window he pointed out Mount Nebo to the South, the highest peak of the Wasatch, and described it as the “last of the Rockies.” I loved that- <i>the last of the Rockies</i>. For years afterward, when I’d spot Nebo from afar, or drive past it on I-15, his words would echo in my head- <i>the last of the Rockies… </i>It was more than a decade until I learned he was completely wrong.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF0Qq57AI/AAAAAAAAJN0/vAW5YYk-ylw/s1600-h/Shoulder%20View%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Shoulder View" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Shoulder View" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF1OT7iaI/AAAAAAAAJN4/o_Wn2-Yl89M/Shoulder%20View_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="432" border="0" height="329" /></a>The Wasatch certainly <em>seems</em> like the last of the Rockies, and biologically it’s a fair description; the trees, birds and mammals are, for the most part, trees, birds and mammals you can find clear across to Denver. But geologically they’re something completely different and much newer. Rather than the Westernmost range of the Rockies, the Wasatch are the Easternmost range of the Basin and Range province. Between Salt Lake and Reno, range after range- something like 200 of them, almost all running North-South- are separated by wide open valleys. Some of the ranges- like the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/long-ride-and-thoughts-about-work.html">Cedar Mountains</a>- are low and scrubby. Others- like the Deep Creeks and the Rubies- are high and mighty like the Wasatch. But high or low, the vast majority of them- like the Wasatch, the Oquirrhs and the Stansburys- have one steep side and one gentle side. What’s going in this part of the country?</p> <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF17WccKI/AAAAAAAAJN8/IQqDQUjZKsI/s1600-h/IMG_8549%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8549" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8549" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF2RuZjNI/AAAAAAAAJOA/N2GlYJHjGCQ/IMG_8549_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" height="180" /></a> On The Shoulder I pulled my shell out of my pack and put it on. I hate climbing with all my layers on- it means I’ll be cold up top. I followed The Shoulder to its “base” and started climbing again- even more steeply than before, but up here the ground was frozen hard, and the footing easy.</p> <p>I’ve mentioned Reno a couple of times. If you’ve lived on the Wasatch Front for a while, chances are you’ve had to drive there at some point. And no matter how interesting the geology and botany of the ranges in between, it is a long, boring drive*. And it’s getting longer every year. No really, I mean it: in the last 17.5 million years, the distance between Salt Lake and Reno has nearly doubled.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*On I-80 it is, anyway. I still maintain <span style="color:#c0c0c0;">(even though no one ever agrees with me on this)</span> that driving it over a couple of days on US50 makes for an awesome road trip, which I described in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/hydrology-road-trip-part-1-whats-so.html">this post</a></strong>, </span><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/hydrology-road-trip-part-2-into-heart.html"><strong><span style="font-size:78%;">this post</span></strong></a><span style="font-size:78%;">, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/hydrology-road-trip-part-3-basin-after.html">this post</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/fantabulous-hydrology-of-truckee-river.html">this post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p>For the last 17.5 million years the Great Basin has been stretching and thinning. The reasons for this are not completely understood, but are believed to be intimately bound up with what’s going on in California. The San Andreas Fault marks where the North American and Pacific crustal plates meet up. But before ~17 million years ago, there was another plate- the Farallon- in between the two. Between ~150 million and ~17 million years ago the Pacific and North American plates gradually worked their way closer together, and as they did so, pushed the Farallon plate down under- or subducted beneath- the North American plate.</p> <p><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF3AW9TDI/AAAAAAAAJOE/nExbSASe-2A/s1600-h/Plates%2040MYA%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Plates 40MYA" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Plates 40MYA" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF30VDpCI/AAAAAAAAJOI/JKGZ78ZVByc/Plates%2040MYA_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="334" /></a> During the last 17 million years the San Andreas Fault has been zippering its way Northward, closing the gap with the North American plate and eliminating the Farallon. A small remnant of the Farallon- the Juan de Fuca plate- still exists up around Oregon and Washington, where its ongoing subduction is driving the volcanism of the Cascade Range. </p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Interestingly, the ~20 million year period before 17 MYA was marked by significant and dramatic volcanic activity in the Intermountain West. And following up on the “The reasons for [the Great Basin extension]… not completely understood…” comment, there are at least 5 (probably more) proposed explanations I’m aware of. The topic is too wide-ranging for this post, but an excellent summary of the leading hypotheses can be found in Chapter 12 of Bill Fiero’s <i>Geology of the Great Basin</i>.</span></p> <p><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtF5Gn4pDI/AAAAAAAAJOM/l-CdCm3biWc/s1600-h/Plates%20Now%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Plates Now" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Plates Now" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGGRusCRI/AAAAAAAAJOQ/0uDwD28qsXg/Plates%20Now_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="436" border="0" height="332" /></a> Since the zippering began, the Great Basin has been stretching. Currently any given point on the floor of the Salt Lake Valley is creeping Westward at about 2mm/year. Over by Wendover it’s stretching faster, more like 3mm/year, and way out in the Black Rock desert in Northwest Nevada the ground is moving at something like 8mm/year. As it stretches, it’s also thinning. Nevada and Utah’s West Desert are sprinkled liberally with geothermal hot springs and evidence of recent volcanic activity, such as the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/st-george-weekend-part-1-all-about-lava.html">Tabernacle Hill</a> area West of Fillmore.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>All About Southern Idaho</b></span></p> <p><i><span style="color:#800000;">I’m including this side note because a) it’s vaguely related to the geology we’re discussing, b) I meant to blog about it last summer but never got around to, and c) Southern Idaho generally gets a bum rap as mega-boring (which it kind of is) but its geology is fantastic.</span></i></p> <p><b><span style="color:#800000;"></span></b></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> Another recent spectacular example of such activity is Southern Idaho, which has tons of volcanic features, such as Craters of the Moon National Monument and Hell’s Half-Acre <span style="color:#0000ff;">(pic below, right)</span>*. But Southern Idaho’s volcanic history is more complex than suggested by these features.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">*Which is right along I-15 between Idaho Falls and Pocatello. The next time you’re driving this stretch, you absolutely must stop for 30 minutes. It’s the best bang-for-buck quick lava field stop in the contiguous 48 states.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;">The foundation of the entire Snake River Plain is a series of massive basalt layers laid down in a period of super-volcanism roughly 17.5 MYA. The obvious black lava fields you see at Craters of the Moon <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGHDPJF2I/AAAAAAAAJOU/EDmcKORIo2E/s1600-h/IMG_6498%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_6498" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_6498" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGH1YUSAI/AAAAAAAAJOY/FFt8vBpF_j8/IMG_6498_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="180" /></a>et al are far more recent, only a couple of thousand years old, and have created only a teensy-weensy fraction of the volume of rock produced by the earlier volcanic period. The earlier period is basically Yellowstone. The volcanic and geothermal activity in Yellowstone National Park is the result of a soft, or “weak”, spot in the Earth’s mantle. The reasons for this soft/weak spot are debated (the most exciting hypothesis may be an ancient meteorite impact), but the spot has been in the same place for at least the last 17.5M years. But the Earth’s crust has been moving across it, such that ~17 MYA what is now the Snake River Plain was right on top of it. The “new” stuff is a completely different deal, the stretching/thinning of the Great Basin, and the volcanism produced by it rather inconsequential in comparison. It only looks consequential because it’s so recent.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;">Everything you’ve heard BTW about the Yellowstone caldera is true; it blows up spectacularly pretty much once every 600,000 years, we’re due for another go anytime now, and it’s going to suck for us when it blows.</span> </p> <p>At the top of the pitch above the shoulder I encountered the first real tree- a <strong>Curlleaf Mountain Mahogany</strong>. I gazed up for years at these strange trees before I knew <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/cercocarpus-part-1-mountain-mahogany.html">their cool story</a>: evergreen angiosperms, they’re like the Rose Family’s version of a <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/juniper-martinis-and-parallel-evolution.html">Juniper</a></strong>. They do so well on these exposed ridges; the scrub-oak here barely manages to grow thigh-high, but the Mountain Mahogany stands high above my head. About 50 feet further up the underlying tilted rocks emerge from the ground in a minor, ridge-defining hogback, which provided some bit of shelter from the wind. I slowed down when I reached it, bending down behind the hogback for cover.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGIs4iTdI/AAAAAAAAJOc/zsufZ2uYQ1Q/s1600-h/Cerco%20TC%20limestone%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Cerco TC limestone" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Cerco TC limestone" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGJSeUajI/AAAAAAAAJOg/2jsn8OvqRfs/Cerco%20TC%20limestone_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="427" border="0" height="325" /></a> Well, all that’s interesting, but what’s it got to do with mountains? We generally think of mountain ranges forming when crustal plates push up against each other, which intuitively makes sense. The Himalayas are a great example: India runs North, smacks into the soft underbelly of Asia and up crumple K2 and Everest. But why would stretching produce mountains? Why wouldn’t the land just get flatter?</p> <p>The hogback, along with all the underlying rock on Wire Peak, is Twin Creek Limestone, a light-gray marine limestone laid down in the Jurassic. It’s abrasive, high-friction and generally makes for good hand/toeholds, but fractures easily; when scrambling on it you have to “test” each chunk before committing your full weight to it. Perkins Peak, the next peak South*, is also Twin Creek, but none of the other peaks in this area are. Red Butte, the next peak North, is composed of a completely different rock- the reddish Nugget Sandstone, and the peaks to the South composed of still different formations.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Hardly anyone ever climbs it. I’ve done so twice, and it’s a cool hike, though you have to be patient threading your way through the scrub-oak. Easiest way is to park at Little Mountain Pass and start walking West along the ridge.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail: </b>I described the geology of Mill Creek Canyon in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-pipeline-ride-guide-my-2009.html">this post</a></strong>. Parleys Canyon BTW has awesome geology you can check out from the car window. As you drive along the ramp connecting I-215 Northbound to I-80 Eastbound, you pass alongside a wall of reddish rock- the Ankareh formation. Suddenly, just before you enter the canyon, you’ll pass a band of white rock tilted at about 70-80 degrees, This is the Gartra Member of the Ankareh formation and there are 2 really cool things about it.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGKEHLbCI/AAAAAAAAJOk/nS6srXkHoO8/s1600-h/Parley%20Mouth%20Geo%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Parley Mouth Geo" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Parley Mouth Geo" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGK79s-7I/AAAAAAAAJOo/Ootx-JJ1ERs/Parley%20Mouth%20Geo_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="427" border="0" height="325" /></a> The first is that if you turn your head and look left/down, you’ll see that the member extends down to “Suicide Rock”, the heavily-painted outcrop at the mouth of Parleys. And if you pay attention from down in the valley, you’ll see that the white line of the Gartra extends clear up in a well-defined hogback to the North “shoulder” of Grandeur Peak. All of that, from Suicide Rock on up, is the same band of rock.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;">The second cool thing is that the Gartra is chronologically and sequentially analogous to the Shinarump Conglomerate* of Southwest Utah. So essentially, that white band of rock running up from the mouth of Parley is our own little Wasatch version of Gooseberry Mesa, except that it’s titled nearly 80 degrees on its side!</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color:#800000;">*Which we looked at in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/gooseberry-helmet-cam-geology.html">this post</a></strong>. Man, it is like I have a post for <em>everything.</em></span></span></p> <p>The Great Basin ranges aren’t formed via “crumpling”, but through a process called “fault-blocking”. Essentially as minor pieces of the Earth’s crust are pulled apart, they tilt. As the chunks of crust tilt, they form breaks, or faults, where the edge of the tilted block rises above the adjacent block. These tilt-faults become the steep sides of Great Basin mountain ranges. The “mellow” sides of the ranges are the old “tops” of the now-tilted blocks.</p> <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGLVpOatI/AAAAAAAAJOs/OpnmQMCnisk/s1600-h/Faulting%20Block%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Faulting Block" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Faulting Block" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGLxKOTLI/AAAAAAAAJOw/jgMgBoVTFYk/Faulting%20Block_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="438" border="0" height="229" /></a> You see this pattern all over the Great Basin- one steep/faulted side, one mellow-tilted side. Most of the ranges around here- the Wasatch, Oquirrhs, Stansburys, Cedars- are faulted on the West side, but there are plenty of big ranges- like the Rubies and the East Humboldts faulted on the East.</p> <p><b></b></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The easiest-to-see close-by East-faulted range is probably the Canyon Range. Next time you’re headed down to St. George, check out the mountains directly West of Scipio*. Those cliffs to the West are the East slope of the Canyon Range.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">*Two years ago I discovered that a) the town is not named for the Roman general but rather for an Indian (who I presume was named for him), b) the “c” is silent, just like with the general, and c) the Chevron cashier/clerk knew all about the Second Punic War, which, I will admit, surprised me.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGMiZuEjI/AAAAAAAAJO0/UerKyDpsR5A/s1600-h/East%20Face%20Canyon%20Range%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="East Face Canyon Range" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="East Face Canyon Range" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGNHvQ0AI/AAAAAAAAJO4/yg-MqeYK3EE/East%20Face%20Canyon%20Range_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="443" border="0" height="200" /></a> But I believe the closest West-faulted Range to Salt Lake is- get ready for it- the <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/R_qbXGI8HRI/AAAAAAAAAKU/BL7dXQ3onDE/s1600-h/IMG_4818.JPG">Newfoundland Range</a>, which coincidentally was the first range I ever <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-1.html">blogged about</a>.</span></p> <p>Beyond the hogback the route <a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGN7Mu61I/AAAAAAAAJO8/RCFCPUnI1iM/s1600-h/IMG_8562%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8562" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8562" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGOpaivZI/AAAAAAAAJPA/qXjPygpTmvc/IMG_8562_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="222" align="right" border="0" height="169" /></a>passes through an open little mini-woodland of Mountain Mahogany. This is usually an easy stretch, but it was covered with crusty windblown snow concealing old icy footprints beneath. The footing was slow and treacherous, the wind howled, the graupel stung my cheeks, and I wished I’d packed a couple more layers.</p> <p>Finally I passed between the old signal <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGPZ6Kd3I/AAAAAAAAJPE/Q-J7qfnF3FA/s1600-h/IMG_8569%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8569" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8569" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGP11PuMI/AAAAAAAAJPI/7sy3zNVo2jY/IMG_8569_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="213" align="left" border="0" height="162" /></a>panels and trudged up the last slope to the peak. I’ve climbed Wire Peak probably a dozen or so times, sometimes alone, sometimes with kids, a couple of times with a baby on my back. I sat down long enough to strap yak-trax to my boots, gaze West for a moment, then started down.</p> <p>Fault-blocking is a neat story, but when you think about it for a bit there’s something wrong with it- the valleys. They’re wide open and (mainly) flat. Why aren’t <i>they</i> tilted? Because they’re filled with sediment. If you know something of the recent history of Salt Lake Valley, you may think “<a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/09/relic-hybrid-oaks-part-3-my-second.html">lake</a>” when you think of sediment.</p> <p><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGQcZ_Y4I/AAAAAAAAJPM/-vLB0wkFUsE/s1600-h/Wire%20Peak%20view%20West%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Wire Peak view West" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Wire Peak view West" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGRBix1XI/AAAAAAAAJPQ/q9EFDyWeXUA/Wire%20Peak%20view%20West_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="331" /></a> But the sediments left behind by ancient Lake Bonneville (and Lake Lahontan in the Western Great Basin), though often hundreds of feet thick, constitute only a thin veneer over the deeper, thicker sediments, which are the product of 17 million years of erosion-rubble. As the blocks have faulted and tilted, rains, streams and gravity have worn away at them, filing the basins with rubble. Near my house on the East side of the valley, the rubble, or Basin Fill, is only about 600 feet deep. But out by the refineries in North Salt Lake, the fill is 4,000 feet deep. So the Wasatch would stand nearly 11,000 feet above the floor of Salt Lake Valley, if only someone would clean out the rubble.</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> How can they tell how deep the fill is? There are 3 ways. The first- and by far biggest hassle- is by drilling till you hit bedrock. The second is via seismic soundings. But the cheapest and coolest way is by measuring gravity. Basin fill is less dense than bedrock, so gravity is weaker where fill is thicker, leading to the fascinating corollary that you weigh less at the refineries than you do in say downtown Murray!*</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">*I had to think about locations here, and could be wrong about this example. You need to equalize for altitude and latitude, both of which also affect surface gravity.</span></p> <p>The story is even more dramatic in other valleys. A well drilled in the 1970’s West of Spanish Fork in Utah Valley bottomed out at 13,000 feet. Think about what that means for a moment: The real height difference between the bedrock-valley-floor and the peak of Mt Nebo is about 25,000 feet! The real bedrock-valley-floor of Utah Valley lies more than 8,000 feet below sea level.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGRhrVI-I/AAAAAAAAJPU/6Orwan37Wx8/s1600-h/Basin%20Fill%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Basin Fill" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Basin Fill" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGTKfI9qI/AAAAAAAAJPY/Rl_9vTdS8_k/Basin%20Fill_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="434" border="0" height="184" /></a> The fill-depths of most Great Basin valleys are unknown. But there are low rocky ridges that are nearly submerged, but which would stand as massive sheer ranges if the surrounding fill were removed. It’s suspected that some Great Basin valleys hide entire ranges under their fill.</p> <p>I descended quickly but cautiously, driven by the wind and the cold, <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGTo9L7WI/AAAAAAAAJPc/pI7TxJGbATI/s1600-h/IMG_8580%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8580" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8580" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGUpfcIsI/AAAAAAAAJPg/1LBUwDKlrZM/IMG_8580_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="213" align="right" border="0" height="162" /></a>but not wanting to slip and twist an ankle. Finally I passed through the mini-woodland, cleared the snow and found firmer footing on frozen ground. Relaxing a bit, I thought of all the hidden life under the hard icy gravel, the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/03/spring.html">spring-parsleys</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/yellow-flowers-are-complicated.html">balsamroots</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/city-creek-part-2-flowerpalooza.html">phloxes</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/08/montana-part-3-flowerpalooza.html">lupines</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-grass-is-special-and-my-upcoming.html">grasses</a> </strong>waiting to burst forth, and the mental images of their sights and smells took the edge off the cold just a bit. All of those things have stories, many of which we’ve looked at over the course of this project. All of those stories are part of the story of the Wasatch, which in turn is part of the story of the Basin and Range province, which in turn… got me thinking about the project, and the 3 lessons I learned from it.</p> <p><b></b></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Lesson #1</b></span></p> <p>This one should be obvious by now, but is worth repeating: Everything has a cool story. I thought I knew this before I started the project, but I really didn’t. I knew that lots of macro-level biological things had cool stories, like moose and pines and magpies and such, but I was largely ignorant of the amazing stories of things like <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/real-problem-with-rim-brakes-and-true.html">fungi</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/stuff-that-grows-on-rocks-1-moss.html">moss</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/stuff-on-rocks-2-all-about-lichen.html">lichens</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/weekend-clean-up-part1-garage.html">bugs</a></strong>. More importantly, I was ignorant of the stories of non-living things. Not just big, bright things, like the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-3-orions-got-it-all.html">stars</a> and the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/tonight-highest-brightest-awesomest.html">moon</a>, but things like rocks and water and soil. Everything has a cool story- stories full of wonder and luck, perseverance and probability, joy and despair. You could spend a lifetime learning the million stories of the world. If life ultimately has no meaning, no higher purpose than to learn and know some small portion of these stories, then it is absolutely, wonderfully and fantastically worth it.</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> The #1 topic I wish I’d blogged about in the project but didn’t get around to BTW is soil. It looks so simple, but is amazingly complex and is the primary interface between the organic and non-organic worlds. Dirt makes everything work. Ultimately it brings us forth from the inorganic world, and takes us home to it again at the end, but we’ll get to that in a moment…</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Lesson #2</b></span></p> <p>All stories are connected to other stories. Again, much of this is obvious. <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/vegas-boondoggle-part-1-daggers-moths.html">Pollinator-plant</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-3-peregrine-attacks.html">predator-prey</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/awesome-wife-i-spent-weekend-nit.html">parasite-host</a> stories are all fascinating though largely obvious examples. But less obvious is the dynamism of the relationships in these stories- how migrations, introductions and climate change the balance and composition of populations, and how floral, faunal and other species sweep across the land again and again like waves.</p> <p>Less obvious still is the connection between organic and inorganic stories. Some of these, such as the links between altitude, geography, climate and living things are straightforward. Others, like selenium in <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/desert-wildflowers-s-curves-and.html">Prince’s Plume</a> and UV-induced <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-current-cosmetic-undertaking-and-all.html">folate damage in Europeans</a> are more subtle. Every molecule of chlorophyll contains an atom of magnesium that was born out of an ancient supernova*. After nearly 3 years at this project, I’ve come to see organic vs. inorganic less as a duality (<i>is it dead or alive</i>?) than as a spectrum (<i>what is a virus?</i>)</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*For that matter we are chock-full of it, in our bones, muscles and elsewhere. Most adult humans have about ~24 grams of magnesium inside them, making it the 11<sup>th</sup>-most common element in the body.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Lesson #3</b></span></p> <p>OK, pay attention, here’s the big one: Stories matter. When I say that you probably think I’m saying they matter because nature is beautiful, or every species is a unique treasure, or we need to be good stewards of the Earth or some such. But I’m not saying any of those things (even though they’re all true.)</p> <p>I think the truth is that inside the heart and soul of every blogger is a frustrated evangelist. Somewhere down deep we think we have an insight or perspective that would somehow enrich others and better the world if only we could a) put a finger on just what it is and b) figure out how to communicate it. While I’ve tried hard to avoid blatant evangelizing, I’ve generally had an evangelical “message” in the back of my mind which the overall theme of the posts in this blog has supported. But here’s the thing: over the course of the project, my evangelical “belief” (EB), as it were, has changed. </p> <p><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/dandelions-are-way-cool-part-3-where.html">My original EB</a> was pretty simple: the world is full of wonder and amazing stories. If more people saw how amazing and wonderful the natural world really is, then they’d be less concerned with reality TV shows and material goods and trivial work-related stress and housing starts and marginal tax rates and a whole bunch of other things that seem real important but are actually pretty minor and stupid and so maybe they’d be a little happier. And since happier people tend to make the people around them happier, the world would be a little bit better place. That’s it. It’s corny, but it’s what I thought, and I still think it, but it’s not <i>all</i> I think.</p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> That’s absolutely true, BTW. The part about happy people making people around them happier. Even if you think everything else I tell you in this post is BS, believe that. I used to have a client who liked to say, “Happy wife, happy life”, and as a veteran of 2 marriages to women at radically different locations on the Spectrum of Happiness, I can tell you it’s spot-on. There’s a worthwhile corollary here: making the people in your life a little happier pays you back in spades.</span></p> <p>I walked easily along the shoulder, the wind no longer so strong or icy. As I reached the next pitch down the ground started to soften, but not so much as to make things slippery.</p> <p>No matter what our take on the world around us, the strictly material world-view leads us to a head-scratcher of a place. If “I” am the sum of the stuff that comprises me, then the here-and now “me” is changing all the time as that “stuff” changes. The “me” who <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/twin-the-henry-mountains-mailbox-and.html">opened the mailbox in the Henry Mountains</a>, or <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SqZTx4gs94I/AAAAAAAAF8A/UZdhBlQGI8c/s1600-h/CujoDragcut4.jpg">rescued the dog with a face-full of porcupine quills</a>, or dated the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-you-remember-around-ponds.html">girl on the bridge</a>, or <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/early-wake-up-call.html">rode a motorcycle cross-country</a>, or for that matter <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/03/point-of-this-blog.html">started this blog</a>, doesn’t exist anymore. And the “me” writing this post won’t be around to see his kids graduate from college, walk his daughter down the aisle, or dance with his wife at their 50<sup>th</sup> wedding anniversary.</p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> My parents’ 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary is next year. We plan to throw them a big party. My mom initially resisted, but we finally convinced her with a version of the It’ll-be-the-last-time-to-get-all-your-friends-together-for-a-big-bash-before-they-start-corking-off pitch. Actually, it wasn’t a “version”- that was the pitch. Hey, it worked.</span></p> <p>But there’s another way of looking at “me”, and that’s to shake off the old-fashioned, evolution-shaped, parochial view of self. Self isn’t an absolute, it’s a configuration. A configuration that can see and hear and feel and figure out stuff and understand it. A configuration comprised by a small, here-right-now snapshot-portion of the immediate biosphere, which in turn is a little here-right-now portion of the broader organic+inorganic world, which in turn, well… planet->solar system-><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/StJVV7MslQI/AAAAAAAAGTY/eFynMN_bK2Q/s1600-h/MWay%5B4%5D.jpg">galactic arm</a>->galaxy->Local Group->universe->everything. There isn’t really an absolute “me” or “you” distinct from the Big-Us-Everything any more than a given wave is distinct from the ocean.</p> <p><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGVZn4PuI/AAAAAAAAJPk/XBQItUY8bVE/s1600-h/IMG_8585%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8585" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8585" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGV1MOOnI/AAAAAAAAJPo/tmwlS6cuhtw/IMG_8585_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="223" align="left" border="0" height="170" /></a>I reached the top of the Roller-Coaster and continued down through the scrub-oak which grew taller now, as tall as me, down to the trailhead and Sunnyside Ave. I crossed the street and started walking home. I’d like to say I spent this time thinking great thoughts, but actually I pulled out my phone and started returning calls I’d ignored ringing on the hike up…</p> <p>Multiple perspectives of self are all well and good, but the problem with this view is the huge gap in between. At one end of the “you” spectrum there’s the Right-Now-Little-You, which is cool to be, but disconnected from everything, and ultimately seems kind of pointless. On the other end there’s this Big-Everything-You, who/which has no end and is part of everything, but there’s this vast distance between the two. Neither of these “you”s relates meaningfully to your here-and-now day-to-day life. Your grow-up, go-to-school, get-a-job, find-true-love, raise-a-family, figure-out-how-you-are-connected-to-the-world, grow-old-and-complain-about-the-government/your health/your kids life.</p> <p>That’s where stories fit in. Stories link all things-living and dead- together. They connect the little Right-Now-Little-You to the Big-Everything-You. And in between those two extremes, in the jumble of connections and threads between stories across scale and distance and time, is the “you” that matters- the “you” you obsess over, that your friends care about, your family loves and your mom worries about.</p> <p>I’m not suggesting that if you start paying attention to the natural world you’ll suddenly understand the meaning of life, and for that matter I doubt there is a simple meaning of life/existence that can be summed up in any kind of sentence, paragraph, scripture or manifesto. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t continually gain more and more insight into the meaning of life. Think of this analogy: let’s say you take a week-long vacation to Costa Rica*. You could visit a couple of locations, but there’s no way you could ever “know” the place in a week. You could return the next year, the year after, and the year after that- maybe you could even move there- but you’d simply never know every town, every beach, every swimming hole, every little forest clearing or hilltop in the country. But whether you visited once or fifty times, no matter what you did, for sure you’d know the place better than if you’d spent the vacation in your hotel room watching TV.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Which, as it turns out, I’ve <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/costa-rica-part-1-sloths-monkeys-and.html">visited</a> twice. And yes, I’ll be returning again this year. But not just yet…</span></p> <p>If life is a vacation, too many of us spend it in the hotel room. There, that’s it. That’s my evangelical message: Get out of your mental hotel room and start checking out the world, even if it’s just the small bit of it in your backyard. Try to understand some little pieces of it, learn stories, make connections. To know and understand yourself, you have to look outward.</p> <p>When you can, help others do the same. They’re part of the Big-Everything-You anyway, and their stories touch yours, and the stories of those you care about, over and over again. Your story touches a thousand other stories: your friends and colleagues, your kids, your spouse. Live your life so that everyone else’s story is a little bit richer for having touched yours.</p> <p>I passed the zoo and hung up with Arizona Steve, turned off Sunnyside into my neighborhood, then up my street. My intention of course- blogging or no- is to keep watching the world wake up for as many years as I’m alive and of sound mind, but of course we can never tell where life will take us. The future is full of unforeseens, of challenges and obstacles that can occupy or divert our attention, focus and goals. But by the middle of your life, after a few decades of noticing the lives and paths of those around you, you get a vague, general idea of where your life may be heading.</p> <p>I’ll spend a year, maybe more, exploring, “<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkagQl0HmI/AAAAAAAAJMY/p3ayLPP20BE/s1600-h/PF%20still2%5B5%5D.jpg">walking the Earth</a>”, and trying to best enjoy time with the Trifecta before they head off into the weird haze of adolescence. After a time I’ll likely turn at least part of my focus once again toward concerns material, whether another position, career or business venture. <a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGWugjh2I/AAAAAAAAJPs/EfUrApIJ7JI/s1600-h/Trifecta%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Trifecta" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Trifecta" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUtGXAm_2KI/AAAAAAAAJPw/unPkT_f3Z4c/Trifecta_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" height="180" /></a>The Trifecta will continue to bring us- as all children do- worry and pride, heartache and joy, disappointment and hope, until we somehow manage to more or less “raise” them, and Nathan (Bird Whisperer), John (Twin A) and Julia (Twin B) set off on their own adult lives. Sue (Awesome Wife) and I will fumble along, eventually managing to “retire” for good, enjoying our golden years together for as long as health and good fortune allow, happy in each other’s company, yet each secretly, selfishly hoping to be the first to go, leaving the other to face the last dark years alone.</p> <p>But how and whenever the end comes, I know this one thing: that if I have at least a moment’s clarity before the end, I’ll think that way back when, in the early decades of the century, for at least a few years, I Watched the World Wake Up.</p> <p align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>End of Part One</b></span></p> <p><b></b></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Note About Sources: </b>Info for this post came from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Utahs-Spectacular-Geology-How-Came/dp/097607222X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296761411&sr=8-3"><strong><em>Utah’s Spectacular Geology</em></strong></a>, Lehi F. Hintze, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Geology-Great-Fleishmann-Natural-History/dp/0874177901/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296761443&sr=1-1"><strong><em>Geology of the Great Basin</em></strong></a>, Bill Fiero, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Geologic-History-Brigham-University-geology/dp/0929451007/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296761478&sr=1-1"><strong><em>Geologic History of Utah</em></strong></a>, Lehi F. Hintze, and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Geology-Idaho/dp/0878422196/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296761526&sr=1-1"><strong><em>Roadside Geology of Idaho</em></strong></a>, David D. Alt.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-48183695749763326552011-02-02T07:16:00.001-07:002011-02-02T07:16:15.001-07:00Thanks<p>Tomorrow or (worst case) Friday I’ll wrap up Part One, before leaving the country for a few weeks. Before doing so, I wanted to say a quick thank you to some of the many individuals who’ve helped me out with this project over the past couple of years. (I know I’ll miss some- if I forgot you please speak up.)</p> <p>My biggest thanks goes to those who know way more about the topics I’ve covered, but who generously gave of their time and attention to help me out, including <a href="http://foothillsfancies.blogspot.com/">Sally White</a>, Professor Chuck, Rudy Drobnik, Larry St. Clair, Lloyd Stark, John Brinda, Doug M., and <a href="http://coo.fieldofscience.com/">Christopher Taylor</a>. Sally in particular has become a great friend, providing support, encouragement and guidance throughout the project. Doug M. (aka Smartest Reader of This Blog) also deserves special thanks for his help and insights on everything from bat wings to red dwarfs.</p> <p>Speaking of friends, I’m fortunate to have made two great real-life ones through this project: <a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a> and <a href="http://www.skibikejunkie.com/">SkiBikeJunkie</a>. KanyonKris, in addition to being my most faithful commenter, also spent hours proofing and catching countless typos. SkiBikeJunkie spent many hours mulling posts and topics with me while biking, hiking and skiing, and deserves special thanks, along with <a href="http://vigor.nu/cyclingweasel/">Kevin Vigor</a>* and Phil O., for their outstanding guest posts last Spring. Thanks also to fellow nature blogger <a href="http://romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com/">KB</a>, who provided access to countless sources I could not have obtained otherwise.</p> <p><font size="1">*Whom I finally met in real-life over the weekend. I was driving along 1300 South, recognized him (no kidding) from his <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CxOfkqsduds/Sj-x2jIMlrI/AAAAAAAAAAM/X00LOP998lw/S220-h/me.jpeg">profile photo</a>, pulled over and introduced myself.</font></p> <p>I’m also extremely grateful to researchers who, while not directly involved in this project, made their work freely available, enabling me to learn and post about many fascinating topics. Since mid-2009 (when I got serious about listing sources) I’ve tried to be diligent in crediting/thanking these individuals in the relevant posts, but without question I have missed dozens, for which I apologize profusely. Among these I must give special thanks to Jim Kaler, whose wonderful <strong><a href="http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html">STARS</a></strong> site has provided material for countless astro-posts and hours of wide-eyed reading.</p> <p>Thanks also to the many commenters who provided valuable insight, help and encouragement, including, but not limited to, KristenT, <a href="http://www.bikemusings.blogspot.com/">Enel</a>, mtb w, <a href="http://lucydrewblog4u.blogspot.com/">Lucy/Jube</a>, ElZo, P65, <a href="http://giroofasaurus-vexed.com/">Maggie</a>, Marissa Buschow, El Guapo, El Gaucho, TheGuth, John, <a href="http://kitchenaddiction.blogspot.com/">Rachel</a>, Eric Wright, <a href="http://wheeldancer.blogspot.com/">Wheeldancer</a>, <a href="http://www.rabidrunner.com/">rabidrunner</a>, Dave, MikeJ in Fremont, Chris in Portland, KathyR, Tomodactylus and a bunch of others I’m almost certainly forgetting.</p> <p>I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Ssq-rQeuE-I/AAAAAAAAGQQ/gG8LU9Hs48Y/s1600-h/Watchers%20at%20Wedding%5B5%5D.jpg">Awesome Wife</a>, who put up with me reading and typing at all hours of the night for nearly 3 years, or my many friends and coworkers who put up with my blogging about them in all kinds of posts.</p> <p>But my last and most heartfelt thanks goes to a reader I won’t name, who works for a state government agency in the Eastern US. Way back when, in the summer of 2008, I was getting ready to kill this project. It was taking up a lot of cycles, I never got any comments, and it seemed like a huge time-sink. Out of curiosity, I installed one of those traffic-tracking tools, just to see if anyone was reading. Hardly anyone was, but one day a visitor from that state agency stopped by and spent 7+ hours reading just about every post I’d done to date. When I saw that, I thought, “OK, so at least someone finds this stuff interesting…” and I kept on going, learning about astronomy and geology and bugs and brains and eyes and ears and rock art and pigeons and all sorts of things I never would’ve gotten to if I’d killed the project then. So thank you, Mr./Mrs. East-Coast-State-Government-Employee. You made the whole project happen.</p> <p><font color="#800000"><strong>Next Up:</strong> Blocking, Stretching and Thinning, the Meaning of Life and I Wrap Up Part One*.</font></p> <p><font color="#800000" size="1">*Sounds big. I better get typing.</font></p> Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-61919523059179667552011-01-27T12:47:00.003-07:002011-01-27T12:51:21.132-07:00It’s Not You, It’s Me<p>So anyway, about this blog…</p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> But first, 2 things about the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2011/01/abc-in-perseus.html">last post</a>. First, if you ever want to find out how many coworkers really read your blog, do a post like that one. All week long, coworkers have been coming up to me, saying (mostly) nice things* about how they’ll miss working with me, mentioning that they read the post, and sometimes asking a follow-on question or two to try to get a handle on the details of the past-blown-up deal or B or C or some other aspect of the LQC*.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">*A couple even hugged me, which I thought was kind of nice. In general, I’m not a Gratuitous Hugger, but I have some great co-workers. Now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever did a tangent on Gratuitous Hugging, which is a rich, rich topic. Oh well, possible material for Part 2.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">**Never gonna tell. But contrary to what <strong><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SJt8tnJGDnI/AAAAAAAABS0/mKd1bmRtPPg/s1600-h/IMG_6332.jpg">Co-worker Matt</a></strong> is spreading, there is no anagramming involved. Seriously, the guy sat down in my office yesterday trying to Da Vinci-Decode “ABC…” One of the odd things in my life, BTW, that I think has been if anything exacerbated by this blog, is that people generally assume I’m smarter than I am. Really, I’m not all that bright- I’m just interested in a lot of things and like to run off at the mouth. Lots of times I’ll be talking with someone and they’re looking at me and I can tell they’re thinking, “Boy, I wonder what he’s thinking about right now- probably some deep, important stuff…” But mostly I’m just thinking about when I can next go for my next bike ride. Or lunch.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;">Second, I’m sorry- especially to male readers- about the “We Have To Talk” teaser. Because men are terrified of that phrase. When our wives/SOs say it to us, we simply have no idea what’s coming next. We honestly don’t know if they’re going to ask us for a divorce, or our opinion on the color for the new drapes. Really, we think it could be either. Because in relationships- and this is the truth- men never really have any idea of what is going on. Oh, we like to think we do, but we’re pretty clueless. We’re like long-distance drivers who have absolutely no idea how an engine works. We know we’re supposed to fill the tank with gas when the light comes on and maybe check the oil every once in a while. We generally think that when we get back in the car and start up everything will run just fine, but for all we know the next time we turn the key the engine might just blow up, like at the end of <i>The Mechanic</i>. That’s kind of like… oh, you get it already.</span></p> <p>Monday night OCRick and I drove down South to Gooseberry Mesa. After a quick night-ride on the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_06.html">Bench level</a> we drove on up onto the Mesa and camped. I looked up at the stars for a while and saw <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2011/01/abc-in-perseus.html">Perseus</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/astroupdate-aldebaran-ain-auriga.html">Auriga</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/03/gemini-and-secret-languages.html">Gemini</a></strong>, the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-2-three-cool-things.html">Big Dipper</a></strong>, Draco*, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-3-orions-got-it-all.html">Orion</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/astroupdate-aldebaran-ain-auriga.html">Taurus</a></strong>, the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-3-orions-got-it-all.html">Pleiades</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-you-should-do-tonight.html">Jupiter</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-1-compass-clock.html">Cassiopeia</a></strong>, and much more.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Thanks, Doug M.!</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> We have a new favorite <i>Phenomenally</i> Awesome Campsite on Gooseberry. For years we had an Awesome Campsite, but about a year ago it got taken out by a cell tower. Then back in October, we stumbled across the new, <i>Phenomenally</i> Awesome Campsite, which turns out- incredibly- to be even better than the Old Awesome Campsite. It’s 2WD accessible, private, right on singletrack, and the view, well…</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLuUGHpcI/AAAAAAAAJMg/Szn0GGG8ACQ/s1600-h/View%20no%20captions%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="View no captions" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="View no captions" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLu4ajx4I/AAAAAAAAJMk/jA17hPpbTis/View%20no%20captions_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" width="442" height="167" /></a> No, I’m not showing it on a map here. If you’re headed down there, email me and I’ll give you the beta.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLvJHCAQI/AAAAAAAAJMo/cx2oJFtMp9c/s1600-h/View%20captions%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="View captions" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="View captions" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLvp2V6YI/AAAAAAAAJMs/NeMLq9Mi4PQ/View%20captions_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" width="440" height="166" /></a> The next day we rode all over the mesa. We pedaled past <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">Piñon</a> </strong>and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/juniper-martinis-and-parallel-evolution.html">Juniper</a></strong> and Cliffrose and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-3-sage-o.html">Sagebrush</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike.html">Mormon Tea</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/01/sonoran-twin-b-getaway-part-1-water-and.html">Prickly Pear</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/09/repost-relic-hybrid-oaks-part-1.html">Turbinella Oak</a></strong>, and rolled over the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/gooseberry-helmet-cam-geology.html">Shinarump Conglomerate</a> and the Lower Sandstone Member of the Chinle formation. The rock surfaces were dotted with bits of <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Sa0rLPKElcI/AAAAAAAADig/H1tpd9Htuwk/s1600-h/CrustoseStructure4.jpg">crustose lichens</a>, and shady spots bore bright green swathes of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/stuff-that-grows-on-rocks-1-moss.html">moss</a></strong>. Away from the trail, in the open spaces between the trees, <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLwTJEFFI/AAAAAAAAJM0/60r6sh9t0fY/s1600-h/Grate%20caption%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Grate caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Grate caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLw7EHCGI/AAAAAAAAJM4/foakHYj7s9s/Grate%20caption_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" width="179" height="136" /></a>I spied rich black patches of mature <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-white-rim-fiasco-and-all-about.html"><strong>cryptogamic soils</strong></a>. We heard the calls of <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvfeFsTkI/AAAAAAAAJLA/LxQtbnnjvhM/s1600-h/Pine%20Bird%20Stats%5B4%5D.jpg">Pinyon Jays</a>, caught glimpses of the banded red & white Moenkopi members below the rim, the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search?q=wingate">Wingate</a> cliffs and <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S-I36yNh6tI/AAAAAAAAHxA/HG82e7Bzd2Y/s1600-h/Formationlabels4.jpg">Navajo</a> domes of Zion in to the North, and the massive laccolith of the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/st-george-weekend-part-1-all-about-lava.html">Pine Valley range</a> to the West. </p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> So you’re probably wondering how I like my <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-helmet-cam-retrospective.html">new bike</a>. After careful testing, I’ve assembled this highly technical Evaluation Assessment Matrix </span><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;"><em>(may be too advanced for non-technical readers)</em><strong><span style="font-size:85%;color:#0000ff;">:</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLxOxDqMI/AAAAAAAAJM8/SGg1aF6tSrA/s1600-h/Eval%20Matrix%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Eval Matrix" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Eval Matrix" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLx25HmVI/AAAAAAAAJNA/Fh88nZ4Az7M/Eval%20Matrix_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" width="425" height="164" /></a> Seriously, I love it. The low bottom bracket requires a bit of “awareness”, but gives the bike a wonderfully stable feel on fast descents. And the brakes deliver a masterful sense of effortless controlled power, even if the sounds emanating from them remind me of the zombies in <i>The Walking Dead. </i>I could prattle on about this or that feature, but the most remarkable (and surprising) thing about a full-suspension carbon 29er with a through-axle fork is that you <i>don’t get tired</i>. After a full day on Gooseberry in the off-season I just can’t believe how good I feel. My wrists, butt, neck, legs, arms- everything feels great. And the next morning I feel, well, <i>normal.</i></span></p> <p>All of these things- and the stars the night before- I not only recognized, but now knew something about their stories: what they were, where they came from, why they were here- pretty much none of which I knew 3 years ago. Though there will always be new bugs, birds, rocks, shrubs and stars to learn about, by any reasonable measure, I’ve completed the project. I’ve watched the world wake up. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLyVChKPI/AAAAAAAAJNE/uDvZQ26QWlc/s1600-h/OCR%20DD%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="OCR DD" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="OCR DD" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TUHLyzFunNI/AAAAAAAAJNI/egPjhuAc_wo/OCR%20DD_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" width="436" height="332" /></a> My plan was always that this project would have a start and an end. And this is probably a good point to wrap it up. Except…</p> <p>Now that I finally have all kinds of time and freedom, I’m going to get to go to all sorts of cool places and see all sorts of cool things- stuff really worth blogging about. So I’ll probably blog again, which means starting a new blog. I’d probably leave a pointer here to the new blog for any readers who were interested, which is kind of silly, because then, well, it’s really the same blog… So here’s what I intend to do:</p> <p>Next week I’ll complete the project, which I’ll call Part 1. After I wrap up Part 1, I’ll take a brief break from blogging- probably around a month*. Then, I intend to start Part 2.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Couple reasons for the break. First, I’ll have said my piece and feel I can let it sit for a bit. Second, I want a break. Third, I’ll be traveling light in a third-world-y kind of place where I don’t really want to be dragging a laptop around.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>All About Part 2</strong></span></p> <p>Part 2 will be more focused on travels, places and experiences over the coming year- it won’t simply be a continuation of blogging about the Wasatch and Northern Utah. And it’ll be different than Part 1 in other ways. Posting will be less frequent, and there may be other changes in tone, perspective and focus.</p> <p>Note that I said “intend”. I’ll start Part 2 when- and if- it feels right. I’ve always felt this project worked best when I wanted- was<i> itching</i>- to blog, which fortunately, was most of the time. When I felt I <i>had</i> to blog, well, it felt kind of like a job. I’m taking a break from jobs- of all kinds- for a bit. I think (and hope) that I’ll be itching to blog again soon, but if not, Part 1 will stand on its own.</p> <p>So that’s the “plan”, such as it is. Next week I’ll finally get around to explaining the thing I probably should have explained when I started the project- the Wasatch. And some other stuff.</p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-51074781375166470982011-01-21T07:30:00.001-07:002011-01-21T07:30:00.536-07:00ABC in Perseus<p>When I started this blog, I wrote a “Point of the blog” type <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/03/point-of-this-blog.html">post</a>, where I set out what I was hoping to do. The description- a middle-aged working dad who wanted to start paying attention to the natural world around him- was technically correct. But it was incomplete.</p> <p>Three years ago this month, I took a solo “hooky” day to drive down to Southwest Utah and spend a day mountain biking in my <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/relic-ponderosas.html">Favorite Place In The World</a>. I left straight from work, drove down in the dark to my <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SSOAR_1q_1I/AAAAAAAACa4/p9K5oUjuaWI/s1600-h/Camper%20Moonlight%20Color%5B4%5D.jpg">Favorite Campsite In The World</a>, rolled out my bag on the ground, climbed in and stared up at the night sky. I didn’t know much about stars back then, but had it in my head that I’d try to find a new constellation. I looked at the star-finder by flashlight, and decided to try and find Perseus.</p> <p>I’ve regularly done solo trips for many years, but I had something on my mind on this one. For the past several months I’d been dealing with a sort of career-goals-life-direction, maybe mid-lifey, quasi-“crisis”, and was hoping to sort things out in my head, away from work, family, friends or other distractions for a day and a night.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaXk646OI/AAAAAAAAJLY/Ea5-XnEecp4/s1600-h/Perseus%20Andromeda%20Action%20Graphic%5B4%5D%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Perseus Andromeda Action Graphic[4]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Perseus Andromeda Action Graphic[4]" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaYHEwa8I/AAAAAAAAJLc/cdRkiUOL6SM/Perseus%20Andromeda%20Action%20Graphic%5B4%5D_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="180" /></a> Perseus, like most constellations, looks absolutely nothing like its namesake, who- as we already know from my <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/astroupdate-aldebaran-ain-auriga.html">previous post on Andromeda</a>—was a semi-divine hero who made a living killing monsters, rescuing naked ladies chained to rocks, and flying around with a head in a bag. But what it mainly looks like is a wedge.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> It took me a couple years of semi-serious stargazing to figure this out: most constellations look like wedges. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Sy-KWifMdbI/AAAAAAAAHL4/Af53_xo3P_0/s1600-h/Andromeda%20ExpandO%5B5%5D.jpg">Andromeda</a>? Wedge. <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/triangle-man-and-his-self-help-book.html">Cepheus</a>? Wedge. <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLfVEr93l0I/AAAAAAAAIp0/ZJC5MNJ3TDA/s1600-h/Capricornus%20captions%5B5%5D.jpg">Capricornus</a>? Libra? <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TKMtWDDS29I/AAAAAAAAInY/X-aQtFfmZQo/s1600-h/TriangleGCenter4.jpg">Sagittarius</a>? Wedge. Wedge. Wedge. This is probably because a wedge is basically a lopsided triangle, which one can readily construct with any 3 points in the same general vicinity. Anyway, the key to recognizing these constellations is to see the wedge, because all of the wedges are different, and, with a little attention up-front, easily recognizable.</span> </p> <p>The Life Quasi Crisis (LQC) had several different aspects, most of which aren’t things I’ll get into here. But the core of it was that over that last decade, I’d gradually come to realize where my real passion and interests lay, while at the same time, it seemed less likely that my career aspirations were likely to ever come to fruition.</p> <p>The Wedge of Perseus consists of 4 main stars, which might make you think it looks quadrilateral-ish, but really it looks more wedgy, because 2 of the 4 are quite close together. The wedge points roughly North, and lies West of Auriga and East and a bit South of Cassiopeia*. As you lie facing South, scan West/Right of Auriga for the next bunch of bright stars. If you reach Cassiopeia, back up to the East/Left. The Southwest “base” of the wedge is <strong>Epsilon Persei</strong>.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*To find Cassiopeia, see <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-1-compass-clock.html">this post</a></strong>. To locate Auriga, see <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/astroupdate-aldebaran-ain-auriga.html">this post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p><b></b></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaYiVRumI/AAAAAAAAJLg/mSOGAD_quZk/s1600-h/High%20Southern%20Sky%20Jan%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="High Southern Sky Jan" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="High Southern Sky Jan" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaZNpSfsI/AAAAAAAAJLk/c8ELR5eEtSs/High%20Southern%20Sky%20Jan_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="442" border="0" height="337" /></a> Epsilon Persei, a double star, lies some 540 light years away. It’s a young, hot star, probably only about 10 million years old, which will go supernova* in only a couple million more. The bigger of the 2 shines 25,000 times as brightly as our sun, and more brightly than any other star in the constellation. It shines 5 times as brightly, and is just about the same distance from us, as Mirfak, the apparent brightest star in Perseus (and which we’ll get to momentarily) but appears dimmer as it’s partially obscured by clouds of interstellar dust.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I explained supernovas in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-3-orions-got-it-all.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaZdIM38I/AAAAAAAAJLo/ky79_qXlweI/s1600-h/Wedge1%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Wedge1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Wedge1" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaZzgpGkI/AAAAAAAAJLs/ICnftb9tV40/Wedge1_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="444" border="0" height="338" /></a> Extra Detail:</b> I’m unclear whether these clouds are considered part of the Perseus Molecular Cloud, which spans about 6 degrees of sky a bit further South, centered around Zeta Persei*, roughly 600 light-years distant. This cloud lies within the Orion Spur- which is our “home” spur of the Milky Way- but further outward from the galactic core than us. In fact, everything we’re looking at in this post is away from the galactic center, and we know this because Auriga is our reference constellation for the Galactic Anti-Center.**</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Zeta, not shown on my graphic, lies South of the wedge and is the “foot” of Perseus. Go South from Epsilon about the same apparent distance as from Epsilon to Delta Persei, and it’s the next bright star you run into. The star is an monster, shining- in absolute terms- 4 times as bright as Epsilon, but it’s way, way farther away- almost 1,000 light-years.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >**I explained the large-scale structure of the Milky Way galaxy in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-1-compass-clock.html">this post</a></b>. I explained the Galactic Anti-Center in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/astroupdate-aldebaran-ain-auriga.html">this post</a></b>.</span> <i></i></p> <p>The passion/interest thing is probably pretty obvious- it’s a lot of the stuff in this blog, except that back then it was sort of an amorphous, loosey-goosey subset of the stuff in it. I was interested in <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/trees">trees</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/astronomy">stars</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/desert">open spaces</a>, but didn’t know enough to be interested in things like <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/birds">birds</a> or <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/bugs">bugs</a> or <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/geology">rocks</a>. But I realized that the natural world was the real show going on, something that hadn’t really occurred to me way back when I was making early life decisions about things like education and career.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>A</strong></span></p> <p>From Epsilon Persei, I scanned North and West for the next bright star, <strong>Delta Persei</strong>. The apparent span between Epsilon and Delta Persei is roughly on the same scale as one of the longer 2 sides of the Auriga pentagon, so I scanned about that distance till I found it. I’d made the first connection.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaazcLsKI/AAAAAAAAJLw/AZ88UGQDbqI/s1600-h/Wedge2%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Wedge2" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Wedge2" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkabaMZ57I/AAAAAAAAJL0/4TnkgUhBDfI/Wedge2_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="444" border="0" height="338" /></a> Delta Persei lies roughly the same distance- 530 light-years away- and shines more than 3,000 times as brightly as the sun. It’s about 6.5 times the mass of the sun, only 50 million years old, has just about exhausted the hydrogen in its core and is in the process of turning into a red giant. Delta Persei appears (not certain) to be a double, but its companion, roughly the size of the sun, is way far out- about 16,000 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth (or 165 times the max distance between the Sun and Eris). At that distance the stars would orbit each other about once every ¾ of a million years. If this sun-sized companion had a planet, Delta Persei (the main star) would appear as an incredibly bright star in the night sky, about 5 times as bright as a full moon, and easily visible even by day.</p> <p>My “career aspirations” were, uh… to make money. That’s pretty much it. OK that’s a little general. Specifically- and this is an important distinction*- it was to make enough money that I didn’t have to work anymore.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Because I’m not really into having expensive stuff or anything. I drive an 11 year-old car, and buy a new mountain bike once every 5-7 years. It’s the security and freedom of money that I love. The security to never be losing my home or begging friends or family for hand-outs, and the freedom to (at least know that I could) walk away from any job, any time.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>All About Money, Part 1</b></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><strong>Tangent:</strong> One of the things in our culture about work and money that kind of irks me is how we all put on this sort of overdone show about career development and job satisfaction and meaning in our work and what-not, when the fact of that matter is that for the vast majority of us the #1 over-riding reason why we all go to work every day is to get money. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. We’re trying to stay alive- buy food, shelter and a few luxuries- and money is the most practical way to do that. But there’s this thing about not <i>acting</i> like you do it for money. What’s up with that? I’m screaming loud and clear right now for the world* to hear: I worked for money!</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*“World” in this instance would consist of the ~couple hundred people per day who visit this blog, approximately 50% of whom are searching for <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/piney-looking-trees-part-3-white-fir-is.html">Salma Hayek photos</a>.</span></p> <p>In my family/culture (upper middle-class* Northeast US) the expectation was that you go to college following high school graduation, which like it or not, necessitates at least some preliminary decisions about career path. But I had no idea at age 18 what I wanted to do, other than I didn’t want to go to school for any longer than I had to, and didn’t want to be dependent on my parents for money. So I majored in (electrical) engineering, because you could get a decent-paying job with a bachelor’s degree.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I’m not really sure what this means. Practically everyone in the Northeast US says they’re “upper middle-class”, don’t they? Unless they grew up semi-poor, in which they say that they “came from a middle-class background…” (which of course implies that they’re now<em> upper</em>-middle class…) I never hear anyone claim to be upper-class, lower-class, or lower middle-class. Anyway, my parents always said we were upper middle-class, so I guess that’s why I say it too.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>B</strong></span></p> <p>The next point in the Wedge is mighty <strong>Mirfak</strong>. From Epsilon to Delta Persei, continue along the same line, except veer ~30 degrees to the West. Continue a bit less than half the apparent Epsilon-Delta distance and you hit honking bright Mirfak. </p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkab0gyJ8I/AAAAAAAAJL4/fUkAgR1V3Ik/s1600-h/Wedge3%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Wedge3" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Wedge3" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkacesKz-I/AAAAAAAAJL8/55tEK-4LRmk/Wedge3_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="445" border="0" height="339" /></a> As I mentioned earlier, Mirfak is the alpha star of Perseus only due to the dust obscuring Epsilon Persei. It’s a young, hot star, maybe 30- 50 million years old, shining 5,000 times as brightly as our sun and lying some 590 light-years distant, and…. waaaait a minute. Isn’t this sounding familiar? All 3 of these stars are super-bright, super-young, and about the same distance- rather atypical for a named constellation. Almost Big Dipper-ish*, in fact. What’s going on here?</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I blogged all about the Big Dipper in <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-2-three-cool-things.html"><strong>this post</strong></a>.</span></p> <p>Mirfak, Delta Persei, and Epsilon Persei are all part of the same open star cluster*, the Alpha Persei Cluster, which is around 50 million years old. If you check out Mirfak through binoculars, you’ll see the space around it appears packed with other blue-white members of this cluster.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I explained open star clusters in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-3-orions-got-it-all.html">this post</a></strong>. Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything.</i></span></p> <p>As I lay in my bag I retraced the line from Epsilon Persei to Delta Persei, then from Delta Persei to Mirfak, repeatedly, becoming comfortable with the lay of three stars above. As I did so, I started to think of Epsilon -> Delta as segment “A”, and Delta -> Mirfak as segment “B”. Now I was ready to look for “C”.</p> <p>Engineering seemed dry and dull, and the raises small, so I switched to sales after a couple of years, lured by the promise of big commissions. I wasn’t particularly good at it, but I knew my product well and stumbled into enough lucky breaks to make that first job work, which lead to another job and another… In that first job I used to fly a couple of times a month, mostly between Boston and Newark. One time I was waiting for a flight and I noticed another salesguy-looking fellow waiting. He looked really old, like maybe 45 or something, and I remember thinking, “Man, I hope I’m not still flying around selling stuff when I’m 45…”</p> <p>My career progressed well enough, making a good living and moving into management, but I never quite hit it big enough to check out. Almost 20 years after I saw that 40-something salesguy in the Newark airport, I lay under the stars, thinking about my life, and about the maybe, possibly, finally chance to break free… </p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>C</strong></span></p> <p>“C” is a direction reversal, heading back South from Mirfak, but veering ~30 degrees West of due South, down almost as far South as Epsilon Persei, down to the next bright star, <strong>Algol</strong>. In the traditional rendering of the constellation, Algol- the apparent 2<sup>nd</sup>-brightest star- is the eye of Medusa, the thing that when you look straight at it, will turn you to stone. But although it won’t really turn to stone, Algol will, if you look long enough at it, <i>wink</i> at you.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkac4wpxSI/AAAAAAAAJMA/IE2tyok5pYk/s1600-h/ABC%20Perseus%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="ABC Perseus" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="ABC Perseus" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkaddlh2yI/AAAAAAAAJME/vGyhWie027Y/ABC%20Perseus_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="443" border="0" height="304" /></a> Algol is different than the other 3 stars of the wedge. It’s not part of the Alpha Persei Group, and it’s nowhere near as bright as they are. It’s 100 times as bright as our sun, and only appears so bright relative to the other 3 wedge-stars because it’s so much closer- only 93 light-years. Most of the time, Algol shines as a second magnitude star, and the second-brightest star in Perseus, But roughly once every three days, it gets noticeably dimmer (by 2/3!) for a few hours, then returns to normal.</p> <p>Algol is an eclipsing binary, and was in fact the first such system to be discovered. It consists of 2 stars orbiting each other very closely <span style="color:#808080;">(less than 5 million miles apart- about 1/20<sup>th</sup> the distance between the Sun and the Earth) </span>and very rapidly <span style="color:#808080;">(once every 2.867 days)</span> on a plane parallel to our line-of-sight from Earth, such that one passes in front of the other roughly every day and a half. The star we see is a main sequence hydrogen-burner, like our own sun, only 3.5 times as massive. The obscuring star is a burnt-out giant, dim, with a mass of 0.81 times that of our sun.</p> <p>Wait a minute- big stars burn out faster. Why is the burnt-out partner the less massive one? Because at their close distance, the burning-bright star is sucking away matter from the dying hulk of its burnt-out partner. It only steals a teeny-tiny fraction of its mass away every year, but at the current rate it should suck it away completely in around 40 million years.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*My calculation, could be wrong.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkad88QhYI/AAAAAAAAJMI/C6WvWdODdZw/s1600-h/Algol%20System%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Algol System" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Algol System" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkae2glsPI/AAAAAAAAJMM/8qeXH0JUeZw/Algol%20System_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="442" border="0" height="263" /></a> There’s a third partner in the Algol system, about twice the mass of our sun, orbiting the inner 2 stars once every couple of years at about the same distance as between our sun and the asteroid belt. None of the Algol system stars are known to possess planets, but if they do, their skies must be freaky-wild.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Big Deal</strong></span></p> <p>The maybe-possibly part was the promise of a deal- a big deal. A company-liquidity kind of deal that would make my hard-earned piece of it worth something. For 6 years I’d stayed with the same company in hopes of just such a deal, though it seemed forever to lie out of reach, and for the last year I’d debated whether to stick around or move on. Start over. Hit the reset. Find a new gig, negotiate a new deal with a new company, start working and vesting all over again, and hope for a better outcome.</p> <p>But now, for the first time, that deal was on the horizon. And as I thought about that deal, and about the course of my life and my passion and paths, I re-traced again and again the 3 segments of the wedge of Perseus in the sky above- from Epsilon Persei to Delta Persei to Mirfak to Algol- and a thought came into my head: that the deal- when it happened- would be akin to “A”, in that it would enable a step “B” and a step “C” that would give me the freedom and opportunity and security and confidence to break out of the LQC and start to realize the passions and interests I’d come to recognize only in the middle of my life. Specifically what “B” and “C” were, how they were connected, and what would they would entail aren’t important, but they lead to the promise of a lifestyle of more time doing things that I’d finally figured out were important, including, but not limited to, spending more time doing things I love, traveling to places I’d always daydreamed about traveling to, being a better friend, spouse and parent, and finally paying attention to, learning about, and understanding something of, the natural world around me. Maybe I’d start by creating a blog to keep track of various trees, shrubs and wildflowers as I learned to ID them…</p> <p>In my head it all fit together, and I called the plan <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(to myself only)</span> “ABC in Perseus.” ABC in Perseus was my vision, my path, my ticket to freedom, balance and a better, more fulfilling life. And after I returned home, dealing with the craziness of work and the mechanics and logistics of the hoped-for “A”, I kept that vision in my head. “ABC in Perseus”, I’d remind myself, when stressed or worried, and sometimes in the evening I’d step out onto the back porch before bed and scan the night sky, just to reassure myself that ABC was still there. And so things went forward for the next 2 months.</p> <p>In mid-March 2008, the deal fell- quickly and spectacularly- apart. There was no backup plan, no successor deal on the horizon. I was deflated, crushed, the mental wind knocked out of me. On the verge of Spring- a Spring I’d so been looking forward to- I grasped about for some kind of outlet or distraction, something to focus on other than my lack of a plan or direction. Two weeks later I started this blog.</p> <p>The “project” started out as a way to learn about flowers, shrubs and trees. I thought I’d do it through the Spring. But Spring came and went and there were still new flowers and trees to check out, and when I learned about them, it seemed that nearly all of them had a cool story. As I learned more about them, I started to get curious about their relationships to one another, and then to and with other living things- other growing things, like <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/stuff-that-grows-on-rocks-1-moss.html"><strong>mosses</strong></a><strong> </strong>and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/stuff-on-rocks-2-all-about-lichen.html">lichens</a></strong>, as well as moving things, like birds and bugs and other critters.</p> <p>Summer turned to Fall to Winter to Spring again and I still wasn’t done checking out flowers and shrubs, and now I was interested not just in other living things but in their connections to the non-living world, and things like <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/mountain-biking-moonlight-color-vision.html">light</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2011/01/birds-hearing-and-ears.html">sound</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-desert-hiking-part-2-fins.html">rocks</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-1-navigation-magnetic.html">magnetic force</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/07/bachelor-weekend-part-3-strangest-lake.html">water</a> and the connections between those things and the universe as a whole, and… well, if you’ve been following along over the course of this project you already know all this.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Big Deal, Take 2</strong></span></p> <p>Seasons continued to pass, work continued to happen, and after another couple of years, after the first Big Deal was a faint memory, another Big Deal <i>did</i> appear. And as it developed and grew and then finally came together, it occurred to me that this was “A” all over again, and that if I kept my nose down and played things right, ABC in Perseus could still happen.</p> <p>Over the last year, “B” and “C” did happen, and though I won’t get into details, I’ll say that it was a year of keeping cool, threading needles and juggling balls. And for once in my long, wandering, figuring-it-out-as-I-go-along life, I did everything right*. ABC in Perseus completed last week. My last day with the company will be January 31. I don’t really <em>need</em> to work, well… anymore.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Part of “B&C” did involve money, and another part involved disentangling oneself without burning bridges. But the most important part involved finding homes for my team in the new entity. The truth about acquisitions is that they’re great for the top guys, but often a raw deal for the rank & file. M&A folks talk about synergies and opportunities, but for the average worker-bee, having your employer acquired is usually not a good deal. At the time of the acquisition I managed around 30 people, and it was important to me that, at the end of the integration-year, they wound up with good, secure jobs. My success rate ended up being about 90%. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(As recently as Thanksgiving, it was looking more like 60%. I did a lot of fast talking and fancy footwork this holiday season…)</span></span></p> <p>To be clear, I <i>will</i> work again. Life is long, children are expensive and the future full of unknowns. But not yet. I’ve put too many things off for too long, and now… well, we’ll get to that soon enough.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>All About Money Part 2- How Money Is Like Nudity. And Some Other Stuff.</b></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Here’s a funny thing about money: you hardly ever tell other people how much you have or make. Even your good friends. Think about it- married middle-aged guys are more likely to share details of their/their wives’ sex lives with each other with their friends than they are how much money they make. Isn’t that weird? But you <span style="color:#808080;">(assuming you’re a guy- I can’t speak for women)</span> know it’s true! Why is that? And yet, there are some people in front of whom we speak of our incomes freely. We talk about it with our boss of course, but also our accountant, and maybe our financial planner. Yet we don’t talk about it with our good friends, whom we know far better than our accountants. Why is money like that?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Know what else is like that? Getting nekkid. Most of us don’t get naked in front of most other people, including our friends. But when we go to the doctor- even a strange or new doctor we’ve never seen before- we happily disrobe in front of him/her. You may say, oh, well that’s health-related, it’s private. Maybe, but people share (or overshare) exacting details of their various health ailments all the time with all sorts of people. But they don’t get naked in front of them. Why are only Money and Nudity like that? Nudity of course has the whole connection to Sex. OK, so why are Money and Sex these 2 big, weird taboo topics, when making money and having sex are probably the only 2 things the vast majority of adult humans have in common?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Mind you, I’m<i> not</i> advocating that people should walk around naked telling each other how much money they make- I’m just saying it’s weird.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Where was I going with this tangent? Oh yeah- so anyway, one of the interesting things about this upcoming break is people’s reactions to it. Some are happy for me, some are envious, and others just confused, all of which are fine and understandable. But the reaction of a fair number of people has been a sort of denial. “Well, there’s no way <i>I</i> could stop working now- I just don’t know what I’d do with myself!”, they harrumph... I’m never really sure where this reaction is coming from. On the one hand, maybe it’s a face-saving thing: they’d like to stop rat-racing, but can’t see a way how to, so they tell themselves that they wouldn’t want out, even if they could finagle it… But on the other hand, maybe they really mean it. Which on the one hand is just great. Maybe they’re an artist, a researcher, educator, astronaut, Leader of the Free World, Rock Star or something else that brings them meaning and fulfillment. But when I hear it from a salesman or a purchasing agent or a product manager, I scratch my head a little; is there really nothing else, no other passion or interest or calling that you’d rather be following 40, 50 or 60 hours a week?* </span><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(And if not, doesn’t that give you pause?)</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*I’ll probably piss off some reader with this one, and half-expect some “I love my job” comments. Which is great, and I hope you do<span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);"> (love your job- though I certainly welcome your comments as well.)</span>. But before you claim that you do your job because it’s how you want to be spending your time, ask yourself this: If you got paid the same whether you showed up for your job or not, or if you had X million bucks in the bank, would you still do it?</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;">One more thing about money: It’s often said- and is very true- that money doesn’t bring happiness. But, ironically, the lack of money brings tremendous <em>un</em>happiness. Isn’t that strange?</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkafXNGMBI/AAAAAAAAJMQ/Gm7sFPhZ1K8/s1600-h/November%20Oquirrh%20Sunset%20cut%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="November Oquirrh Sunset cut" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="November Oquirrh Sunset cut" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkafx546nI/AAAAAAAAJMU/T0TzSngdT2A/November%20Oquirrh%20Sunset%20cut_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="442" border="0" height="108" /></a> </p> <p>I love movies and stories where guys ride off into the sunset. My absolute favorite is the end-scene in Pulp Fiction, where the enforcer/hit-men played by John Travolta and Samuel Jackson are talking over breakfast. Samuel Jackson tells John Travolta he’s quitting, leaving the business, he’s getting out. Travolta, incredulous, asks him what he’ll do, and Jackson says, “You know, walk the Earth, meet people and get into adventures. Like Caine from Kung Fu.”</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkagQl0HmI/AAAAAAAAJMY/p3ayLPP20BE/s1600-h/PF%20still2%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="PF still2" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="PF still2" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTkahHsfcRI/AAAAAAAAJMc/ZFF2TmM724E/PF%20still2_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" height="204" /></a> I love that line. And that- more or less- is what I’m going to do. Oh, it’ll be a little more tamped-down; I do have a wife and kids and home and such. But for the next year, I <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:78%;" >(along with my family a good part of the time)</span> am going to walk <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:78%;" >(and bike and ski and drive and take airplanes around at least some limited portions of) </span>the Earth, meet people and get into adventures.</p> <p>All of which brings me back around to this project, this blog, and well, uh… us.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Next Up:</b> We Have To Talk</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note About Sources:</b> Info for this post came from Jim Kaler’s totally awesome <strong><a href="http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/sowlist.html">STARS</a></strong> site, the<strong><em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Field-Guide/dp/B003AC0ISY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295585793&sr=8-1">Audubon Society Field Guide to the Night Sky</a></em></strong>, the <em><strong><a href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/">Sky & Telescope Magazine website</a></strong></em> and Wikipedia.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-4097491192836631122011-01-18T07:00:00.001-07:002011-01-20T16:42:17.274-07:00Smart, Aggressive And Not Always Entirely Honest<p>Since the new year I’ve been home a bit more often during the day, seeing as… well, I’ll get to that in the next post, which has given me an opportunity to see the comings and goings of various creatures in the yard- mainly birds- during the day. Last week one morning this big Scrub-Jay showed up on our deck.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvc7BmR4I/AAAAAAAAJKw/Kv8ki4pREp4/s1600-h/WSJay1%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="WSJay1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="WSJay1" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvdh294yI/AAAAAAAAJK0/872NUm0FeoA/WSJay1_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="436" border="0" height="332" /></a> Tangent:</b> One of the weird things about Winter, assuming you work a full-time job, is that a whole week can pass without you ever seeing your home in the light of day. You leave when it’s dark and come home when it’s dark. Sometimes you’ll wake up on a Saturday morning in January, look out the window, and think, “Oh yeah- this is where I live…”</span></p> <p>The <b>Western Scrub-Jay</b>, <i>Aphelocoma californica</i>, is a super-easy bird to ID, as it’s pretty much the only blue bird in Salt Lake Valley in the winter. It has a distinctive call, arguably the harshest of corvid squawks: a razor-sharp, scratchy, climbing note that instantly catches your attention. When it shows up in the yard- never staying more than 5 or 10 minutes- it immediately disrupts the social equilibrium around the feeders*, sending juncos, siskins and finches scattering.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I described the Winter “regulars” at my feeders 2 years ago in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/bird-feeder-week-part-1-big-picture.html">Bird Feeder Week</a></strong>. Man, was that a great week or what?</span></p> <p>Scrub-Jays are birds of woodlands. In Utah they’re most often found in either Piñon-Juniper or Scrub Oak. This time of year you’ll almost always come across a couple if you go poking around on any of the foothill trails across the street form the zoo, or up around the Death Climb. <i>Aphelocoma</i>, the Scrub-Jays, includes 5 species, all native to North America, but the only other one* you’re likely to see in the US is the Florida Scrub-Jay, <i>A. coerulescnes</i>, native to, yes that’s right, Florida.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*The Island Scrub Jay, <i>A. insularis</i>, is endemic to Santa Cruz Island off the California coast.</span></p> <p>The Western Scrub-Jay is divided up into a whole bunch of subspecies, grouped broadly within 2 clades, (which may in turn get reclassified as 2 distinct species sometime in the near future): one inland and one in California.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> This might sound similar in some ways to the division between <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SwDDzsidKpI/AAAAAAAAGzc/oX3e7IDPNM8/s1600-h/New%20Phylogeny%5B4%5D.jpg">Black-billed and Yellow-billed Magpies</a>; the Sierra Nevada/Great Basin constitute a formidable barrier to migration. But while Magpies came over from Asia some 3-4 million years ago, Scrub-Jays are “New World Jays”, thought to have migrated Northward from Central America.</span></p> <p>One of the interesting markers of <i>A. californica</i> subspecies is bill morphology. Subspecies that live in Piñon-Juniper woodlands have straight, thin bills for reaching in between cones scales to grab Piñon seeds, while those that live around Oak woodlands have slightly broader, more hooked beaks (better for working with acorns). Our subspecies here in Northern Utah, <i>A. californica woodhouseii woodhouseii</i> (sometimes called Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay by bird geeks) has sort of an in-betweeener beak: straight but heavy, with a slight hint of a hook at the tip.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSveZTcV0I/AAAAAAAAJK4/A-YlCMIBmLo/s1600-h/Acwwoodhouseii%20Bill%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Acwwoodhouseii Bill" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Acwwoodhouseii Bill" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSve3FBHFI/AAAAAAAAJK8/QIH_Rmnumpc/Acwwoodhouseii%20Bill_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="331" /></a> In any case, it’s easy to dismiss Scrub-Jays as somewhat unremarkable in that compared to other “Pine Birds” their capabilities can seem rather unimpressive. Pinyon Jays for example can carry 0.6 oz worth of nuts in their mouth/esophagus. Clark’s Nutcracker- the champion pine bird- can carry over a full ounce- over 20% of its body weight.. Guess how much a Scrub-Jay can carry? 0.05 oz- less than 2% of its body weight. And it barely limps along with that load. A fully-loaded <i>A. californica</i> will fly no more than 1/3 mile to cache nuts, reaching a top speed of no faster than 18 MPH.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvfeFsTkI/AAAAAAAAJLA/LxQtbnnjvhM/s1600-h/Pine%20Bird%20Stats%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Pine Bird Stats" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Pine Bird Stats" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvf8-k3hI/AAAAAAAAJLE/zwPPmd2I-jk/Pine%20Bird%20Stats_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="432" border="0" height="329" /></a> The Pinyon Jay carries its load up to 6 miles, at speeds up to 26 MPH, and Clark’s Nutcracker up to 18 miles at up to 29 MPH. Even Stellers Jay- not a nut or acorn specialist- can manage up to 2 miles with a 0.2 oz payload at up to 22 MPH.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> An interesting corollary to these figures is the role- or rather lack thereof- played by Scrub-Jays in the modern-day distribution of Piñon pines*. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvgV_OiYI/AAAAAAAAJLI/54gi9Wz8Qms/s1600-h/monophyllaneedles35%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="monophyllaneedles35" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="monophyllaneedles35" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvhdi2fMI/AAAAAAAAJLM/zeMag_NHyLk/monophyllaneedles35_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="195" align="right" border="0" height="149" /></a> Piñon pine has steadily expanded Northward across the Great Basin since the end of the last ice age, only reaching its present range within the last few thousand years. Piñon doesn’t occur on the floors of Great Basin valleys- only on mountain slopes. The principal agent moving it between disjunct ranges was pine birds, who spread the nuts via caching. With such a dismal loaded flight-range, the Scrub-Jay has likely played little role in its expansion to new ranges.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*I’ve covered Piñons extensively in this project, most notably in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">this post</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-search-of-blue-pinon-part-1-of-6.html">this post</a></strong>. Man it is like I have a post for <em>everything.</em></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-last-saturdays-ride-up-dry-creek.html">Stellers Jay’s</a></strong> loaded flight range is also pretty modest. It’s a bird of higher altitudes, and an infrequent visitor to Pi</span><a name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a name="OLE_LINK1"><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">ñ</span></a><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">on-Juniper Woodland. When it does collect piñon nuts, it most often caches them at higher altitudes, unsuitable to piñon growth. But as temperatures rose following the end of the last ice age, its slightly-too-high seed caches may possibly have helped piñon expand up-slope within ranges where it was already established.</span></p> <p>Scrub-Jays’ bills aren’t strong enough to pry apart the scales of unopened piñon cones. Instead they pick seeds from already opened cones, or wait for other, stronger-beaked corvids, such as Pinyon Jays, to open them for them, whereupon they harass them, drive them away, and make off with the goods.</p> <p>What Scrub-Jays have going for them is their big brains. We <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/magpies-part-2-alien-intelligence.html">covered the high intelligence of corvids</a> when we looked at Magpies last Fall. Scrub Jays aren’t champion tool-makers, aren’t known to recognize themselves in mirrors, and certainly don’t display the phenomenal memory and navigational skills of Clark’s Nutcracker. But they appear to have both strong episodic memory and exceptional social awareness.</p> <p>Episodic memory is the memory of autobiographical events and context, including time, place and emotion. In experiments Scrub-Jays have been placed in 2 different cages- one in which they were fed, the other in which they weren’t. Later the same jays were given the access to, and the opportunity to cache food items in, both cages. They overwhelmingly cached food in the cage in which they’d been hungry.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail</b>: Episodic memory is one of the 2 forms of declarative memory, which I described in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-you-remember-around-ponds.html">this post</a></b>. The other form of declarative memory is semantic memory, which is information or knowledge independent of personal context or relevance.</span> </p> <p>Scrub-Jays remember not only events, but others present at those events. When Scrub-Jays cache food items in front of other Scrub-Jays, they’ll frequently return later and move the items multiple times to avoid pilferage. They even appear to be able to keep track of specifically which individual birds saw them cache at which location on which occasion. Clark’s Nutcrackers, on the other hand, as brilliant as they are navigationally, seem to be utterly clueless to potential theft, happily caching away in front of Scrub-Jays and other thieving corvids.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> Lest this post make Scrub-Jays sounds like scoundrels, I should mention that they exhibit strong pair-bonding and parenting habits. In fact, when Scrub-Jays cache in front of their “spouse”, they only re-cache about as often as if they’d done so unobserved; their spouse is clearly on the same “team.”</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Florida Scrub-Jays BTW, seem to take social cooperation even further, with young adults helping parents to cooperatively raise younger siblings. Family members also collaborate to take regular “watches” looking out for hawks, snakes and other predators. Similar cooperative breeding efforts are displayed by Western Scrub-Jays down in Mexico, but not here in the Western US.</span></p> <p>But what’s interesting about this re-caching behavior is that it’s exhibited only by Scrub-Jays who have experienced cache-theft directly. By which you probably think I mean that once they’ve been robbed, they figure it out, smarten up and start caching in private or re-caching if they cached while observed by other Scrub-Jays, right? Wrong. What I meant was specifically the opposite: Scrub-Jays don’t re-cache until <em>they themselves have robbed other birds’ caches</em>. The experience of having observed another bird caching, and then they themselves having robbed that cache, clues them in that other Scrub-Jays watching them will likely figure out the same schtick. This learning-process suggests that Scrub-Jays, like us, have evolved a “theory of mind”- the ability to attribute knowledge, intent and desire to others. What does so-and-so know? What is he or she likely to do with that information?</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSvhjW8TZI/AAAAAAAAJLQ/KhOkLvMeZ-E/s1600-h/WSJay%20Scoot%20cut%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="WSJay Scoot cut" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="WSJay Scoot cut" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TTSviW-cJFI/AAAAAAAAJLU/zyWD2Xvh2G0/WSJay%20Scoot%20cut_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="148" /></a> Humans seem to develop a theory of mind around age 4. Before this time, children fail “false belief” tasks. For example, a child is told a story with 2 characters. Character A puts something- a toy, a ball, whatever- in a basket, then leaves the room. Character B moves the object from the basket to someplace else- say a box. Character A returns, and the child is asked where Character A will look for the object. Up until about age 4, most kids get the answer wrong. So in other words, the Scrub-Jay is- in at least some ways- smarter than a 3 year-old kid.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> Autistic kids over age 4 usually still fail this test, which backs up my <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/magpies-part-2-alien-intelligence.html">previously-expressed</a> Half-Baked Theory that Clark’s Nutcracker is essentially an autistic corvid.</span></p> <p>This social intelligence makes possible all sorts of deception. Scrub-Jays and other corvids, such as crows and ravens, routinely move caches, make false caches, and cache inedible items to throw off would-be thieves and competitors. In other words, they-deliberately and with forethought- <i>lie</i>. How “human” is that?</p> <p>You may object that simply misleading is not lying, that a lie is a specific statement of falsehood, and corvids lack the level of language to be able to explicitly state such falsehoods. But I disagree; I’ve always felt that the nature of a lie is in intent, not words. Most of us are uncomfortable directly stating a falsehood, but we all “tell” little partial lies of omission all the time. When we host a party, we don’t call or email our friends whom we’re <i>not</i> inviting to tell them of the event. In business we don’t notify our competitors before calling on their clients, and we don’t usually tell our bosses before interviewing for another job. Often these lies of omission are harmless. Sometimes, as in the case of the uninvited guest, we tell ourselves it’s for the benefit of the person to whom we are “lying” (although the real reason is just as likely to be our own cowardice or conflict-avoidance…) Then there are lies of omission that might- or might not- cause harm, such as when your new boss fails to volunteer why the 2 people to hold your job before you quit, or when a manufacturer fails to disclose certain product information…</p> <p>Part of being an intelligent social animal with a well-developed “theory of mind” is constantly deciding what information to share when with which individuals. To simply describe this information we share as “truths” or “lies”, while comforting, doesn’t always describe things the way they really are. </p> <p>All of which brings me, in a rambling and roundabout way, to my point, which is this: there’s a piece of information, an aspect of this project, which, while I haven’t misstated or misrepresented, I haven’t been entirely forthright with you about, and it is this “lie of omission” about which I will come clean in the next post.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Next Up:</b> ABC in Perseus.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note About Sources:</b> Thanks to my friend and fellow nature-blogger <strong><a href="http://romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com/">KB</a></strong> for help accessing several of the sources for this post. Scrub-Jay caching, pilfering and memory info came from <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/312/5780/1662.abstract"><strong><em>Food Caching Western Scrub-Jays Keep Track of Who Was Watching When</em></strong></a>, Joanna Dally et al, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2346514/"><strong><em>Social cognition by food-caching corvids: the western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist</em></strong></a>, Nicola S. Clayton et al, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5703/1903.abstract"><em><strong>The Mentality of Crows, Convergent Evolution of Intelligence in Corvids and Apes</strong></em></a>, Nathan J. Emery et al, and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/The%20rationality%20of%20animal%20memory:%20Complex%20caching%20strategies%20of%20western%20scrub%20jays"><strong><em>The rationality of animal memory: Complex caching strategies of western scrub jays</em></strong></a>, Nicola S. Clayton et al. General info on Scrub-Jays came from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kaufman-Field-Guide-Birds-America/dp/0618574239/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1295295641&sr=8-2"><strong><em>Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America</em></strong></a>, the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/netcommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1478"><strong>All About Birds</strong> website</a> and Wikipedia. Info on episodic memory and theory of mind (including the example story) came from Wikipedia. Figures on flight loads, speeds and ranges of various pine birds came from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Made-Each-Other-Symbiosis-Birds/dp/0195089030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295295745&sr=8-1"><strong><em>Made For Each Other: A Symbiosis of Birds and Pines</em></strong></a>, Ronald M. Lanner, and info on the historic range expansion of Piñon pine came from <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Deserts-Past-Natural-Prehistory-Great/dp/1560989335/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295295809&sr=1-1"><em>The Desert’s Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin</em></a></strong>, Donald K. Grayson.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-28543390915439725212011-01-12T07:30:00.004-07:002011-06-21T06:08:33.656-06:00Birds, Hearing and Ears<p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><i>Note:</i></b><i> This is my 400<sup>th</sup> post. It’s just a number, but kind of a big number, and certainly far more posts than I ever intended this project to include. This post is around 3,800 words. If I guesstimate that the average post is ~3,000 words long, that’s ~1.2 million words*, which is roughly 10-15X the length of an average novel.</i></span></p> <p><em><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Probably around half of which are tangents.</span></em></p> <p>The other night I woke up with a start in the middle of the night* and had a heck of a time falling back to sleep. It was still early enough (2:30AM) that it wasn’t worth getting up, and so I tossed and turned for a while. As I did so I noticed that I’m always <em>hearing</em> things. Winter nights in our neighborhood are super-quiet- no <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/03/4-stages-of-morning-birdsong.html">birds</a>, no <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-theory-about-crickets.html">crickets</a>, windows shut tight, but it seems like I’m always hearing stuff: Awesome Wife’s breath, the click of the thermostat, the air moving through the heating vents, even my own pulse as my head lies sideways on the pillow. You can close your eyes, but you really can’t ever “close” your ears.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Yes, like many middle-agers, I often awake at odd times. But this was different: it was “dream shock”. You know, when you’re so startled or alarmed or scared in a dream that you wake yourself up.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">Oh, you want to know what the dream was? OK, I’ll tell, even though it’s kind of personal and embarrassing and borderline TMI, because that’s just the kind of blog this is. It was a Pee Dream. You know, one of those dreams where you have to pee real bad and you’re looking for a place to go, but can’t manage to find a bathroom? I dreamt I was waiting my turn to start in a race. The race was- I am not making this up- a Night Snowblade Race. </span><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fCvTTd9I/AAAAAAAAJJU/s6g2chbzoC4/s1600-h/Excell_snow_blades_skiboards%5B5%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size:78%;"><img title="Excell_snow_blades_skiboards" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Excell_snow_blades_skiboards" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fDE6x5VI/AAAAAAAAJJY/56MS4SED5Zk/Excell_snow_blades_skiboards_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="112" width="210" /></span></a><span style="font-size:78%;"> Remember snowblades? They were like these super-short mini-skis that were briefly popular in the late 90’s, and you could ski downhill on them or skate along on the flats. (I tried a friend’s once- total blast.) Anyway, racers were heading out on these things, with headlamps, one after another at regular intervals, like some kind of night-time-trial. I looked up on this open, snow-covered hillside <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(the race was somewhere up around Kimball Junction</span>), and saw little dots of headlamps moving downward on the descent. My turn was coming up, and I realized I had to pee, so I thought I’d just step a ways off in the bushes (it was dark, you know) and pee real quick. But I stepped away, and was still in view, so stepped a little further away, and then a little further, and all of a sudden I was standing along someone’s driveway. But the house was dark, and I thought, “I’ll just pee in their bushes real quick…” and I was just getting ready to go and then all of a sudden the garage door started opening and a car pulled into the driveway and someone was yelling at me and I was like all panicked and that’s when I woke up.</span></p> <p>Visually-oriented as we are, we’re always hearing, but mostly half-consciously. We tend to think about our own hearing when we hear something significant- music, birdsong, waves crashing- but largely ignore it otherwise. But if you stop and listen, say right now- in your home, office, wherever- hearing is really remarkable. You’re constantly receiving all sorts of information- machines running, people passing, cars outside, planes overhead. We get all sorts of cool details about these things- presence, direction, speed, distance- all the time, without even looking, without focusing, without even having to turn our heads. We’ve all seen shows or read stories about psychics, telepaths, or people with special powers who can somehow sense or detect things that can’t be seen. But with hearing, all of us have a sense that’s far more real, more precise and more powerful than any Yuri Geller trick. </p> <p>Over the course of this project I’ve kept bumping into hearing, but never really gave ears much thought. But the research I did for the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-about-heights.html"><strong>All About Heights</strong> post</a> got me curious about them, and then the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2011/01/suburban-apex-predator-and-f-117-barn.html"><strong>Owl</strong> post</a> got me wondering (again) about birds’ ears, and so I started reading and one thing lead to another, and, well it turns out that ears are not just way cool, but have an absolutely amazing story.</p> <p>In a side note to the heights post I wondered about balance in birds, and whether the ear played a similar role in birds- specifically a vestibular sense- as it does in mammals. The short answer is yes, but the story behind it is a bit more complicated. But first, to tell the story, we have to know just a bit about the human ear.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>All About Ears</strong></span></p> <p>You’ve probably heard that the ear has 3 major chunks: the Inner, Middle and Outer Ears. The outer ear is the only part you see, and consists of the pinna and the ear canal. The pinna is the part on the outside that your junior high school girlfriend/ boyfriend stuck their tongue inside when they gave you a Wet Willie*. The pinna is strictly a mammal thing; birds, reptiles and amphibians don’t have them.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fDtoJhJI/AAAAAAAAJJc/I5BASmqkwb8/s1600-h/Mammal%20Ear1%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Mammal Ear1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Mammal Ear1" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fEIBnZPI/AAAAAAAAJJg/LjVQpSkv1cQ/Mammal%20Ear1_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="335" width="440" /></a> The role of the pinna is twofold: to amplify the sound delivered to the middle ear, and to provide information about the direction of sound. Many mammals of course have really big pinnae (in relation to their head/body size) which play an important role in detecting prey, predators or (in the case of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html">bats</a></strong>) the physical world around them. Human pinnae are proportionally much, much smaller and for a long time it was assumed that they were vestigial, playing no real role in our modern-day hearing.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Over the years, I’ve come to believe that there are 3 categories of human sexual foreplay. The first is things you used to do when you were in high school, and still do with your spouse/partner 20+ years later. The second is things you used to do when you were in high school, and now no longer do, but kinda-sorta-sometimes wish you still did. The third is things you used to do when you were in high school, no longer do now, and can’t for the life of you remember why you ever would have wanted to do such a thing. For me, Wet Willies are firmly in the third category.**</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Along with hickies.</span></p> <p>But it turns out that our pinnae <i>do</i> help our hearing. Between 1.5KHz and 7KHz, the pinna and ear canal amplify sound by between 5 and 20dB. Above 6KHz, the pinna plays a significant role is helping to determine the direction of sound.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fE52nUmI/AAAAAAAAJJk/l6IY7Jps8IM/s1600-h/HearingRanges4%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="HearingRanges4" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="HearingRanges4" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fFrtFNfI/AAAAAAAAJJo/H9Yy2BqGzi8/HearingRanges4_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="180" width="240" /></a> Extra Detail:</b> As we saw in the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html">bat post</a>, human hearing ranges from about 20 Hz to 20 KHz. Human speech generally runs between 80 and 400 Hz. Middle C is 261 Hz. The highest note on a piano is a little over 4KHz, which is BTW roughly the same frequency as a chainsaw or fingernails on a chalkboard*.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Unfortunately, I was unable to find out the frequency of a chainsaw slicing<i> through</i> a chalkboard. But man that’s gotta hurt.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);"><b>Side Note:</b> But there is a part of the human pinna that <i>is</i> vestigial, <img title="Dtubercule1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Dtubercule1" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fGFbPFcI/AAAAAAAAJJs/C5X0jkbuGU4/Dtubercule1_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="186" width="195" />and which appears in about 10% of humans, including- yes, that’s right- me!* It’s called Darwin’s tubercule, and is a slight thickening/protuberance of the rim of the pinna, about 2/3 of the way up (2 o’clock on the left ear, 10 o’clock on the right.) it corresponds to the point of pointy-eared mammals, and is believe to be a vestigial remnant of our presumably pointy-eared ancestry. Sometimes it’s more of a bump or protuberance pointed away from the ear canal, creating an almost Spock-like effect.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);font-size:78%;" >*I have it on the right ear only.</span></p> <p>Birds also have an outer ear <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(pic left, <a href="http://www.themodernapprentice.com/ear.htm">not mine</a>),</span> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fGc8PRHI/AAAAAAAAJJw/O3y3B-jOMfg/s1600-h/ear_gho%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="ear_gho" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="ear_gho" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fGzdMyAI/AAAAAAAAJJ0/yCEavtpY4ZU/ear_gho_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="149" width="165" /></a>which also has an ear canal, but does not have a pinna. Instead birds have evolved special feathers, called <b>auricular feathers</b>, which protect the canal opening, as well as direct and amplify sound into it. Reptiles don’t really have an outer ear. In those with external ears (many reptile ears are internal-only) the tympanic membrane, which marks the beginning of the middle ear, is often visible on the side of the head.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fHcRunfI/AAAAAAAAJJ4/DYBFpkomK0I/s1600-h/Bird%20Ear1%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Bird Ear1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Bird Ear1" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fHyGx2LI/AAAAAAAAJJ8/Di35KKqhTRs/Bird%20Ear1_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="330" width="433" /></a> At the opposite end of the ear-assemblage is the inner ear, set inside the skull, and constructed out of the hardest bone in the human body <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(diagram left, <a href="http://weboflife.nasa.gov/learningResources/vestibularbrief.htm">not mine</a>).</span> It has separate sections for hearing and balance. The hearing section is the <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fIRFe_BI/AAAAAAAAJKA/ZOxaorKocYA/s1600-h/vestibularsystem4%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="vestibularsystem4" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="vestibularsystem4" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fIxVGPzI/AAAAAAAAJKE/9DrL_oVoDS4/vestibularsystem4_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="152" width="213" /></a>cochlea, which consist of 3 fluid-filed chambers lined with specialized hair cells. The motion of this fluid is directed by vibrations received by the outer ear and transmitted to the cochlea via the middle ear- which we will get to momentarily- and detected by the hair cells, which then transmit this information, via the cochlear nerve, to the brain, where it is interpreted as noises.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Or perhaps images, if you are a bat.</span></p> <p>The balance section is a fluid-filled chamber called the vestibule, which branches off into 3 semi-circular canals. The canals, which are also fluid-filled and lined with current-detecting hairs, are orthogonal to one another, so as to detect motion and position in 3 dimensions, which is transmitted to the brain via the vestibular nerve.</p> <p>All amniotes* have this same basic inner ear structure, which we apparently inherited from a common amphibian ancestor. All amniotes use the inner ear not only for hearing but for balance. It’s suspected- but not agreed**- that the amphibian ear may have evolved out of a sense organ called the lateral line in fish, which consists of a line of pressure receptors- called neuromasts- than run along each side of the fish. The lateral line enables fish to detect small disturbances in the water, and is why large schools of fish are able to maneuver elegantly en masse in close quarters without bumping into each other.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Amniotes = “Reptiles on up”, or reptiles, birds and mammals, but not amphibians. Technically they’re tetrapod vertebrates with land-adapted eggs. The egg can be external, or internal- like the amniotic sac of a mammalian fetus.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**An alternative hypothesis is that the neuromast and the inner ear evolved out of the same ancestral structure, which might-could-maybe have been some sort of statocyst-like thing. A statocyst is a balance organ found in some aquatic invertebrates, including various little plankton-y things and, our old friends, the echinoderms. It’s a little fluid-filled sac lined with sensing-hairs and with a little mineralized sand-grain inside called a statolith. Kind of like a teensy 1-flake snowglobe. Statocysts BTW are the reason that Brittlestars and Seastars<span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);"> (which I blogged about in</span> </span><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/mexico-part-3-weird-things-under-rocks.html"><span style="font-size:78%;">this post</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">)</span>- which do not have brains- can tell when they’re upside-down (which they want to avoid, so as to deny predators an open shot at their soft juicy undersides…)</span></p> <p><b></b></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Just because we all share the same basic inner ear structure doesn’t mean it’s stopped evolving. Our cochlea for example is coiled up like a little snail shell, very much unlike that of birds or reptiles. The coiling- which may be an adaptation to support longer sensing hairs- occurred sometime after our ancestors split from monotremes, but before we split from marsupials. Kangaroos have it, platypuses don’t. Another evolved feature is the presence of both tall hairs and short hairs inside the inner ear, something both mammals and birds- but not reptiles- came up with. In our ears the short hairs have “lost” their wiring, and don’t transmit information neurally. Instead they function by moving in response to current in the fluid, setting up motions that are in turn detected by the tall hairs. In birds short hairs perform a similar mechanical function, but also still transmit information neurally themselves as well.</span></p> <p>OK, stick with me- we’re almost to the good part. The middle ear begins with a thin membrane- the ear drum- blocking the end of the ear canal. Vibrations received on this membrane are transmitted by a series of 3 connecting, successively smaller bones- the malleus, incus and stapes- through the air-filled chamber of the middle ear to the inner ear.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fJTec8cI/AAAAAAAAJKI/wZLKyLc8NOY/s1600-h/Mammal%20Ear2%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Mammal Ear2" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Mammal Ear2" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fJ0atYZI/AAAAAAAAJKM/O2ARdfgz2N4/Mammal%20Ear2_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="342" width="449" /></a> These bones- together called ossicles- get successively smaller going from outermost (malleus) to innermost (stapes) such that the “footplate” of the stapes has a surface area only a small fraction that of the eardrum. The ossicles are arranged in a lever-like formation, the action of which serves to significantly concentrate and amplify the sound delivered to the inner ear.</p> <p>The middle ear of a bird or a reptile is set up more or less the same way, with one glaring exception: their ears have but one ossicle- the stapes-equivalent- which is called the columella. Because of this difference, mammalian ears are capable of detecting much higher frequencies than bird or reptile ears. (Finally, something we do <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-secret-wish-and-gods-favorite.html">better than birds</a>!)</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fKdPJnVI/AAAAAAAAJKQ/OSCycntsea8/s1600-h/Bird%20Ear2%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Bird Ear2" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Bird Ear2" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fK-G0hiI/AAAAAAAAJKU/Ajm7Oi9dZPU/Bird%20Ear2_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="337" width="439" /></a> So why don’t bird and reptile ears have 3 ossicles? Did they lose them or something? Actually they still have them, but they serve their original, reptilian function, that of lower jawbones.</p> <p>Fish don’t have middle ears. The stapes/columella- in all amniotes- is a modified bone from a fish’s upper jaw. Fish have several bones in their lower jaws which in amniotes have fused together in different ways. In birds and reptiles, most of these bones have fused together into what is called the mandible. In mammals, some of the these same bones have been fused together into our modern lower jawbone, but 2 of them have moved back and shrunk until they were tiny little things set way back in our heads- the 2 additional ossicles (malleus and incus).</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> In some reptiles the mandible is not completely fused, and the extra bones make possible a double-jointing of the lower jaw, as is the case with many snakes. (Snakes don’t actually “unhinge” their jaws; they just have a joint that we don’t.)</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 160);"><b>Side Note:</b> There’s kind of a cool corollary here. When a bird opens its mouth, the hinge of its jaw is in a fundamentally different place in its skeleton- located where we would think of as the middle of our middle ear. What does it feel like when a bird opens its mouth? Does it feel like it feels to us when we open our mouths? Or does it feel more akin to popping our ears?</span></p> <p>Now at this point, seeing as mammals evolved from some kind of ancient reptile, you may be wondering how the middle ear could have evolved from 1 to 3 ossicles. How could an intermediate, or transitional form possibly have functioned? The answer is that the middle ear evolved independently in mammals and reptiles. And birds. In fact the middle ear appears to have evolved independently at least 4 times among amniotes, following 4 different basic designs. It evolved once in mammals (or maybe proto-mammals or mammal-like reptiles/synapsids). It evolved separately in archosaurs (superset of dinosaurs) along a design that is present today in birds and crocodilians. It evolved another way in turtles and tuataras*, and a fourth way in lizards and snakes**.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I didn’t know what they were either. Tuataras, <i>Sphenodon sp</i>., are a genus (2 species) of couple-foot-long lizards native to New Zealand that are, uh, not actually lizards. Meaning that if you or I saw one, we’d say “Hey, that’s a lizard”, but zoologists don’t consider them as such. Their teeth, heart, lungs, brain and mode of walking are all different. They’re sometimes called “living fossils”, as they are the sole survivors of a once-diverse order, and are thought to be anatomically more similar in some respects than other modern reptiles to early amniotes. They have ears, just not external ones.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**It’s actually a little more complicated than this. Turtles and tuataras share a design which probably evolved first, then after the ancestors of lizards and snakes branched off from tuataras, they evolved a significantly different middle ear. The turtle/tuatara middle ear architecture is sort of the stem-reptile default, a structure which they share, even though tuataras are believed to be more closely-related to lizards and snakes than they are to turtles. Got it?</span></p> <p>So the middle ear evolved multiple times among amniotes. That’s cool, but it’s really not amazing. At this point in the project we’ve seen countless examples of parallel evolution, from <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazing-housefly-part-2-coolest-eye.html"><strong>eyes</strong></a> to<strong> <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/singlespeed-climbing-cam-photosynthesis.html">CAM</a></strong> to <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/singlespeed-descents-c4-photosynthesis.html">C4</a></strong> to <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TGyoV-q2ruI/AAAAAAAAIYA/73XudAPnwQ0/s1600-h/batbirdbonescaptions4.jpg">wings</a> to <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-current-cosmetic-undertaking-and-all.html">pale skin in humans</a>. But there are 2 cool things about the parallel evolution of the middle ear: a little cool thing, and a Way Freaky Cool thing.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><strong><span style="font-size:78%;">The Little Cool Thing</span></strong></p> <p>The little cool thing is the contrast between eyes and ears among amniotes. Think about it. We’ve talked a lot about eyes and vision, and the various differences between bird and mammal vision. But even with all of the remarkable differences between our eyes and bird eyes, the structure of our camera-style eyes is the same basic thing, working on the same principles, and it’s the same basic design we’ve all had since long before our lungfish-y ancestors first flopped up out of the water. But our middle (and outer) ears have evolved completely independently, with significant fundamental structural differences. Imagine if our amphibian ancestors had come up onto land with no eyes, and then the ancestors of birds and mammals evolved them completely independently along fundamentally different structures. Like if birds evolved camera-style eyes and we evolved compound bug-eyes or something. That’s more or less what<i> did</i> happen with the middle ear.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Way Freaky Cool Thing</strong></span></p> <p>But the Way Freaky Cool thing is the timing of the evolution of the middle ear. Middle ears- all four versions- evolved during the Triassic, between 220 – 250 million years ago. That sounds like a huge range of time until you put it into context. Amniotes appeared at least 340 million years ago. Synapsids (mammal-like reptiles) branched off not much later (~324 million years ago) followed later by the archosaurs. And earlier, amphibians were present for maybe 10 or 20 million years before amniotes came about.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fLWyY3CI/AAAAAAAAJKY/fkHJDPkXoR8/s1600-h/Middle%20Ear%20evo%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Middle Ear evo" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Middle Ear evo" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fLz21IyI/AAAAAAAAJKc/vlK23XmfvL0/Middle%20Ear%20evo_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="331" width="435" /></a> So in other words, 4-legged critters were running around on land for something like a hundred million years during which time everyone heard like crap. Then, “suddenly”, over just 30 million years, middle ears evolved independently multiple times amongst different groups of now-way-distantly-related critters. It’s like, for some reason, hearing well- and in particular hearing higher frequencies well- became really important. Why?</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> My wild guess is that once one group of amniotes got decent hearing, it became a huge competitive advantage for both predators and prey. But what’s interesting- if that’s the case- is that that one group to evolve a decent middle ear first didn’t just replace all the other groups relatively promptly, but that the other groups managed to come up with the same gizmo in relatively short order. In any case, it’s weird to think that for like a 100 million years, there were all sorts of animals running around, and none of them ever heard leaves* rustling in the breeze**.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Well, more like fronds I guess back then.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**Not counting bugs of various sorts, who have a whole different array of “ears” and natural history of hearing.</span></p> <p>Just because they don’t hear as high as the highest-hearing mammals doesn’t mean birds don’t have great hearing. The asymmetric supersensitive ears of the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2011/01/suburban-apex-predator-and-f-117-barn.html">Great-Horned Owl</a></strong> are just one example.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> Now’s a good time to return to a topic that’s <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/vegas-boondoggle-part-2-washes-swifts.html">bugged me for a while</a>, and which I’ve touched upon a couple of times in previous posts: Why don’t birds rule the skies at night? Or in other words, why don’t they do the bat thing? Maybe it’s the high-frequency hearing limitations of their single-ossicle ear-architecture. There are <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html">echolocating</a> birds, but their echolocating frequencies are significantly lower than those of bats. Oilbirds for instance echolocate at frequencies between 1 and 15KHz, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/vegas-boondoggle-part-2-washes-swifts.html">swiftlets</a> between 4.5 and 7.5KHz. Using such relatively low frequencies means longer wavelengths, and so neither can effectively echo-detect anything smaller than about 6 cm, which means that they can “see” walls and such, but not flying insects. No bird is known to be able to detect any frequency higher than 29 KHz. Bat-sonar ranges from 11 – 212KHz.</span></p> <p>Of course hearing isn’t just in the ears. Just as our brains turn input from our optic nerves into images, they convert input from our cochlear nerve into sounds. And it appears that bird brains may process their input differently than ours do. Birds recognize sounds more quickly than we can. We need to hear a note for at least 1/20<sup>th</sup> of a second to recognize it. Birds can do so in just 1/200<sup>th</sup> of a second, which means they can hear multiple notes where we might hear just one.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Pitch</strong></span></p> <p>Another cool thing about birds and hearing is that they seem to have something like perfect pitch. Perfect pitch is the ability to recognize a specific note at a specific frequency- for example you hear a note on a piano and say (with no other tonal context) Oh yeah, that’s middle C (261 Hz). Or to just sing middle C. Very few people can do this- maybe 1 in 10,000.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> It’s unclear whether there’s a genetic basis for perfect pitch. Early musical instruction and training appear to help. Native speakers of tonal languages, such as Chinese and Vietnamese, seem to be a bit likelier to have the ability.</span></p> <p>But birds just seem to nail it, hitting the right note every time. They generate the right notes, and seem to recognize the right notes as well. How do we know that they recognize the right notes? Because they seem, conversely, to lack relative pitch. </p> <p>Relative pitch is the ability to recognize the relative intervals between different tones, regardless of pitch. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fMU1hfqI/AAAAAAAAJKg/jXYoIHMsweM/s1600-h/Syrinx%20Expand-O%5B9%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Syrinx Expand-O[9]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Syrinx Expand-O[9]" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TS0fM-H4mwI/AAAAAAAAJKk/_ZY8QY5VfLY/Syrinx%20Expand-O%5B9%5D_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="152" width="200" /></a>Or in other words, a melody. For example, suppose I play <em>Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star*</em> on the piano, starting at middle C. Then let’s say I play it again, starting one octave lower. Or higher. Or maybe I just drop down 2 notes and start the tune at middle A. In all cases, you’ll recognize the tune as the same melody. But a bird won’t; it hears them as different tunes.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Then again, my own relative pitch leaves something to be desired. I was over 40 before I realized that <em>Twinkle Twinkle Little Star</em> and the Alphabet (ABC…) Song were the same melody. I mentioned this last week to Awesome Wife, who pointed out that it was also the same melody as <em>Bah-Bah Black Sheep</em>…. which I never realized until right then.</span></p> <p>Birds do some cool things with hearing. In many species, chicks communicate with their parents before they hatch. Some chicks, such as pelicans, actually complain if too hot or cold while still inside the egg, while others, like quail, chirp to synchronize their hatching. Birds’ ability to discern notes quickly helps them to recognize the calls of parents and chick, which is critical in species that nest in huge, noisy colonies, such as gannets.</p> <p>So while bird ears and hearing are in many ways similar to ours, they’re also very different. I started this project with only a passing interest in birds, and only gradually became interested in various little things they seemed to do differently- and sometimes better- than we do. But over time I’ve learned that they do all kinds of things differently than we do, having evolved different solutions to so many of the same problems our own ancestors faced. Birds are like the “What if?” version of us, how we might have turned out in a parallel or alternate universe. Except that they <i>did</i> turn out that way, and they’re right here and now, all around us, outside every day. Birds are way cool.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note about sources</b>: Evolutionary info on the middle ears of amniotes came from <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/97/22/11736.full.pdf"><strong><em>Cochlear mechanisms from a phylogenetic viewpoint</em></strong></a>*, Geoffrey A. Manley, <strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Inner-Fish-Journey-3-5-Billion-Year/dp/0375424474"><em>Your Inner Fish</em></a></strong>, Neil Shubin, the absolutely awesome blog <strong><a href="http://evolvingsenses.blogspot.com/">Evolution of Hearing</a></strong> and the <strong><a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/">TalkOrigins Archive</a></strong>’s <strong><em><a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/section1.html">29+ Evidences for Macroevolution</a></em></strong>. Info on bird, reptile and other ears came from <strong><a href="http://www.birdsnways.com/">Winged Wisdom/Pet Bird Magazine</a></strong>, the <strong><a href="http://www.earthlife.net/">Earthlife Web website</a></strong>, <a href="http://www.anapsid.org/"><strong>Melissa Kaplan’s Herp Care Collection</strong></a> and Wikipedia.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*The “Middle Ear Evolution in Amniotes” Awesome Graphic in this post is a re-formatted (WTWWU-ized) version of Figure 1 of this paper.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-54396336486823143082011-01-06T07:00:00.007-07:002011-06-21T06:05:45.219-06:00Suburban Apex Predator, and the F-117 Barn Owl<p><em><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><strong>Note:</strong> I had a hard-drive scare yesterday* and, for a couple hours, thought I’d lost the >90% complete draft of this post. I was totally, totally bummed. So I went over to <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-rainbow-works.html">Co-worker Matt’s</a> office to commiserate, and ended up “telling” him the post. After I told him, Matt- who knew pretty much nothing about Owls beforehand- seemed genuinely into my “story-post” and impressed and interested by owls**. And then I realized that I didn’t feel so bad anymore, because at least 1 person had “read” and enjoyed the post. Just then the IT guy came over to Matt’s office looking for me; they’d recovered my drive.</span></em></p> <p><em><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Yeah, that’s right- I blog on my work laptop. Oh, don’t get all sanctimonious on me; you’re probably reading this post on yours.</span></em></p> <p><em><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >**Or maybe he was just yanking my chain to try and make me feel better. Whatever.</span></em></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Post</strong></span></p> <p>We moved into our current home in the Spring of 2002. When you move into a new neighborhood, you tend to notice all the little things- people out walking, how people maintain their yards, which houses have dogs that bark at you when you walk/run past, etc. One of the first things I noticed in our neighborhood that Spring was all the rabbits.</p> <p>Our old neighborhood didn’t have rabbits, or if it did, I never noticed them. But here they seemed to be everywhere, and out not just in the early morning, but oftentimes right in the middle of the day. Awesome Wife and I joked that it was because now that we’d moved “uptown”, the neighbors didn’t let their dogs run free., and that if just one dog got out of its yard and roamed free for a weekend, the rabbits would probably disappear.</p> <p>A few years passed. In early summer of 2005 a neighbor’s kid caught sight of a large owl perched on high up in a tall Blue Spruce next door. We spotted it almost every day for a couple of weeks. Sometimes it would hoot, and once or twice it spread its massive wings and flew off while we watched, probably annoyed by the neighborhood kids hanging out and chattering under its perch. After a couple of weeks it disappeared altogether, and we didn’t see it again. I wondered if all of our attention scared it away.</p> <p>A few months later, in early Fall 2005, I was pedaling my bike home from a ride. I rolled down the little hill where I regularly used to spot rabbits out on a lawn and realized I hadn’t spotted a single rabbit in the neighborhood in, well, months. In fact I hadn’t seen one, since… that owl showed up.</p> <p>I didn’t see rabbits again in our neighborhood until this past Spring. Over the Summer I’d see them out now and again, initially just around dawn, but later in the Summer out in the daytime as well. Rabbits aren’t particularly remarkable in a suburban neighborhood, but the kids like wildlife and would point them out to me, each other and their friends. Then last week, a neighbor’s kid* spotted this guy in the Elm** out front, the first one we’d seen in the ‘hood in over 5 years.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOr4vfZmI/AAAAAAAAJHs/2JsXxLsaQAU/s1600-h/C1%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="C1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="C1" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOsXjVb9I/AAAAAAAAJHw/6V9vLX1jGxM/C1_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="297" width="435" /></a> </p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Different kid, different neighbor, but same house. We’ve seen four families in that house- loved the first, didn’t care for <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/june-cottonwood-seeds-and-neighbors.html">second</a> or <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/diamond-fork-atheism-values-and-hot.html">third</a>, love the fourth. Sort of a cool full circle thing. AW and I are getting all kind of serene and Zen-like with respect to problematic neighbors. We don’t get upset; we just out-wait ‘em. Eventually they all move away or die.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Which I blogged about in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/big-tree-in-my-front-yard.html">this post</a></b>. I don’t mean just the species; I mean specifically this tree</span>.</p> <p>The <strong>Great-Horned Owl</strong>, <i>Bubo virginianus</i>, is super-easy to ID. If you’re in the Western hemisphere and you see a big owl with ear-tufts, it’s a Great-Horned (GH Owl). And chances are, if you live in a suburban or rural setting anywhere in North America, you’ve already seen one. Its range is huge, from Alaska to Argentina. In fact, everywhere I’ve blogged about in the Western hemisphere- <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/08/maine-vacation-part-1-blanket-of-forest.html">Maine</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/visit-to-alien-planet.html">California</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-search-of-blue-pinon-part-1-of-6.html">Mexico</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/costa-rica-part-3-palms-epiphytes-figs.html">Costa Rica</a></strong>, even <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/mounds-of-brazil.html">Brazil</a></strong>- I’ve been within its range. Like many animals with huge ranges, the GH Owl is a generalist, in this case a generalist hunter. GH Owls of course hunt rabbits and mice, but you might be surprised how many other things they eat. Snakes, lizards, squirrels, rats, shrews, bats, moles and other birds. OK, so they eat a lot of different things, so what? Tell me something I don’t know.</p> <p>OK, here’s something you might-not-maybe didn’t know: If you live anywhere in suburban or rural North America, there’s a good chance that the GH Owl is the single most bad-ass, toughest, fearsome predator that routinely passes through your yard. Don’t believe me? Here we go.</p> <p>Know what else they eat? Raccoons. That’s a pretty big meal for a <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOs3SMsVI/AAAAAAAAJH0/dayT-jGHdGE/s1600-h/C4%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="C4" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="C4" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOtXzMbPI/AAAAAAAAJH4/B9gr6yu0ReI/C4_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="160" width="240" /></a>predator that only weighs 3-4 lbs, but GH Owls routinely kill prey 2-3 times their mass. What’s that? You’re still not impressed? Get this: GH Owls are more or less the only predator that routinely hunts skunks. That’s not all- they regularly hunt armadillos and even porcupines!* Wait- there’s more! GH Owls regularly hunt other birds, and not just cute little songbirds, but big birds- like ducks, swans and seagulls. That’s not all- GH Owls regularly hunt other birds of prey, including Red-Tailed Hawks and Peregrine Falcons**. </p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Sometimes they do so by grabbing the porcupine out of a tree and dropping it to its death. I know that bobcats kill porcupines (on the ground) by going for the face, but don’t know if owls do this as well. I should mention though that in researching this post I learned that hunting/devouring porcupines <a href="http://www.kitchubb.ca/columns/041003.pdf">does not always end wel</a>l for the GH Owl. I covered <strong><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SqZTy0ScqiI/AAAAAAAAF8I/gdpR_JD9ed8/s1600-h/Tailshot5.jpg">porcupines</a></strong> BTW in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html">this post</a></strong>, and <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SsLNQCDfV1I/AAAAAAAAGMU/8k0OgNt4VuM/s1600-h/cat15.jpg"><strong>bobcats</strong></a> in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/high-plateaux-part-1-hoodoos-and.html">this one</a></strong>, with (admittedly lame) additional <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb0-YlfXrLg">video footage</a> in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/03/spooky-eyes.html">this post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**I haven’t done a proper post about Falcons, but covered their <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S3mqZbeyciI/AAAAAAAAHbs/jSnJmAdKJD4/s1600-h/PAttack%20Trajectory%5B4%5D.jpg">hunting prowess and tactics</a> last year during <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-1-navigation-magnetic.html">Pigeon Week</a></b>. Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything.</i></span></p> <p>In fact, GH Owls regularly hunt other owls, including every other owl species in North America except the (larger) Snowy Owl. GH Owls typically hunt by perching still from a high vantage point, then swooping down onto their prey. Since their eyes don’t move within their sockets, having a neck that can rotate around up to 270 degrees serves them well. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOt8Qi0II/AAAAAAAAJH8/ZxvAeur6GWU/s1600-h/GH%20back%20caption%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="GH back caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="GH back caption" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOuGPFnXI/AAAAAAAAJIA/QS1fnAySXnE/GH%20back%20caption_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="340" width="443" /></a>But GH Owls can also hunt in other ways, including standing in shallow water to hunt small fish. And GH Owls have a bad rap with chicken farmers, as they’ve been known to actually walk inside coops to kill chickens. Before leaving their roster of prey, it’s worth mentioning that GH Owls also successfully hunt domestic cats and even on occasion small dogs.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> You can’t help reading about <i>B. virginianus’</i> range of prey without wondering what it would be like to be attacked by them. Do GH- or any owls- ever attack humans? The answer is yes, though I’m unaware of any doing so fatally*. GH- and other owls- will defend nests vigorously, and may attack visitors, researchers or others who molest them. Then there are the cases where the owls apparently attack people well away from their nests. On Vancouver Island there have been a number of attacks on runners and hikers by Barred Owls, <i>Stix varia**</i>. And a rogue GH Owl attacked several cross-country skiers last year in Bangor, Maine. It’s thought that these owls might be mistaking human head-hair for small mammal prey.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*I came across <a href="http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/murder-owl/">this claim</a>, which sounds like a stretch.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**The Barred Owl BTW, seems to be a significant threat to the endangered Spotted Owl, whom it typically out-competes for habitat/nesting sites. Interestingly, it also hybridizes with the Spotted.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">But would a GH- or any other owl- deliberately hunt a small child? There’s no record of it, and human toddlers exceed the 2-3x body-mass metric. But what about outside of North America?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">The closely-related Eurasian Eagle-Owl, <i>Bubo bubo</i> looks a lot like a GH Owl, with ear-tufts and everything. But it’s bigger- up to 9 ½ pounds- and has been known to take deer fawns as big as 22 lbs*. Now we’re approaching toddler territory, though I’m unaware of any such hunting attacks.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Wikipedia says up to 37 lbs(!), but every other source said up to 22…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">But there used to be even bigger owls. Until around 10,000- and maybe as recently as 8,000- years ago, the Cuban Giant Owl, <i>Ornimegalonyx sp.</i>, inhabited that island. <i>Ornimegalonyx</i> stood over 3 ½ feet tall and weighed over 20 pounds. Its wings were small, as was the keel of its sternum, suggesting it either flew only for short distances or not at all, and its legs were longer than a typical owl’s. <i>Ornimegalonyx</i> may have run after prey on the ground, or leapt from treetops. In any case, it was big enough to take a kid. Even though humans were in the New World 8,000 – 10,000 years ago, they don’t appear to have made it to Cuba until more like 5,000 – 6,000 years ago, meaning giant running owls likely never chased <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno_people">Taíno</a> children through tropical jungles. But then again, the mandible of what was apparently a similarly gigantic late Pleistocene owl turned up some years ago in Georgia, so maybe…</span></p> <p>The GH Owl’s primary weapon is its talons, which are kind of interesting in that they are semi-zygodactylous. Zygodactylous feet have 2 toes facing forward and 2 backward, in contrast to the standard passerine (perching bird) architecture of 3 forward, 1 backward*. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(pic below, <a href="http://www.owlpages.com/image.php?image=articles-Owl+Physiology-Talons-1">not mine</a>)</span><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOuv7JgcI/AAAAAAAAJIE/Tcu-88LYFAA/s1600-h/Aniso%20Talon%20caption%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="Aniso Talon caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Aniso Talon caption" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOvM2zFzI/AAAAAAAAJII/3Wjp4iszZgE/Aniso%20Talon%20caption_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="292" width="435" /></a>In GH Owls, the fourth toe is reversible, allowing it to shift between a 3 forward- 1 backward, or <b>anisodactylous</b>, to a 2 forward- 2 backward zygodactylous configuration <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(pic below, <a href="http://animalmakers.com/Catalog/owls.php">not mine</a>**).</span> The 3-1 config is used for perching, but the 2-2, which provides a greater coverage area, for hunting.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*We covered <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SxXsEReoDaI/AAAAAAAAG90/RMz5fOXj9pg/s1600-h/RR%20Foot%20ExpandO%5B4%5D.jpg">zygodactylous feet</a> last year when we looked at<strong> <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/meep-meep-everything-i-knew-about.html">Roadrunners</a></strong>. Seriously, <em>everything</em></span>.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**Captain Obvious, here…</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOvsMTYyI/AAAAAAAAJIM/MELDLl2Avkk/s1600-h/Zygo%20Talon%20caption%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Zygo Talon caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Zygo Talon caption" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOwCijqKI/AAAAAAAAJIQ/EGhpdNbnzZo/Zygo%20Talon%20caption_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="204" width="147" /></a> For most prey, the moment of contact is the moment of death- they never know what hit them. The talons of<i> B. virginianus </i>are incredibly powerful, able to crush bones with a gripping force of up to 500 pound per square inch. For comparison, a human grip generates a maximum force of some 80 psi, the bite of a German Shepherd roughly 250 psi, that of a Rottweiler 325 psi, and a human bite around 150 psi.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*This is why you can open twist bottle caps with your teeth more easily than you can with your hand. Not that you should ever do so.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note</b>: These figures were surprisingly difficult to obtain* and make sense of, so take them with a grain of salt. Psi is not the same as bite-force; a Rottweiler’s bite has more force than a GH Owl’s grip, but the surface area of the latter’s talons is tiny in comparison. The important point is that, for something that looks rather thin and inconsequential, the talons of a GH Owl are incredibly powerful.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Which is fair enough, when you think about it. Wouldn’t you hate to be the grad student tasked with getting the wolf or pit bull riled up enough to bite whatever measuring instrument they use with maximum force?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Back to bite-force, wolves and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-am-attacked-by-coyote-really.html">coyotes</a></strong> have much stronger bites than comparatively-sized domestic dogs*, with the exception of special breeds such as a Pit Bull, whose bite is phenomenally powerful. The bites of hyenas, lions and tigers are stronger still, in another category of force altogether.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*So I’m really glad that coyote in Emigration did not manage to <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SjI3zxc5jVI/AAAAAAAAE8Y/qW6Gxq2L7wk/s1600-h/CoyAttack25.jpg">connect with my right cheek</a>.</span></p> <p>Owls also have exceptional vision. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOwuojQnI/AAAAAAAAJIU/RAT92gCxevw/s1600-h/Owl%20Eye%20caption%5B11%5D.jpg"><img title="Owl Eye caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Owl Eye caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOxI6iWYI/AAAAAAAAJIY/irSBgCbv-qU/Owl%20Eye%20caption_thumb%5B7%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="214" width="281" /></a>Their eyes <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(pic left, <a href="http://www.photoradar.com/photographer-of-the-year/photos/2208/gigbinder/great-horned-owl-eye">not mine</a>)</span> are as big as ours*, but many times more powerful- even in full daylight. Most owls can sight a mouse in the grass about 5 times further away than we could make out any object of that size, and in darker conditions the difference is even more dramatic. The eyes of owls are ringed by specialized feathers that reflect/direct light into the pupil, and their retinas are packed with light-sensitive rod cells, enabling them to fly and hunt in what looks to us like near-total darkness.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Which is proportionally like our having baseball-sized eyes.</span></p> <p>But perhaps even more impressive than an owl’s sight is its hearing, which is highly sensitive, particularly in frequencies around that of rustling grass. An owl’s ears are asymmetric; the GH Owl’s right ear is set slightly higher up on its head, and positioned at a slightly different angle. This makes an owl’s hearing more sensitive to position and direction of sounds than ours. Barn Owls in fact can hunt effectively in absolute darkness by sound alone, flying around and landing on prey with accuracies of a fraction of an inch. (I don’t believe GH Owls can quite do this.)</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> BTW, the GH Owls “ear tufts” are nothing of the sort. Though <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOxdSyTEI/AAAAAAAAJIc/xDRxOC3nPsw/s1600-h/ear_gho%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="ear_gho" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="ear_gho" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOx8KNQsI/AAAAAAAAJIg/nNN9khg389c/ear_gho_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="176" width="195" /></a> they look like the part of the outer ear that is technically the pinna (the outer, visible part) on a person, dog or cat, birds have no pinnas* <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(pic right = actual GH Owl ear, <a href="http://www.themodernapprentice.com/ear.htm">not mine</a>).</span> The avian ear does have specialized feathers, called auricular feathers, that serve to direct sound into the ear canal, but GH ear tufts aren’t those either. They’re display feathers, and have nothing at all to do with hearing. We’ll get more into avian ears in the next post.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:78%;">*Pinnae? Pinnum? I’m never really sure.</span></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Let’s pause here for a second. Hopefully by now you’re convinced that the GH Owl- along with many other owls- is a totally Way Badass Predator. It’s for sure more bad-ass than hawks, and maybe even eagles. I didn’t appreciate how bad-ass until researching this post. Oh, I knew they were effective hunters and such, but…porcupines? Armadillos? Cats? And I guess I was surprised because they just don’t <i>look</i> that mean, but rather kind of wise and serene, and well “nice.”* Like, say you were an animal and you lived in a Watership Down**-type universe, where all the animals could talk to each other and you were lost and had to ask another animal for directions. Wouldn’t you be inclined to ask the wise old owl? But no- don’t do it! Because even though he looks so benevolent, he’s really like this hyper-effective, terminator-esque Silent Killing Machine!</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" ><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOybva8YI/AAAAAAAAJIk/ACnmYZOjbJY/s1600-h/woodsy-1%5B5%5D.gif"><img title="woodsy-1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="woodsy-1" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOypfukyI/AAAAAAAAJIo/AVDcqZLWW2Q/woodsy-1_thumb%5B3%5D.gif?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="90" width="77" /></a> *And then there’s “Owl” of the Winnie the Pooh*** gang, and the USFS’s “Woodsy <i>(“Give a hoot, don’t pollute!”)</i> Owl, and even the wise old cheater-Owl <i>(“How many licks does it take…?”) </i>on the old Tootsie-Pop commercials. All of these guys come off as slightly-addled, geriatric, harmless softies. Couldn’t we have just one seriously bad-ass owl in popular culture?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**I love that book.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >***Still think that bear <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/twin-the-henry-mountains-mailbox-and.html">should have pants</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">I’m not the only guy suckered by the owl’s serene face: think about birds of prey in our culture. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOzDtGlBI/AAAAAAAAJIs/67YvZF94jeo/s1600-h/chicago-blackhawks-2009-stanley-cup-playoffs-western-conference-finals%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="chicago-blackhawks-2009-stanley-cup-playoffs-western-conference-finals" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="chicago-blackhawks-2009-stanley-cup-playoffs-western-conference-finals" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVOzlLO-QI/AAAAAAAAJIw/EXXwlN9UD0s/chicago-blackhawks-2009-stanley-cup-playoffs-western-conference-finals_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="138" width="190" /></a> The Bald Eagle is our national symbol; it’s on the presidential seal and the quarter, and eagles grace the seals and flags of numerous other countries. We have sports teams named after eagles and hawks. Our military flies the F-15 Eagle and the Blackhawk Helicopter. Know what the much-vaunted F-117 “Stealth Fighter” is officially named? The “Nighthawk”. A Nighthawk- which I’ll mention just below in a moment, and is not at all closely-related to actual hawks- is a cool little bird, but it’s not even really a nocturnal hunter, so much as it is crepuscular, meaning active <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO0DPV6BI/AAAAAAAAJI0/CCDLwGlJdgs/s1600-h/f_117_nighthawk_2%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="f_117_nighthawk_2" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="f_117_nighthawk_2" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO0SQCMFI/AAAAAAAAJI4/HZ7Zr7IHA1k/f_117_nighthawk_2_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="147" width="182" /></a>around dusk/dawn. And you know what it hunts? Bugs. And it’s a little, inconsequential thing; hell, I’ve nearly run over them multiple times night-riding. Our nation’s baddest-ass techno-night-fighter-jet shouldn’t be named after a little birdie that flits around eating bugs. No, it should be the F-117 “Barn Owl”, because the Barn Owl is truly a bad-ass nocturnal predator.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">But there’s no fighter-jet, no attack helicopter, no presidential seal, no flag, no heat-seeking missile either named after or with an owl on it. That’s BS. A few years from now, when I found the state of Wasatch*, the GH Owl will be our state symbol.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" ><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO02bo24I/AAAAAAAAJI8/z68rHQ2oaB0/s1600-h/Wasatch%20State%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Wasatch State" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Wasatch State" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO1AY5W1I/AAAAAAAAJJA/XHJB6nk2xLI/Wasatch%20State_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="176" width="139" /></a> *I’ll have to cover this one in another tangent in another post, but briefly, it’s for Salt Lake and Summit counties to secede from Utah (West Virginia-style) and form a new state. Economically it’s a total winner for the new state, and would improve everything from class sizes to social justice to open space protection. The constitutional issues involved are thorny, but not insurmountable. I tell you what, I am always cooking up something…</span></p> <p>The “faces” of owls are vaguely disk-like in profile, making them almost instantly distinguishable from nearly all other birds. The disk-profile is also thought to direct and optimize sound reception. Speaking of other birds, what are owls related to?</p> <p>Owls have been around for something like 60 million years, and became widespread during the Eocene. Today, the owls, order <i>Stirigiformes</i>, include 2 families: the True Owls, <i>Stirigidae</i>, which includes the GH Owl and oodles other interesting species, and the Barn Owls, <i>Tytonidae</i>. For a long time it was unclear where exactly owls fit in the family tree of birds*, but they appear to be most closely-related to the order <i>Caprimulgiformes</i>- the Nightjars, Nighthawks, Frogmouths and Oilbirds.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*One theory was that they were more closely-related to hawks. The owl-like face of the Northern Harrier, <i>Circus cyaneus, </i>seems now to be an example of convergent evolution- not close kinship.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note</b>: Nighthawks, specifically the Common Nighthawk, <i>Chordeiles minor, </i>is on my slightly-embarrassing l<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO1m1Uu7I/AAAAAAAAJJE/Nl7B8YgkgoY/s1600-h/b39%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="b39" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="b39" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO17CGItI/AAAAAAAAJJI/Tbl-d-3LdIU/b39_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="161" width="240" /></a>ist of things-I-researched-and-meant-to-blog-about-but-never-got-around-to-doing-so.<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"> (Pic right, <a href="http://donb.photo.net/photo_cd/b/b39.html">not mine</a>*).</span> They’re cool little birds which fly around close to the ground at dawn and dusk hunting insects, and are common in the foothills and high rangelands bordering the Wasatch. On several <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/how-night-riding-is-like-hotel-sex.html">night-rides</a> this Fall I came upon them suddenly, just sitting in the middle of the trail shortly after dark. As I rolled toward them they’d alight, and then fly in my bar-light-beam, staying just 10 or so feet ahead of me for a few seconds as I followed them down the trail. My plan was to get this on helmet-cam for a post, but I was never able to work out a light/cam configuration that captured the action.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*BTW, this is exactly how they look when you come across them in the evening just sitting in the middle of the trail- squat and squint-eyed, almost kind of smug-looking…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">I’ve never been able to get decent night-time helmet-cam video. I’ve tried all different light/cam bar/helmet combinations, but the results are always the same- a small circle of white light in a field of blackness:</span></p> <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7hAit8v37sA?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7hAit8v37sA?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Believe it or not, that clip was made with both bar and helmet lights going full-blast- I could <i>see</i> fine. Around the same time I experimented with a bar-mount for the cam. Noise was always a problem, as you can hear in this clip:</span></p> <object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qBOr1blqqes?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qBOr1blqqes?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">I was able to partially damp the rattle with multiple rubber-bands, but it was still there. The lower-level video looked faster and better captured the lean-angle of the bike, which was cool, but I found the video quality sort of frenetic and annoying, and switched back to helmet-mount.</span></p> <p>Their next closest relatives are the Turacos, order <i>Musophagiae</i>, a funky-looking group of semi-zygodactylous-footed, fruit and bug-eating African birds, and after them, our old friends, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/vegas-boondoggle-part-2-washes-swifts.html">Swifts</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/hummingbirds-dead-cays-and-my-best.html">Hummingbirds</a></strong>.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO2Z4qgaI/AAAAAAAAJJM/C9FjN_Z8WIo/s1600-h/Owl%20Phylogeny%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Owl Phylogeny" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Owl Phylogeny" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TSVO29gSrxI/AAAAAAAAJJQ/5LQhz_WAXG0/Owl%20Phylogeny_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="335" width="440" /></a> I mention this not only because I’m always interested in what’s related to what, but also because this roster of the owl’s closest cousins rings a couple of bells from previous posts. Oilbirds and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/vegas-boondoggle-part-2-washes-swifts.html">Swifts</a></strong> (specifically some Asian swiftlets) are the only 2 birds known to have accomplished another awesome hearing-feat: <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TGyoaiAju2I/AAAAAAAAIYw/i8zkNyrz2V0/s1600-h/LBBDoppler4.jpg">echolocation</a>*. Isn’t that interesting.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Which we <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html">looked at last summer</a> in bats. It’s like… Oh yeah, I said that already.</span></p> <p>We’ve looked at lots of differences between birds and mammals in how they’ve tackled the same problems, including <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/mountain-biking-moonlight-color-vision.html">vision</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-secret-wish-and-gods-favorite.html">song</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-secret-wish-and-gods-favorite.html">respiration</a>, <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S3TdELRtwtI/AAAAAAAAHaU/TEvlaRuvCCw/s1600-h/PPSQ1%5B4%5D.jpg">sex determination</a>, “<a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-2-mating-meiosis-and.html">nursing</a>” and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/bird-feeder-week-part-2-avian.html">thermoregulation</a>. It’s time to check out their ears.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Next Up:</b> The awesome saga of the middle ear.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note About Sources:</b> My standard sources for every bird-related post include <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kaufman-Field-Guide-Birds-America/dp/0618574239/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294288514&sr=8-1">Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America</a></em></strong> and the Cornell University lab of Ornithology <strong><a href="http://www.allaboutbirds.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1189">All About Birds</a></strong> website. Additional info came from <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Phylogeny-Classification-Birds-Molecular-Evolution/dp/0300040857/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294288621&sr=8-1">Phylogeny and Classification of Birds: a Study in Molecular Evolution</a></em></strong>, Charles G. Sibley & Jon E. Ahlquist, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Evolution-Birds-Prof-Feduccia/dp/0300078617/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294288649&sr=1-1"><strong><em>The Origin and Evolution of Birds</em></strong></a>, Alan Feduccia, <a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Tracking-Art-Seeing-Animal-Tracks/dp/0062735241/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1294324041&sr=8-1">Tracking & the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks and Sign</a>, Paul Rezendes, the <strong><a href="http://www.owlpages.com/index.php">Owl Pages</a></strong> website, the <a href="http://www.exploringnature.org/"><strong>Exploring Nature Educational Resource</strong></a> website, the <a href="http://wildlife.state.co.us/"><strong>Colorado Division of Wildlife</strong></a><strong> </strong>website, <strong><a href="http://www.chacha.com/">ChaCha</a></strong> <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);font-size:78%;" >(don’t ask),</span> <strong><a href="http://negah28.info/">negah28.info</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://www.birdsnways.com/">BirdsnWays.com</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://www.birdsnways.com/">CubaHeritage.org</a></strong> and Wikipedia. Several of the photos in this post were provided courtesy of <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/4-new-foothill-flowers-5-axes-of-life.html">Hunky Neighbor</a>.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-59989710198370016332010-12-30T07:34:00.004-07:002010-12-30T07:55:05.545-07:002010 Helmet-Cam Retrospective<p>Let me start by saying that, in general, I think it’s kind of pretentious to do a retrospective-year-in-review-type post, because doing so implies that a) the blog is more important/has a bigger audience than it actually does, b) the year was somehow exceptional or notable, which it really wasn’t (with the obvious though admittedly not-world-shattering exception that it was the first year I had a helmet-cam), c) even if it was an exceptional year, that I would somehow be in any way more qualified than any other Average Joe to, er, retrospect it, d) that the visual content of this blog somehow merits review/re-posting, and e) I think they always come off as a wee pit pretentious. </p> <p>But, I’m doing it anyway, because a) I’ve been looking at a bunch of old helmet-cam clips this past week, which have really highlighted the remarkable changes in the living world over the course of the year, b) it allows me to get a post up during this quasi-nether-week without doing any real* research, and c) I guess, if we’re completely honest, I am just a wee bit pretentious.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Just to be clear- the issue here is that I am lazy- not that I am unimaginative, or in any way out of cool post ideas. In fact I have a great two-fer brewing for next week, about a cool predator and hearing.</span></p> <p>I get this weird thing about seasons every year. In the Summer I’ll be walking around in shorts and a T-shirt, maybe hiking or biking past some spot in the woods up in the mountains, and I’ll think that in just a few months, the forest all around me will be leafless, freezing cold, and under several feet of snow. And while I know it consciously, I just can’t really <i>believe</i> it. It just doesn’t seem intuitively possible that the same place could be so different in such a short time. Then 6 months later, skiing or what-not in the backcountry, I’ll have the exact opposite experience, looking around at the frozen silent forest, trying to imagine it green and leafy and warm and full of flowers and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/hummingbirds-dead-cays-and-my-best.html">hummingbirds</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/bug-rescue-part-2-dragonflies-are-way.html">dragonflies</a></strong>, and I just can’t really <i>believe</i> that it’ll be that different so soon. That all this snow will somehow melt away and the dead forest will just come back to life.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> I’ve been fascinated by the place-change effect of seasons for a long time, since long before starting this project, or even knew anything about forests. In the summer of 2001 I decided to photograph the same spot on the same trail weekly throughout the Summer/Fall. I didn’t see it through, but still have some of the old photos, reposted below.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYZr0o_eI/AAAAAAAAJG8/9SmQzP3vsi0/s1600-h/JohnsSlide4.jpg"><img title="Johns Slide" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Johns Slide" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYaGk3Q9I/AAAAAAAAJHA/JYWYdFVNZcE/JohnsSlide_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="331" /></a> </p> <p>During past winters I’ve sometimes reality-checked myself by looking through photos from the preceding summer, which helps, but a still photo is just that- a still. But this year, looking at old video-clips, I’ve found a connection to the past cycle of seasons I never managed to experience before. </p> <p>So anyway, I started to do a kind of a month-by-month helmet-cam retrospective, intending to document the change of seasons and be all kind of artsy and such, but by the time I got to May, I thought, “Man, this is a lot of singletrack through leafless scrub-oak footage…” So instead, I’m just going post a bunch of my favorite helmet-cam clips from 2010. Here we go:</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Clips, Already</strong></span></p> <p>Some of the best early season clips I got were down South. This is a portion of the descent of Upper JEM outside of Hurricane, UT, traversing the upper 3 members* of the Moenkopi formation. The trail is lined mainly with <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-4-shrub.html">Blackbrush</a></strong> and the occasional <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/juniper-martinis-and-parallel-evolution.html">Utah Juniper</a></strong> up top, with <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/last-generation-late-summer-wildflowers.html">Rabbitbrush</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/STaKiMPtClI/AAAAAAAACiY/QaAZV57eJko/s1600-h/Eviridis4.jpg">Mormon Tea</a></strong> joining in lower on down. I love the flow of this clip, the way the land changes color as we tranisition between geologic members, the weird light and ominous clouds. Pine Valley Range in the distance.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Upper Red, Shnabkaib, Middle Red</span></p> <iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/11448941?portrait=0" width="480" frameborder="0" height="270"></iframe> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Yes, that’s right. The helmet-cam was my <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/santa-was-good-to-me.html">Christmas present last year</a>. What’s that? What did I get this year? Well, I received several nice gifts, <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYagOPofI/AAAAAAAAJHE/XgfUWZqVHbM/s1600-h/eyeclops5.jpg"><img title="eyeclops" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="eyeclops" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYbNVKB4I/AAAAAAAAJHI/hFLb0TX2-Xs/eyeclops_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="150" align="right" border="0" height="150" /></a> but one of the most interesting was a pair of <strong>Eyeclops Nightvision Infrared Binoculars</strong>. They’re not <i>real</i> night vision binoculars, like the kind of light-amplifying devices used by the military and such, but rather an infrared flashlight attached to a camera-viewer.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">It’s a fun little toy and I hope to use it for things like night-time bug-hunting, maybe checking out scorpions and such down in the desert come spring.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">But in playing around with it <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(pic below, left = living room chair viewed in darkness) </span>, I discovered a curious and unexpected side effect,<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYboOoIYI/AAAAAAAAJHM/v6pUbJT88EY/s1600-h/ChairinIR5.jpg"><img title="Chair in IR" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Chair in IR" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYcbqeMdI/AAAAAAAAJHQ/4VQfR8HyMag/ChairinIR_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="188" align="left" border="0" height="171" /></a> which is this: it appears that artificial hair coloring doesn’t show up in infrared light. <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><em>[I actually have a great photo that displays the effect, but unfortunately I can’t post the photo here, for reasons I can’t really get into.*]</em></span> Meaning that when you look at someone with colored hair through the infrared viewer, their hair looks gray or white. You can actually pick up the viewer, scan a room full of people, and instantly see who’s dying their hair- Isn’t that freaky??</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" ><em>*Because Awesome Wife would likely leave me if I posted it. If you’re a real-world friend and want to see it, email me- it is way, way freaky.</em></span></p> <p>Back in March I was in the same area with the team, and filmed this clip of the road descent into La Verkin with Teammate-Perry. I like this one for the rush of speed, as well as the physio-geographic significance: We’re crossing the <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S53Gw0rk5bI/AAAAAAAAHhY/qKsSCn86DLU/s1600-h/3px%5B4%5D.jpg">Hurricane Fault</a> here, dropping off the very, very Western edge of the Colorado Plateau and into the Basin and Range country, which extends clear to the Sierra Nevada. </p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dTIWQzqCODo?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dTIWQzqCODo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Further down in the Mojave, this clip is from outside Blue Diamond, just outside of Las Vegas. The riding is slow and light dim, but I love the otherworldly feel of this ridge, following the faint singletrack, as well as the sense of solitude and open space just ~20 miles from the spawl and noise of the city. The tall yuccas alongside the trail are <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/vegas-boondoggle-part-1-daggers-moths.html">Spanish Dagger</a></strong>. Spring Range in the distance.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mcaRL_mKtgY?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mcaRL_mKtgY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>OK, this one isn’t helmet-cam, but I’m including it anyway. It’s driving across a wash in the Mojave, specifically Beaver Dam Wash, the lowest point in Utah. I love the blast of sun and green and water all together way out in the middle of this dry, spiky expanse of desert.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cegDq__s0sI?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cegDq__s0sI?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> What’s that? You’re wondering what else I got for Christmas. Well I got whole bunch of great books on my latest obsession, er, I mean interest- history of the first peoples in the Americas, and in the Great Basin in particular. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(My recent <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-2-old-rocks-ancient.html">rock</a> <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-part-4-book-cliffs-rock.html">art</a> <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/filling-in-blank-spots.html">encounters</a> have piqued my curiosity.)</span> And I got some CDs and some more of that <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SUJ2XhLJ78I/AAAAAAAACqk/XZjolAHeg-A/s1600-h/underwear1.jpg">quick-drying underwear</a>, and oh, yeah, this:</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYc9Xf_II/AAAAAAAAJHU/Mb9QFJPpL4E/s1600-h/tallboy4.jpg"><img title="tallboy" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="tallboy" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRyYdRz9CfI/AAAAAAAAJHY/BpCOA_4pOAs/tallboy_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="426" border="0" height="257" /></a> OK, so <i>I </i>bought myself that one…</span></p> <p>Back up in Utah, this is one of one of my favorite stretches of Gooseberry Mesa, the South rim. Following <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/4-new-foothill-flowers-5-axes-of-life.html">Hunky Neighbor</a></strong> here, we’re rolling across the Shinarump Conglomerate, which marks the transition from Moenkopi to Chinle formations. About a minute in we roll up onto the next Chinle member “up”- the Lower Sandstone Member. We’re passing by Blackbrush, Mormon Tea, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">Cliffrose</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/09/repost-relic-hybrid-oaks-part-1.html">Turbinella Oak</a></strong>, Utah Juniper and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">Singleleaf Piñon</a></strong>. Little Creek Mesa in the distance.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rdQQd0nAg2w?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rdQQd0nAg2w?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Closer to home, a couple of May bird-sightings. Here’s a male <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/more-birds-great-plains-and-artifical.html">Black-Headed Grosbeak</a></strong> singing alongside the Shoreline Trail up above the Capitol…</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hfOMWWhpyMg?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hfOMWWhpyMg?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>And here’s a soaring Red-Tailed Hawk from <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TAR9klS4wtI/AAAAAAAAH3c/MmXxUjuil6I/s1600-h/Route%20Jacks%20Peak%5B7%5D.jpg">Jack’s Peak</a>. Oquirrh Range, Great Salt Lake, Antelope Island and Salt Lake Salient* in the distance.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*No, I haven’t explained this yet- it’s the geologic formation that comprises what I generally refer to as the “foothills” at the North end of Salt lake Valley. We’ll get to it when I do my Geology of the Wasatch post. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(And yes, I will do a Geology of the Wasatch post one day and it will be awesome- my veritable Wasatch Opus. You will not want to miss it.)</span></span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/R1AQs_eEOBw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/R1AQs_eEOBw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Around the 1<sup>st</sup> week of June the forests around 7,000 – 8,000 feet practically explode in greenery. Here’s a clip from up in Pinebrook. The leaves (mainly <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/green-tunnel.html">Maple</a></strong> & <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/unbearable-lightness-of-aspen-part-1.html">Aspen</a></strong>) are only partway out, still that light, lime green color, and the underbrush (mainly <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/07/old-mormon-neighbors-and-fabulous-rose.html">Ninebark</a></strong> & <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/stuff-specifically-some-shrubs-that-you.html">Snowberry</a></strong>) though green, is still low, only recently freed from the weight of the snowpack.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WrO0tDuSlsE?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WrO0tDuSlsE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Just 2 weeks later, on the eve of the solstice, I took this clip from the Northern (and best) stretch of the Mid-Mountain trail, passing through several Aspen groves. You can’t see it in the clip, but the trail is lined with blooming <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/super-pbx-and-ground-level-mini-autumn.html">Sticky Geranium</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/summer-in-foothills-and-my-lame-race.html">Wild Rose</a></strong>.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/F5HJtUAYdIU?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/F5HJtUAYdIU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>I did some cool summer road trips this year. This clip is from along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, riding the Rainbow Rim Trail. The tall conifers are <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/relic-ponderosas.html">Ponderosa</a></strong> pines. In stretches we pass through stands of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/scrub-oak-part-1-basics.html">Gambel Oak</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/07/bachelor-weekend-part-2-kaibab-trees.html">New Mexican Locust</a></strong>. Out at the point we roll by a couple of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">Colorado Piñons</a></strong>, and finish off with a corridor of blooming Cliffrose. This section<i> smelled </i>fantastic. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(At 2:27 I glance into the inner gorge.)</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PlzCuT4olxo?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PlzCuT4olxo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>This clip turned out cool. It’s the full moon rising over the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/3-ps-of-paunsaugunt-plateau-part-1.html">Paunsaugunt</a></strong> as I pedaled the bike path back to camp. There are all kinds of cool conifers on the Paunsaugunt. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but I’m pretty sure we’re passing through <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/piney-looking-trees-part-2-douglas-fir.html">Douglas Fir</a></strong> and Ponderosa.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BUZjAsOE74A?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BUZjAsOE74A?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>OK, another non helmet-cam clip, but a good view of Redfish Lake up in the Stanley Basin of Idaho.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/COaln-1LWCQ?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/COaln-1LWCQ?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Earlier that same day, here’s a clip from up on the ridge on the West side of the lake (so on the right side of the previous clip) with some nice views of the lake. The trees on this stretch are Douglas Fir, and geologically I suspect I’m rolling over a glacial moraine, not from the last glacial advance, but from the one before, likely ~100,000 years ago.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M2-s0Tm2C3c?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M2-s0Tm2C3c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Later on that vacation, here’s a clip from our campsite on the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/07/idaho-vacation-part-2-weird-flowers-of.html">Lochsa River</a> up in Northern Idaho.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vf7weCRH0lM?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vf7weCRH0lM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> I just realized that reading the 2 previous tangents, you probably think that the only thing I care about around Christmas is getting presents. I assure you, nothing could be further from the truth. For while I certainly enjoy receiving gifts, I certainly know what really makes Christmas a truly unique, special and magical time, which of course is Making Fun of People’s Holiday Cards. Oh come on, you know you do it too. Every family has a Crazy Aunt or some such who sends out a whacky form letter every year that you and your significant other just can’t wait to get.* Actually, in all seriousness, I like Christmas card-form-letters**. Yes, sometimes they have a lot of detail, but they’re a great way to get caught up on the lives of friends and family you don’t get to see very often.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">*Sadly, my own Crazy Aunt stopped sending us her card/letter a few years ago. I can’t figure out if she stopped doing it altogether, or somehow got wind of me making fun of it and took me off the list. It’s a shame, I loved it. It was always written in this super-happy upbeat tone, but kept mentioning things that seemed borderline inappropriate for a Christmas card. Actual line from a past edition: <i>“After breaking off his engagement, Tad*** bought a VW Rabbit and moved to California…”</i></span></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**Except for the downer ones. You know, the ones that go, <em>“It’s been a year of challenges for the Hetzweigs; Hal lost his job in May, Betty’s back in rehab, and we had to put down Rasputin this year, but we’re hopeful little Petey will learn to cope with his deep anger issues…” </em>Gee, I’m sorry it’s been rough, but did you have to dump all this on us the week before Christmas? Couldn’t you have emailed me or something back in October?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >***Not his real name.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">The truth is, there’s only one type of holiday card that drives me batty, and that is the Card With New, Unidentified, Unannounced and Unexplained Family Members. I’m not talking babies or pets here- I’m talking adults. Several years ago one of my cousins sent us all a card with a picture of him, his wife, their 2 teenage sons, and… another teenaged boy. We don’t see this cousin but every few years, but so far as we knew, he’d always had 2 kids. Could we have somehow missed one over the years? We doubted it. The card had no explanation, and we chat so infrequently with him, his parents or his siblings that there wasn’t a smooth way to just call him up on some other pretext and say, “Oh, BTW, who’s the other teenager on your Christmas card?” And because we felt awkward asking, by the time the next year’s card came around (again, with mystery teen) it was too late to ask, and so… anyway it was like 2 or 3 years before we were clued in*.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*He was a teen from a troubled home who played basketball with their sons and whom they took in and became his legal guardians. A totally awesome, inspiring story. I just wish they’d noted it in the card so we weren’t scratching our heads (and then semi-faking like we already knew) for so long…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">This year, we got a card from AW’s cousin, a single(?) man with a young son. The card said, “Happy Holidays from the Jones* Family” and had a photo of the cousin, his son, a middle-aged woman and 3 teenaged girls. Who are these people? No note, no names, no nothing**. None of these women were in his card <em>last</em> year. We hadn’t heard of a wedding or even a serious girlfriend and suddenly we get the Brady Bunch Christmas card… We are totally clueless…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Not his real name.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**Which is ironic, because <i>this</i> is the kind of Christmas card that totally merits a lengthy detailed form-letter…</span></p> <p>Closer to home, the Wasatch Crest always makes for good video. This clip is from <strong><a href="http://www.skibikejunkie.com/">SkiBikeJunkie</a></strong>,<strong> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SsDuiQRZrvI/AAAAAAAAGJA/Vpjfkyhl35Y/s1600-h/IMG_2377%5B6%5D.jpg">Coryalis</a></strong> and my 83-mile Fourth of July <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/07/tuesday-helmet-cam-filler.html">Super-Crest</a> tour. You can tell by the low brush/grasses and the light Aspen leaves that it’s still early in the summer. In addition to the usual Wasatch characters, we pass a number of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/its-called-limber-for-reason.html">Limber Pines</a></strong> between around 1:00 and 1:20.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kno5Fmtq-3I?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kno5Fmtq-3I?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>For comparison, here’s a piece of that same stretch, exactly 2 months later. Check out how much higher (and drier) the grasses are, and how the Aspen leaves are now a dark, mature green.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MblJR8ESE-M?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MblJR8ESE-M?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>This next clip I like- even with the problematic lighting- because it’s one of my favorite stretches of Great Western Trail, and also because it’s my only helmet-cam clip of, er, me. SBJ was kind enough to film it later during the Super-Crest ride. The conifers in the shady sections here are mostly <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/piney-looking-trees-part-4-loose-in.html">Engelmann Spruce</a></strong>, which do real well on these North-facing slopes*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*And have been doing even better following a century+ of fire suppression in the Wasatch.</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MuBrXgpJ_Zc?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MuBrXgpJ_Zc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Here’s part of that same stretch 3 months later, the trail now lined with fallen Aspen leaves. Passing through the darker Spruce stands, the golden underbrush seems almost to glow, lighting up the forest from below.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WiODX8HROoM?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WiODX8HROoM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>The colors peaked in mid-October. Here’s another stretch of Mid-Mountain, about 2 miles North, and 4 months after, the Solstice-Eve clip up above.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/E1so5COq4P4?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/E1so5COq4P4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Later in the Fall we returned to Gooseberry, where I took this clip following <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/white-rim-take-2-fast-jimmy-mosquito.html">Fast Jimmy</a></strong> through Piñon-Juniper along the rim, with glimpses of the banded Moenkopi formations below.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OprJhogxEbo?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OprJhogxEbo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>In mid-November I followed Cory on this high-speed descent down into City Creek. The oaks and maples are bare, the grasses wilted and brown, the sky gray. The landscape is practically begging for snow. We’re rolling over conglomerate soils here, eroded down from the tertiary <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S_WYYjmI9QI/AAAAAAAAH2I/NojhDq46zis/s1600-h/TCG24.jpg">conglomerate cliffs</a> above. I’ve been trying to keep up with Cory on the downhills for 15 years now, and he just seems to be getting faster. We hit 29.9mph on this stretch.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DD81WC0lD3c?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DD81WC0lD3c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>I saved my favorite clip for last. It may seem like an odd pick, and my feelings aren’t hurt if you don’t like or get it. It’s slow and meandering, I’m alone, the scenery is unspectacular, and the trail rather undefined. It’s the descent of a side trail* off Mid-Mountain trail during the peak bloom of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/3-excellent-man-dates-and-2-cool.html">Serviceberry</a></strong> on the day before the summer solstice. The video’s slow and poky, but when I watch it I feel the sun on my neck and smell the brush all around. I feel the Serviceberry brushing my arms, the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-3-sage-o.html">Sagebrush</a></strong> scratching my shins, my flexed stomach flat on the seat and the braking-burn in my forearms**. For me, this clip <em>is</em> Summer.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Lower Finesse.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Because yes, I am a Luddite and ride with <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/St8Ao5fRuKI/AAAAAAAAGb0/Qjen1B8zgC4/s1600-h/WheelMapleLeaf4.jpg">v-brakes</a>. Or rather <i>rode</i>. Did I mention my new bike?</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HHgsE_Vy-RU?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HHgsE_Vy-RU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>It was a good year. The next one will be great.</p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-20860971381441469632010-12-24T10:31:00.003-07:002010-12-24T10:34:21.860-07:00Best Gift Ever<p>For weeks Awesome Wife has been bugging me to tell her what I want for Christmas. Clothes? Gear? Books? What do I want? She thought she’d come up with a great gift idea when I <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/filling-in-blank-spots.html">lost my camera</a>, but her hopes were dashed when Fuzzy found it the next day.</p> <p>The problem is that I’ve reached that age where, if there’s some thing I want, well I generally just go buy it. I really have pretty much everything I need. Of course AW and I still buy each other nice gifts, but generally, whatever <i>major</i> gift we give one another at holidays is something we’ve pretty clearly specified. </p> <p>Thinking about this recently, I thought about how it’s one of the things I miss about being a kid. Remember how, some years, you’d get a Christmas gift, and it was something you completely didn’t expect, maybe hadn’t even thought of, and yet it was totally the Best Gift Ever? Remember how incredibly happy that made you? That’s what I miss about being a kid at Christmas.</p> <p>The ideal Christmas gift would be something that made me feel that way, that didn’t cost a lot, and that I never had even thought of. Oh, and it would have some kind of connection to baby Jesus, too, since, well you know, it’s Christmas.</p> <p>Yesterday when I got home from work, the package from Fuzzy had arrived. Just as he’d promised, it contained my camera which I’d lost on <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMV-3D-EI/AAAAAAAAJFs/Dg-6sBhdzXM/s1600-h/PriceGeoTrailZoom4.jpg">Luke’s Trail</a>, now safe and sound.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><strong>Side Note:</strong> Probably the nicest thing* about recovering a lots camera is recovering the photos you hadn’t yet uploaded off it when you lost it. I’ll share just a couple here.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*In fact, from a financial standpoint, losing the camera wouldn’t have been as big a deal as I’d feared. Over the last year or so prices on point & shoots have plummeted. If you’re looking for a last minute Christmas gift, you can pick up the updated version of my camera for <a href="http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Canon+-+PowerShot+12.1-Megapixel+Digital+Camera+-+Silver/9766864.p?id=1218170031336&skuId=9766864">about $110</a>. I’ve had it for 18 months, abused it thoroughly, and it’s still working great.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">A nice view of the <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMMPpwe2I/AAAAAAAAJEk/ebhUhOAoDeM/s1600-h/LGCGeocaptions4.jpg">Little Grand Canyon</a> of the San Rafael River:</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY2nrpoyI/AAAAAAAAJGA/Z8TMb9H1t8Y/s1600-h/IMG_8304%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8304" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="IMG_8304" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY3PMlwNI/AAAAAAAAJGE/RfRgFrNxrQ0/IMG_8304_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="428" border="0" height="326" /></a> Here’s a cool zoom from along the rim of Good Water Canyon. The circled area shows an apparently recent cliff-break/slide <strong><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a></strong> spotted, which you can make out from the bare, vegetation-free slopes below.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY3l0t2NI/AAAAAAAAJGI/gR4Chdyp8ZM/s1600-h/Good%20Water%20Slide%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Good Water Slide" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Good Water Slide" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY4HjZ3XI/AAAAAAAAJGM/0gZ9ouWA5ec/Good%20Water%20Slide_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="433" border="0" height="330" /></a> <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Here’s a better shot of the <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMQ8PkfuI/AAAAAAAAJFE/4sZF_GPDchc/s1600-h/Carmelplateformationcaption4.jpg">“pavement-slab” formation</a> in a broken-off chunk of Carmel rim rock:</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY4q6JLcI/AAAAAAAAJGQ/Ouh5A80lTT8/s1600-h/IMG_8320%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8320" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="IMG_8320" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY5UYjrII/AAAAAAAAJGU/xzo7V_LfS3Q/IMG_8320_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" height="333" /></a> <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">From a bit later in the day, here’s a better close-up of the <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMR8nqQXI/AAAAAAAAJFM/RHe-doovgbA/s1600-h/BuckhornPanelcaptions4.jpg">“angel” anthropomorphs</a> down at Buckhorn Wash</span>:</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY53FgLxI/AAAAAAAAJGY/i4ZpvpYMx8c/s1600-h/Angels%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Angels" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Angels" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY6SHzV3I/AAAAAAAAJGc/bxD2zA6Q6jo/Angels_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="441" border="0" height="339" /></a> <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">On the way out we had a nice Pronghorn* spotting:</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY65pLbkI/AAAAAAAAJGg/Mf9XAvcyu-4/s1600-h/Pronghorns%20East%20of%20Castle%20Dale%2012%2014%2010%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Pronghorns East of Castle Dale 12 14 10" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Pronghorns East of Castle Dale 12 14 10" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY7WmOLwI/AAAAAAAAJGk/JPtozQng9AI/Pronghorns%20East%20of%20Castle%20Dale%2012%2014%2010_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" height="333" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">*I blogged about Pronghorns in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/3-ps-of-paunsaugunt-plateau-part-1.html">this post</a></strong>. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">Man, it is like I have a post for <em>everything.</em></span></span> </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">This shot from Price (top of Luke’s Trail) isn’t great, but it clearly shows the relative rockiness of the pediment mantle <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMV-3D-EI/AAAAAAAAJFs/Dg-6sBhdzXM/s1600-h/PriceGeoTrailZoom4.jpg">which the trail lies atop of</a>. We’re looking West, and in the background the line of the Book Cliffs is bending around to the South.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY71RQvWI/AAAAAAAAJGo/C5Q2gXIYv60/s1600-h/IMG_8347%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8347" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="IMG_8347" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY8d4BF5I/AAAAAAAAJGs/d6NZL3U8mf4/IMG_8347_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" height="334" /></a> </p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Gift</strong></span></p> <p>But the package also contained something else- a bumper sticker. And not just any bumper sticker, but one that was the absolutely best, most spot-on, perfect-est Christmas gift for me ever*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*And which will nicely compliment my <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/StVN523Sc0I/AAAAAAAAGWU/ZQSE8vR3J2w/s1600-h/BStickersAllCaption4.jpg">existing stickers</a>.</span></p> <p>[SCROLL DOWN]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY84X0jEI/AAAAAAAAJGw/LuFpo-k0sic/s1600-h/stickercut4.jpg"><img title="sticker cut" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="sticker cut" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRTY9N0aPVI/AAAAAAAAJG0/4SuCLskXJ70/stickercut_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="448" border="0" height="94" /></a> Thanks <strong><a href="http://fuzzysbicycleworks.com/default.aspx">Fuzzy</a></strong>! And Merry Christmas, everybody. Remember, don’t make Baby Jesus cry; fix your bike already.</p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-6441028065084841842010-12-21T07:30:00.000-07:002010-12-21T07:30:01.359-07:00Filling In Blank Spots<p>Speaking of <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-part-4-book-cliffs-rock.html">filling in blank spots</a>, that’s what I did last Tuesday. <strong><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a></strong> and I played hooky from work, meeting up before dawn at the Orem Park & Ride and heading South, then Southeast, over to Price, then South to Castle Dale, where we turned off the highway and drove East toward the San Rafael Swell.</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Geo-Side-Note:</b> This was my first time heading South on Highway 10 from Price. The road follows a broad valley across the <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMAzG6q1I/AAAAAAAAJCk/DJujElVX92s/s1600-h/BCliffs%20Formations%20cut%5B5%5D.jpg">Mancos Shale</a> which has a similarly drab appearance and ground-cover to the (unnamed) valley between Green River and Price. These 2 valleys make sort of a big crescent, in which Price sits at the junction. On the West side of the valley are high cliffs, and in fact these are the very same Book Cliffs we looked at in the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-part-4-book-cliffs-rock.html">last geo-post</a>, which run up to the Northwest from Green River, then bend clear around Price and start heading South past Huntington and Cast Dale, where they form the Eastern edge of the Wasatch Plateau. So when you’re driving up out of Price toward Soldier Summit on your way back to the Wasatch Front, you’re driving up <i>through</i> the Book Cliffs.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;">According to “Fuzzy”, the owner/proprietor of <strong><a href="http://fuzzysbicycleworks.com/default.aspx">Fuzzy’s BicycleWorks</a></strong> in Price, this bend in the Book Cliffs creates a sort of precipitation “hole” right around Price, such that they rarely get snow in and around town. But we’ll get to Price riding and Fuzzy in a little bit…</span></p> <p>Like most Utahns, my usual exposure to the SR Swell is via the Eastern edge, which is specifically the San Rafael Reef. The SR Swell is a large (40 x 75 miles), 2,000 foot high, ovaloid uplift in Central Utah. On the Western edge, this uplift has tilted and cracked huge wedges of Navajo sandstone in a nearly 75 mile-long line of giant cliffs and “flatirons”. This wall/reef has been eroded by countless little stream/washes into dozens of fantastic, tight slot canyons*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/weed-week-part-1-crabgrass-c4-revisited.html">blogged about a hike with Bird Whisperer</a> through 2 of these- Ding and Dang Canyons- a couple years back.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The Swell was uplifted during a geologic episode known as the Laramide Orogeny, which was a 30 million year-long period of mountain-building in Western North America starting around 75 million years ago. The Laramide Orogeny produced the Rocky Mountains, as well as- closer to home- the Uinta Range.*</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">*Interesting geo-factoid: the Uintas are roughly 4 times as old as the modern Wasatch Range. But that’s a story for another post.</span></p> <p>But when you approach the Swell from the Western side (Castle Dale), your introduction to it is very different. Instead of sighting this massive wall on the horizon, you just sort of roll along through open scrublands, first over Mancos Shale, then down onto the Cedar Mountain formation, working your way gradually lower, but mostly just rolling along over a not very interesting gray & brown landscape. Then you get a little lower still, the road gets a titch more squiggly*, and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/juniper-martinis-and-parallel-evolution.html">Junipers</a></strong> and a few <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">Piñons</a></strong> appear, and then all of a sudden, the world… falls… away…</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*But still graded and excellent. The roads in this area are the best-condition unpaved roads in the state.</span></p> <p>No really, I mean it. The road ends at a spot called the Wedge Overlook, where what you are overlooking is the so-called Little Grand Canyon. No, it’s not as “grand” as the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-2-old-rocks-ancient.html">actual Grand Canyon</a>, but it’s still absolutely, thoroughly and spectacularly awesome. Here it is:</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMLItXNDI/AAAAAAAAJEc/21fMnxcW-BM/s1600-h/LGCStill14.jpg"><img title="LGC Still1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="LGC Still1" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMLsOM6kI/AAAAAAAAJEg/RJ7GQRLVk2c/LGCStill1_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" height="321" /></a>OK, now at this point in the post, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking: “Why does this photo suck so badly? If the view is that great, shouldn’t he have taken a decent photo instead of just cropping some still from his helmet-cam?” To which the answer is yes, I should have and indeed did so. In fact I took a dozen+ wonderful shots. But, later in the day, I lost- yes<i> lost</i>- my camera. But we’ll get to that in a bit.</p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> Long-time readers will recall that I have a long, sad history of <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/07/catch-up-rides-small-teammates-adding.html">losing/ destroying cameras</a>. In fact when I purchased this one, I broke my own rule and bought the super-duper extended warranty* that would cover any kind of impact/breakage.**</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">*Because warranties are a form of gambling, with the odds similarly stacked against you. So is insurance, I guess, but I do buy that because not doing so- ironically- turns out to be a bigger gamble. Still, I actually have a long, complicated and reasonably-well-thought-out (for me at least) Half-Baked Theory as to why we’d all be better off if automobile insurance were outlawed***, but I’ll save that for another footnote in another tangent in another post.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><span style="font-size:78%;">**Unfortunately you need the actual camera to collect on the warranty. </span><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">KanyonKris</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;"> helpfully pointed out that broken cameras are often offered for parts, etc. on eBay, and that I could possibly procure a “stand-in” on the cheap, but that would’ve broken my Rule of Crime****.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">***In my younger days, I actually- and I am not making this up- had an extended version of this Half-Baked Theory that applied to banks, but it fell apart once I managed to accumulate $100 and needed to put it someplace.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><span style="font-size:78%;">****Which is not what you might assume. My Rule of Crime has absolutely nothing to do with ethics or morality <span style="color:#808080;">(although I <i>am</i> personally ethically and morally opposed to crime- that’s beside the point)</span> but rather the logic of crime. The Rule is that you should only commit crimes that you will only need to commit once. One time. So for instance, stealing $10 million out of a bank vault, or the Mona Lisa out of the Louvre***** is a sensible crime, because you do it and then presumably you’re set for life. On the other end of the spectrum, holding up a liquor store is right out, because you’d need to rob them practically weekly to maintain any sort of a reasonable income, and then the odds would doom you to death or incarceration in short order. Similarly, petty fraud sits down on this Low/No end of the Crime-Rule spectrum. I should point out BTW that </span><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">KanyonKris</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;"> strikes me as exactly the kind of logical, creative, smart and ultra-resourceful guy who would make a Fantastic Master Criminal if only he weren’t So Darn Nice.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">*****Leaving aside the whole fencing issue, of course.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;">But here I am, losing yet another camera. So if you don’t know me in real life, you are probably thinking, “I am never loaning him anything…” but really, this only happens to me with cameras. And in my defense, I bring my camera absolutely everywhere and take tons of photos with it. So I think you should give me a little bit of slack, at least until you read how I lost it.</span></p> <p>The Little Grand Canyon looks so different than the Eastern edge of the Swell- the Reef- because it’s not all crazy-tilted. It’s just been eroded down into countless little draws and canyons as the Swell has uplifted. It’s sort of a little Colorado-Plateau-within-a-Colorado-Plateau <span style="color:#808080;">(which in this case happens to the <i>actual</i> Colorado Plateau.)</span> The geology here includes a number of formations we’ve looked at previously; I’ve marked the main ones in this photo*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Courtesy of </span><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">KanyonKris</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">, who is exactly the kind of guy who doesn’t lose things like cameras.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMMPpwe2I/AAAAAAAAJEk/ebhUhOAoDeM/s1600-h/LGCGeocaptions4.jpg"><img title="LGC Geo captions" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="LGC Geo captions" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMNPSdqUI/AAAAAAAAJEo/c5iuAd7InPU/LGCGeocaptions_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="431" border="0" height="328" /></a> Our reason for visiting the Wedge Overlook wasn’t just to see the view, but also check out a new mtn bike trail we’d heard about. The Good Water Rim trail departs from the overlook and follows the rim of Good Water Canyon- a network of small canyons feeding into a bigger tributary to the main San Rafael Little Grand Canyon- for 15 miles of singletrack. The ride was mostly level*, not at all difficult, and provided wonderful views. Sometimes the views would be of the deep canyon reaching out to the San Rafael River… </p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Would be a great <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-singlespeeders-are-like-jesus.html">singlespeed</a> ride.</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8SAO-0aIlg4?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8SAO-0aIlg4?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>…and other times it would just be of the shallow Navajo-lined side washes.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kc0NXgiH2Kw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kc0NXgiH2Kw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> <strong><a href="http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/">Utahmountainbiking.com</a></strong>, whose reviews of trails are usually spot on, gives this trail borderline-ecstatic reviews. KanyonKris and I enjoyed it very much, but were not quite as enthusiastic. While interesting, the trail is almost completely non-technical. The views are great, but after 30 miles out & back, well, you’ve seen the same view quite a bit. Don’t get me wrong- it’s a very enjoyable trail. But if you’re a mtn biker planning a first trip to Utah, there are a few dozen trails I’d ride before of this one.</span></p> <p>Regardless of aspect, the trail stuck to the same geologic layer: <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMNg6FQHI/AAAAAAAAJEs/gCgYZn3gP1g/s1600-h/AFOGWR1214105.jpg"><img title="AFO GWR 12 14 10" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="AFO GWR 12 14 10" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMOCX7cJI/AAAAAAAAJEw/AYWTZKJK-S8/AFOGWR121410_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="219" align="right" border="0" height="167" /></a>the Carmel Formation. The Carmel is a “mid-Jurassic” formation, separating the (early-Jurassic) Navajo from the (late-Jurassic) Entrada. It formed in a shallow marine and peritidal environments in seven distinct “depositional cycles”. The marine environment which led to its creation was a shallow inland sea extending from Southern Utah to Southern Alberta, called the Carmel Seaway. The formation consists of various layers of limestone, siltstone, sandstone and evaporates*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Mineral sediments concentrated by evaporation. Closer to home, the mud flats around Great Salt Lake are full of ‘em.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMOvWhJLI/AAAAAAAAJE0/tw_6paQ6i0g/s1600-h/CarmerlSlabcaption4.jpg"><img title="Carmerl Slab caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Carmerl Slab caption" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMPEqBF0I/AAAAAAAAJE4/-5ai4oiXp1o/CarmerlSlabcaption_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" height="180" /></a> So wait a minute. If the Carmel separates the Navajo from the Entrada, why didn’t I mention it back <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-desert-hiking-part-2-fins.html">over in Moab</a>, when I was going on and on about those formations? Because it doesn’t occur over there; the Carmel Seaway didn’t reach that far East*. In any case, the trail rides over, and makes good use of, an abundance of remarkably flat gray slabs- limestone members of the formation. Some are small- like dinner plates, and clatter, jump and sometimes even flip under a bicycle tire. Others are massive, living-room-sized slabs. How are they all so flat, and on the same level?</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*“East” is relative here, since what is now Utah was in a different spot on the globe in the Jurassic than it is today.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMPpJsTXI/AAAAAAAAJE8/KrOfZxlJQb0/s1600-h/CarmelDinnerPlatescaption5.jpg"><img title="Carmel Dinner Plates caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Carmel Dinner Plates caption" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMQayh_DI/AAAAAAAAJFA/eNG4ZQedeNY/CarmelDinnerPlatescaption_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="176" align="right" border="0" height="134" /></a> Extra Detail:</b> I couldn’t figure out<i> which</i> limestone member; there are 3. A big one occurs near the tippy-top of the formation, an even bigger one in the middle, and a small/narrow one down at the bottom.</span></p> <p>The answer becomes obvious when you look at the breaking-away chunks of the rim. Each massive car-sized boulder is comprised of a series of 2-3” thick horizontal plates. When one is eroded away, the next is right there to take its place.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMQ8PkfuI/AAAAAAAAJFE/4sZF_GPDchc/s1600-h/Carmelplateformationcaption4.jpg"><img title="Carmel plate formation caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Carmel plate formation caption" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMReI0O1I/AAAAAAAAJFI/A5HvSudOutE/Carmelplateformationcaption_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="436" border="0" height="332" /></a>The Carmel as a whole is relatively erosion-resistant layer when compared with the softer underlying Navajo. When the Carmel is finally removed, the Navajo quickly erodes into deep washes and canyons.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The Carmel and Ancient Marine Life</strong></span></p> <p>The Carmel appears to have played an interesting role in the evolutionary history of marine life. The limestone layers created what geologists carbonate hardground, which means a lithified (turned to rock) seafloor. These hard seafloors favored life forms that with hard, protective exteriors, and/or “encrusters” that formed hard, protective shelters or tubes, over critters that burrowed into softer/sandier soils for protection. The Carmel- and other Jurassic period hardgrounds- saw an explosion of various bivalves (oysters, clams, scallops, etc.) and other encrusters, such as serpulid worms, which construct and reside in hard little tubes.</p> <p>The Carmel was one of a number of Jurassic carbonate hardgrounds that formed during the Jurassic, and later the Cretaceous. But for a long, long time before- throughout the Triassic and Permian, practically no such hardgrounds were formed. The next most recent hardground-forming era was back in the Silurian* and earlier Ordovician periods, and interestingly, this was the time-span that saw the rise of the echinoderms**, which include all sorts of spiny things, such as sea stars, sea urchins.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*We looked at the supernova hypothesis for the Silurian extinction back in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-3-orions-got-it-all.html">this post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**We looked at echinoderms- and specifically <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S9DEAzFWqsI/AAAAAAAAHsg/gH_xjJbHDho/s1600-h/BStar1%5B6%5D.jpg">Brittle Stars</a>- last spring down in Mexico in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/mexico-part-3-weird-things-under-rocks.html">this post</a></strong>. Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything.</i></span></p> <p>After the ride, while we were in the area, we drove down to the bottom of the Little Grand Canyon and the San Rafael River crossing, an easy drive which I strongly recommend. This whole area is both beautiful and remarkably accessible; come Spring I’ll be returning with the Watcher family for sure.</p> <p>On the drive down we passed one of the best rock art sites in this part of the state- Buckhorn Wash. Buckhorn is a huge cliff-side panel, some 160 feet long, chock-full of large anthropomorphic figures dating back several thousand years. The style/period is Barrier Canyon, which we’ve <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-part-4-book-cliffs-rock.html">looked at previously</a>, so I won’t repeat the background here, but mention just a couple of cool/unusual things about this site. </p> <p>Several of the figures are holding curious staves, snakes or other objects. Some of the anthropomorphs are winged, like weird, shamanistic archaic angels. 2 of the figures, oddly, seem to be over-painted with a yellow pigment; it’s not clear when or by whom, or even whether it was in historic or prehistoric times. <span style="color:#808080;">(This site BTW is almost all pictographs, meaning painted figures, as opposed to petroglyphs, which are pecked/carved figures. The last rock art site we visited, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-part-4-book-cliffs-rock.html">Thompson Wash</a></strong> in the Book Cliffs, features a mix of both types, consistent with the multiple styles/periods found there.)</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMR8nqQXI/AAAAAAAAJFM/RHe-doovgbA/s1600-h/BuckhornPanelcaptions4.jpg"><img title="Buckhorn Panel captions" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Buckhorn Panel captions" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMSZOwUqI/AAAAAAAAJFQ/MRf7ZXCN2O0/BuckhornPanelcaptions_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="331" /></a> But the weirdest thing is that most of the anthropomorphs have later, deliberately-pecked holes in their chests. What does this mean? Were later visitors trying somehow to deface the site, or remove or later it’s significance or power?</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Buckhorn, like Thompson Wash, is another restoration success story. The site was similarly trashed until the mid-90’s. There also another, unmarked, Barrier Canyon site some 3 miles up-canyon of the main Buckhorn panel of which KanyonKris and I were unaware, and which I’ll be sure to visit on my next trip. Slifer’s book has detailed directions.</span></p> <p>We headed back to the highway at Castle Dale, gassed up and did “lunch” at the Huntington Maverik, then raced North toward Price to catch a quick ride while we still had daylight.</p> <p><b>Ode to Maverik</b></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> Lunch was Crunchy Cheetoes, a Rock Star and a Maverik chocolate chip cookie. It is time for a trailer-trash Confession: I love Maverik (pic right, not mine*). I love the cheap gas, I love that the sunglass tree is always well-stocked (for the countless times I have forgotten/lost/destroyed sunglasses in the backcountry) and I love their fresh-baked cookies**. <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMS9zFvlI/AAAAAAAAJFU/AnD20Xkg-H8/s1600-h/maverik15.jpg"><img title="maverik1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="maverik1" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMTRT5ouI/AAAAAAAAJFY/93BFuny_was/maverik1_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="221" align="right" border="0" height="168" /></a> There. I said it. I love Maverik and I don’t care who knows it. When I roll into the outskirts of a rural Utah hamlet after days camping, backpacking or biking in the backcountry, and I spot that cheesy red and white sign ahead in the distance, my little heart practically sings for joy; there it is, everything I need in the civilized world, a proud little bastion of organization, resources and logistics, the very essence and ultimate triumph of Western civilization, conveniently packed into one little store. I swear, if I’m ever camped out alone in the desert and a flying saucer lands and aliens get out and ask me to show them the crowing achievement of our civilization, I am taking them straight to the nearest Maverik. <i>Ah,</i> <i>Maverik!</i> </span><span style="color:#c0c0c0;">(If only they stocked better beer…)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">*I pulled it from the <strong><a href="http://www.csnews.com/top-stories-headlines-d1.html">Convenience Store News</a></strong> website. Man, it is like there is a website for <em>everything.</em></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">**99 cents, and totally, decadently and awesomely delicious.</span></p> <p>Price has a nice singletrack network on the north side of town running over a series of low hills or mini-mesas that collectively form sort of a long “pre-bench” leading up to the Book Cliffs. Price sits, as I mentioned, atop the Mancos Shale, and the pre-bench just above is also of the Mancos, but of an upper member, the Blue Gate. Though silty and fast-eroding like the rest of the Mancos, the Blue Gate Member seems to have just a bit more “spine” than the lower members, and actually forms modest-tough-beautiful minor cliffs and hoodoos in the side canyons in the pre-bench (pic below= crappy helmet-cam still). </p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMT4mZ6pI/AAAAAAAAJFc/s8NaY2_tGd0/s1600-h/BlueGateCliffs4.jpg"><img title="Blue Gate Cliffs" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Blue Gate Cliffs" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMUcnSVLI/AAAAAAAAJFg/oIsUzfp5pS8/BlueGateCliffs_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="166" /></a> Most of the trails are accessed via a brutal jeep-road-climb or hike-a-bike up onto the pre-bench, but once on top, the trails are great, all twisty, windy* and fun. Lower down, close to the edge of the pre-bench, they’re mostly smooth and stone-less and open, but as you get higher and “Norther”, Juniper and Piñon appear, creating a non-Mancos-y woodland, and the trail starts to feature occasional boulders, intermittent rock gardens, and coarser, larger-grained, and distinctly un-Mancos-like soils. What’s going on?</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*As in they wind around a lot, as opposed to there being lots of wind.</span></p> <p>What is going on is that the Blue Gate pre-bench is overlain with a very different soil formation, called pediment mantle. A pediment in geology is a broad, gradually sloping area at the base of mountains or cliffs, covered with a relatively thin layer of fluvial gravel which is the product of erosional (not depositional) processes. Where does stuff come from? From the Book Cliffs, which as <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMGYKE0HI/AAAAAAAAJDM/WUjWFtZijsc/s1600-h/Book%20Cliffs%20Walking%5B4%5D.jpg">we saw in our last geo-post</a>, are gradually eroding their way North across the land.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMU-ubzgI/AAAAAAAAJFk/EkE3bzp3TA4/s1600-h/BigPriceGeoMapcaption4.jpg"><img title="Big Price Geo Map caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Big Price Geo Map caption" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMVQpZVxI/AAAAAAAAJFo/foBOU6I7atc/BigPriceGeoMapcaption_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" height="333" /></a> The pediment mantle here is of uncertain age, thought to be laid down mainly sometime over the last 10 million years, probably more recently near streambeds, and consists of a “poorly-bedded”* mix of silt, sand, pebbles, stones and boulders.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Although this sounds like a term from the <strong><a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/">Urban Dictionary</a></strong>, it is in fact geo-speak for “all jumbled up”.</span></p> <p>The pediment mantle atop the Blue Gate member forming the “pre-bench” North of Price is only between 10 and 150 feet thick, but it’s enough to dramatically change the character of the surface. The land is covered with Piñon, Juniper, and well-established <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-3-sage-o.html">Sagebrush</a></strong>, and the trails corner well, hold up under moisture and feature intermittent interesting little rock gardens.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAMV-3D-EI/AAAAAAAAJFs/Dg-6sBhdzXM/s1600-h/PriceGeoTrailZoom4.jpg"><img title="Price Geo Trail Zoom" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Price Geo Trail Zoom" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAV9wM1W4I/AAAAAAAAJF0/3_r-UF_yArc/PriceGeoTrailZoom_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" height="334" /></a> What’s cool about the Price-pediment-mantle is that it’s a great example of geology in action. While all this rock and sediment stuff sounds geeky and esoteric, here’s a clear, real-world example of how geologic processes and history change the land you ride across and the experience of the ride. Mountain biking in Utah is always fun, but until you understand what you’re riding on, you’re really just pedaling in the dark.</p> <p>Pressed for daylight, we climbed steadily to the top of Luke’s Trail, then turned around and zipped back down. The descent was a delight- a bit too twisty to rip it, but interesting enough to keep you on your toes, constantly weaving and ducking your way under and around Piñon/Juniper limbs, and <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SfrghlKw5XI/AAAAAAAAEVM/0MfeVVn6A_8/s1600-h/SCurve4.jpg">S-curving</a> your way across pretty sagebrush-filled meadows. </p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5qQI0i6QGDw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5qQI0i6QGDw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>When we popped back out on the dirt road we re-grouped and bombed down the steep, rutted half-mile back to town and the car. Loading up the bikes in the dusk, we laughed about what a great descent it had been and how we couldn’t wait to return. Then I noticed- my camera was gone.</p> <p>As I’ve mentioned previously, I keep my camera in a small pouch (a cell-phone case) with a clip that clamps onto my Camelbak strap. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAV-XJAD9I/AAAAAAAAJF4/orD0j74iquY/s1600-h/CHolster2055.jpg"><img title="CHolster205" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="CHolster205" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TRAV_DN0K2I/AAAAAAAAJF8/8WkZ0BUAqxE/CHolster205_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="right" border="0" height="152" /></a> When I first rigged up the system ~18 months ago (following my last <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/07/catch-up-rides-small-teammates-adding.html">camera/biking mishap</a>) I used a piece of electrical tape on the open end of the clip as a failsafe. But over time it became tedious to constantly apply and remove tape for practically every ride, and I started mounting the case without the tape. After a few cautious rides, it seemed to be holding onto the strap just fine, and I soon forgot about the tape. And so things were, just fine as can be, till last Tuesday, when I found myself camera-less.</p> <p>Kris immediately encouraged me to drive back up onto the pre-bench, where we looked around by flashlight at a couple of points where the trail intersected the road. It was hopeless of course, but that’s the kind of guy Kris is: patient, upbeat, generous with his time, happy and eager to help a friend out. Finally we gave up and drove back down to town in the dark. Kris mentioned that he’d spoken to “Fuzzy”, the owner of the local bike shop, earlier in the week to ask about trails, and that he’d call him in the morning and ask him to let us know if the camera turned up. I said, “Sure, yeah…” I knew he was just trying to help, but really, you drop a little camera in a woodland while descending at speed- it’s gone, off in the brush, never to be seen again. I might as well have dropped it in a river of molten <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/st-george-weekend-part-1-all-about-lava.html">lava</a>... So it turned out to be a great day, but kind of an expensive one. I did my best to shrug off the mood as we chit-chatted on our drive back to the Wasatch Front.</p> <p>Back home, the next day was a busy one, with plenty of catch-up work, email and phone-calls from the day I’d missed. After work AW and I attended a music program at school that Bird Whisperer and Twin B were part of, returning home home late and tired. Getting ready for bed, I noticed my phone was blinking. It was a text from KanyonKris. He’d heard back from Fuzzy. My camera was at the shop.</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><strong>Note About Sources:</strong> Geologic info for this post came from <a href="http://www.blogger.com/keckgeology.org/files/pdf/symvol/11th/Utah/bannister.pdf"><em><strong>Sedimentation, Stratigraphy, and paleoenvironments of the lower members of the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Southwestern Utah)</strong></em></a><em>,</em> Kirsten M. Banner, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www3.wooster.edu/geology/WilsonPalmer94.pdf"><strong><em>A carbonate hardground in the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, SW Utah, USA) and its associated encrusters, borers and nestlers</em></strong></a>, Mark A. Wilson et al, and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Geologic%20Map%20of%20the%20Price%2030%E2%80%99%20x%2060%E2%80%99%20Quadrangle,%20Carbon,%20Duchesne,%20Uinta,%20Utah%20and%20Wasatch%20Counties"><strong><em>Geologic Map of the Price 30’ x 60’ Quadrangle, Carbon, Duchesne, Uinta, Utah and Wasatch Counties</em></strong></a>, Malcolm P. Weiss et al. <span style="color:#ff8080;">(Crops of this map were used in the Price Geo-Graphics.)</span> Archeological info came from Dennis Slifer’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Rock-Art-Utah-Region/dp/158096009X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287373911&sr=1-5"><strong><em>Rock Art of the Utah Region</em></strong></a>.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;">Special thanks to Fuzzy of <strong><a href="http://fuzzysbicycleworks.com/default.aspx">Fuzzy’s BicycleWorks</a></strong> and local riders in Price, UT. Fuzzy put out the word on my camera on the shop web page, and it was recovered inside of 6 hours. What a cool shop and biking community.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-58403399388317648232010-12-20T07:00:00.001-07:002010-12-20T07:00:02.440-07:00Heads Up: Eclipse Tonight<p>Yeah, yeah I know, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/friday-helmet-cam-fillerteaser.html">I said</a> my next post would be about desert mtn biking, new places and cool geology. But this one is time-sensitive, and so worth disrupting the blog-plan.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Yes, that’s right- <em>the blog-plan</em>. Because even though I know this whole project seems like a massive exercise in stream-of-consciousness, I really do have a plan. It’s just that I get distracted from it. Often.</span></p> <p>Anyway, heads up: In case you hadn’t heard, there’s a total lunar eclipse visible tonight all across North America. In Mountain Time the show will last from 10:27PM tonight till 4:40AM tomorrow morning, but the real show, from the start the end of the umbral eclipse, will run from 11:32PM to 3:02AM. The super-cool part- the total umbral eclipse- runs from 12:40AM to 1:53AM.</p> <p>First, the bad news: It looks like we won’t be able to see it tonight from practically anywhere in Utah. Now the good news: a fair number of people in North America outside of Utah read this blog, and some of you might well be able to see it, depending on your local weather.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> For example, you should have a good show from Phoenix. How do I know? Because Thursday night Bird Whisperer and I checked every long-range metro area weather forecast within about 800 miles, and came<i> this</i> close to buying 2 tickets to Phoenix. I ultimately balked (despite his serious pitching), thinking how foolish I’d feel if we blew a few hundred bucks, a day+ and ended up not being able to see it. But the forecast down there is holding for partly cloudy… we shoulda gone for it.</span></p> <p>The deal with a lunar eclipse of course is that the Earth blocks the sun from the Moon, which can only happen during a full moon, which makes total sense when you think about it. Because moonlight is reflected sunlight, the effect to Earthbound observers is to make the moon markedly dimmer. There are 2 stages of this dim-ness. The first is when the moon enters the Earth’s penumbra, which is the part of the shadow in which only part of the light is blocked. This stage isn’t terribly spectacular, but the moon does get noticeably darker.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQ7Ii-umXpI/AAAAAAAAJEU/W3tlTyC6iQA/s1600-h/Lunar%20Eclipse%20Bodies%20Shadows%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Lunar Eclipse Bodies Shadows" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Lunar Eclipse Bodies Shadows" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQ7IjZ_A5tI/AAAAAAAAJEY/zuG0Wr32eus/Lunar%20Eclipse%20Bodies%20Shadows_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="449" border="0" height="342" /></a> The second, way cool, stage is when the Moon enters the umbra, or region of complete shadow. The moon in this phase is a deep blood-red, which is cool in and of itself, but isn’t- in my opinion- the coolest, or even second-coolest thing about a total lunar eclipse.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>The Coolest Thing</b></span></p> <p>The coolest thing is that, in the dimmer light, the moon looks really, really 3-dimensional, in a way that can’t be described until you see it. It’s like, you see the eclipsed moon, and there it is, this round ball in the night sky, and you suddenly realize that all the other times you looked at the full moon, it was just a flat disk. I can’t explain or describe it any better than that- you just have to see it.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>The Second Coolest Thing</b></span></p> <p>The second coolest thing is to watch the shadow of the Earth crossing the moon as it enters (or leaves) the umbra. Because the curvature of the Earth’s shadow across the face of the moon shows you exactly how big* the Earth appears from the Moon, which assuming you won’t ever travel to the Moon**, is the best sense of the view you’ll ever get first-hand.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Really big. The view must be awesome from up there.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**No flying cars, no moon-vacations, no robot-friends. This whole “Future Thing” has turned out to be a phenomenal disappointment, as I mentioned <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(OK, whined)</span> previously in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/super-pbx-and-ground-level-mini-autumn.html">this post</a></b>. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything.</i></span></span></p> <p>I’m setting my alarm for midnight*, on the off-chance it clears up enough to catch sight of the Moon. I’ll probably just look at the window at the cloudy sky and go back to bed, but if I do luck out, midnight to 1AM will be the best part of the show. I’ve seen 2 great lunar eclipses since I’ve been living in Utah; I’m bummed that I’ll most likely miss this one.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Again, for out-of state readers, that’s Mountain Time.</span></p> <p>For those of you reading from afar- best of luck. I hope your weather holds up and that you have a spectacular show.</p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-44417739165949242432010-12-17T07:00:00.000-07:002010-12-17T07:00:00.662-07:00Friday Helmet-Cam Filler/Teaser<p>I was hoping to get another post up this week, but I think it’ll be Monday. Theme will be Filling In Blank Spots, with some way cool <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/geology">geology</a>, mtn <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/biking">biking</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/archeology">archeology</a> to boot.* Here’s a quick teaser-filler, starring <strong><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a></strong>:</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oGx9TLSt4Pk?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oGx9TLSt4Pk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Oh, and it’ll also have a bunch of tangent-footnotes related to my current and past Half-Baked Theories on Crime, Warranties, Insurance and Banking, which I already know because that’s what got me bogged down and behind schedule.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-7498346531814434472010-12-14T06:30:00.002-07:002011-12-14T08:51:04.817-07:00Thanksgiving Part 4: Book Cliffs, Rock Art & Graffiti<p>Back on US191, we sped North back toward I-70. After you pass the Moab airport, all the cliffs and domes and faults and anticlines and all the rest of the geo-drama is left behind, and the road is lined by endless, dull gray scrubby rolling plain. Even the “scrub” is sparse; mostly what you see is a lot of gray dirt. This is the layer above* the Morrison formation, the Mancos Shale.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*In many areas, there are 1 or 2 more narrow formations in between the Morrison and the Mancos: the Cedar Mountain and Dakota Sandstone formations.</span> </p> <p>Unlike so many of the Utah geologic formations we’ve looked at so far, Mancos doesn’t form any cliffs or smooth waves or <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/12/thanksgiving-desert-hiking-part-2-fins.html">arches</a> or <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-4-alcoves-hanging.html">alcoves</a>. It doesn’t form spires or <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVDNEELlI/AAAAAAAAIww/PFuJxszuJ9s/s1600-h/IMG_75985.jpg">bridges</a> or slot canyons. It isn’t the centerpiece of any national or state park, monument. And yet, you probably see more of it driving around Central and Southern Utah than you do any other formation.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMAzG6q1I/AAAAAAAAJCk/DJujElVX92s/s1600-h/BCliffs%20Formations%20cut%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="BCliffs Formations cut" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="BCliffs Formations cut" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMBv7zdrI/AAAAAAAAJCo/Hby_ncuUXwU/BCliffs%20Formations%20cut_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="266" width="428" /></a> Part of this is because there’s so much of it. Mancos is a mudstone, laid down in shallow seas during the Cretaceous, and in many places it lies a few thousand feet thick. But the other reason is that many roads tend to follow it. Mancos doesn’t form any of those spectacular features because it erodes so easily, and quickly comes to rest in broad, gently undulating lowlands, perfect for routing a highway. If you drive from the Colorado border to Price, UT, you’re on Mancos the whole way.</p> <p>Once you get off the asphalt, Mancos is both wonderful and horrible. In dry conditions, graded dirt roads across the Mancos are often smooth and fast, allowing a passenger car to zip comfortably along at 40 or 50 MPH. But when wet, forget it. Mancos roads become a thick, gloopy stew that’ll quickly snare your 4WD vehicle.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Often times when you’re tooling along some Mancos track you’ll see deep tire ruts left over from someone drove the wet road. If you check out the deep ruts, you’ll often see that they have marks from tire chains, which is how the ranchers get through when it’s wet. I used to carry around tire chains in my old pickup for just this reason, but eventually decided it was just less hassle to stay off Mancos/clay roads when potentially wet.</span></p> <p>I always find Mancos a bit un-nerving, partly because I’ve encountered it wet, but also because it seems so bleak, and borderline lifeless. Why so few plants? <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMCFvoeeI/AAAAAAAAJCs/_U8lEzmMLcI/s1600-h/Smectite%20Expansion%5B4%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Smectite Expansion[4]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Smectite Expansion[4]" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMCUMT3pI/AAAAAAAAJCw/bCc3hnBPsYA/Smectite%20Expansion%5B4%5D_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="187" width="273" /></a> This part of the state is dry for sure, but other nearby soil types generally don’t look so bleak. Another reason is the high concentrations of selenium in Mancos soils*, which are problematic for many plants. But probably the most important reason is that Mancos is an expanding clay**, which increases its volume dramatically when wet. The frequent moisture-induced expansions and contractions of the Mancos make it very tough for seedlings to gain a toehold in the soil.***</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I covered selenium content in soils, plants and people in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/desert-wildflowers-s-curves-and.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**I covered expanding clays in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/03/dangers-of-riding-on-clay.html">this post</a></b>. <i></i></span></p> <p><i><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></i></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">***And now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen fully developed cryptobiotic soil on Mancos. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(Though maybe I just haven’t looked hard enough.)</span> I covered cryptobiotic desert soils in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-white-rim-fiasco-and-all-about.html">this post</a></strong>. Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything.</i></span></p> <p><i></i></p> <p>As you approach I-70, you’ll see a massive wall of high, beige cliffs on the North side of the freeway. These are the Book Cliffs, formed from the Mesaverde formation, layers of sandstones interspersed with shales and limestones.</p> <p>I’ve driven past and along the Book Cliffs (pic left) probably a couple of hundred times. Embarrassingly, with the exception of a few quick forays over a decade ago in Colorado, <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMDOCBsUI/AAAAAAAAJC0/KI6AcRs9QG4/s1600-h/IMG_8231%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8231" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8231" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMDruW-xI/AAAAAAAAJC4/jx1xcfLXBv4/IMG_8231_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="178" width="234" /></a> I haven’t explored the area at all. And what’s interesting, is that with the exception of a few hunter-friends, practically no one I know in Utah has spent any time in the Book Cliffs. The reason is that because Utah has so many more spectacular places to visit, hardly any of us bother with the area. It’s part of the Utah irony: this state has so many amazing features which if you picked up and transported to say Michigan or Nebraska, would totally merit national park status. But here in Utah, we don’t even really notice them. That’s a shame, because when it comes to the Book Cliffs, there are at least 3 really cool things about them.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Thinking about the Book Cliffs got me noodling about the broader issue of geographic blanks spots. By blank spots in this case, I’m not talking so much about faraway places I’ve never been to, say like Madagascar or <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/all-about-our-christmas-tree-and.html">New Caledonia</a></strong>, but places I’ve been right by over and over again, but never checked out. The Book Cliffs are one example. Another is- or rather was- <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/06/foothills-flowers-and-contraceptives.html"><strong>Jack’s Peak</strong></a>*, until the Trifecta and I <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/06/foothills-flowers-and-contraceptives.html">climbed it this Spring</a>. The Canyon Range West of Scipio, the Pine Valley Range North of St. George, the Uintas West of Mt. Agassiz- all are blank spots on my mental map of Utah. Closer to home there are still dozens of draws and minor peaks in the Wasatch and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/big-scramble-another-hybrid-oak-and-dog.html">Oquirrhs</a> I’ve yet to explore, and even within 2 or 3 miles of my home there are side streets I’ve never turned down. As you think about your own home “turf”, it’s likely you can think of similar blank spots that you’ve passed by time and again for years or even decades without checking out. </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Speaking of Jack’s Peak, Since I’ve become <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(at least marginally)</span> geologically-aware, I’ve learned that the peak, and the ridge leading up to it, is actually its own little anticline.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><strong>Nested Tangent:</strong> When I think about blank spots, I tend to construct an image of them in my head- how the landscape looks, the vegetation, the aspect, etc. We all do this- think about an upcoming vacation. Say you’re going to Hawaii, to a hotel you’ve never been to before. You have an image in your head of the hotel, your room, the pool, maybe the lobby. Maybe the image has been influenced in part by photos on a website or in a brochure, but it’s still in your head; when you actually get there, they layout of the place will be somewhat different.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">I do this all the time in ordinary business travel. I visualize the airport, the hotel, the offices of the company I’m going to visit. Closer to home I do it when I’m going to check out a new trail; I have an image of what it will look like, which stays in my head until I get there and actually see it.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Most of the time these “blank spot visualizations” are instantly swept out of mind by the actual, real-world image once I actually get to, see, and “fill in” the blank spot. But sometimes, when I finally reach a blank spot that I’ve thought about for a long time, such as the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-1.html">Newfoundland range</a></strong> or <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-search-of-blue-pinon-part-1-of-6.html">Cerro Piñones</a></strong>, the visualization lingers for a bit as my mind seems to try to somehow reconcile the two. I’ve mentioned before that I have frequent dreams of “wrong geography”, where I see landscapes or actual maps that are different than real world. I wonder if the source of such dreams is the countless “blank spot maps” my mind is continually creating and discarding…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">In my ideal life, I’d dedicate a day a week to checking out, and filling in, blank spots. And if I ever (unlikely) managed to fill them all in, then I guess I’d move someplace else and start over again.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>First Cool Thing About The Books Cliffs</b></span></p> <p>First, the Book Cliffs are the longest continuous unbroken <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMEqkGt4I/AAAAAAAAJC8/K88LQm1wOOU/s1600-h/IMG_8272%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8272" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8272" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMEwlCY6I/AAAAAAAAJDA/2FC34IUbb0c/IMG_8272_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="159" width="209" /></a>escarpment on the planet. That’s right- you can drive from Grand Junction to Helper and be alongside them the entire way. There’s no other place on Earth with a similar feature of such length and continuity. Isn’t that amazing? And yet I don’t think there’s a sign or a pull-out or anything that points that out…</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Second Cool Thing About The Book Cliffs</b></span></p> <p>Secondly, the Book Cliffs have a rich human history, reflected in the incredible archeological wealth of the area. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMFWSQqTI/AAAAAAAAJDE/sIdpZBMwSCM/s1600-h/IMG_8253%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8253" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8253" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMF2cqA5I/AAAAAAAAJDI/LNNhAZIkkHk/IMG_8253_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="152" width="200" /></a> The draws and side canyons of the area are practically rotten with rock and art and graffiti, dating from archaic to historic times. Nine Mile Canyon is the classic example, but Range Creek, an area which just became known to the public in the last decade, is even more amazing. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(Later in the post, we’ll visit yet another example of such archeo-booty.)</span> Even in the modern day, the Mesaverde formation is significant, in that it houses all of Utah’s currently mined coal seams.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Third Cool Thing About The Book Cliffs</b></span></p> <p>And third <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(and as always, I have saved the coolest thing for last)</span> the Book Cliffs are <i>moving</i>. No, no, no- I’m not talking about moving as in continental plates, yada, yada moving. Yes, of course they’re moving like that- everything is. But the Book Cliffs are moving faster; they are practically <i>walking </i>North across the land.</p> <p>More specifically, they’re eroding across the land. In many posts we’ve looked at various example of geologic erosion. But what’s interesting in this landscape, where the geologic layers are more or less flat and non-convoluted, is that the primary direction of erosion is not vertical, but horizontal. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMGYKE0HI/AAAAAAAAJDM/WUjWFtZijsc/s1600-h/Book%20Cliffs%20Walking%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Book Cliffs Walking" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Book Cliffs Walking" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMIHwbfYI/AAAAAAAAJDQ/UjYhJKNSgus/Book%20Cliffs%20Walking_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="278" width="432" /></a> As the exposed Mesaverde cliff faces are assaulted by wind, rain and sun, they slowly crumble and fall away. Millions of years ago the Book Cliffs stood far to the South of where they are today, and millions of years in the future they’ll stand much further North.</p> <p>On I-70 we turned East, away from home, and proceeded to the Thompson Springs exit, where we left the freeway and wound our way North a few miles to the base of the cliffs.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMJKhgfqI/AAAAAAAAJDU/LuBYYQivxJw/s1600-h/IMG_8270%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8270" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8270" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMJUc7C6I/AAAAAAAAJDY/TlSouL_27FQ/IMG_8270_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="156" width="205" /></a> Side Note:</b> Past the gas station Thompson Springs is a borderline ghost town- the perfect setting for an apocalypse/end-of-world/zombie movie. It knew better times in decades past as a home for coal miners and a stop for travelers, but the last half-century have dealt it a double-whammy. First, the interstate bypassed the town, which lay astride the old US6, and then passenger trains ceased stopping there in favor of Green River. Today it’s sort of creepy and fascinating- kind of like Mancos Shale.</span></p> <p>At the mouth of Thompson Wash, a modest draw in the Book Cliffs, lies an outstanding rock art site. Over the years the petroglyphs have been heavily vandalized, but restoration efforts in the 90’s removed the worst of the offending modern graffiti. Today it’s well worth a stop. Just a few miles from the freeway, the site is festooned with art spanning possibly as far back as 5,000 – 7,000 years, including at least 4 distinct periods/styles.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(64, 128, 128);"><b><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMJ2FDx6I/AAAAAAAAJDc/Km_ZBFjp1SU/s1600-h/IMG_8267%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8267" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8267" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMKf78fAI/AAAAAAAAJDg/WrzaoXF0v7w/IMG_8267_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="171" width="130" /></a> Botanical Side Note:</b> As you approach the base of the Book Cliffs, the vegetation changes, becoming better-established, taller and richer. One reason I think is that the Mancos is now covered by sandier, less-expanding/contracting soils, which are debris from the eroded Mesaverde cliffs. A second reason, specifically near the mouth of the Wash, is probably just greater moisture.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(64, 128, 128);">Sagebrush appears North of “town” and increases in height as you approach the cliffs. At the mouth of the Wash it forms small shrees, reaching over your head (pic above, right, Twin A for scale). <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMK6P06CI/AAAAAAAAJDk/ESlybogCq3w/s1600-h/IMG_8259%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8259" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8259" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMMJSuhlI/AAAAAAAAJDo/pHmg0XmKors/IMG_8259_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="152" width="200" /></a> Sagebrush <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(which I blogged about a long, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-3-sage-o.html">long time ago</a>)</span> can be a bear to ID down to the species level, but whenever it gets as big as you are, chances are its <strong>Big Sagebrush</strong>, <i>Artemisia tridentata.</i> <strong><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLvJJ-tk8mI/AAAAAAAAIq0/jD2BK3XPdJ8/s1600-h/Mahonia%20Expand-O%5B4%5D.jpg">Fremont’s Mahonia</a></strong>, which <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-2-old-rocks-ancient.html">we looked at</a> a couple hundred miles to the South back in October, also reappears here. I’d never checked it out before in late Fall, but the leaves turn a beautiful lavender color (pic left).</span></p> <p>The first is <strong>Barrier Canyon</strong>, an archaic motif we talked about <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLvJJ-tk8mI/AAAAAAAAIq0/jD2BK3XPdJ8/s1600-h/Mahonia%20Expand-O%5B4%5D.jpg">down in the Grand Canyon</a>, and which dates back as far as 4,000 or maybe even 6,000BC. Thompson Wash is one of the classic Barrier Canyon sites, just fantastic in both details and accessibility. The main Barrier Canyon panel includes 19 large anthropomorphs, up to 7 feet tall.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMMVQId1I/AAAAAAAAJDs/f1Hw5k5ycS0/s1600-h/BC%20Panel%20Caption%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="BC Panel Caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="BC Panel Caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMM2zio5I/AAAAAAAAJDw/QDEse-McCb4/BC%20Panel%20Caption_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="341" width="443" /></a> The second is <strong>Chihuahuan Polychrome Abstract</strong>, which dates from 700BC to 300BC. This style, which occurred across the Great Basin (further West it’s known as Great Basin Abstract) features geometric designs and patterns. One hypothesis is that the patterns represent entoptic phenomena, which are visual effects whose source originates within the eye itself. “Floaters” are an example of an entoptic phenomena.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*“Floaters”, specifically myodesopsia, are the results of anomalies or deposits in within the vitreous humour, which is the (otherwise) clear gel filling the interior of your eyeball. The actual floaters that you see are the shadows cast by these anomalies on your retina. I see floaters occasionally, but only when looking at bright and empty clear blue sky.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMNYzuatI/AAAAAAAAJD0/ashc-08AJRc/s1600-h/CPA%20Panel%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="CPA Panel caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="CPA Panel caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMNm9fNlI/AAAAAAAAJD4/1u_GVJJ5Oc8/CPA%20Panel%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="330" width="433" /></a> Third is Fremont, the dominant culture across Utah from about 400AD – 1300AD. Fremont also features anthropomorphs, but they look more “bling-superhero” than the “creepy ghost-guys” of the earlier Barrier Canyon style. Fremont anthropomorphs are broad-shouldered, trapezoidal figures often equipped with weapons, shields and headgear. Fremont rock art has been subdivided by archeologists into six regional divisions. The Book Cliff sites, including Nine Mile Canyon, fall under the Northern San Rafael style, which features more animals and abstract patterns. This seems to be the dominant style at Thompson Wash, but one large panel here depicts anthropomorphs more in the Southern Rafael style, which runs across Southern Utah from Moab to Escalante.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMPvCTjQI/AAAAAAAAJD8/5TumccuoxqA/s1600-h/Fremont%20Panel%20caption0%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Fremont Panel caption0" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Fremont Panel caption0" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMQIjwh-I/AAAAAAAAJEA/QkU7XPoAFro/Fremont%20Panel%20caption0_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="331" width="435" /></a> The fourth style is Historic Ute*, which features such obvious post-Euro-contact elements as horses, but also sometimes incorporates elements of earlier rock art traditions. Ute panels seem to be more narrative than abstract- like the artist was telling (or recounting) a specific story. <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMRNdJPPI/AAAAAAAAJEE/vspfj3jP0-M/s1600-h/Ute%20Panel%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Ute Panel caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Ute Panel caption" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMRjMZcOI/AAAAAAAAJEI/7GG5duXdRDw/Ute%20Panel%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="334" width="439" /></a>In addition to the Indian rock art, there is, as I’ve mentioned, a fair amount of Euromerican graffiti, and some of this is interesting in its own right, dating back to at least the 1880’s.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I gave an overview of the Utes in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/road-trip-part-1-bushwhacking-to-cliff.html">this post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p>Several thousand years, at least 4 distinct cultures/styles, mixed in with elements of neighboring styles- everything I’ve described her lies within about a 100 yard radius. And that’s the way cool thing about Thompson Wash.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMR3dgE3I/AAAAAAAAJEM/c2vhKEs5oLM/s1600-h/Fremont%20Barrier%20Panels%20Positioning%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Fremont Barrier Panels Positioning" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Fremont Barrier Panels Positioning" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQaMScHb8CI/AAAAAAAAJEQ/wY2pJ_la7v0/Fremont%20Barrier%20Panels%20Positioning_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="326" width="428" /></a> A little tucked-away stopover/ retreat along the world’s longest unbroken embankment, it’s been a crossroads of cultures for thousands of years. It’s like our own little Middle East/Holy Land right here in Eastern Utah. Right off the interstate, where I’ve passed dozens and dozens of times over 2 decades, I finally stopped to check it out. Filling in blank spots pays off again and again, and I’m going to do more of it this coming year.</p> <p><em>That </em>was a great Thanksgiving.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note about sources:</b> Geologic info came from Halka Chronic’s <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Geology-Utah/dp/0878422285/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291653717&sr=1-1">Roadside Geology of Utah</a></em></strong>, Lehi F. Hinzte’s <strong><em><a href="http://www.mapstore.utah.gov/bg035.html">Utah’s Spectacular Geology</a></em></strong>*, the <a href="http://www.innonthealameda.com/"><strong>Inn On The Alameda</strong> website</a> and <strong><a href="http://www.utahgeology.com/">Utahgeology.com</a></strong>. Info on Thompson Wash rock art came from Dennis Slifer’s <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Rock-Art-Utah-Region/dp/158096009X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287373911&sr=1-5">Rock Art of the Utah Region</a></em></strong>. Info on “floaters” came from Wikipedia and Awesome Wife (who’s been plagued by them for some time.) </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*A fabulous book with one glaring flaw: no index. Really? A geology book with no index? Are you kidding me?</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-72275150686679732452010-12-09T07:00:00.001-07:002010-12-09T07:25:50.639-07:00Thanksgiving Desert Hiking Part 3: Big Footprints<p>The morning after Thanksgiving we slept in and took our time getting going, lingering over the complimentary hotel breakfast* waiting for the temps to climb over 20F.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Before I had kids I used to diss those free breakfasts. Now we are all over them- the most cost-effective way to fill the bellies of 3 children around. I only wish our kids were like reptiles- stuff them with half their body-weight in waffles and fruit loops and don’t worry about feeding them again for a week. Unfortunately, no matter how many waffles they eat, they’re hungry again 45 minutes later.</span></p> <p>After breakfast we packed up, checked out and headed out of town. Driving North up US191 from Moab is like a drive through time: you cross the Colorado River driving past 290 million year old Honaker Trail rock and by the time you reach I-70 you’re rolling over 80 million year old Mancos Shale.</p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Side Note:</b> Just a few miles North of the turnoff for Arches, on the way up to the turnoff for Dead Horse Point and Island In The Sky, you pass all these gnarly, convoluted, deep-red cliffs lining the West side of the highway. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_Oq7SwXoI/AAAAAAAAJAw/CPQp5TflAVA/s1600-h/WOTS%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="WOTS" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" alt="WOTS" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OrdZaknI/AAAAAAAAJA0/0vCQoTjKJNM/WOTS_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" /></a> The shapes looking almost haunting, and sometimes out of the corner of your eye as you’re zipping by at 70 MPH you think you catch a glimpse of a form, or even a face, trapped in the rock. The “face”-glimpses are always convoluted, miserable-looking and vaguely Dante-esque, like those Nazis who looked inside the ark in the first Indiana Jones movie. (Right before they melted.) Anyway, years ago, when I used to do weekend Moab trips from the Denver area and knew absolutely nothing about rocks, I called this section the Wall Of Tortured Souls (WOTS).</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQDm5xE6wNI/AAAAAAAAJCQ/5JCQCb2EDJs/s1600-h/IMG_8211%5B1%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8211" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="160" alt="IMG_8211" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OszgSImI/AAAAAAAAJCU/76yI3K3Z86I/IMG_8211_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="210" align="left" border="0" /></a>The WOTS is actually part of the Cutler Group, which was laid down in Permian times, between 240 and 290 million years ago. Like most of the other main geologic formations around it consists of several distinct sub-units, or members.  The WOTS is composed specifically of the Organ Rock Shale member, which was formed from a series of highly oxidized (hence the reddish color) layers of mud. Organ Rock is always striking, and shows up in some spectacular spots. The sloping bases of the massive buttes in Monument Valley are Organ Rock. When you’re riding the White Rim, and look off the edge and down below into <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQDm6-10KOI/AAAAAAAAJCc/3eRmj2QmRyg/s1600-h/FJ%20Organ%20Rock%20WR%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="FJ Organ Rock WR" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" alt="FJ Organ Rock WR" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TQDm7cse8hI/AAAAAAAAJCg/aT8J6KcwD6o/FJ%20Organ%20Rock%20WR_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" /></a>Monument Basin (pic right), those freaky, free-standing “totem pole” pillars are also Organ Rock. It’s a soft stone, eroding quickly and dramatically. The Monument Basin pillars are each capped by a fragment of White Rim Sandstone (stuff you’re riding on), which slows the erosion of the pillar below.</span></p> <p>Up and up we drove, past <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S-I36yNh6tI/AAAAAAAAHxA/HG82e7Bzd2Y/s1600-h/Formationlabels4.jpg">Chinle and Moenkopi</a>, Wingate and Kayenta, Navajo and Entrada. Eventually the rocks melted away and we continued North across the high rolling plain toward I-70 that always seems so dreary after the geo-spectacle that is Moab. But a few miles North of the turnoff for Klondike Bluffs, we turned off the highway and traveled East for a couple of miles over clay roads to the base of a low rocky ridge. We parked, hiked across the rock for 5 minutes, and found what we were looking for.</p> <p>The rock layer above the Entrada is the Morrison formation. Laid down ~150 million years ago, <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OuDE70OI/AAAAAAAAJBA/b5KNcOIctCU/s1600-h/IMG_8226%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8226" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="171" alt="IMG_8226" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OuoRryTI/AAAAAAAAJBE/WQXA80xdjcE/IMG_8226_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="225" align="right" border="0" /></a> the formation covers a huge piece of the Western US- from the Dakotas to Arizona. Morrison isn’t particularly spectacular sandstone. Oh, it’s pretty enough in places like Dinosaur National Monument and numerous outcrops just West of Denver, but it’s a cracked, beat-up modest-looking kind of rock. Its outcrops have none of the wow-factor of Wingate cliffs, Navajao dunes or Entrada waves and arches. But what the Morrison <i>does</i> have, and is particularly well-known for, is fossils. Dinosaur fossils.* But we weren’t looking for fossils; we were looking for tracks.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*It’s also rich in uranium.</span></p> <p>Unlike fossils, dinosaur tracks- and especially “walkways”, or a procession of tracks- are rare in the Morrison. <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OvfuMPWI/AAAAAAAAJBI/VB0zs8ZnWFA/s1600-h/IMG_8221%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8221" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="155" alt="IMG_8221" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_Ov1n3XMI/AAAAAAAAJBM/ONPUEkZxpEw/IMG_8221_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="204" align="left" border="0" /></a> Copper Ridge North of Moab is one of only two known Morrison formation walkways in Utah. The site contains the tracks of 5 different dinosaurs (though only 3 are really easy to pick out.) Dinosaur tracks are always cool. It’s one thing to look at a rock and know how old it is, and it’s even cooler to come across a fossil of some kind, to see the impression, the remnant of a creature that lived hundreds of millions of years ago, when everything about the world was different- the climate, the geography, even the oxygen content of the atmosphere.</p> <p>But somehow to see a footprint- better yet a walkway of successive footprints- is cooler still. Here’s evidence of some forgotten creature <i>doing</i> something. These giant prehistoric monsters actually moved, right here, where we’re standing.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><b>All About Dinosaurs</b></span></p> <p>Everybody knows that dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrates on the planet for about 160 million years. At a high level the dinosaur family tree broke out into 2 different groups- <i>Ornithischia</i> and <i>Saurischia</i>. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_Ow38XG2I/AAAAAAAAJBQ/9F2RhVCBjak/s1600-h/IMG_8224%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8224" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="174" alt="IMG_8224" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OxpwEbnI/AAAAAAAAJBU/i8j9-ByVseg/IMG_8224_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="229" align="right" border="0" /></a> The Ornithischians were all plant-eaters and included dinosaurs like <i>Triceratops, Stegosaurus</i> and <i>Ankylosaurus</i>. Saurischians included both meat-eaters and plant-eaters. The Saurischian plant-eaters, known as sauropods, were long-necked animals that walked on all fours and included the largest dinosaurs. <i>Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus</i> and<i> Apatosaurus</i>* were all sauropods. The meat-eaters, known as theropods (which also included some plant-eaters and omnivores) were 3-toed, and generally- but not always- had shortened forelimbs. Many species were bipedal. <i>T. Rex</i>, <i>Velociraptor</i>, and <i>Allosaurus</i> were theropods.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Called Brontosaurus when I was a kid.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The Velociraptors in <i>Jurassic</i><i> Park</i> were way oversized; an adult would’ve only been about waist-high. The dinosaur used to model them for the movie was a related type, <i>Deinonychus</i>. <i>Utahraptor</i>, though, might’ve been an even better match size-wise.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000">Theropods are the only dinosaurs not to have become extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Birds are believed to be a surviving branch of the Coelurosaurs, the group of theropods that included both <i>T. Rex</i>, and the above-mentioned raptor-type dinosaurs. Crocodilians are not dinosaurs, but archosaurs, a group which also includes dinosaurs.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OyhKQgwI/AAAAAAAAJBY/yTqeS1B9GoY/s1600-h/Archo%20Phylogeny%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Archo Phylogeny" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="325" alt="Archo Phylogeny" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_OzWSqKFI/AAAAAAAAJBc/-bXM9N4IXzo/Archo%20Phylogeny_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="427" border="0" /></a> The 5 dinosaurs at Copper Ridge were 4 theropods and 1 sauropod. Paleontologists can’t be sure which species they were, but they have some pretty good suspects, based on the size and shape of the prints, the distance between the prints, and the rock formation (i.e. Morrison is a Jurassic formation, so they have to be Jurassic species.) Sauropod prints are less common that theropod prints*. The sauropod prints here are believed to have been made by <i>Camarasaurus, Apatosaurus</i> or <i>Diplodocus</i>, thought to have been 12 feet high at the hip, and 70 feet long from nose to tail.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*I’ve seen dinosaur prints several other times, but only once stumbled across one by accident. It was a theropod print, about 8 inches long which I came across hiking out of Coyote Buttes. I only noticed it because it was late in the day and the low sun-angle produced a shadow in the print.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff"><b>Tangent</b>: One of the most remarkable things about dinosaurs to me is the high level of interest in them. Awesome Wife and I discussed a few different possible destinations/ activities for the day after Thanksgiving, and picked Copper Ridge primarily because we knew that dinosaurs are always a hit for kids (especially boys.) Closer to home, the local dinosaur museum is a standard rainy-Saturday backup; we’ve been there probably 30 times. There are countless museums, movies, toys and games related to dinosaurs.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff">The same holds true by and large for adults. There have been oodles of movies, books and time-travel stories around dinosaurs. I’m hard-pressed to think of a time-travel book/movie in which the protagonists are transported to say the Eocene, or the Carboniferous, or Snowball Earth. Dinosaurs were interesting and important and all, but from a history-of-life standpoint, it’s hard to argue that they were<i> that</i> much more significant or important than many, many other prehistoric life forms. Certainly the evolution of the eukaryotic cell was more significant, complex, world-changing and just head-scratchingly amazing, but proterazoans just don’t make good antagonists. Dinosaurs just have an almost unbeatable level of drama and awesomeness on a scale we can relate to that catches the attention of people- not just paleo-geeks, but regular people who might otherwise not give prehistory another thought.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Nested Tangent:</b> The only other past-time-period-fauna that comes anywhere close is probably the late Pleistocene, which has spawned a fair number of books, toys, games and movies. Part of this could be (or should be) due to its recency, <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O0ECyxdI/AAAAAAAAJBg/Q_H7NKlxOpk/s1600-h/1218036245-Dinosaur%20with%20saddle%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="1218036245-Dinosaur with saddle" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="130" alt="1218036245-Dinosaur with saddle" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O0rQqhAI/AAAAAAAAJBk/ngEiWzsKO-k/1218036245-Dinosaur%20with%20saddle_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="191" align="right" border="0" /></a> and part of it could be (or should be) due to our own species’ possible role in the demise of these creatures. But I suspect most of it is due to the Wooly Mammoth and Saber-toothed Tiger, the 2 “Ice Age” mammals everyone knows about, which is sort of a shame in that they were just 2 of a cast of dozens and dozens of amazing, recently-extinct, very big mammals.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff"><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O1YSHA0I/AAAAAAAAJBo/sdCHXc6kxpQ/s1600-h/Creation-Museum-Adam-Eve%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Creation-Museum-Adam-Eve" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="219" alt="Creation-Museum-Adam-Eve" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O2VQU_-I/AAAAAAAAJBs/B2Iasq-pNgY/Creation-Museum-Adam-Eve_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="212" align="left" border="0" /></a> This everyman-interest in dinosaurs is evident even in the anti-science community. Dinosaur displays are standard fare “creation museums” <span style="color: #808080">(pic left, not mine, display of Adam & Eve* in the <a href="http://creationmuseum.org/">Creation Museum</a> in Petersburg, KY)</span> where they’re often depicted peacefully coexisting with early humans (presumably within the last 6,000 years.) There are displays of humans riding dinosaurs <span style="color: #808080">(pic above, right, not mine either),</span> and vegetarian T. Rexes. But you never see a diorama of a caveman riding an entelodont, or a caveboy feeding an aquarium full of trilobites, or chasing dragonflies with 2-foot wingspans.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%; color: #808080">*Two things about this display. First, I must note that Adam’s beard looks Way Awesome, and actually not too dissimilar to <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-current-cosmetic-undertaking-and-all.html">mine</a></strong>. Second, Eve looks exactly like all my babysitters from the 1970s- pleasant, kind, and disturbingly sort of hot in an I-feel-awkward-to-be-checking-her-out kind of way.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff">Anyway, I guess the disproportionate attention given dinosaurs is a good thing, in that it provides an approachable and exciting glimpse of paleontology to millions of folks who otherwise wouldn’t give it a second thought.*</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%; color: #0000ff">*Kind of like <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/geology">geology</a></strong> or <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/angiosperms">botany</a> </strong>or <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/hydrology">hydrology</a></strong> or most of the other things I blog about…</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><strong>Sauropod Tracks</strong></span></p> <p>The sauropod tracks include both front and rear prints. Rear sauropod feet had a fleshy pad toward the back, and so the prints are generally round and amorphous, kind of like an elephant print. Their front feet were very different; they walked sort of like a ballerina on their toes, and the print is more of an arc, or semicircle.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O3S8PaJI/AAAAAAAAJBw/nnzicQyZ6qQ/s1600-h/S%20Tracks%20Front%20Rear%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="S Tracks Front Rear" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="333" alt="S Tracks Front Rear" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O3yCYGUI/AAAAAAAAJB0/BkJ-P0v2uhc/S%20Tracks%20Front%20Rear_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" /></a> The front prints are often trampled by the rear prints, but I was able to pick out at least 1 front print clearly in the rock. The prints enter the wash at an angle, cross it, and then turn roughly 60 degrees to the right/East, following the wash for a few more steps.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O4qdrgEI/AAAAAAAAJB4/UVLS4_W0Mc8/s1600-h/S%20Tracks%20turn%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="S Tracks turn" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="329" alt="S Tracks turn" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O5Wehv6I/AAAAAAAAJB8/tEdYv6HoyX4/S%20Tracks%20turn_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="432" border="0" /></a> This right here is, to me, the absolutely coolest thing about the Copper Ridge walkway. The dinosaur <em>turned</em>. It <em>changed its mind</em>. The tracks are 150 million year old record in the rock of a living creature actually making a decision in its (admittedly small) brain.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><strong>Theropod Tracks</strong></span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O6erq6eI/AAAAAAAAJCA/ArV1iXaqqXI/s1600-h/IMG_8220%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8220" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="147" alt="IMG_8220" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O61HvZEI/AAAAAAAAJCE/JGwAfPJdhWo/IMG_8220_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="193" align="left" border="0" /></a> The theropod tracks- though easy to pick out- are trickier to make sense of. 3 of them overlay the sauropod tracks and though it’s not hard to find some, it’s tough to tell who’s who. But the 4<sup>th</sup> set of tracks stands alone about 15-20 feet to the West, crossing the wash at about a 45 degree angle. The prints are up to a foot long, suggesting a hip height of ~5 feet. <i>Allosaurus</i> is the top candidate; it stood 15 feet tall and weighed up to 2 tons.</p> <p>The <i>Allosaurus</i>(?) tracks don’t turn, but they also hint at a story: the gait is irregular. The step of one leg is ~5 feet, the other only ~4 feet. This limp suggests the dinosaur was injured, either recently, or hobbled from an old wound healed imperfectly. Another idea is that maybe it was carrying something heavy- like a hunk of prey in its jaws.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O7-CnQBI/AAAAAAAAJCI/YcaVnTTmdi4/s1600-h/T%20limp%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="T limp" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="327" alt="T limp" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP_O8VWzt0I/AAAAAAAAJCM/7Xw4tCHYEpk/T%20limp_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="429" border="0" /></a> Copper Ridge is a quick stop and a cool site. Having passed by probably close to a hundred times over the past 20 years, I felt silly for not having stopped by sooner. If you’re planning a trip to Moab, or even passing by on I-70- and can spare even 30 minutes, make sure you stop by. And speaking of stops…</p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Next Up:</b> The Rock Art Extravaganza of Thompson Wash</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Note about sources</b>: Most of the info for this post came from <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Geology-Underfoot-Southern-Richard-Orndorff/dp/0878425179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291653738&sr=1-1">Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah</a></i></b>, Richard L. Orndoff, Robert W. Wieder and David G. Futey. Additional info came from <b><i>Canyonlands Geology – A Visual Toolkit</i></b>, Jerry Shue, Neal Herbert and Barbara Webb, the <strong><a href="http://www.ceu.edu/museum/">College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum</a></strong>* in Price, Utah, and the Louisville (Kentucky) Portal <a href="http://www.kentucky-louisville.info/">website</a>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%; color: #800000">*We stopped by, later that day on the drive home, another great stop I’d passed by dozens of times previously without ever having checked out. It’s a perfect 1-hour interruption for a family drive home from Moab.</span></p> Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-9636660779379143762010-12-06T10:27:00.003-07:002010-12-06T10:35:54.494-07:00Thanksgiving Desert Hiking Part 2: Fins & Finches<p>One of the things about hiking with kids is that you have to find a hike with the right balance of interesting-ness*. If a trail isn’t very interesting- say just walking along through <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cpEiXcfI/AAAAAAAAI-A/SOrMHNcd3Tg/s1600-h/IMG_8189%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8189" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" alt="IMG_8189" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cpj9qKUI/AAAAAAAAI-E/grQOOBXvaCU/IMG_8189_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" /></a> a forest for example- kids will whine and complain. If on the other hand the hike is something fun-filled, mysterious and/or exciting- say a slot canyon for example- the kids will be continually entertained and not whine at all. But if the hike is too interesting, with too many intriguing feature and nooks and crannies and a ramps and alcoves and what-not to explore- say a virtual “garden” of dozens of massive Entrada sandstone fins, for example- then you’ll never make any distance because the kids will stop to play on and scramble around everything, and then after a couple of miles of course they’ll be exhausted**…</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Yes, I’m making up another word. But I feel justified in doing so, as interesting-ness and interest really are not the same thing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">**Know who/what else does this? <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/big-scramble-another-hybrid-oak-and-dog.html">Dogs</a>, especially youthful, inexperienced dogs. They run back and forth each section of trail like 6 times, and after 5 miles of repeated sprinting and halting they’re destroyed.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cp2biU9I/AAAAAAAAI-I/i5x2062TfPI/s1600-h/IMG_8157%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8157" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="153" alt="IMG_8157" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cqeRMpUI/AAAAAAAAI-M/A_i5oWVY7VA/IMG_8157_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="201" align="left" border="0" /></a> Catching up after my shrub-stop, I managed to corral the Trifecta and keep them more or less on track as we followed the trail between and over Entrada fins from one arch to the next. Landscape Arch (pic left) is the most improbable looking, but Navajo, Wall, Partition and Double O Arches are also all incredible.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><strong>All About Arches</strong></span></p> <p>The last arch we looked at in this blog- <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVBxc5wJI/AAAAAAAAIwo/t5BFq3I6EHE/s1600-h/IMG_75884.jpg">Conglomerate Arch</a> in <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-4-alcoves-hanging.html">Tuckup Canyon</a>- <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cqyDeduI/AAAAAAAAI-Q/GQxqWkaGhls/s1600-h/IMG_8188%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8188" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="149" alt="IMG_8188" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0crYke8wI/AAAAAAAAI-U/wO4c65W_c2o/IMG_8188_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="196" align="right" border="0" /></a>was specifically* a natural bridge, in that a current of water runs/ran under it and was the primary agent in<a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVD7DsifI/AAAAAAAAIw4/2nrNFGyhAGQ/s1600-h/SSPiracy10.jpg"> its formation</a>. The arches in Devils Garden- and in Arches NP in general- are mostly just “arch” arches, and not natural bridges. Natural arches form by weathering processes, not stream erosion, although as we will see in a moment, water can be one of the agents in their formation.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Some sources say natural bridges and natural arches are 2 different things. Others say that natural bridges are a specific type of natural arch. I don’t have a dog in the fight**; I just carefully worded that sentence so as to not tick off an adherent of either camp.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">**I love that phrase. I get these phrase-crushes from time to time. In the spring of 2008 I was just enthralled with the phrase “... can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a…” Now it’s the “…no dog in the fight…” Why is that expression still around? Until the whole Michael Vick*** thing I didn’t even know they <i>had</i> dog fights. Anyway, I’m using it all the time. At work, someone asks for my opinion? I don’t have a dog in the fight. Awesome Wife asks which color upholstery I prefer? No dog in that fight either.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">***What I really hate about these way-over-covered celebrity-gone-bad stories is that they so often inform me of some really unappealing aspect of the world of which I had been previously quite happily unaware. The Michael Vick-dogfighting thing was one distasteful example. Another was the whole Senator Larry Craig thing. Ever since then I’ve found myself making mental excuses to avoid using the stalls in airport restrooms… <span style="color: #c0c0c0">(<i>“Aw, my flight takes off in just 40 minutes anyway- I’ll just poop on the plane…”)</i></span></span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Extra Detail:</b> There’s actually a third category of arch-like-thing, which is not technically either a natural bridge or a natural arch, in which a span of rock forms as a result of <b>karst processes</b>, which is the dissolution of carbonate rocks, such as limestone. Karst processes are the common cause of most sinkholes. Angels Window along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is an example of a karst-arch.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0crpgrasI/AAAAAAAAI-Y/6XbprmBbj5Q/s1600-h/BRock%20caption%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="BRock caption" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="263" alt="BRock caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0csMK-xcI/AAAAAAAAI-c/7c22sJRljco/BRock%20caption_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="209" align="left" border="0" /></a>Two big requirements for arch formation are a narrow wall of rock, and a type of rock strong enough to support to support the roof of the arch. The Entrada fins of Devil’s garden meet both these requirements. A third requirement is that the rock below the top of the fin erodes faster than the “roof” and there are a couple of reasons why this can happen.</p> <p>The Entrada formation around Moab consists of 3 primary members (from top to bottom)- Moab Tongue, the Slickrock member and the Dewey Bridge member. The Dewey Bridge member is much softer and weaker than the overlying Slickrock member, and erodes faster. This is the mechanism at work in the roadside formation of Balanced Rock; the rock itself is of the Slickrock member, while the supporting pillar is the weaker Dewey Bridge.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0csnuniGI/AAAAAAAAI-g/PHaNFAbeXt8/s1600-h/N%20Window%20Arch%20geo%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="N Window Arch geo caption" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="331" alt="N Window Arch geo caption" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0ctPUv8LI/AAAAAAAAI-k/qN2syNdROGU/N%20Window%20Arch%20geo%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" /></a> The exact same differential erosion process is at work in several of the park’s major arches, particularly in the close-by Window section. Turret Arch, North Window Arch and South Window Arch are all Slickrock member on top, Dewey bridge below.</p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Delicate Arch BTW, though it is the emblematic arch of the park, is actually somewhat atypical geologically. The “roof” of Delicate Arch is the Moab Tongue member, and the lower pillars and base are of the slickrock member. Separating the two is a minor red siltstone layer that you can pick out at the arch’s thinnest and weakest-looking point.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0ctcWDpiI/AAAAAAAAI-o/bBkqB-Ufif4/s1600-h/Delicate%20Arch%20geo%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Delicate Arch geo caption" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="325" alt="Delicate Arch geo caption" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cuLmPL9I/AAAAAAAAI-s/41Kf557RFE0/Delicate%20Arch%20geo%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="427" border="0" /></a> <span style="color: #800000">Another kind of arch BTW is a pothole arch, formed when the water in a pothole gradually dissolves the lattice of the sandstone, eventually eroding through the sandstone altogether. Pothole arches generally only form from potholes right on or close by cliff edges. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cuaNHBCI/AAAAAAAAI-w/01xg44tkd2s/s1600-h/IMG_0132%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_0132" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="165" alt="IMG_0132" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cu4ITSOI/AAAAAAAAI-0/UhE8fJEfwuQ/IMG_0132_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="216" align="right" border="0" /></a> Gold Bar and Pritchett Arches in the Moab area are example of pothole arches, as is Window Rock down in Arizona. I mention this because there’s a neat un-named* pothole arch (pic right) just a couple hundred yards from Delicate Arch. On the final stretch of trail to the arch, just before the trail climbs, narrows and passes by a small rock “window” on the (climber’s right), the trail crosses an open slickrock area. Leave the trail here**, veering to the due East, about 45 degrees from the trail, and follow the slickrock around the head of the canyon to the South/right. Follow the rim around and to the South and watch the rim- you’ll be there in 5-7 minutes.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%; color: #800000">*Actually it probably does have a name. Something like 500+ arches in the park are named. It just doesn’t have a sign, and I don’t know its name.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%"><span style="color: #800000">**Yes, you’re off-trail, but you can stay on slickrock the whole way, so you can get there just fine without trampling any <strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SgzeEejuACI/AAAAAAAAEjU/ibou7LIF9d4/s1600-h/Crypto44.jpg">cryptobiotic soils</a></strong>, which I explained in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-white-rim-fiasco-and-all-about.html">this post</a></b>. Man it is like I have a post for <em>everything.</em></span></span></p> <p>But in Devil’s Garden, many of the arches are entirely carved out of the <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cvfvsLyI/AAAAAAAAI-4/92lwdy0E1OM/s1600-h/IMG_8169%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8169" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="147" alt="IMG_8169" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cv0Ii4RI/AAAAAAAAI-8/qUKZbp9xtnk/IMG_8169_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="193" align="left" border="0" /></a>Entrada Slickrock member, both above and below (pic left), and part of what causes arch formation up here is the close positioning and alignment of the fins. Winds blow sand in between the fins, and these sands hold moisture from rain and snowmelt against the rock, which in turn concentrates the erosive force of water at a particular level of the fin. As the surface erodes an alcove* forms, which in turn increases the surface area exposed to erosion and frost wedging.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Note that these fin-alcoves we’re talking about here are a whole different deal, formed through a different process, than the <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMSpo7M5RaI/AAAAAAAAIvA/0WhT1mzUXgM/s1600-h/Alcove%20Plant%20Zones%20Diagram%5B4%5D.jpg">seep-alcoves</a> we <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-4-alcoves-hanging.html">looked at down in the Grand Canyon</a> back in October.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The big “erosive force” in this case is carbonic acid, H<span style="font-size: 78%">2</span>CO<span style="font-size: 78%">3</span>, which is formed from water and atmospheric CO<span style="font-size: 78%">2</span>. Carbonic acid is one of 2 ways in which raindrops erode rocks to form sand and silt (the other being the sheer force of impact.) Frost wedging refers to the process of water droplet working their way into tiny cracks in rock surfaces, increasing in volume when they freeze and cracking bits of the rock lattice around them- the same basic process that causes front heaves in paved roads.</span></p> <p>So the arches in Devils Garden form from the Entrada fins because there are Entrada fins, which seems sort of circular, but in any case begs the question of why there are fins in the first place, and why are they all aligned parallel to one another?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><strong>What About The Fins?</strong></span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cwiV4YUI/AAAAAAAAI_A/GNqO9lcLTLY/s1600-h/IMG_8206%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8206" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="180" alt="IMG_8206" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cxRNLWdI/AAAAAAAAI_E/W5D1V9lvRPQ/IMG_8206_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" /></a> The real geologic action of Arches, Canyonlands, and this whole chunk of the Colorado Plateau isn’t up at the level of slickrock and spires and arches; that’s just the bling. The real action is far, far below, way, way under the Entrada and Navajo formations, below the <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S-I36yNh6tI/AAAAAAAAHxA/HG82e7Bzd2Y/s1600-h/Formationlabels4.jpg">Chinle and Moenkopi</a>, down below layers we haven’t even talked about yet. The big action is down in the depths of the ancient Paradox Formation.</p> <p>Some 300 million years ago, what is now Southeast Utah lay more or less astride the equator and was covered by a largely inland sea- the Paradox Sea- which was sometimes connected to the greater ocean (like the modern-day Mediterranean or Black Seas), and other times isolated from it (like the modern-day Caspian or Aral Seas.) When isolated it would sometimes dry up completely, leaving behind a thick layer of (primarily) salt. The Paradox Sea did this- drying up completely- at least 29 times over a 15 million year period, leaving salt deposits as much as 6,000 feet thick.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cx3OllFI/AAAAAAAAI_I/8ELGgH5MtHM/s1600-h/Geo1%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo1" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="340" alt="Geo1" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cyecSQxI/AAAAAAAAI_M/AsafbBMBQvY/Geo1_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="443" border="0" /></a> The world changed, and other sedimentary layers- the Honaker Trail formation, the lower members of the Cutler Group- came to be deposited atop the Paradox. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0cyiRAYLI/AAAAAAAAI_Q/J2Y8_eKrS7Q/s1600-h/Geo2%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo2" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="338" alt="Geo2" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0czFEclRI/AAAAAAAAI_U/g1wByBw9MaM/Geo2_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="441" border="0" /></a> Around 25 million years later the rising of the ancestral Rocky Mountains sort of compressionally “scrunched” the Earth’s crust in this region, and this scrunching deformed the underlying Paradox formation. Salt is solid, but is somewhat plastic in that it can also flow like a liquid. The scrunching thickened the salt layer in some places, causing it to push the overlying rock layers upward in elevated areas called anticlines. As the compressional-scrunching ran generally Northeast (from the Rockies) to Southwest, the scrunched-up crustal folds/anticlines ran perpendicular to the scrunching, from Northwest to Southeast.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c0VCVbKI/AAAAAAAAI_Y/9Zj6NjmoTnU/s1600-h/Geo3%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo3" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="334" alt="Geo3" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c1CqdkhI/AAAAAAAAI_c/K48jjzUVdyE/Geo3_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" /></a> Fast forward to the last 10-15 million years, as the Colorado Plateau is gradually uplifted several thousand feet. As it rises, the weight of the last ~280 million years of rock atop the paradox causes further plastic deformation, which called brittle upper layers- such as the Entrada- to buckle and crack.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c1YgxWFI/AAAAAAAAI_g/mRfSEzxeZLo/s1600-h/Geo4%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo4" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="334" alt="Geo4" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c2HMs50I/AAAAAAAAI_k/1F2C3GmiXtk/Geo4_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" /></a> By about 2 million years ago, such cracks and erosion had allowed water flows to seep clear down to the Paradox formation, dissolving the salts.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c2m67SHI/AAAAAAAAI_o/9-qzt99gNhg/s1600-h/Geo5%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo5" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="335" alt="Geo5" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c3OXHHbI/AAAAAAAAI_s/4HiEaFjWNMI/Geo5_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="436" border="0" /></a> In many places, the dissolution of Paradox formation salts caused huge areas of land to essentially collapse, and this is the origin of modern-day Moab valley as well as other nearby valleys, including Castle and Fisher valleys to the Northeast. These valleys all run Northwest to Southeast, along the axis of the now-partially-dissolved underlying salt anticlines.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c3nJO7FI/AAAAAAAAI_w/TbOz9AsdMDY/s1600-h/Geo6%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo6" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="329" alt="Geo6" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c39OnxWI/AAAAAAAAI_0/xl1g5enCtHU/Geo6_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="432" border="0" /></a> In Devils Garden, the underlying collapse caused buckling in the Entrada along the same Northwest-to-Southeast axis as Moab and Castle valleys. These “axial” joint fissures allowed water to penetrate, which in turn widened the fissures, permitting more water, snow and sand access to the now exposed vertical surfaces, widening the cracks over time, and leading to the profusion of parallel fins you see today.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c4S7FZNI/AAAAAAAAI_4/rX2ws1qFPEI/s1600-h/Geo7%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Geo7" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="326" alt="Geo7" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c42IU2PI/AAAAAAAAI_8/-ujeQdOBtQQ/Geo7_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="428" border="0" /></a> This is perhaps the coolest thing of not just Devils Garden or Arches NP in general, but of the whole greater Moab area: the land has direction. <span style="color: #c0c0c0">Wow.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Side Note:</b> The same process BTW, has created the fins in the nearby Fiery Furnace section of the park, but the fin-development there is younger and so the cracks between the fins much narrower.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c5T-Bw_I/AAAAAAAAJAA/LVazvRn9iYs/s1600-h/IMG_8203%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8203" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="172" alt="IMG_8203" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c6Fg5CII/AAAAAAAAJAE/c4t6i4MAmnY/IMG_8203_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="131" align="left" border="0" /></a> After a snack-break in a sunny, windless depression by Double O Arch (pic left), we set out on our return hike via the so-called “primitive” trail, which isn’t all that primitive; it’s just not as clearly traveled or marked as the main trail, sees less traffic, and feels a bit more wild, with fun little scrambles, angled ramps that are sometimes run up (before friction breaks) or butt-slid down. The trail passes through the heart of the fins, providing a birds-eye view of the erosional processes at work.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><strong>New Bird!</strong></span></p> <p>About half-way back we were interrupted by a sudden flurry of fluttering and chirping; a flock of about a dozen or so small birds alighted in some branches just ahead of us. On a Spring or Fall day we likely wouldn’t even have noticed them; in the bitter cold we’d hardly seen any moving creatures, barring a couple of ravens close to the trailhead.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c6mCu3-I/AAAAAAAAJAI/3t1FKy3mTwY/s1600-h/IMG_8179%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8179" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="152" alt="IMG_8179" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c7IJEchI/AAAAAAAAJAM/w97dPZoZl0s/IMG_8179_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="right" border="0" /></a> So the birds caught my eye, and as I checked them out, I noticed that they were completely unlike any birds I’d seen previously around here. Now that in and of itself isn’t surprising; I’m a way amateur birder, and I’m constantly seeing little brown or gray-ish birds I don’t quite recognize.</p> <p>But I usually have some idea what general <i>kind</i> of bird I’m looking at, and in any case these birds weren’t brownish or grayish, but visually quite striking, black with distinct gray “cap” and outer wings lined in lighter color feather with just a hint or red, or maybe “rose”. We stopped, watched them for bit and snapped these photos before continuing on.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c7r1vgEI/AAAAAAAAJAQ/_RoGLhYhtNU/s1600-h/L%20atrata%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="L atrata caption" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="331" alt="L atrata caption" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c8NGVAVI/AAAAAAAAJAU/uBnMjH-Zlyc/L%20atrata%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" /></a> It wasn’t till we returned home the following evening that I ID’d them in the Kaufman guide: Black Rosy Finches, <a name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a name="OLE_LINK1"><i>Leucosticte</i></a><i> atrata</i>. They’re closely-related to the more wide-ranging (and migratory) Gray-Crowned Rosy Finch, <i>L. tephrocotis</i> as well as the Brown-capped Rosy Finch*, <i>L. australis</i> and for a long time all 3 were considered the same species. But the BR Finch has a distinctly different habitat and lifestyle than its Gray-crowned cousin.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*The Brown-Capped Finch, a bird of the high Southern Rockies, has the most limited range of the 3 species.</span></p> <p>The <i>Leucosticte</i> species (there are 7 total) are known as the Mountain Finches, and are part of the large family of True Finches, <i>Fringillidae</i>. We’ve looked at a number of True Finches previously right here in my back yard, including <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/bird-feeder-week-part-3-house-finchs.html">House Finches</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/04/bird-feeder-update-irate-iphone-irant.html">Pine Siskins</a></strong>, from whose ancestors the Mountain Finches parted ways some 10.5 million years ago.</p> <p>The BR Finch is a bird of high altitudes, nesting above timberline in largely inaccessible nooks and crannies. Much about its lifecycle is still a mystery; as of 2002, only 3 nests had ever been located. One interesting thing about the bird is its concept of a mobile territory, which a male patrols and enforces around his mate, and is not attached to any specific piece of space or land, but rather moves with her. While not really migrators in the traditional long-distance sense, in Winter BR Finches tend to form noisy flocks and descend in altitude, which was why we were seeing them here at just ~5,000 feet. </p> <p>I first assumed they’d descended from the nearby 12,000-foot La Sal Mountains*, <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c8ll1bdI/AAAAAAAAJAc/hrUMrmxLSm8/s1600-h/IMG_8160%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8160" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="240" alt="IMG_8160" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0c9IcMUhI/AAAAAAAAJAg/WDwqE6uH69U/IMG_8160_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="180" align="left" border="0" /></a>but studying the range map more closely it doesn’t seem there’s anytime summertime record of them in that range, nor any closer to Moab than the Uintas. BR Finches do migrate as much as a couple hundred miles South (in addition to lower) in Winter, so this flock was probably further from home than I initially thought. Our frigid hike had provided an expected reward: a bird species we’d normally never see except several thousand feet higher, and only onesy-twosy in number. Sometimes it’s worth tramping around in the cold.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*The La Sals BTW, are an absolutely awesome range, one I’d hoped to blog about but likely will not get to prior to completion of the project. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Mt. Peale, the high point is a high bang-for-the-buck climb, only 90- 120 minutes of very reasonable ascent if you’re in decent shape. The trail network around Moonlight Meadows makes for wonderful summertime mountain-biking, like a piece of the Wasatch just picked up and moved down to the middle of the desert.</span></p> <p>The shadows growing longer, we quickened our pace, our thoughts turning to turkey, pie and hotel jacuzzis, as we strode across the frozen desert.</p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0eywIRcoI/AAAAAAAAJAo/KjlIy-xFCzE/s1600-h/BW%20Butt-Slide%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="BW Butt-Slide" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="333" alt="BW Butt-Slide" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TP0ezbxDtgI/AAAAAAAAJAs/b6RSczmtsio/BW%20Butt-Slide_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="434" border="0" /></a> Next Up:</b> Footprints. Big ones.</span></p> <p><b><span style="color: #800000"></span></b></p> <p><span style="color: #800000"><b>Note about sources:</b> My best geologic source for this post was the absolutely wonderful book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Geology-Underfoot-Southern-Richard-Orndorff/dp/0878425179/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291653738&sr=1-1"><strong><em>Geology Underfoot in Southern Utah</em></strong></a>, Richard L. Orndoff, Robert W. Wieder and David G. Futey. I just can’t recommend this book highly enough for its content, context and easy readability. Additional geo-info came from Halka Chronic’s classic <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Roadside-Geology-Utah/dp/0878422285/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291653717&sr=1-1">Roadside Geology of Utah</a></i></b> and <b><i>Canyonlands Geology – A Visual Toolkit</i></b>*, Jerry Shue, Neal Herbert and Barbara Webb.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%; color: #800000">*Best 3 bucks I ever spent.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000">Info on the Black Rosy-Finch came from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kaufman-Field-Guide-Birds-America/dp/0618574239/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1291653682&sr=8-2"><strong><em>Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America</em></strong></a>, Kenn Kaufman, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology<strong> </strong><a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/netcommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1478"><strong>All About Birds </strong>website</a>, and <b><i><a href="http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v088n04/p0409-p0420.pdf">Genetic Relationships of North American Cardueline Finches</a></i></b>, Jill A. Marten et al.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #800000">The photos of Delicate Arch, the “unnamed” pothole arch and Balanced Rock were taken on a separate trip in May 2009.</span></p> Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-3290050464033906112010-12-02T07:00:00.001-07:002010-12-02T11:48:35.210-07:00Thanksgiving Desert Hiking Part 1: I Get Distracted By a Way Cool Shrub<p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDtpDEOGI/AAAAAAAAI8A/2Zj8NPM9hxI/s1600-h/IMG_81315.jpg"><img title="IMG_8131" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="166" alt="IMG_8131" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDuNVrRSI/AAAAAAAAI8E/LDtWpbw4mvY/IMG_8131_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="218" align="right" border="0" /></a> The last two Thanksgivings we spent <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/meep-meep-everything-i-knew-about.html">down in St. George</a>. This year we had to be back in town for the weekend*, and so just did a short trip down to Moab. We had a wonderful time, but the temps were absolutely frigid. 8F in the morning, and a high of ~24F by mid-afternoon. It was a little odd to be hiking in the desert more bundled up than I typically am when backcountry skiing.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Because we were hosting a 50<sup>th</sup> birthday party for </span><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Sqg1gZt75NI/AAAAAAAAF-I/8MmpHr_yFDg/s1600-h/Collage%5B4%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size: 78%">Vicente</span></a><span style="font-size: 78%">. And when I say “hosting”, that’s all we did. His lovely wife threw the party, but had it at our place as our house was better able to handle the crowd. So mid-afternoon Saturday, the caterer/sushi chef and bartender showed up, did all the set up, threw a fantastic bash, then completely cleaned up. Cost us no effort, no money, nothing. All throughout the evening guests kept coming up to us and thanking us, and we were like, “It was nothing. No <em>really</em>, it was <em>nothing</em>!” The next morning Awesome Wife said, That was fun- we should have more friends throw parties at our house.” So anyway, if you’re looking for a place to throw a party, our house is available. You just have to prep, set up, pay for everything, and clean up. <span style="color: rgb(192,192,192)">Oh, and you have to invite us.</span></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128,0,0)"><b>Side Note:</b> If you do happen to find yourself in the Moab area in colder temps than you bargained for, and you need warm stuff cheap, head to Alco, on the South end of town on the East side of US191.</span></p> <p>Thanksgiving morning we headed up to Arches National Park, just a 5 minute drive out of town. We drove up into the park, past Balanced Rock, the Windows section, the turn-offs for Delicate Arch and Fiery Furnace, before parking at the Devil’s Garden trailhead.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0,0,255)"><b><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDu6TSxwI/AAAAAAAAI8I/xsqARXmDouU/s1600-h/DArchShadowcaption4.jpg"><img title="D Arch Shadow caption" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="331" alt="D Arch Shadow caption" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDvgBPnSI/AAAAAAAAI8M/EOswVuUdtnM/DArchShadowcaption_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" /></a> Tangent:</b> I’m one of these backcountry snobs who routinely avoids national parks because of crowds, over-development, regulations, etc. But the truth is, every time I go to a national park I have a wonderful experience. No matter how popular the park, it’s possible- with a bit of planning, timing and/or effort, to get away from the madness and have a great time <span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)">(as we just saw a few weeks ago <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-5-river.html">down in the GC</a>). </span>I need to get over myself and start enjoying the parks more.</span></p> <p>Devil’s Garden is series dozens of large, parallel Entrada sandstone fins, running Northwest to Southeast. We’ve come across <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/gooseberry-helmet-cam-geology.html">Entrada before</a>, down around St. George. It was laid down as bottom deposits in a shallow sea some ~160 million years ago. It erodes easily in smooth surfaces, waves, alcoves, and of course arches, but we’ll get to that in a bit. The Devil’s Garden trail winds through this area running alternately around, through, over, along and in between the fins, visiting a dozen + spectacular arches en route.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDwHUZJKI/AAAAAAAAI8Q/q4BOgCIHv5U/s1600-h/AWBWhikingfin4.jpg"><img title="AW BW hiking fin" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="331" alt="AW BW hiking fin" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDw1Oeg1I/AAAAAAAAI8U/HMUnblKCg7s/AWBWhikingfin_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" /></a> Setting out from the trailhead I noticed the (as I always do) the shrubs and stopped to check out one of the most interesting desert plants in the Western US:<b> Four-winged Saltbush</b>, <i>Atriplex cansecens.</i></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDxutqhDI/AAAAAAAAI8Y/SvfmktIj4lY/s1600-h/IMG_81505.jpg"><img title="IMG_8150" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="167" alt="IMG_8150" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDyD2ChtI/AAAAAAAAI8c/5fQl2epiXSI/IMG_8150_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="219" align="left" border="0" /></a> From a distance, FW Saltbush doesn’t look all that remarkable. In the Fall the female plants are easy to pick out. They’re the ones with branches bearing bunches of what look like little cornflakes, which are actually the fruits*, each of which bears 4 little, papery “wings” (pic left). </p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Specifically achenes, which I described in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/juniper-martinis-and-parallel-evolution.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128,0,0)"><b>Extra Detail:</b> In spring, conversely, the males are easy to pick out, with their bunches of tiny yellow flowers. Female flowers are small, green and easy to overlook.</span></p> <p>The other half of its name comes from its tolerance for salty, dry soils. FW Saltbush is widespread across Western North America, ranging from Baja to Alberta to Kansas, from sea level to over 6,000 feet. So it’s another wide-ranging drought-tolerant scrubby shrub. But <i>A. canescens</i> is both unusual and way cool in not just one, not just two, but three <span style="color: rgb(192,192,192)"><em>(yes, three!)</em></span> ways.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128,0,0)"><b><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDyodGkZI/AAAAAAAAI8g/LWD1S-HhLGE/s1600-h/Saltbushdistance4.jpg"><img title="Saltbush distance" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="330" alt="Saltbush distance" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcDzOM6U1I/AAAAAAAAI8k/XXfWz7ObjWQ/Saltbushdistance_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="433" border="0" /></a></b></span><b></b></p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><b>First Cool Thing</b></span></p> <p>First is its wood architecture. <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-2-climbing.html">Long ago</a> I described the basic wood architecture common to dicots, and- with some variations*- conifers. <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPfobvnPdbI/AAAAAAAAI9w/ktvVx0xk9tY/s1600-h/Wood%20Arch1%20crop%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="Wood Arch1 crop" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="253" alt="Wood Arch1 crop" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPfocH61FWI/AAAAAAAAI90/eMyiutAxNLM/Wood%20Arch1%20crop_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="208" align="right" border="0" /></a> The main takeaway is that standard wood architecture is defined by an ultra-thin layer of undifferentiated stem-type cells called cambium, which then differentiate into phloem on the exterior, and xylem on the interior. Phloem carries the products of photosynthesis to the various parts of the plant, while xylem transfers water up from the roots to the branches and leaves. <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/oak">Oaks</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/green-tunnel.html">maples</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/pinet-looking-trees-part-1-basic.html">pines</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-3-sage-o.html">sagebrush</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/07/piney-looking-trees-part-4-loose-in.html">spruces</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/birthday-run-off-and-roses.html">roses</a></strong>- their wood all follows this basic architecture.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Vessels in dicots are a good example; conifer wood doesn’t have them.</span></p> <p>Some trees don’t share this standard wood architecture. “Woody” monocots, like <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/best-thing-about-vegas-palm-trees.html">palms</a></strong> or <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/monocot-week-part-4-yucca-trees.html">Joshua trees</a></strong> for example, have completely different wood architectures, which they evolved independently from their herbaceous (non-woody) monocot ancestors.*</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Since no monocot has the standard dicot/conifer wood architecture, it’s assumed that the common ancestor of all monocots was herbaceous.</span></p> <p>FW Saltbush is a dicot (eudicot) and belongs to <i>Chenopodiaceae</i>, the Goosefoot family*, the family to which spinach and beets belong. Members of this family- I’ll call them “chenopods” for purposes of this post- have a <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD0rNMrDI/AAAAAAAAI8w/_XekMEkB6U8/s1600-h/Beet_Soup_Beets_Velvet_Sweets_Copyri%5B1%5D.jpg"><img title="Beet_Soup_Beets_Velvet_Sweets_Copyright" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="160" alt="Beet_Soup_Beets_Velvet_Sweets_Copyright" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD1UH2J1I/AAAAAAAAI80/qgUBmY9WsJE/Beet_Soup_Beets_Velvet_Sweets_Copyri.jpg?imgmax=800" width="192" align="left" border="0" /></a>distinctive wood architecture that is significantly different from the standard wood architecture. Specifically, rather than a single strip of cambium surrounding the stem, roots and branches, chenopods grow multiple, successive, concentric layers of cambium each of which produces its own “secondary” phloem and xylem. This architecture is called successive cambia. You can see successive cambia when you slice open a beet cross-wise (pic left, <a href="http://beetcarnage.blogspot.com/2009/09/scared-heart-beet.html">not mine</a>***).</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*<i>Chenopodiaceae</i> may sorta/kinda be obsolete now, as nearly all of it looks to be getting reclassified as the sub-family <i>Chenopodioideae</i> within <i>Amaranthaceae</i>, the Amaranth family. This sort of thing happens all the time these days**, with newer genetic data forcing researchers to re-think traditional taxonomic groupings. I stuck with the traditional taxonomy for this post, mainly because so many of the sources I used referenced it. <span style="color: rgb(192,192,192)">And I’m lazy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">**But it doesn’t bother me, and here’s why: this kind of sorting and categorizing and re-sorting and re-categorizing happens all the time in sales (my trade) at a big company. If you’re not in sales, you might think that the sales process ends when the order is signed. But at a big company that’s just the beginning of a lengthy process of follow-up, paper-chasing and arguing with numerous internal bureaucrats over contracts, invoicing, commissions and credit. Here’s an interesting corollary: The bigger the company is, the less a salesperson’s success depends upon his/her personal client-facing sales ability, and the more it depends on his/her internal political and organizational abilities. Seriously. I’m not kidding, it’s true. This is just one of the countless, off-topic yet utterly brilliant insights you get from reading this blog.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">***Is that the weirdest blog or what? <span style="color: rgb(192,192,192)">Guess I shouldn’t talk…</span></span></p> <p>The benefit of successive cambia isn’t exactly clear, but there’s some indication that it helps improve the flexibility as well as the strength when wood grows asymmetrically. Though successive cambia is unusual in shrubs and trees*, it’s very common in lianas**.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*None of which grow very tall.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">**Woody vines rooted in the ground that grow up and all over trees- very asymmetrically- in tropical forests. They’re a form, not a closely-related group. Like a “shrub” or a “tree”, for example. Bougainvillea is an example of a liana. See the <strong><a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/">Phytophactor</a></strong>’s <strong><a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/2010/11/rainforest-field-trip-lianas.html">recent post</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9o1o8DNOqbM/TPLjseVzxZI/AAAAAAAAAks/h_tjlMRNMvA/s1600/%25E2%2581%25AElianas.JPG">photo</a></strong> on lianas down in Costa Rica.</span> </p> <p>It’s not clear exactly what drives the evolution of successive cambia. One hypothesis is that the common chenopod ancestor was herbaceous*, and evolved wood all over again. If so, it would be another version of the monocot re-invention story, but within the eudicots, which is kind of cool.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*I only found this mentioned in one source, Hugh Mozingo’s <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shrubs-Great-Basin-Natural-Fleishmann/dp/0874171121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291240781&sr=8-1">Shrubs of the Great Basin</a></i></b>. Finding no other mention of it, and seeing what appear to be many details in common with the standard wood architecture, I sort of doubt it.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD1xFVouI/AAAAAAAAI84/6zkFt4p7bhs/s1600-h/Acanescenscaption4.jpg"><img title="A canescens caption" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="331" alt="A canescens caption" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD2_hfxiI/AAAAAAAAI88/SCXDOpMa77A/Acanescenscaption_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" /></a>Whatever the benefit, it must be significant. Successive cambia has evolved independently dozens of times, and not just within angiosperms. It’s actually common in the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/twin-corral-box-canyon-part-2-stages-of.html">gnetales</a></strong>, including our own, close-to-home <strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/STaKiMPtClI/AAAAAAAACiY/QaAZV57eJko/s1600-h/Eviridis4.jpg">Mormon Tea</a></strong> (also all over the place in Arches) as well as the bizarre <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/singlespeed-climbing-cam-photosynthesis.html">Welwitschia</a> on the other side of the world.</p> <p><b></b></p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><b>Second Cool Thing</b></span></p> <p><b></b></p> <p>The second cool thing is that FW Saltbush is C4 photosynthetic. I described C4 photosynthesis in detail in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/02/singlespeed-descents-c4-photosynthesis.html">this post</a></strong>*, and we’ve looked at several C4 plants before. But most commonly-known C4 plants, and most of those <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD3g6ka1I/AAAAAAAAI9A/sAJz6PcZFBk/s1600-h/C4Fixation44.jpg"><img title="C4Fixation4" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="180" alt="C4Fixation4" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD4UZh7RI/AAAAAAAAI9E/g2LsGCYRQQo/C4Fixation4_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" /></a>we’ve looked at, like <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-grass-is-special-and-my-upcoming.html">corn</a> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/weed-week-part-1-crabgrass-c4-revisited.html">crabgrass</a></strong>, are monocots**. FW Saltbush is a eudicot C4 plant. C4 has evolved at least 20 times among the eudicots, 10 of which have been within the chenopods. One of those 10 times was in the genus <i>Atriplex, </i>whose common ancestor appears to have evolved C4 independently sometime in the last 8-12 million years. So these chenopods have this cool alternative wood architecture, and they’re the most C4-adept family of eudicots. Pretty cool family.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything.</i></span></p> <p><i><span style="font-size: 78%"></span></i></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">**I explained the monocots and dicots in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-grass-is-special-and-my-upcoming.html">this post</a></b>, with further explanation of eudicots in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/04/burbs-in-april-and-old-people-airports.html">this post</a></b>. <i><span style="color: rgb(192,192,192)">Everything I tell you, everything!</span></i></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0,0,255)"><b>Side Note:</b> Shadscale, <i>Atriplex confertolia</i>, is a close relative of FW Saltbush, and a super-common (if small and unimpressive-looking) shrub across the Southwest. <span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)">(It’s in that category of so-common-I’m-embarrassed-I-haven’t yet-blogged-about-it.)</span> In any case, Shadscale shares the first 2 cool things- successive cambia and eudicot-C4- as well.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255,102,0)"><span style="font-size: 130%"><b>Third Cool Thing</b></span></p> <p>The third cool thing is its sex-determination system. As I already implied, FW Saltbush is generally dioecious, in that plants bear female or male flowers, but not both. But some of them- a small minority- do bear both male and female flowers, sometimes on the same branch, sometimes on different branches. And sometimes these “switch-hitters” switch back and forth from year to year. Hold that thought.</p> <p>FW Saltbush exhibits all kinds of polyploidy*. There are diploid plants, with 18 chromosomes, <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD43xxQ6I/AAAAAAAAI9I/lypBgB7DyVo/s1600-h/IMG_81485.jpg"><img title="IMG_8148" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="162" alt="IMG_8148" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD5yH7LqI/AAAAAAAAI9M/jdG5jpTqANc/IMG_8148_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="213" align="right" border="0" /></a>tetraploids, with 36, hexaploids with 54, and even 12-ploids with 108! But here in Utah, and practically everywhere North of latitude 37N, nearly all FW Saltbushes are tetraploid. But there is a population of diploid FW Saltbush not far from here, growing along the edge of the dune fields at Little Sahara Recreation Area. And the interesting thing about these diploids is that all of them are male or female- there are no switch-hitters.</p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*I explained polyploidy in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/newfoundland-mountains-part-3-sage-o.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128,0,0)"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The other interesting thing about them is their height- more than twice normal. <i>A. canescens </i>generally grows to about 4 feet in height, but the Little Sahara diploids grow up to 10 feet high. This <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD6j3TlVI/AAAAAAAAI9Q/5f_fyOYgCnQ/s1600-h/3.1209252540.fourwheelers6.jpg"><img title="3.1209252540.four-wheelers" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="137" alt="3.1209252540.four-wheelers" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD7ORMdUI/AAAAAAAAI9U/aGHCFMOHMRE/3.1209252540.fourwheelers_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" width="180" align="left" border="0" /></a>was originally suspected to be a characteristic of the diploids, along with faster growth. The thinking was that the species was originally diploid, but that smaller, slower-growing tetraploid race had come to dominate Utah as the climate dried out. However, in the rapidly shifting landscape of the dune-margins, survival favored a fast-growing relict diploid population. But in the years since, plenty of regular-sized diploids have been found down in New Mexico and Texas.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0,0,255)"><b><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD7Xz9EJI/AAAAAAAAI9Y/jzxm8T4wCWk/s1600-h/img_795.png"><img title="img_79" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="93" alt="img_79" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD75HzOGI/AAAAAAAAI9c/9InJ7rAoxcI/img_79_thumb3.png?imgmax=800" width="135" align="right" border="0" /></a> Tangent:</b> I’ve never seen the Little Sahara diploids, because in 15 years here in Northern Utah, I’ve yet to visit Little Sahara. I love dune fields, and have visited several across the West. But the state of Utah runs Little Sahara overwhelmingly as an OHV/ORV playground, which isn’t really my thing.</span></p> <p>The explanation was this: Dioecious plants determine sex genetically, <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD8isJDwI/AAAAAAAAI9g/bsCd6i4ZaHI/s1600-h/IMG_81495.jpg"><img title="IMG_8149" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="152" alt="IMG_8149" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD9G5uQmI/AAAAAAAAI9k/GDGc4WnRIoM/IMG_8149_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="left" border="0" /></a>through specific sex chromosomes, analogous to mammals, where XX is female and XY is male*. And that’s what was going on with the Little Sahara diploids. But with polyploidy, new combinations become possible. The tetraploid plants might be XXYY and male, or XXXX and female. Or they might be XXXY and be either/or. <span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)">(XYYY and YYYY combinations were/are(?) thought to be non-viable.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 78%">*Just to make things more complicated, some plants, like <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/06/strawberries-are-way-cool.html">strawberries</a></strong>, have evolved a system more analogous to </span><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S3TdELRtwtI/AAAAAAAAHaU/TEvlaRuvCCw/s1600-h/PPSQ1%5B4%5D.jpg"><span style="font-size: 78%">that of birds</span></a><span style="font-size: 78%"> <span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)">(which I explained in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-2-mating-meiosis-and.html">this post</a></strong>),</span> where the female form is expressed through the heterozygous form (WZ) and the male through the homogeneous (ZZ).</span></p> <p>It was a neat, tidy hypothesis, but it’s since been undermined by the discovery of numerous monoecious, <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD9jl4lwI/AAAAAAAAI9o/iQwcd_sDlqE/s1600-h/IMG_81515.jpg"><img title="IMG_8151" style="border-top-width: 0px; display: inline; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right-width: 0px" height="155" alt="IMG_8151" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPcD-FE45aI/AAAAAAAAI9s/PKBY3X5-yP4/IMG_8151_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="203" align="right" border="0" /></a> “switch-hitter” diploids down in Texas and New Mexico. <i>A. canescens </i>gender expression is now suspected to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. What’s cool about FW Saltbush sexuality is that on the one hand it’s this wonderful cross-kingdom example of convergent evolution of a chromosomal system of sex-determination. Yet at the same time there are hints that it may be more subtle and “plastic” than the binary on/off sexuality of mammals and birds.</p> <p>Anywho, where was I? Oh, right the Entrada sandstone and the hike. Oh man, looks like I ran out of time on this post-long shrub-tangent. We’ll have to pick it back up tomorrow, but I promise I’ll quit dinking around and get to the hike!</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128,0,0)"><b>Note about sources:</b> Info on successive cambia came in large part from the work of botanist Sheldon Carlquist, including <b><i><a href="http://www.sherwincarlquist.com/pdf/Successive-Cambia-Revisited-Ontogeny-Histology_2007.pdf">Successive cambia revisited: ontogeny, histology, diversity and functional significance</a></i></b>, as well as from his wonderfully informative <strong><a href="http://www.sherwincarlquist.com/index.html">website</a></strong>. Additional successive cambia info came from <b><i><a href="http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbb/v32n4/a21v32n4.pdf">Origin of successive cambia on stem in three species of Menispermaceae</a></i></b>, Neusa Tamaio et al, and <b><i><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3040.2009.02000.x/abstract">Xylem function of arid-land shrubs from California, USA: an ecological and evolutionary analysis</a></i></b>, U.G. Hacke et al. Info on C4 occurrence and evolution in <em>Chenopodiaceae</em> and specifically <em>Atriplex</em> came from <b><i><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3040.2009.02000.x/abstract">Phylogeny of Amaranthaceae and Chenopodiaceae and the Evolution of C4 Photosynthesis</a></i></b>, G. Kaderet et al. Info on sex determination in A. canescens came from <a href="http://usda-ars.nmsu.edu/biblio/pdf/310.pdf"><em><strong>The Effects of Chromosome Number on Sex Expression in Atriplex canescens</strong></em></a>, Jerry R. Barrow, and Hugh Mozingo’s <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shrubs-Great-Basin-Natural-Fleishmann/dp/0874171121/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291240781&sr=8-1">Shrubs of the Great Basin</a></i></b>.</span></p> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>Note:</strong> The original version of this post contained a <font color="#c0c0c0" size="1">(bass-ackwards)</font> error* in the the wood architecture recap. Many thanks to readers Sally and Ford for the catch. </font></p> <p><font color="#ff0000" size="1">*I make frequent errors in this project and welcome corrections. My hope is to leave this blog around for a while so that future “motivated amateurs” can get a head-start on some of the topics covered here, and the fewer bum steers I leave for them, the better.</font></p> Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-83964507608528335682010-11-29T09:00:00.001-07:002010-11-29T14:42:50.814-07:00Berry-Go-Round #34<p>Welcome to Berry-Go-Round #34. Here in Northern Utah we’ve just wrapped up an absolutely frigid Thanksgiving weekend. Wind, ice, crusty snow- who’s thinking about plants? Despite the Arctic Blast, the Watcher Family had an enjoyable and adventurous holiday (which I’ll post about later this week) but in truth my main thoughts these last few days were- as they generally are this time of year- oriented around staying warm, eating and drinking. If these same things are on your mind right about now, then this month’s edition has some great posts for you.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Plants You Wear</strong></span></p> <p>When the cold sets in, one of the first things I do is scramble around the closet, looking for where I hid all the warm winter clothing. This inevitably leads to the realization that I Have Too Many Damn T-Shirts, <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmkjOrB0I/AAAAAAAAI6o/hFXnvrN3RG4/s1600-h/cotton1%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="cotton1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="cotton1" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmlANQAlI/AAAAAAAAI6s/WZodWAavfEk/cotton1_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="192" align="right" border="0" height="146" /></a> because I am- as <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SFnilGUgcVI/AAAAAAAAA5o/vcVW5OVAnTU/s1600-h/IMG_5793.jpg">Awesome Wife</a> is quick to point out-unable to throw any T-shirt away, ever.* Given how much cotton there is clogging up my closet, I was a bit chagrinned that I knew so little about where it comes from. Thankfully, JSK over at <strong><a href="http://anybodyseenmyfocus.blogspot.com/">Anybody Seen My Focus?**</a></strong> has cured my ignorance, with a helpful <a href="http://anybodyseenmyfocus.blogspot.com/2010/10/cotton-harvesting-part-1.html">2-part</a> <a href="http://anybodyseenmyfocus.blogspot.com/2010/10/cotton-harvesting-part-2.html">series</a> on cotton-harvesting,</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*“But if I throw this one away, how will anyone ever know I ran the Boulder Bolder in 1992?...”</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Best Name for a Blog Ever. Seriously, I totally should have come up with that name.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Plants You Eat</strong></span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmlm4ePBI/AAAAAAAAI6w/fTqM_jNgk_k/s1600-h/20101027-vaccinium_oxycoccos%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="Bog Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos)" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Bog Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos)" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmmOKP0DI/AAAAAAAAI60/hi1S_Fhdjqc/20101027-vaccinium_oxycoccos_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="right" border="0" height="146" /></a> Thanksgiving is probably the only time I regularly consume cranberries <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(I don’t know why- they’re so good)</span> and though in my long-ago youth I was carted out to a commercial bog as on a school field trip*, I never knew much about where they really came from in the wild. Matt, way up at <strong><a href="http://www.sitkanature.org/wordpress/">Sitka Nature</a></strong> (Alaska) takes us along a <a href="http://www.sitkanature.org/wordpress/2010/11/03/bog-cranberries-vaccinium-oxycoccos/">cranberry foraging hike</a> in the far North.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*All Boston-area school children are at one point or another taken on a cranberry bog field trip, usually somewhere on or near Cape Cod. I don’t know why this is. It’s not like cranberries are this huge part of Massachusetts history or the pillar of the Bay State economy or anything. And I don’t think any of my elementary school classmates actually grew up to be cranberry farmers. <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">I could be wrong about that last part I guess- haven’t really kept in touch.</span></span></p> <p>We did* turkey and lamb for the big feast this year, but the last few years we’ve been alternating between turkey and prime rib. Yes, <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmm9JQk2I/AAAAAAAAI64/ohinF4AGJIQ/s1600-h/Pond%20improvement%5B5%5D.png"><img title="Pond improvement" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Pond improvement" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmnohHk8I/AAAAAAAAI68/J4aStnx5-pM/Pond%20improvement_thumb%5B3%5D.png?imgmax=800" width="267" align="right" border="0" height="105" /></a>I know red meat, tread-on-the-land, yada-yada. But it just tastes so good! Anyway, I was particularly pleased to see this submission on <a href="http://texasranchmanagement.blogspot.com/2010/10/promoting-wildlife-in-your-cattle.html">Promoting Wildlife in Your Cattle Pasture</a> by Jake over at <strong><a href="http://texasranchmanagement.blogspot.com/">Texas Ranch Management</a></strong>. Jake posts about the importance of plant diversity on ranches, their role in fostering wildlife, and the resulting benefits to the rancher who’s in it for the long term. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(Jake also utilizes one of my favorite blogging tools- the awesome graphic!)</span> Good stuff.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*“did” in this instance means “went into a restaurant in Moab and ordered it...”</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmoNtsIQI/AAAAAAAAI7A/YvOsSSbJiVc/s1600-h/elderberrywinenmaking%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="elderberrywinenmaking" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="elderberrywinenmaking" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmoYwJtTI/AAAAAAAAI7E/phUC04vQidg/elderberrywinenmaking_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="157" align="right" border="0" height="120" /></a> </p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" ><strong>Plants You Drink</strong> </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:85%;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">(hic</span>)</span></p> <p>Speaking of good stuff, know what’s good with turkey or prime rib? Wine, that’s what. Darcy over at <strong><a href="http://ofwindsandwater.blogspot.com/">Of Winds and Water</a></strong> posts <a href="http://ofwindsandwater.blogspot.com/2010/08/crash-course-in-wine-making.html">about making wine</a>, and doing so from one of my favorite berries- Elderberries*. <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(I also like this post because she manages to make her mom do all the work, and get a post out of it. Nice, Darcy!)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I’ve blogged about them <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/07/steiner100-part-1-negative-daisies.html">here</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/wasatch-berries-trails-and-food-storage.html">here</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/blue-check.html">here</a></strong>.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmo1S6QlI/AAAAAAAAI7I/CCJIUSAsO_E/s1600-h/barley1%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="barley1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="barley1" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmplO2RqI/AAAAAAAAI7M/6EEyKd47UZY/barley1_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="164" align="right" border="0" height="112" /></a> Not into wine? Maybe beer is more your thing, or something harder, like whiskey. Either way, you need Barley, <a href="http://digitalbotanicgarden.blogspot.com/2010/11/barley-hordeum-vulgare.html">whose fascinating 8,000 year history of cultivation</a> is touched upon by Phil* over at <strong><a href="http://digitalbotanicgarden.blogspot.com/">A Digital Botanic Garden</a></strong>, as he makes his case for growing your own.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Who is an actual, Real Life Botanist, and not just a <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/">seat-of-pants hack</a> on the web who’s into plants…</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmpzPXzYI/AAAAAAAAI7Q/z8EtXfMzcWQ/s1600-h/gapfilling%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="gapfilling" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="gapfilling" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmqXn_FCI/AAAAAAAAI7U/BUNQxd89lI4/gapfilling_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="158" align="right" border="0" height="120" /></a> On a more serious note, before leaving the agri-sub-theme, Jeremy over at the <strong><a href="http://agro.biodiver.se/">Agricultural Diversity Weblog</a></strong> touches on some of the very real and tough challenges in <a href="http://agro.biodiver.se/2010/11/gap-filling-may-be-harder-than-we-thought/">“gap-filling” crop genebanks</a>.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Blooming Things!</strong></span></p> <p>While it’s fun to think about how plants make possible the clothing, food and drink that get us through the winter, what I really miss this time of year is plants blooming. The really wonderful thing about a blog carnival is the chance to see what’s going on far, far away. This month the <strong><a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/">Phytophactor</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://ntsavanna.com/">Neotropical Savanna</a></strong> deliver.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmrNvFPVI/AAAAAAAAI7Y/YWdJKfCC2dA/s1600-h/beanflower%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="beanflower" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="beanflower" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmrydtsmI/AAAAAAAAI7c/ClH7I0H4yeU/beanflower_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="162" align="right" border="0" height="123" /></a> The <strong><a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/">Phytophactor</a></strong> has produced a spectacular series of posts from his ongoing field work in Costa Rica, including not just <a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/2010/11/rainforest-field-trip-friday-fabulous.html">lovely orchids</a>, but flowers every bit as stunning from everything from the <a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/2010/11/rainforest-field-trip-luscious-lips.html">Coffee Family</a>, to… wait for it… the <a href="http://phytophactor.blogspot.com/2010/11/rainforest-field-trip-corkscrew-flower.html">Bean Family</a>!</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmsWtgdVI/AAAAAAAAI7g/gdLexhDlhes/s1600-h/ntsmysterytree%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="ntsmysterytree" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="ntsmysterytree" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMms8BZJ7I/AAAAAAAAI7k/l92kymC-a9s/ntsmysterytree_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="96" align="right" border="0" height="126" /></a> And down in Panama, Mary at <strong><a href="http://ntsavanna.com/">A Neotropical Savanna</a></strong> has done one of my favorite kinds of plant posts: that <a href="http://ntsavanna.com/piptocoma-discolor-a-tree-in-the-aster-family/">mysterious tree in the back yard that turns out to have a Way Cool story</a>. I won’t give it away, but it’ll change how you think about the Sunflower Family…</p> <p><strong><span style="color: rgb(255, 128, 0);font-size:130%;" >Your Opinion?</span></strong></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> While we’re on the topic of Central America- I welcome your input. I’m planning on attending a Spanish language school early next year in Central America, followed, ideally, by some backcountry hiking, botany and exploration. Right now I’m torn between Panama and Nicaragua. Nicaragua (toward which I’m slightly leaning) seems a bit less spoiled by development and tourism, and also is home to some fabulous volcanoes, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/costa-rica-part-4-all-about-cloud.html">cloud forests</a> and lakes. Panama appears to have, if anything, even greater biodiversity, and perhaps beats(?) Nicaragua in terms of lowland tropical forest. Any opinions?</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmtbW26vI/AAAAAAAAI7o/J_kJyB4M7LM/s1600-h/deptfordpink%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="deptfordpink" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="deptfordpink" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmtkDGSSI/AAAAAAAAI7s/a9CXpuBUWz0/deptfordpink_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="57" align="right" border="0" height="75" /></a> Before leaving wildflowers, a nice post from Keith over at <strong><a href="http://getyourbotanyon.blogspot.com/">Get Your Botany On</a></strong> about <a href="http://getyourbotanyon.blogspot.com/2010/10/you-have-there-deptford-pink.html">Deptford Pink</a>. Keith’s post includes an actual 3-verse Limerick* about this lovely weed!</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I’m embarrassed to admit that for many years, the only limericks I knew were naughty ones. Even now, when someone points me to a limerick, I get a little nervous. Rest assured, Keith’s limerick is G-rated and delightful!</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Plants That Make Us Think</strong></span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPPNXZGLUPI/AAAAAAAAI74/jyXVrtbjX6U/s1600-h/willow1%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="willow1" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="willow1" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPPNYrKk7fI/AAAAAAAAI78/5Vsg1lwsxqU/willow1_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="176" align="right" border="0" height="134" /></a> I have a soft spot for willows; my very <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-salt-lake-transitional-seasons.html">first post about a plant</a> ever was about them at the very onset of spring. Now Dave over at <strong><a href="http://osagegroup.blogspot.com/">Osage & Orange</a></strong> has a <a href="http://osagegroup.blogspot.com/2010/11/local-report-in-praise-of-willows.html">wonderful post about willows</a> at end of autumn, that reminds us of something I’ve always loved about plants: sometimes we see a little of ourselves in them.</p> <p>To conclude this month’s edition, I’ll point you to a wonderful <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmuVPgFlI/AAAAAAAAI7w/NwDDPSopJH0/s1600-h/stuffplantsdo%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="stuffplantsdo" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="stuffplantsdo" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TPMmu1Wdf3I/AAAAAAAAI70/Rb7WEjfsfxc/stuffplantsdo_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="176" align="right" border="0" height="133" /></a>3-part series over at my favorite blog, <strong><a href="http://foothillsfancies.blogspot.com/">Foothill Fancies</a></strong>. Sally’s posts- <strong><a href="http://foothillsfancies.blogspot.com/2010/11/plants-die.html">Plants Die</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://foothillsfancies.blogspot.com/2010/11/stuff-plants-do.html">Stuff Plants Do</a></strong>, and <a href="http://natureessays.blogspot.com/2010/11/do-sleeping-plants-dream.html"><strong>Do Sleeping Plants Dream?</strong></a>*<strong> -</strong> rejoice in the wonder, mystery and utter fantabulous-ness of plants, providing food for thoughts, dreams and hopes through the long winter ahead and planting seeds in our souls of the spring to come.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*BTW, I have a “theory” that I dream more, or rather remember more dreams, in winter. I think this is because I wake up, look outside and go back to sleep more often, and the interrupted morning sleep makes me remember more of my dreams. BTW, if you watch TV before bed, be careful <a href="http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/">what you watch</a>. Two nights ago I learned that my freshman-year college dorm room would’ve have made a lousy anti-zombie safehouse. Dreams are weird.</span></p> <p>That wraps it up for Berry-Go-Round #34. Thanks to all of you who submitted posts. Join us again for next month’s edition (#35), to be hosted at<span style="font-weight: bold;"> <a href="http://accidentalbotanist.wordpress.com/">An Accidental Botanist</a></span><strong></strong>. Stay warm, and think green.</p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-70905340915217313952010-11-24T08:43:00.003-07:002010-11-24T11:34:06.366-07:00Last Light Before the Night<p><em><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">Before I forget- don’t you forget to submit your plant post to the next edition of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/berry-go-round-33-is-up.html">Berry-Go-Round</a></strong>, which I’ll be posting next week. So far submissions are scary-light. If things don’t pick I may have to fill it out with tangents and side notes about who knows what?</span></em></p> <p><em><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">I was working on a meatier post this week, sort of a follow-on to the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/all-about-heights.html">All About Heights</a></strong> post, about the evolution of ears and hearing, but it turned out to be more involved (and way, way cooler) than I anticipated, so it’ll have to wait till after the Thanksgiving holiday. So instead this week I’m going to sneak in one last quickie biking & shrubs post…</span></em></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0yjwU7uOI/AAAAAAAAI6E/mRDcbmjFTZE/s1600-h/IMG_8108%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8108" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8108" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0ylM4mZII/AAAAAAAAI6I/fPwfYFWgl5U/IMG_8108_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="216" align="right" border="0" height="165" /></a> Winter showed up for real this week, with a series of storms that blanketed the foothills, backed up by a bitter cold arctic air mass that’ll keep most of the state below well below freezing through thanksgiving. Knowing it was coming, I biked in the foothills every day last week. It was gray, overcast and windy*, but the trails were clean, tacky and un-crowded.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Seriously, what is with this multi-day pre-storm winds? I’m fine with big storms, but the drama of these run-on little cold-desert hurricanes gets tedious… I feel another <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/dan-pope-is-way-cool.html">email to Dan Pope</a> coming on...</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DD81WC0lD3c?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DD81WC0lD3c?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>I kept an eye out for more <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/under-my-nose-and-your-help.html">hybrid oaks</a>, and made hike-a-bike detours up gullies and ridges I hadn’t checked out in years, hoping for another lucky green sighting before the snow covered everything, but no such luck. Everywhere I looked was gray and brown, a melancholy landscape practically crying out for snow.</p> <p>Up close alongside the trail, there were the usual splotches of (ever)green, low mats of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-pipeline-ride-guide-my-2009.html">Oregon Grape</a></strong> now and again. But in the hills North and West of City Creek, I noticed something else tucked away down low, under the oaks and maples in the more protected, damper gullies, another evergreen shrub, but with smaller, narrower, shinier leaves than the Oregon Grape. I recognized it from higher up, and remembered it because it has probably the best common name of any plant ever: <b>Mountain Lover</b>.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0ylxdfWnI/AAAAAAAAI6M/pBzTkB0FwVE/s1600-h/Pmyrsinites%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Pmyrsinites caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Pmyrsinites caption" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0ymY8YTQI/AAAAAAAAI6Q/OWMxj8Mys3A/Pmyrsinites%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="433" border="0" height="330" /></a> It actually has a whole bunch of common names, including Stafftree, Burning-Bush, Oregon Boxwood an Oregon Boxleaf, but I don’t know how you could ever come up with something better than Mountain Lover. It’s one of those little plants that’s real easy to overlook, and I only recognized it higher up earlier in the fall as I’d been paying close attention to shrubs this past year. But I’d never noticed it so low (~5,500 ft) before, and probably wouldn’t have, hadn’t everything else around been so brown. I haven’t seen it so low in the foothills anywhere South of City Creek, but maybe I just haven’t been paying attention.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail</b>: It’s common up above 7,000 feet, but it’s distribution in the Wasatch seems patchy. <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0ynVpsa4I/AAAAAAAAI6Y/HXKHUIhZocE/s1600-h/IMG_8105%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8105" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8105" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0yovW4LRI/AAAAAAAAI6c/CnBsEIRycB0/IMG_8105_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="233" align="right" border="0" height="178" /></a></b></span>Some areas I see it all over, but in other similar-appearing areas it’s totally absent. It’s real common in the upper reaches of Mueller Park, alongside the trail to Rudy Flat. The foothills North and West of City Creek are really just the lower slopes of that same big hill, so I assume the plants in these photos are just low-lying outliers of that population, or maybe just remnants from when things were cooler and wetter and “mountain loving” shrubs ranged lower.</span></p> <p>Once you recognize Mountain Lover, it’s easy to pick out. The leaf pairs alternate in direction along the stalks, the axis of each perpendicular to those above and below. In springtime it blooms teeny, easy-to-overlook reddish-brown 4-petaled flowers, whose cross-like appearance seems to mimic the alternating axes of the leaf pairs.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0ypWmWMSI/AAAAAAAAI6g/J9Oj5r8j7ws/s1600-h/Leaf%20Axes%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Leaf Axes" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Leaf Axes" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TO0ypyRQEoI/AAAAAAAAI6k/mEm7UFqvLZM/Leaf%20Axes_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="428" border="0" height="326" /></a> Mountain Lover, <i>Paxistima* myrsinites</i>, is interesting in that it isn’t closely-related to anything else around for hundreds of miles. At a real high level, it’s part of the same group of Eudicots to which <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/scrub-oak-part-1-basics.html">oaks</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/mexico-part-2-peas-palms-pines-and.html">peas</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/04/burbs-in-april-and-old-people-airports.html">roses</a></strong> belong, but the only other member of the genus is a fairly rare, though similar-looking, species, <i>P. canbyi</i>, that occurs back in the Appalachians. <i>Paxistima</i> belongs to <i>Celastraceae</i>, the Bittersweet family, which we haven’t looked at previously as it’s overwhelmingly tropical, with only a few genera (mainly staff vines) represented in North America.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Like the common name, there are several variants of he generic name, including <em>Pachistima</em> and <em>Pachystima</em>.</span></p> <p>After poking around a bit, I finally found a close relative that I’ve come across previously- Crucifixion Thorn, <i>Canotia holacantha</i>, which I mentioned in passing last winter when we were checking out various <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/01/sonoran-twin-b-getaway-part-2-why-so.html">spiky/thorny things</a> down in the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/01/sonoran-twin-b-getaway-part-1-water-and.html">Sonoran Desert</a>. That’s it- it’s only close relative is 600+ miles away.</p> <p>I was glad to notice one more “new” shrub in my back yard before Winter shuts down my riding for (likely) a few months. All alone, unlike anything else around it, it brightened up the gray surroundings a bit, like a last light before the long night.</p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-91413760798564498142010-11-19T07:00:00.001-07:002010-11-19T07:00:03.875-07:00Under My Nose, and Your Help<p>When we got out of Gooseberry, I checked my voicemail*, and was pleased to hear from <a href="http://www.geog.utah.edu/faculty/index.html?id=16">Professor Chuck</a>, saying that a friend had found a new Gambel-Turbinella oak hybrid that he wanted to show me.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I don’t get cell service up on the mesa. Ironically, our old favorite campsite got taken out about in the last year when they put up a cell tower. But the tower is Verizon and my phone is AT&T**, which has miserable coverage in the Utah backcountry.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Not my choice- my employer’s. Whenever my time with this company ends, my first stop will be the Verizon store.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMudSRaEI/AAAAAAAAI4c/nmMxlPXSrOM/s1600-h/%5BUNSET%5D%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="[UNSET]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="[UNSET]" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMu9R0BCI/AAAAAAAAI4g/Biq5MacSZLs/%5BUNSET%5D_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="176" align="right" border="0" height="136" /></a>Side Note/Background:</b> Unless you’ve been following this blog a while, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about. A few years ago I became interested in- and discovered an occurrence of- a type of hybrid oak that’s very rare in Northern Utah. Yeah, I know that sounds way geeky, but the ultra-super-way cool thing about these <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMvY90DuI/AAAAAAAAI4k/ZuQOt2zf6-Y/s1600-h/MPSG2%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="MPSG2" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="MPSG2" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMv6rM3nI/AAAAAAAAI4o/bakiqsXaxRc/MPSG2_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="193" align="left" border="0" height="147" /></a>hybrids is that they were formed thousands of years ago, when the other species of Oak- Shrub Live Oak, <i>Quercus turbinella</i>, lived this far North alongside “normal” scrub oak, which are <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/scrub-oak-part-1-basics.html">Gambel Oak</a></strong>, <i>Q. gambelii</i>. Which means that these stands are likely several thousand years old*.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">*To be clear, many Gambel Oak hybrids are several thousand years old, and many <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/unbearable-lightness-of-aspen-part-1.html"><strong>Aspen</strong> clonal stands</a> are likely much older. But with a Gambel-turbinella hybrid stand, one of the parent species hasn’t lived within 250 miles for probably 4,000 – 5,000 years.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;">I gave the background of these rare hybrids in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/09/repost-relic-hybrid-oaks-part-1.html">this post</a></strong>, and since posted several more times about various hybrids I’ve discovered or visited. All hybrid oak posts in this blog are labeled- wait for it- “<a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/search/label/hybrid%20oak">hybrid oak</a>”, and nearly all of them date from the Falls of the past couple of years, because that’s when the hybrids become visible. <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMw__TrSI/AAAAAAAAI4s/xnVEWp-2NIU/s1600-h/Various%20Foliage%5B5%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Various Foliage[5]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Various Foliage[5]" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMxT3dD0I/AAAAAAAAI4w/Urm4-fGjFGs/Various%20Foliage%5B5%5D_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="219" align="left" border="0" height="167" /></a>Because one of their parent species is evergreen (live oak), one of the characteristics of these hybrids is that their leaves stay green and on the tree later in the year than typical Gambel Oak, meaning that the best time to find them is between late October (when the Gambel Oaks lose their leaves) and early December (when the hybrids lose their leaves). The rest of the year, they’re pretty much invisible.</span></p> <p>So the next (this past) weekend, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I met up with Professor Chuck and we drove over to one of the trailheads in the upper Avenues. You see, this hybrid wasn’t far away at all. It was right under my nose.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMx-l5GkI/AAAAAAAAI40/_kzLmD4ANFc/s1600-h/IMG_8051%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8051" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8051" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMyceghTI/AAAAAAAAI44/mBE57zikLMs/IMG_8051_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="226" align="right" border="0" height="172" /></a> By “under my nose” I mean that over the past 15 years I’ve passed within a couple hundred yards of this stand hundreds of times and never spotted it. In fairness most of the times I’ve passed it have been when the Gambels are leafed out, and its aspect is such that even when you pass within ~600-700 feet of it on the Shoreline trail, it’s still largely invisible. But there are actually a couple of spots from along the Bobsled trail where, if you stop and crank your head around just right*, you can spot it.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Admittedly, the middle of the high-speed downhill Bobsled trail is about the last place where one would be incline to “stop and crank your head around…”</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> I’m not giving the exact location in this post, not because the stand is in any imminent danger, but rather because I didn’t discover it. I don’t personally know the discoverer, other than his first name is “Blake” and he’s a biology student of some sort up at Weber State.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMysK49qI/AAAAAAAAI48/pAQPJ_WwBKw/s1600-h/Stand%20Outline%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Stand Outline" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Stand Outline" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMzF9y7XI/AAAAAAAAI5A/q3Vx35MSsUQ/Stand%20Outline_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="436" border="0" height="332" /></a> We walked an easy trail over to the bottom of the gully running up Perry’s Hollow, then up along the Bobsled trail for a bit before bushwhacking up the hillside through oak. </p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> After years and years of battling thickets of scrub oak on <span style="color:#0000ff;"><b><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYMzukAOtI/AAAAAAAAI5E/1j1UUWewPe8/s1600-h/IMG_8009%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8009" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8009" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM0IFSGwI/AAAAAAAAI5I/Uqq0bo5m4hI/IMG_8009_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="219" align="right" border="0" height="167" /></a></b></span>exploratory foothill hikes/scrambles, I’ve come to the conclusion that you can’t fight scrub oak and win; you have to have an almost Zen-like patience, persistence and a Moses-and-the-Red-Sea sort of faith that a path through will eventually reveal itself. And inevitably, it always does. But the more impatient I am in finding that path, the more scratched up, tired and pissed off I am when I ultimately make it through. You can’t find a path through scrub oak; the path has to find you.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Nested Tangent:</b> I love posting these little nuggets of professed backcountry wisdom, because I imagine they make me come off like some kind of Wilderness Zen Master or something. In truth I am Mr. Zero-Patience and at least 9 out of 10 of my exploratory scrub oak scrambles end with me scratched-up, grumpy and cursing (and sometimes visiting my <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TJA5-__jv9I/AAAAAAAAIio/7Qd0tywNnHk/s1600-h/IMG_7274%5B5%5D.jpg">sewing-crush seamstress</a> the next day.)</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM0nWJF0I/AAAAAAAAI5M/EttjW4c9dbI/s1600-h/IMG_8011%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8011" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8011" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM1CZChrI/AAAAAAAAI5Q/Ihm29jExKws/IMG_8011_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="205" align="left" border="0" height="156" /></a> Ideally one clearing will open into the next, but sometimes the oak presents a virtual wall. Fortunately the walls are often penetrated by game trails, which while not wide enough to simply march straight through (much less ride a mtn bike along) are just barely well-enough defined to allow a skinny adult to do a sort of slow-motion twisting side-step through- almost like a kind of interpretive dance. I always assumed that most of these game trails were the work of mule deer, because I see them so frequently in the foothills, but more recently I am coming <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM1vVhdYI/AAAAAAAAI5U/5QOyDAhRayk/s1600-h/Porcupine%20burrow%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="Porcupine burrow" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Porcupine burrow" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM2tMsulI/AAAAAAAAI5Y/iLlPm4N-wEc/Porcupine%20burrow_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="230" align="right" border="0" height="175" /></a>to suspect that many are actually the work of <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html">porcupines</a></strong>*. Mule deer <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pBZ51jqBd4">stott</a> through/over a lot of thick brush, whereas a porcupine stays low to the ground. The well-defined break-through game trail that got me through the last “wall” on Sunday passed right by this burrow, with the porcupine’s tail still visible. I passed by quickly and carefully.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">*Porcupines have my absolute favorite<strong> </strong><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SqZT50bwtaI/AAAAAAAAF8Y/l9FW_iH826E/s1600-h/RodentsRafting4.jpg"><strong>migration</strong></a>/evolution saga of any mammal I’ve posted about in this blog. I just love them. Go <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html">check it out</a>.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM3W_3HLI/AAAAAAAAI5c/D-fvf3ViL1o/s1600-h/IMG_8013%5B8%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8013" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8013" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM3zb7NAI/AAAAAAAAI5g/cg-qu5OzosU/IMG_8013_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="216" align="left" border="0" height="165" /></a> The Perry’s Hollow hybrid is a big one, consisting of several stands of a couple square hundred yards. The leaves, still present though yellowing in mid-November, clearly show the pointy-lobed-ness of their turbinella parentage (pic left). The leaves on one small sub-stand on the downhill side of the main stand looks extremely live-oak-ish (pic below, right), and Professor Chuck suspects that while the main stand may be an F1 hybrid, this sub-stand may be a turbinella back-cross.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM4awnm9I/AAAAAAAAI5k/r93h3QJQWs0/s1600-h/hybrid%20chart%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="hybrid chart" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="hybrid chart" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM4ipX5LI/AAAAAAAAI5o/Bju-TUabR-o/hybrid%20chart_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="145" align="right" border="0" height="110" /></a> *I explained F1 hybrids, F2s and back-crosses in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/09/relic-hybrid-oaks-part-2-drobnicks.html">this post</a></strong>. Turbinella back-crosses are particularly interesting, because they hint at the holy grail of Wasatch hybrid-oak hunters: a modern-day living stand of pure <i>Q. turbinella</i>. Though unlikely, it’s not impossible such a stand exists this far North; planted turbinella seems to get along just fine along the Wasatch Front.</span></p> <p>Walking in and through the hybrid stand and checking out the distinctive pointy-tipped <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM5BwX2wI/AAAAAAAAI5s/oTEM8iZHpXs/s1600-h/IMG_8025%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8025" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8025" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM5jZOyqI/AAAAAAAAI5w/LqfRZ8N7HWw/IMG_8025_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="202" align="right" border="0" height="154" /></a>leaves I marveled at something so cool and ancient having been smack in the middle of my regular stomping grounds all this time. And it got me wondering: what other hybrid stands are there close by that I’ve biked, hiked, run or driven by time and again without noticing? If I missed this one, there must be at least a dozen or so more tucked away in the foothills between Spanish Fork and Ogden.</p><p><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Your Help</span></span><br /></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM6B_tspI/AAAAAAAAI50/dcc9F7KTis8/s1600-h/IMG_8016%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_8016" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_8016" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM6ahmHbI/AAAAAAAAI54/7obzw1X9kCM/IMG_8016_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="128" align="left" border="0" height="168" /></a> So here’s the point- and yes there is one and I am getting to it- of this post: As best I can tell, there are at least a couple dozen regular readers of this blog who a) live along the Wasatch Front and b) bike, hike or run trails in the foothills regularly. So if you’re one of those readers, I’m asking you a favor. Over the next week or so, if you see a stand of scrub oak that still has (mostly) green leaves on it, and the lobes/tips of the leaves are at all pointy, would you drop me a line? </p> <p>Hybrid leaves can take all sorts of forms, But they key thing is 1) they are oaks, 2) the leaves are still on the tree, and still mostly green, and 3) the leaves- whatever the shape- have pointy tips. There are several photos in this post and my earlier posts with the “hybrid oak” label. Here’s a comparison, using the hybrid I discovered 3 years ago in Maple Hollow.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM7GJ-aDI/AAAAAAAAI58/IoEWlTKjGPo/s1600-h/Leaf%20Compare%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Leaf Compare caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Leaf Compare caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOYM7s5T7yI/AAAAAAAAI6A/0uFShFuKFJM/Leaf%20Compare%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" height="333" /></a> If you think you’ve found one, please comment or email to <a href="mailto:adventureREMOVECAPSbotanist@yahoo.com">adventureREMOVECAPSbotanist@yahoo.com</a>, removing the caps. <span style="color:#0000ff;">(It would be Additionally Extra Fantabulous if you pocketed a leaf and then emailed me a photo of said leaf.)</span> I know there are more hybrids out there. If you spot one you get a <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/at-long-last-fabulous-prize.html"><strong>Watcher<span style="font-size:78%;">STICKER</span></strong></a> and I write a flattering post about you*. Thanks!</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Really, this is better than it sounds. Not the sticker- the Flattering Post. It may not seem the case from this blog, but when I apply myself I can really lay it on thick. I’ve been making a living in sales for over 20 years; nobody can blow smoke up your backside like I can. Seriously, if I write a flattering post about you, you will be filled with a wonderful sense of confidence and self-worth that will last all Winter long.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The Draper/Corner Canyon trail system in particular seems like a great spot. I’ve already found one on the North slope and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-meet-my-hero.html">Rudy Drobnik</a> has found a several on the South/Utah County slope.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#c0c0c0;">Yes, I know this is a total long-shot. But really, what do I have to lose?</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-66542786494396621962010-11-16T07:00:00.001-07:002010-11-16T07:00:06.044-07:00All About Heights<p>In comments to last week’s <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/desert-helmet-cam-filler.html">Desert Helmet-Cam Filler post</a>, a couple of readers touched upon an aspect of the video clips that’s come up from time to time in this blog: exposure and fear of heights, or what I will refer to in this post as height intolerance.</p> <p>Like most people, I’m certainly aware of exposed heights, and become uneasy if I feel I might fall. I’ve never skydived or bungee-jumped and haven’t considered myself to be any kind of “height-seeker.” But over recent years it’s become slowly apparent to me that some people- many people- are much, much more uneasy around exposed heights than I am. 3 examples stick in my mind*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Which I will now of course recount in painstaking detail, because- as longtime readers know- it always takes me forever to get to the point. Sometimes I wonder if this whole project isn’t just a big subconscious cover to go on and on about random stories and stuff. Which of course is the secret dream of all middle-aged men: we don’t really want power or wealth or anything. We just want an excuse to go on and on about stuff.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>First Example</strong></span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsUBvpLMI/AAAAAAAAI20/5k9Y68nkxaY/s1600-h/RickJunctionButtecaptions4.jpg"><img title="Rick Junction Butte captions" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Rick Junction Butte captions" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsUxDazuI/AAAAAAAAI24/XPLY96lqQEM/RickJunctionButtecaptions_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" height="180" /></a> Nearly a decade ago, <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/STfe2OcvOfI/AAAAAAAACjE/yYF_8lxFA4k/s1600-h/FloraFaunaGuacamole4.jpg">OCRick</a> and I completed a hike I’d wanted to do for several years in the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. Parking at Grand View Point, we walked out along the Eastern rim toward the point until we came upon a break in the Wingate cliffs. Working our way down carefully to the gravelly slopes below, we crossed over to the base of Junction Butte, which we managed to scramble up for probably the best view either of us has ever enjoyed, after which we returned the same way.</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> When you stand on Grand View Point, Junction Butte is the big, same-height mesa partially blocking the otherwise perfect view to the South. The view from its top is the best I’ve ever seen.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsVcFLgqI/AAAAAAAAI28/mYovzdzXEYc/s1600-h/FromJctnButteSW329014.jpg"><img title="From Jctn Butte SW 3 29 01" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="From Jctn Butte SW 3 29 01" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsV8oe1WI/AAAAAAAAI3A/6ga0_EBf6hw/FromJctnButteSW32901_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="442" border="0" height="337" /></a> The most hazardous part is getting down off Grand View Point, a non-Park-Service sanctioned route described (extremely poorly) by Michael Kelsey in one of his older guidebooks. I’ve heard anecdotally that hikers have become panicked and stranded on the descent, requiring rescue. A safer- albeit significantly more time-consuming and logistically challenging- way to ascend Junction Butte is to 4WD to a spot along the White Rim Trail near the base of the mesa, hike around to the North side and scramble up the obvious break in the Wingate cliffs.</span></p> <p>The climb down off Grand View was a little hairy, with several spots where OCRick and I spotted each other and handed down packs with a short rope, and there was one section where a screw-up would’ve meant a 40 foot fall. We were cautious but not overly spooked, made it down in short order, and re-traced our route uneventfully on the return climb.</p> <p>I was thrilled with our hike and couldn’t wait to return. A few months later a friend was visiting, a friend who is strong, athletic and has oodles of desert hiking/scrambling experience. After hearing my repeated raves about the hike, we rose before dawn one morning, and drove drown from Salt Lake to Grand View Point.</p> <p>As we began the hike, we soon reached a minor exposed ramp where I chose to butt-sit/slide to minimize any balance issues. My friend stopped me. ‘Whoa,” he asked uneasily, “does it get any worse than this?” His tone was serious. He wasn’t kidding around.</p> <p>I was confused. Of course it got way worse than this, because this wasn’t anything; the actual scary part was a ways ahead. He was nervous here? Why? What possible danger was there? We were just butt-shuffling down a short 30 degree ramp. I wasn’t sure what to say to assuage him, so I did what all cowardly friends do: I lied. “Oh no, not really… maybe just a bit, but it’s no big deal. I’ll coach you through it…”</p> <p>10 minutes later we reached the crux move, the part with the 40-foot exposure. My friend froze. </p> <p><strong>FRIEND:</strong> “No way- I can’t do it.”</p> <p><strong>ME:</strong> “I know it looks scary, but it’s really no problem and I can go first and-“</p> <p><strong>FRIEND:</strong> “No. Absolutely not. I can’t do it. No way.”</p> <p>I was stumped. This friend is one of the most agreeable, easy-going and yet adventurous and up-for-anything guys I know. The down-climb, while exposed, isn’t technical. I’m not a climber, but I’m pretty sure it was only class 4, maybe 5.1 or 5.2. Finally, bewildered and mildly exasperated, I down-climbed it solo, all the way to the base, then climbed back up, thinking to show him how not-a-big-deal it was. But he didn’t budge. He wouldn’t reason or negotiate with me. He was steadfast and determined; we weren’t going.</p> <p>We climbed back up, drove to another trailhead and spent the day on another nice hike*. An hour or so later my friend apologized. I brushed it off; after all I was embarrassed to have tried to get him to do something he was obviously so uncomfortable with. As we talked, he asked, “Have you ever felt that way before? Just so absolutely terrified you couldn’t move? You just couldn’t do it?”</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Upheaval Dome, which has a fascinating and unsettled(?) geologic history.</span></p> <p>Again, I was a bit stumped. I’m not particularly brave, but I’ve never been frightened- particularly by heights- to the point of paralysis. I didn’t want to say that of course, so I mealy-mouthed something like, “Oh sure, everybody gets spooked my different things…” or some such. The day turned out to be fun anyway, but the episode stuck with me. How could he have been so terrified by something that just really didn’t bother me (or OCRick) that much?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Second Example</strong></span></p> <p>A few years later, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/white-rim-take-2-fast-jimmy-mosquito.html">Fast Jimmy</a>, I and another friend- let’s call him “Nurse Mike”- were doing an <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Sgzd7rBLeWI/AAAAAAAAEiU/1U5HU6LqzNY/s1600-h/FiascoMap4.jpg">all day mtn bike ride</a> in the same general area. The ride- which Fast Jimmy and I repeated last year- is right around 100 miles of mostly 4WD road. Close to the end of the loop, the road passes close by a rather high and exposed, but very wide and very flat, natural arch.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9PDidhcTfHY?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9PDidhcTfHY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>Now, for those of you who recognize where this is, and what the rider is doing in the video, you may possibly, depending on your viewpoint, be inclined to criticize. And that criticism may be based upon 1 of 2 different themes. The first is legality, and if this is the basis of your criticism, while I do not agree with you, I understand your criticism and acknowledge its validity. So go ahead and criticize if you like, and we’ll agree to disagree.</p> <p>But the second possible theme of criticism is risk. You may feel- as at least one YouTube commenter has shared- that riding the arch is “stupid and dangerous”. And if that is your line of criticism, I must tell you that you are completely, flat-out wrong. The arch is at least 8 feet wide, with 5-6 of those feet providing a completely obstacle-free path. I’m pretty sure one could drive a small automobile- say a VW Bug or a Ford Focus- across the arch without incident. The margin for error is probably 3 or 4 times that of riding a bicycle along a suburban street in moderate traffic, where a single 2-foot swerve could kill you. It’s just not that dangerous.</p> <p>Fast Jimmy and I walked and rode the arch several times, delighting in the scenery, <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsWkQ3FXI/AAAAAAAAI3E/Y6GVDQlw8PQ/s1600-h/MManP15.jpg"><img title="MManP1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="MManP1" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsXHlwmgI/AAAAAAAAI3I/0KfNoG9qs0w/MManP1_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="216" align="left" border="0" height="165" /></a>exposure and uniqueness of the feature. But Nurse Mike sat down 50 feet away. Despite our assurances and encouragement, he wouldn’t even <i>walk </i>onto the arch, or even within 20 feet of either end of it. Nurse Mike isn’t a chicken; he’s an accomplished bike racer and backcountry skier, more skilled and confident in either sport than I am. But he absolutely would not approach the arch.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Third Example</strong></span></p> <p>Fast-forward to this past Spring. <a href="http://www.skibikejunkie.com/">SkiBikeJunkie</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/4-new-foothill-flowers-5-axes-of-life.html">Hunky Neighbor</a>, <a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a> and I were <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/gooseberry-helmet-cam-geology.html">riding Gooseberry Mesa</a>. At the point of the mesa, I rode out, did a little loop and returned. No one else did so, and SkiBikeJunkie wouldn’t even watch. The point-loop isn’t difficult or particularly hazardous. Watch the video.</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/LMBcEjHXxeM?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/LMBcEjHXxeM?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>With the single exception of the final wheel-lift over the last crack, I don’t think I’m ever closer than 2 ½ feet from the edge. Again, many of us routinely ride closer than this to moving cars, or to trees when we’re descending forested singletrack at 20-25 MPH.</p> <p>Last weekend I rode the point-loop again. Out of our group of 10, no one else did. Why not? There was no other move which only I did, and several other (non-exposed) technical moves which others- in one case <i>most</i> of the others- did and yet I sat out. The wheeling, panoramic view is fantastic, the little wheel-lifts fun yet super-easy, the 360-end-of-world-falling-away-all-around-you sense is just incomparable, and honestly, it’s not scary (to me) at all. Rather it’s fun. It’s beautiful, it’s exhilarating. Why don’t other people feel the same way I do? How can different people feel so wildly differently about height exposure?</p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_tUr-U2j7Uc?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_tUr-U2j7Uc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>I was particularly perplexed by SkiBikeJunkie. He’s a far better skier than I am, and doesn’t strike me as particularly risk-averse or cowardly in any other aspect of his life. <span style="color:#808080;">(In bike races together he’s made semi-risky moves I’ve tried to follow but flinched on.)</span> Even when we drive to go skiing, he drives faster and more confidently on slippery roads than I do. I’m not braver than the guy. Why is he such a ninny* about heights?</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*His word-choice, not mine.</span></p> <p><b></b></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> In fact, I am kind of a pussy about lots of things. I drive like an old lady in the snow, avoid technical mtn bike moves/jumps where I think I stand a good chance of falling, and am paranoid of backcountry skiing in open, avalanche-prone terrain. I mention this because this post may seem to be an excuse to go on about how brave I am about heights. It’s really not- I’m not brave about exposed heights- they just don’t seem to bother me as much as they do many other people, and that’s been somewhat of a head-scratcher for me for some time…</span></p> <p><b></b></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Nested Tangent:</b> Fast Jimmy and I were recently chatting about a string of comments and disagreement over on another blog and FJ (who does not blog) said off-handedly, “.. and anyway all these bloggers have huge egos…” He quickly caught himself: “Not you of course, I mean other bloggers…” I wasn’t insulted; the point likely has merit, and got me thinking. Bloggers- myself included- probably do have bigger-than-average egos, and despite what we may claim, it’s almost inevitable that we use our blogs to promote our perspectives, peeves, current musical obsessions*, general worldview, and quite likely, the image we want to convey of ourselves.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">*<strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avett_brothers">Avett Brothers</a></strong>. Clean Colin got me into them last weekend on the drive down South, and for the last few days I’ve been walking around humming “Talk on Indolence” and thinking about banjo lessons.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Fear Of Heights</strong></span></p> <p>And to answer that question, I guess we have to ask, why are people afraid of heights?</p> <p>I know, I know, that’s the dumbest question I’ve ever asked in this blog, right? We’re afraid of heights because we don’t want to fall to our deaths- duh. But in the 3 examples I just gave, the height-fear wasn’t rational, and all 3 friends routinely do things- drive, road-bike, mtn bike through trees, cross city streets- entailing equal or greater levels of risk without flinching. Whatever is going on in SkiBikeJunkie’s head on Gooseberry Point, it is not conscious, rational analysis.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>All About Balance</strong></span></p> <p>One of the most impressive things that nearly all of us- barring injury, infirmity or disability- do pretty much all the time is stand upright and walk around*. It’s not easy to figure out how, and human engineers haven’t come close to creating any kind of robot that can mimic human bipedal stability and gait. Our balance and posture challenges are more significant that those faced by the majority of terrestrial (quadrupedal) animals, and we handle them with a sophisticated and well-developed sense of balance, consisting of 3 primary components.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I touched on this topic briefly in the <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/12/fit-stinky-all-about-running-at-work.html">running post</a></b> I did last winter.</span></p> <p>The first and most obvious is vision. Seeing what’s around us helps us to avoid falling down. We’ll come back to this in a moment.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsXlu4LTI/AAAAAAAAI3M/07S6RLP8uFA/s1600-h/vestibularsystem4.jpg"><img title="vestibular system" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="vestibular system" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsYNWTxxI/AAAAAAAAI3Q/h3OndIL84ZQ/vestibularsystem_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="168" /></a> The second, which you’re probably also aware of, is our <b>vestibular sense</b>, what we usually call “sense of balance” provided by the fluid-filled canals in your inner ear* (diagram right, <a href="http://weboflife.nasa.gov/learningResources/vestibularbrief.htm">not mine</a>). The third is our <b>somatosensory sense</b>, which consists of two subsystems: <b>haptic</b> and <b>proprioceptive</b>.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*BTW, before I forget. One of the things I don’t know, and mean to research one of these days, is how birds maintain balance. Birds have totally different ears than we do, and I don’t know what- if any- role the ears of birds play in their obviously stupendous sense of balance.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> All of these words are way loaded. The most frustrating part of researching this post was how different sources use these different terms. In many cases, “proprioceptive” is used in the same way I’m using “somatosensory”, and in other sources all somatosensory/ haptic/ proprioceptive components are all lumped together under vestibular. Then there’s the “kinesthetic” sense, which sometimes is meant as the same thing as “proprioceptive”, but sometimes not…</span></p> <p>Haptic sense is the sense of external pressures. The pressure of the ground on your feet, the chair on your butt or your hand on a handrail all provide inputs that assist in you balance. To convince yourself of the role of the haptic sense in balance, try touching a handrail when you’re on an exposed balcony or stairwell looking down. Not <i>grabbing</i> the handrail, but just touching it, with even 1 finger. You’ll instantly feel a bit more stable. Touching a single finger to a stable surface can reduce postural sway- which we’ll get to in a moment- by up to 50%.</p> <p>Your proprioceptive sense is your sense of where the various parts of your body are in relation to one another. It’s the reason you can close your eyes and tough your finger to your nose. You can’t see your nose, but you know where it is, right? Your proprioceptive sense allows to you eat a sandwich, rub your beard or pick your nose* while reading this post, and it’s how come you can drive a car without constantly looking to see where your hands and feet are in relation to the steering wheel, stick shift and pedals.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Stop it. Get a tissue and then come back.</span></p> <p>Infants don’t have much of a proprioceptive sense before about 7 – 9 months, and it’s one of the reasons they generally can’t walk before this age*. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsYg-a_4I/AAAAAAAAI3U/6jp0WHlkAz0/s1600-h/15672015.jpg"><img title="1567201" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="1567201" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsZED0-lI/AAAAAAAAI3Y/hunkEOtqpSY/1567201_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="168" align="left" border="0" height="168" /></a> It’s also why they often miss their mouths when first trying to learn to feed themselves baby food with a spoon. Your proprioceptive sense is impaired by alcohol, which is why the finger-to-nose test is a standard component of police-administered field-sobriety checks for driving under the influence (pic left, <a href="http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641277656?f=rss">not mine</a> <span style="font-size:78%;color:#c0c0c0;">and not me</span>). Most healthy, unimpaired adults should be able to land the tip of their index finger within 2 cm of the tip of their nose.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Interestingly, infants don’t really display much fear of heights before this age, either.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Side Note:</b> Touching your nose with your eyes closed is actually a pretty easy proprioceptive exercise. In researching* this post I goofed around and tried several others. Here’s a trickier one: Extend both arms, with your index finger on each hand pointed outward.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsZgwiwPI/AAAAAAAAI3c/pduaSOAMG04/s1600-h/HomePE14.jpg"><img title="HomePE1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="HomePE1" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsaMXecNI/AAAAAAAAI3g/RkvyBLxcTEI/HomePE1_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="440" border="0" height="285" /></a> Now, looking straight ahead and with out using a mirror**, raise both arms and bring them together over your head so that the points of your two index fingers touch.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsasPuftI/AAAAAAAAI3k/hjEnk6f6pHs/s1600-h/HomePE24.jpg"><img title="HomePE2" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="HomePE2" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsbExFTiI/AAAAAAAAI3o/cdxDOZCaiU8/HomePE2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" height="272" /></a> Tricky, isn’t it? I usually miss by ~1-2cm.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsb-lYW8I/AAAAAAAAI3s/OyI5Wk2DQUI/s1600-h/HomePE34.jpg"><img title="HomePE3" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="HomePE3" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsexem3rI/AAAAAAAAI3w/GW6QRT1yMg8/HomePE3_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="440" border="0" height="271" /></a> *Yes that’s right, I do research for this project. Like my own highly technical real field research, right here in the Watcher Home Research Lab. Yeah, I spent about 15 minutes trying to touch various body parts with my eyes closed. This one’s even harder BTW if you try using your pinkies instead of your index fingers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#800000;">**Or your reflection in your office window, you big cheater.</span></p> <p>All three of these systems work together in a zillion really cool ways we take for granted. Here’s one you can check out right now: Pick up a paper with some writing on it. Now nod your head up and down vigorously, rapidly and repeatedly while reading it. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsfS8PlSI/AAAAAAAAI30/sdNm4klTHAI/s1600-h/HomeCE16.jpg"><img title="HomeCE1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="HomeCE1" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsgBrzFFI/AAAAAAAAI34/wGUI6-H3RH0/HomeCE1_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" width="443" border="0" height="283" /></a> No problem, right? Now keep your head still and bob the paper up and down with your hand while trying to read it.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHshOjXDLI/AAAAAAAAI38/Exam6OOMpow/s1600-h/HomeCE24.jpg"><img title="HomeCE2" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="HomeCE2" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsiMoLtWI/AAAAAAAAI4A/g9268_-4sEw/HomeCE2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="441" border="0" height="284" /></a> Way, way harder. In the second task you’re trying to consciously move your eyes to follow a target*; in the first task your vestibular and somatosensory senses were automatically and subconsciously keeping your eyes on track.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*The second task would probably be a bit easier if we had a higher flicker rate, which I explained in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazing-housefly-part-2-coolest-eye.html">this post</a></b>. Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything</i>. <span style="color:#c0c0c0;">Drink up!</span></span></p> <p>This is what’s going on as you stand, walk, run or ride a bike. Your visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems are working together seamlessly and elegantly to keep balanced, upright and looking ahead. And it all works great, until we come to a cliff.</p> <p>Let’s return to the visual sense. As you walk, run or bike- or even stand still- your head moves. While walking along a steady surface, or even while standing around, your body almost constantly moves in what’s called postural sway. While walking straight along a sidewalk your postural sway is minimal, maybe 2 cm side-to-side. Of course you don’t <i>feel</i> like you’re swaying because your vestibular and somatosensory senses are working together in your brain to align with the gently-swaying world-view coming from your eyes. In fact, your brain expects to see than swaying motion, not just from stuff you’re looking at straight ahead, but from stuff all around your peripheral field of vision, including the sidewalk/ground stretching out in front of you.</p> <p>To detect motion, an image needs to move a distance of about 1/3 of one degree (20 minutes) across your retina. At modest distances, several feet ahead of you, this is no problem. 2 cm of postural sway easily equates to >1/3 of a degree and the whole system works fine.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsimV-yRI/AAAAAAAAI4E/1ThTuVXHO0A/s1600-h/OG19.jpg"><img title="OG1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="OG1" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsjGNH4DI/AAAAAAAAI4I/jVLUVBTxNK0/OG1_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" width="428" border="0" height="326" /></a> But at distance of greater than 10 ft/3m or so, 2 cm is no longer enough to achieve 1/3 of a degree of visual arc, and so subconsciously, postural/head-sway increases ever so slightly.</p> <p>As distance increases, subconscious head-sway increases. At distances of 50-65 feet (15-20m), 10 cm of head-sway is required to produce 20 minutes of retinal visual arc. 10 cm of head/postural sway is generally in excess of the body’s ability to stand still upright. So when you walk up to the edge of a 50 foot cliff, and the ground “in front of” you is now 50 feet away, your brain’s natural tendency is to make you sway more in excess of what your combined balance system is capable of handling, and you feel unbalanced and experience immediate fear of falling. In effect, your visual inputs are in conflict with your vestibular and somatosensory inputs, leading to the imbalance, vertigo and fear associated with heights. </p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHsjpd2FsI/AAAAAAAAI4M/xWDto-S0IuA/s1600-h/OG24.jpg"><img title="OG2" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="OG2" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TOHskRsbZuI/AAAAAAAAI4Q/7AQoi9fJATw/OG2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="437" border="0" height="333" /></a> Side Note:</b> Your brain expects less postural sway when sitting or lying down, and that’s why it feels better to sit, rather than stand on the edge of a cliff.</span></p> <p>But as we’ve already seen, different folks react to heights differently. What’s going on with height-tolerant individuals and how are they different from height-<em>in</em>tolerant individuals?</p> <p>Acrophobia is the fear of heights, and we incline to categorize individuals who are uneasy around heights as acrophobic, but in reality height-tolerance is a continual spectrum, with height-seeking and acrophobic individuals on the ends, and varying degrees of height tolerance or intolerance in between. Fewer than 10% of height-intolerant persons are truly acrophobic, as defined by the experience of real anxiety when just <i>imagining</i> exposed heights. In the old days, acrophobia was suspected- like some other phobias- to be the result of childhood/developmental trauma (i.e. getting tossed in the air or dropped as a baby) but that idea’s since pretty much fallen by the wayside. Instead it’s believed now that the brains of height-tolerant persons automatically rely less on visual input in height situations, and more on their vestibular and somatosensory senses. In essence they dynamically and subconsciously alter the “balance” or effective weighting between the 3 inputs to de-emphasize the conflicting visual inputs.</p> <p>This makes sense. You don’t actually need 3 senses to stay upright. You can stand, walk or even ride a bike with your eyes closed, and there are plenty of blind skiers.</p> <p>What appears to be happening in height-intolerant individuals is that their brains do not effectively de-emphasize or “de-couple” visual inputs in height situations, causing imbalance, vertigo and extreme fear at or near cliff edges. The only difference between my brain and SkiBikeJunkie’s is probably that my brain is better at “visual de-coupling” <span style="color:#808080;">(my term)</span> than his. I’m not braver than he is around heights, because I simply don’t experience anywhere near the same level of fear.</p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> But my brain’s only “better” than his with heights till I ride off a cliff. There’s a reason so many people are height intolerant- falling off cliffs is a bad thing. And, if over the next few thousand years, a dozen or so more of my descendants than SkiBikeJunkie’s ride their bikes off cliffs, then perhaps my “aberrant” tolerance will be kept in check throughout the greater population.</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w9-1OfofRLw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w9-1OfofRLw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>The good news is that for most folks, height-intolerance can be eased through habituation. Climbers, mountaineers and construction workers all routinely become more height-tolerant with experience and time. Strong corrective eyeglass-lenses or sunglasses that limit peripheral vision may exacerbate height intolerance. Touching a wall or other stationary surface seems to help, as can a walking stick or trekking pole.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>But Why Are Heights Fun?</strong></span></p> <p>So maybe we’ve answered the initial question. But we haven’t answered the follow-on question: Why do I <i>like</i> riding exposed heights?</p> <p>At the opposite end of the spectrum from the outright acrophobics are the height-seekers- people who actively seek out and enjoy exposed heights. This group includes skydivers, climbers, hard-core mountaineers, para-gliders and ski-jumpers. I’m nowhere near this group, but I do derive enjoyment out of riding exposed trail sections. Why?</p> <p>The whole topic of risk- and specifically the evolutionary drivers behind risky behavior- is beyond the scope of this post, but we all know that some people actively seek it out. Many of us think of risk-takers as “adrenaline junkies” and tend to write them off with the same, “they’re just whacked…” attitude we assume when trying to understand UFO-enthusiasts or Sarah Palin supporters. But risk and risky-behavior is a far broader and more important topic than just base-jumping or bat-suits, and affects the lives of millions in everything from business to sex. Psychologists tend to break risk-takers into 2 groups: impulsive and contemplative. At first glance, you may equate “impulsive” with reckless, but it’s not always that simple. In business the impulsive risk-taker might well be the innovator with peaks and valleys of success and failure throughout his or her career, while the contemplative risk-taker may- or may not- enjoy a more measured career in which the successes overall outweigh the failures.</p> <p>If I am a risk-taker of any kind, it’s definitely of the contemplative sort. I walked the arch and the point before I ever rode them, and my career and personal life, while rewarding, have been marked by a personal conservatism that has sometimes lead to moments of “what-if” reflection about opportunities or chances not taken. Perhaps some of my pleasure- if it can be called that- in height exposure, comes in part from understanding the true nature of the risk and mastering my own (admittedly mild) unease with it. I ride away from the point- or arch- with a feeling not just of greater confidence, but of greater awareness of myself and my place in the surrounding environment, and a hint, a whisper, of a greater, almost expanded proprioceptive sense that knows and binds my mind not only with my own limbs and form, but somehow with that of the greater world around me. </p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7iGpWCyfcRc?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7iGpWCyfcRc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Note about sources:</b> My most useful, concise source for this post was <b><i><a href="http://www2.allenpress.com/pdf/weme-20-04-378-382.pdf">Love and Fear of Heights: The Pathophysiology and Psychology of Height Imbalance</a>, </i></b>John R. Salassa et al, which was based upon the work of Brandt, Bles, Arnold and Kapteyn. Other helpful sources include <a href="http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Campos_24.4.06.doc"><strong><em>Visual ProPrioception: Its Role in Wariness of Heights</em></strong></a>, David C. Witherington et al, the site <b><a href="http://www.pneuro.com/publications/dizzy/">Dizziness Explained</a></b>, Pennsylvania Neurological Associates, <a href="http://biolsport.com/fulltxt.php?ICID=919331"><strong><em>Sensation Seeking in Males Involved In Recreational High Risk Sports</em></strong></a>, M. Guszkowska et al, <a href="http://hsr-trans.zhsf.uni-koeln.de/hsrretro/docs/artikel/hsr/hsr2006_708.pdf"><strong><em>The Problems of Defining Risk: the Case of Mountaineering</em></strong></a><em>,</em> Viviane Seigneur, and <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blackwell-Development-Handbooks-Developmental-Psychology/dp/0631212353/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289797744&sr=8-1">The Blackwell handbook of infant development</a></i></b>, J. Gavin Bremner & Alan Fogel. Special thanks to Twins A&B for valuable research assistance, and to Fast Jimmy and KanyonKris for videography.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-34379131077964347622010-11-11T07:30:00.002-07:002010-11-11T10:03:28.381-07:00Desert Helmet-Cam Filler<p>I’m not going to get a real post up this week, so here’s some helmet-cam filler from last weekend. Several of us- <strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHyOW8aSW70">Coryalis</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SWtLpeLVpNI/AAAAAAAAC6k/ji_ggdR8-Jw/s1600-h/CCMacGyverSplitBoard5.jpg">Clean Colin</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SmY8izkWEwI/AAAAAAAAFbc/7BaagjlfZqE/s1600-h/IanMC4.jpg">Young Ian</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Sqg1gZt75NI/AAAAAAAAF-I/8MmpHr_yFDg/s1600-h/Collage%5B4%5D.jpg">Vicente</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/white-rim-take-2-fast-jimmy-mosquito.html">Fast Jimmy</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/4-new-foothill-flowers-5-axes-of-life.html">Hunky Neighbor</a></strong>, <strong><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1wfN65KYs8">Thorn</a></strong>*, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjsRvW-6i_Y"><strong>Westy-Tom</strong></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><strong>**</strong> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">and I- spent the weekend down on Gooseberry Mesa and had an awesome time. The weekend included perfect weather, stupendous riding (including 2 new fantastic trails), world-class star-gazing and Vicente’s out-of-this-world </span><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/Sqg1ex4RhyI/AAAAAAAAF-A/-8HDYHfehWg/s1600-h/Paella%5B4%5D.jpg">paella</a>.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*That’s not a nickname- his name’s really “Thorn”. Or maybe it’s “Thorne”; I didn’t ask how to spell it. Anyway, his name was the subject of several painfully bad puns when he got an actual thorn*** stuck in his foot.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Because he drives one of those VW “Westy” vans. Sorry, I am totally running out of clever nicknames.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">***Actually, I’m pretty sure it was a <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S2JsY-OLdTI/AAAAAAAAHWQ/uzqNVv8l2QI/s1600-h/Opuntia%20Spines%5B4%5D.jpg">spine</a> and not a <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S2JseUNuvNI/AAAAAAAAHW8/0N1Wb5KSa80/s1600-h/Thorns%5B4%5D.jpg">thorn</a>. I explained the difference in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/01/sonoran-twin-b-getaway-part-2-why-so.html">this post</a></strong>. Man, it is like I have a post for <em>everything</em>.</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksechtzJLkc?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ksechtzJLkc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object> <p>It’s a shame I don’t have more time to post this week; I had 2 good post ideas from the trip: an All About Prickly Pear post, and/or an Exposure* post, and why some people- like me- absolutely love it. Maybe I’ll get to one or the other next week. Anyway, if you want a real post about Gooseberry, you can check out the previous posts I’ve done on the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/gooseberry-helmet-cam-geology.html">super-cool geology</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/12/st-george-botany-in-3-mountain-bike_04.html">fascinating botany</a></strong> of the mesa.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*To be clear, I am talking about <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iGpWCyfcRc">this kind</a> of exposure. Not the <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLTlegKjRXI/AAAAAAAAIpM/ZlIKYkCj-D0/s1600-h/Watcher%20Colorado%20River%5B4%5D.jpg">other kind</a>.</span></p> <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OprJhogxEbo?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OprJhogxEbo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-3447475990456421392010-11-09T12:51:00.004-07:002010-11-09T12:57:35.193-07:00Berry-Go-Round #33 Is Up!<p><a href="http://10000birds.com/berry-go-round-33.htm"><strong><img title="cornflower" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="cornflower" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNmmS3bjR2I/AAAAAAAAI2Q/R3Kgp5Xgd8E/cornflower%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="147" align="right" border="0" height="122" /> Berry-Go-Round #33</strong></a> is up over at <b>10,000 birds</b>, with great links to everything from <a href="http://theroamingnaturalist.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/can-you-say-mycotrophic-wildflowers/">Pinedrops</a> to <a href="http://www.tripbase.com/blog/8-edible-flowers-from-around-the-world/">Cornflowers</a>* to <a href="http://dendroica.blogspot.com/2010/10/british-soldier-lichens.html">British Soldier Lichens</a>. Go <a href="http://10000birds.com/berry-go-round-33.htm">check it out</a>, especially if you’d like a boost of color and life on this gray Utah Fall day.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Cornflowers are stunning. I saw these over the summer close to some yards up in Pinebrook, knew they were exotic, but didn’t know what they were till <strong><a href="http://www.tripbase.com/blog/">Mara</a></strong>’s post.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNmmTTuvZ7I/AAAAAAAAI2U/vjZdZKCdteo/s1600-h/wwwlogo3b%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="wwwlogo3b" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="wwwlogo3b" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNmmUAJM8LI/AAAAAAAAI2Y/dFH7d1k260w/wwwlogo3b_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="135" align="left" border="0" height="142" /></a> November’s <strong><a href="http://berrygoround.wordpress.com/">Berry-Go-Round</a></strong> (#34) will be hosted right here at <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/">Watching the World Wake Up</a></b>. I <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/01/berry-go-round-13-winter-tough.html">hosted BGR previously</a>, back in January 2009, and it was a lot of fun, exposing both readers and me to a wide range of cool plant-related posts, as well introducing me to several great new (to me) blogs.</p> <p>For you plant-bloggers out there, if you have a recent or upcoming post you’d like included in the next BGR, I’d love to hear from you. If you’re a long-time plant-blogger, participation is an excellent venue through which to let old and new readers alike know what you’ve been up to. If you’re a new plant-blogger, it’s a great way to introduce new readers to your blog. Email submissions to me at <a href="mailto:adventureREMOVECAPSbotanist@yahoo.com">adventureREMOVECAPSbotanist@yahoo.com</a> (preferred), or you can use the <a href="http://blogcarnival.com/bc/cprof_3472.html">BGR submission form.</a></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SVt7U_fmkeI/AAAAAAAAC0w/yNcNjqDKClA/s1600-h/IMG_77705.jpg"></a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SVt7U_fmkeI/AAAAAAAAC0w/yNcNjqDKClA/s1600-h/IMG_77705.jpg"></a>All plant-related submissions are welcome, but of particular interest might be what plants are up to this time of year. November is a time of year when we- well, those of us in cold Northern climes where human beings were never actually meant to live year-round, anyway- usually sort of forget about plants. The leaves have all turned and fallen, we rake ‘em up, bag ‘em and hope it snows soon to cover our ugly brown yards so that we can get down to the serious business of shopping and overeating for the holidays. 5 or so months from now, when green things start popping up again, we’ll be like, <em>Oh hey there are plants here…,</em> but of course they’ve been there all along, and it’s amazing that these creatures that totally dominate the world can be so dormant and out-of-mind for so long across such huge expanses of it.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><strong><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNmmUcw-JII/AAAAAAAAI2c/2B-dsKQitpU/s1600-h/StickerPen%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="StickerPen" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="StickerPen" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNmmVWSmcFI/AAAAAAAAI2g/v9XnF62caY8/StickerPen_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="174" align="right" border="0" height="133" /></a> Special Submission Incentive:</strong> First 15* post-submitters <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">(whose posts I include**)</span> also will get a Fabulous <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/at-long-last-fabulous-prize.html"><strong>WatcherSTICKER</strong></a>!</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Because I think that’s about all I have left…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">**Because it needs to be at least nominally plant-related. See</span> <strong><a href="http://berrygoround.wordpress.com/hosting-and-submitting/">here</a></strong> <span style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">for details.</span></span></span></p> <p>For regular readers, if you’re not familiar with Berry-Go-Round, I’ve re-posted and updated the FAQ I used last time:</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><b><span style="font-size:130%;">Berry-Go-Round FAQ</span> </b>(v1.1)</p> <p><b>Q: What’s <a href="http://berrygoround.wordpress.com/">Berry-Go-Round</a>?</b></p> <p>A: BGR is a blog carnival devoted to highlighting recent posts about plant life.</p> <p><b>Q: What’s a Blog Carnival?</b></p> <p>A: A Blog Carnival is a recurring showcase/grouping of a number of different posts related to a common theme or topic. There are carnivals about all kinds of things- birds, geology, music, astronomy, business, writing- there’s even a carnival about kidney stones! Every month the carnival is hosted by a different blog, and that blogger links to a number of participating blogs. So it’s like a dozen or so posts in one.</p> <p><b>Q: Why should I care?</b></p> <p>A: Two reasons: First, you’ll get a nice, convenient pointer to a whole bunch of interesting plant-related posts. Second, you’ll learn about a number of blogs you’ve probably never heard of before, some of which might be interesting enough that you want to become a regular reader of them.</p> <p><b>Q: What if I don’t care about plants?</b></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SVt7Vr-Fx_I/AAAAAAAAC04/-g1Oscjnm5g/s1600-h/IMG_618211.jpg"></a><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SVt7Vr-Fx_I/AAAAAAAAC04/-g1Oscjnm5g/s1600-h/IMG_618211.jpg"></a>A: Here’s what’s going to happen when you die. You’re going to be buried in the ground. Eventually the coffin, urn or cereal box* containing your remains will fall apart and you’ll be mixed in with the soil. Eventually some plant will use organic nutrients- <em>your stuff</em>- from that soil to grow. So you are going to be a plant. Maybe you should learn something about them, so you know, you don’t come off as a total rookie plant in your next life.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I’m updating my will to be cremated, and the ashes buried in a Peanut butter Cap’n Crunch<i> </i>box. Man, I love that stuff.</span></p> <p><b>Q: But then won’t the plants be eaten by animals, like <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/all-about-moose-part-1-newer-than.html">Moose</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-1-navigation-magnetic.html">Pigeons</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html">Porcupines</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/3-ps-of-paunsaugunt-plateau-part-1.html">Pronghorns</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/mounds-of-brazil.html">Termites</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/10/stuff-on-trail-and-all-about-red.html">Squirrels</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/epic-ride-osmia-heaven-and-cool-lizard.html">Horned Lizards</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/06/patio-spider-part-1-prey-revisited.html">Woodlice</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/04/jeezum-what-is-flipping-deal-with-all.html">Box Elder Bugs</a>? And then won’t those things be eaten by things like <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/cougar.html">Cougars</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/magpies-part-1-basics.html">Magpies</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/06/patio-spider-part-2-pincer-fork-key.html">Spiders</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/weekend-cleanup-part-2-all-about.html">Yellowjackets</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/08/awesome-wife-bear-and-something-i-never.html">Bears</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html">Bats</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/high-plateaux-part-1-hoodoos-and.html">Bobcats</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/bug-rescue-part-2-dragonflies-are-way.html">Dragonflies</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-am-attacked-by-coyote-really.html">Coyotes</a> and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/07/steiner100-part-2-mallows-gilia-and.html">Rattlesnakes</a>? Won’t my stuff be part of those things too?</b></p> <p>A: Yup, and I’ve blogged about all those things too.</p> <p><b>Q: Wow, that’s awesome. This blog is way cool. I am <em>totally </em>checking out the next edition of Berry-Go-Round right here at Watching the World Wake Up.</b></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-39053065194261474332010-11-04T07:30:00.001-06:002010-11-04T07:30:01.881-06:00Bug Rescue Part 2: Dragonflies are Way Cool<p>After <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/bug-rescue-part-1-black-widow-karma.html">my ride</a> I showered, dressed and drove into the office. At about noontime I walked out the back door of our building, by the<a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJvA_YUXI/AAAAAAAAIz4/pQ_PRC05cko/s1600-h/IMG_7891%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_7891" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7891" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJvhZfNNI/AAAAAAAAIz8/LoEziVP83o4/IMG_7891_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" height="180" /></a> overhang and the bench where the smokers hang out, to run some errands. On the walkway about 10 feet from the door was this dragonfly, just sitting there. It was cool out, but not cold, so I wasn’t clear why it was sitting there. I picked it up while it flapped feebly (Dragonflies really can’t walk, as we’ll see in a moment) and placed it on the grass, thinking at least to get it out of the way of foot traffic. I sprinted back up the back stairs for my camera, returned to find her still in place, and snapped these photos.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Right by the back door of my office building is, as I mentioned, a little overhang with a bench where smokers hang out. Two of my coworkers- let’s call them “Aaron” and “Jimmy”*- are smokers, and I’ll frequently stop to say hi to one or the other on my way in or out of the building. Sometimes they’ll be chatting with other smokers, and other times just taking a break alone, quietly looking out across the creek, or toward the mountains in the background. And, I have to admit that deep down, I am a teeny bit envious. Smoking gives them an excuse to go outside, sit on a bench on a nice day and, for a few minutes, do nothing. Oh, I get that smokers also have to huddle outside on freezing days, but here in Utah it seems that there are, on the balance, more nice than bad days to pass a few minutes out-of-doors. </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Not to be confused with “<strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/06/white-rim-take-2-fast-jimmy-mosquito.html">Fast Jimmy</a></strong>”, who does not smoke, and is not a coworker.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Of course we non-smokers can also take mini-breaks, but since we don’t have an “excuse”, we’re more furtive about them, and spend them staring at our screens, pretending to work, while we read blogs or <b><i><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2273225/">Dear Prudence</a>*</i></b> or whatever.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*I always thought I’d make a great advice columnist. How do I get that job?</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Office smokers also tap into a little social network that we non-smokers are largely cut off from. There are probably a dozen other companies represented in our building; I don’t know a soul from any of them*. But Jimmy and Aaron are often chatting easily with smokers from several other companies, and so, oddly, smoking has expanded their world.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Except that crazy older woman with the spiky red hair who always tries to start up a conversation with me in the elevator. Or did, anyway. Now I always take the stairs.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Nested Tangent:</b> It’s probably expanded the world of Aaron- who is single- even more, as several of the smokers over the years have been attractive young women. For a while I teased Aaron about this, as I often came across him smoking/chatting with 2 particularly striking young women who worked at the multi-level-marketing company downstairs*, and whom I referred to- in what I always felt was a particularly inspired bit of double-entendre- as “the Smoking Hotties.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>*Special Footnote for Non-Utah Readers:</b> Every office building in Utah contains a multi-level marketing company. The products touted are almost always health/wellness-related, which is kind of ironic in that most of the people who actually work at these companies, uh, don’t look all that healthy.</span></span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Yes, I know that Aaron and Jimmy will likely pay for their pleasant downtime-breaks and expanded social world by, well, you know, dying horrible premature deaths and what-not, but that’s not the point. The point is- and I do have one- why do you need an excuse to go hang outside for 5 minutes in the middle of the day? If I just went out and sat on the bench and a coworker passed and saw me doing nothing, they’d probably think it a bit odd. But if I were smoking, well then that would be totally fine…</span></p> <p>The order <i>Odonata</i>, which includes both dragonflies and damselflies, includes some 5,500 species across all continents except Antarctica. The big obvious difference between dragon and damselflies BTW is the resting position of the wings. If it folds them back when at rest, it’s a damselfly; if it keeps them out at 90 degrees to the body, it’s a dragonfly.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail #1:</b> They also exhibit different mating flight patterns. Dragonflies generally mate while flying. Damselflies spend more of their mating time perched, but often fly- while connected- for short distances from perch to perch.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Every once in a while, you’ll see or hear about an animal doing something that looks really fun- jumping out of the water, swinging between tree limbs, flying rapidly through the air. I just want to point out that mating while flying sounds like about the funnest thing imaginable.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail #2:</b> <i>Odonata</i> appears to be monophyletic, meaning the group includes all of the descendants form a common ancestor. Dragonflies (infraorder <i>Anisoptera</i>) also appear to monophyletic. But damselflies (Infraorder<i> Zygoptera</i>) appear to be paraphyletic, in that one big genus (<i>Lestes</i>) turns out to be more closely-related to dragonflies than to any other damselflies. </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJxLae9mI/AAAAAAAAI0A/ndFoYHrAniQ/s1600-h/Odonata%20Phylogeny%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Odonata Phylogeny" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="Odonata Phylogeny" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJxqs9gvI/AAAAAAAAI0E/ip38PSAJ0yc/Odonata%20Phylogeny_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="431" border="0" height="328" /></a> This sounds kind of geeky, but it means that “Damselfly-ness”, specifically the hinged-wing mechanism, has to have evolved at least twice among the odonates, a cool example of convergent evolution.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*I explained monophyly and paraphyly in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/yellow-flowers-are-complicated.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p>The dragonfly I rescued is one of the most common species in North America, and if you’ve ever paid attention to Dragonflies you’ve almost certainly noticed it. It’s the <b>Common Green Darner</b>, <i>Anax Junius</i>, and its distinctive green color is a quick identifier, as is the apparent “bulls-eye” atop it’s forehead/“nose” when viewed from above.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJyH2ZZiI/AAAAAAAAI0I/qpqyzjcwa6k/s1600-h/GD%20sideview%20caption%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="GD sideview caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="GD sideview caption" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJyVlT2uI/AAAAAAAAI0M/es4bxiDe_dI/GD%20sideview%20caption_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="421" border="0" height="323" /></a> This one was most likely female, because the main part of the eyes are brown-hued. The long abdomen, consisting of 10 segments, is brown or dull/dark purplish in females, but often a bright blue in males. While we’re on the topic of gender, this is probably a good time to talk about the lifecycle of Dragonflies.</p> <p>If you know anything about dragonflies, you probably have heard that they develop through an aquatic “nymph” stage (pic right, <a href="http://www.ent.uga.edu/entoclub/">not mine</a>) <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJyzHoAFI/AAAAAAAAI0Q/kvvLZHW9UcM/s1600-h/Dragon%20Nymph%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="Dragon Nymph" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Dragon Nymph" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJzAzNLjI/AAAAAAAAI0U/Yfk5ZV-gpcg/Dragon%20Nymph_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="237" align="right" border="0" height="199" /></a> before emerging from the water and developing fully into flying adults. I’ve known this for a long time, and always thought of dragonflies, and other insects with an aquatic nymph stage, as sort of “amphibious bugs”; they spend a little time in a “child” stage in a pond, before getting on with, you know, their “real” life. But when I started learning about them, what really surprised me about dragonflies was how much of their lives- the vast majority in fact- is spent in the nymph stage. Green Darners commonly live as nymphs for up to 2 years, and other species live as nymphs for as long as 5 or 6 years. </p> <p>But an adult darner lives only for a couple of months. Think about how weird this is. We think of animals developing like mammals and birds and reptiles generally do- we’re born, we grow up quickly, and spend the majority of our lives in sexually mature adult form. But what if you were born, grew to about the size of an 8 or 9 year old, and then stayed that way for like 60 years? Then, right around when you collected your first social security check, you suddenly hit puberty, grew armpit hair and got interested in the opposite sex. But you had to hustle, because you only had a few years or so to marry and have kids before you dropped dead! That’s pretty much what the lifecycle of dragonflies (and many other insects) is like…</p> <p>A dragonfly’s life, therefore, is mainly a nymph’s life, which most of us never see. Dragonfly nymphs are fearsome aquatic predators. How fearsome? Did you ever see any of the <i>Alien</i> Movies?*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I love the original <i>Alien</i>. The various sequels never worked for me. But I loved the original. I’ve seen it like 10 times, and every time where it gets to the part where Sigourney Weaver goes back for that cat, I’m always yelling at the TV, <i>“Screw the cat! Just get out of there!”</i></span></p> <p>The super-scary alien-predator in the <em>Alien</em> movies had several fearsome weapons- spiked tail, <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJzl78ozI/AAAAAAAAI0Y/U7jOX7OKu2o/s1600-h/Alien%20inner%20jaws%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="Alien inner jaws" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Alien inner jaws" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJz1jrttI/AAAAAAAAI0c/xYoLtayaMy0/Alien%20inner%20jaws_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="158" /></a>long claws, acid blood, etc. But the most terrifying was its extendable jaw. Remember that? It would get real close to you, open its wide jaws menacingly, all fangs and drool, and then all of sudden, another set of jaws would jump out from inside its mouth and like rip your head off! Wasn’t that scary? Well that, more or less, is exactly the deal with a dragonfly nymph!</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ0Q45EVI/AAAAAAAAI0g/RR5OOxKEtzw/s1600-h/dragonflyNymph%5B5%5D.gif"><img title="dragonflyNymph" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="dragonflyNymph" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ0zZy9SI/AAAAAAAAI0k/-DKYJT-2J7k/dragonflyNymph_thumb%5B3%5D.gif?imgmax=800" width="145" align="left" border="0" height="119" /></a> The extending jaw of a dragonfly nymph isn’t positioned like the Alien jaws (i.e. it’s not inside the mouth) but rather the lower jaw, the labium <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(diagram left, <a href="http://coralnotesfromthefield.blogspot.com/2007/09/bite-me-twice.html">not mine</a>, and below, <a href="http://www.geol.umd.edu/%7Etholtz/G331/lectures/331arthr2.html">not mine either</a>)</span> is hinged and extendable. As the nymph closes on its prey, the labium jets out lightning fast, clamps down on the prey, and yanks it backward into its maw. I’d think that if you’re a mosquito larva or a small tadpole, it’s about the scariest thing imaginable.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ1YQFYdI/AAAAAAAAI0o/Cy-zdHLKx0s/s1600-h/mask2%5B3%5D.gif"><img title="mask2" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="mask2" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ186ZeWI/AAAAAAAAI0s/4vCF8juJjnU/mask2_thumb%5B1%5D.gif?imgmax=800" width="441" border="0" height="145" /></a> Nymphs molt between 6 and 15 times before climbing up the stem of an emergent plant* above the surface of the water, where they molt a final time, emerging at last as a winged adult. This final molt, BTW, which is followed by a wing-drying period, is one of the most vulnerable times of a dragonfly’s life. Although they’re fearsome hunters, they’re also regularly preyed upon by everything from birds to frogs.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*I explained emergent plants in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-that-grow-around-ponds.html">this post</a></strong>. Man, it is like I have a post for <i>everything</i>.</span></p> <p>As aerial predators, dragonflies feed upon all sorts of mosquitoes, midges, <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/05/road-trip-part-3-all-about-cedar-gnats.html">gnats</a></strong>, flies and other insects. Their 6 spiked legs, held in a basket-like formation as they fly, are used to scoop up prey toward the mouth.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ2b1yfDI/AAAAAAAAI0w/H4sfN5L9izw/s1600-h/GD%20spikes%20antennae%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="GD spikes antennae" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="GD spikes antennae" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ3JPvctI/AAAAAAAAI00/mhRzVqDhJqU/GD%20spikes%20antennae_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="441" border="0" height="336" /></a> In fact, scooping and perching are more or less the only things a dragonfly can do with its legs; they can’t really walk, and so if unable to fly are pretty much immobilized.</p> <p>Male Green Darners, like most male dragonflies, are territorial, and patrol their territory getting into tussles with interlopers, and looking for females. The male produces a sperm packet from the tip/10<sup>th</sup> segment of his abdomen, and then curls his abdomen under itself to deposit the packet in a small depression on the underside of his 2<sup>nd</sup> abdominal segment.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ3kpOG3I/AAAAAAAAI04/jjvPbVpULc4/s1600-h/DFMs1%20cut%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="DFMs1 cut" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="DFMs1 cut" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ4MqW23I/AAAAAAAAI08/6whl5vjkx8g/DFMs1%20cut_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="433" border="0" height="270" /></a> He then flies out and grabs the head of a female in mid-air, with the clasping genital tip of his 10<sup>th</sup> segment. Then, connected tip-to-head, the two fly around together for a while, in the dragonfly version of foreplay. Usually the male does the flying and just pulls the female along for the ride, but every once in a while the female might flap a for a bit while the male rests.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ4hjoSnI/AAAAAAAAI1A/S3P_zisKh9Q/s1600-h/DFMs2%20uncut%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="DFMs2 uncut" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="DFMs2 uncut" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ5E41uMI/AAAAAAAAI1E/s47ER8GtKAk/DFMs2%20uncut_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="427" border="0" height="286" /></a> After some period of time, the female bends her abdomen below her and up under the male’s abdomen to pick up the sperm packet with her genital opening. They fly around in this “wheel” position together for up to 15 minutes.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ5VZDJiI/AAAAAAAAI1I/SPakG9Rb_zU/s1600-h/DFMs3%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="DFMs3" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="DFMs3" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ5x_oxtI/AAAAAAAAI1M/RSJ0Cv1bY04/DFMs3_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="425" border="0" height="324" /></a> After copulation, different species do different things. A female <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SvozT9sHdkI/AAAAAAAAGvI/lcJa2_rnl3o/s1600-h/HPennant2%5B5%5D.jpg">Twelve-Spotted Skimmer</a>, for example, promptly disengages from the male and speeds off on her own to lay eggs on the surface of a nearby body of water. But Green Darners remain connected and fly to the water’s surface together, repeatedly, to lay eggs in multiple locations.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Dragonflies use the same XX/X0 chromosomal <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SvgaglaJQCI/AAAAAAAAGtQ/xBWuhl9fn0s/s1600-h/SDFF4.jpg">system of sex determination</a> used by Fruit Flies, which I described in last year’s <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazing-housefly-part-1-stabilizers.html">Housefly</a></b> series*. I had a hell of a time BTW determining the chromosome # of <i>A. junius.</i> I believe the diploid # is 27 (male)/28 (female) but this could be wrong.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Man, was that an awesome series or what?</span></p> <p>Damselflies, BTW, remain connected for egg-laying, but take it a step further. The pair lands on an emergent plant stem, then crawls down together- still connected- beneath the water’s surface where the female deposits the eggs into the stem of the plant. It’s suspected that the pair may do this together because the female requires the added strength/mass of the male to break the surface tension of the water and re-emerge into the air.</p> <p>One of the reasons dragonflies fascinate me is that, like sharks or scorpions, it’s a really old design that’s held up amazingly well. Think about it. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ6PRDImI/AAAAAAAAI1Q/NPWswpVF2mM/s1600-h/GD%20eyes%20closeup%20caption%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="GD eyes closeup caption" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="GD eyes closeup caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ6mV7nAI/AAAAAAAAI1U/qSiP-lw1hlw/GD%20eyes%20closeup%20caption_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="left" border="0" height="196" /></a> Tool-using hominids have been floundering along for maybe a couple of million years and already are in the midst of a wacky population explosion/environment-world-alteration that’s anybody’s bet as to whether they’ll survive it. Dragonflies have been around for at least 325 million years, and were not only one of the first types of insects to evolve flight, but were part of the teeny fraction of living creatures to survive the Permian extinction. And here they are today, thriving all over the world, with largely the same structure and hardware.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ7GqhRSI/AAAAAAAAI1Y/Nq5FLTUaPhk/s1600-h/Apposition%20Graphic%5B4%5D%5B6%5D.jpg"><img title="Apposition Graphic[4]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Apposition Graphic[4]" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ7TrN3MI/AAAAAAAAI1c/Q9O9CWsfeF0/Apposition%20Graphic%5B4%5D_thumb%5B4%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="236" align="right" border="0" height="182" /></a> One great example is the eye, which I won’t cover in detail here, because we covered it in the run-down of compound eye types I posted about in the Housefly series. You can check out <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazing-housefly-part-2-coolest-eye.html">that post</a> for details, but the key take-away is that the eye of the Dragonfly, an apposition compound eye, is the simplest and most ancient compound eye “design” there is. Compared to the eye of a <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SvozZZXrTNI/AAAAAAAAGv0/HbvYc3ArWJw/s1600-h/Neural%20Graphic%5B4%5D.jpg">housefly</a>, <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SvozV_08ZYI/AAAAAAAAGvY/iHbGeYiGZ-k/s1600-h/Refraction%20Graphic%5B4%5D.jpg">moth</a> or <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SvozWyrevvI/AAAAAAAAGvg/OUbqsy9LDUU/s1600-h/Reflection%20Graphic%5B6%5D.jpg">lobster</a>, it’s downright primitive. Yet dragonflies are stunningly successful visual hunters.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ71chTKI/AAAAAAAAI1g/bnsheXhEKtQ/s1600-h/Dragonfly%20Field%20Vision%5B5%5D%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="Dragonfly Field Vision[5]" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Dragonfly Field Vision[5]" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ9kS_FgI/AAAAAAAAI1k/sZwk31AFGxs/Dragonfly%20Field%20Vision%5B5%5D_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="210" align="left" border="0" height="160" /></a> Another example, one that also contrasts with the housefly, is wings. The wings of a housefly are highly-advanced, with the 2 rear ones having evolved into sophisticated tiny flight stabilizers called <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SvgaYaiQGNI/AAAAAAAAGsI/MHx_cC_wN0o/s1600-h/HaltereCloseup4.jpg">halteres</a>. A dragonfly by contrast is equipped with the same primitive 4-independent-wing system common to the earliest flying insects.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> I should mention that the whole topic of the evolution of wings and flight in insects is one of the big stumpers in evolution. There are lots of ideas, but still no consensus. With something like a <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/vegas-boondoggle-part-2-washes-swifts.html">bird</a></strong> or a <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html">bat</a></strong> or a pterosaur, even if we can’t figure out exactly how it evolved flight, it’s pretty obvious where the wings came from- the forelimbs. But there’s not an equally obvious wing-precursor-limb in insects. One thing that does seem apparent is that insects don’t seem to have been particularly successful or abundant before evolving flight…</span></p> <p>Yet dragonflies are awesome fliers. They’re fast and maneuverable, rapidly changing direction and accelerating on a dime to speeds of >60MPH. They can also fly backwards (though at only around 3% their maximum forward speed), and hover in place for up to a minute.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Know why they can’t hover longer? Because they overheat, which makes perfect sense when you think about it. Dragonflies do most of their flying at significant speeds, experiencing fast, cooling airflow. In the absence of that airflow, they run hot. Plus, their tracheal respiratory system- to which we will return momentarily- is more efficient in strong airflow.</span></p> <p>Dragonfly wings, though ancient in form, turn out to be remarkably sophisticated. They consist of largely clear membranes held in place by a network of veins. All dragonfly and damselfly wings have 5 primary veins. Some veins are darker and thicker than others, and these support portions of the wing that experience greater stress during flight. The wing has a notch/vein-junction on the forward edge called the <b>nodus</b>, that is critical to the strength and structural stability of the wing.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ-70gWNI/AAAAAAAAI1o/HI3U4tXudgk/s1600-h/GD%20features%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="GD features" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="GD features" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ_ZF0leI/AAAAAAAAI1s/SZ7wnxP6E6U/GD%20features_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="432" border="0" height="329" /></a> The wing does not form a smooth surface; if you run your fingertips across the surface of the wing*, it feels corrugated. But these corrugations aren’t random; their pattern optimizes airflow in a way that combines the advantages of a flat surface with an airfoil. Dragonfly wings cut through the air with minimal drag, making odonates some of the relatively few insects that are excellent gliders. Yet the wing, despite having no real curvature**, exhibits awesome lift properties. Human engineers haven’t developed anything like the dragonfly wing.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Only do this with an already-dead dragonfly. Man-handling the wings of a live dragonfly will likely mean its early demise.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**I should say “consistent curvature”. It could be argued that the wings exhibit a type of cumulative effective curvature. See sources for more details.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJJ_-8mcOI/AAAAAAAAI1w/dgNkb7h1Oco/s1600-h/GD%20Wing%20features%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="GD Wing features" style="border: 0px none; display: inline;" alt="GD Wing features" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKAZAFINI/AAAAAAAAI10/VcgC5T2hPwA/GD%20Wing%20features_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="440" border="0" height="335" /></a> Another cool feature of dragonfly wings is the teeny-weeny little opaque/colored patch on the front edge of the wing by the tip. I’d noticed these patches in the past and assumed they were simply decorative. But the patches, called <b>pterostigmae</b>, are highly functional. The pterostigma is a region of much denser cells that increases the mass of that portion of the wing and adds significant gliding stability. Gliding with a long, light wing is apparently more stressful than you might think, and the presence of these weighted patches is estimated to improve gliding efficiency by some 10-25%.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> While we’re on the topic of wings, it’s worth noting that these structures and characteristics <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKA3bkfiI/AAAAAAAAI14/FGlfU0YE5oM/s1600-h/carboniferous-swamp-71129148-ga%5B4%5D.jpg"><img title="carboniferous-swamp-71129148-ga" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="carboniferous-swamp-71129148-ga" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKBSwJSoI/AAAAAAAAI18/NsxcSSwFMWY/carboniferous-swamp-71129148-ga_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="166" /></a></b></span>of Dragonfly wings have been around for a very, very long time, even back in the Carboniferous period (300 – 360 MYA) <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">(artsy conception right, <a href="http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/photos/carboniferous-period/carboniferous-swamp.html">not mine</a>), </span>when dragonflies grew far larger than they do today, with wingspans of up to 28 inches. That implies that these huge dragonflies were still incredibly agile fliers, which would’ve been awesome to see, though probably a bit un-nerving were one to buzz close by…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">The presumed reason for large size was the greater concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere in the Carboniferous, likely over 30%*. The increased O2 levels would have made the tracheal respiratory system of insects** more efficient, allowing them to grow- and fly- at much larger mass.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Which is higher than the concentration necessary for wet wood to burn, and makes you wonder about the forest fires in those times…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >**Which I touched upon in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/hike-tree-spider.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);">What’s interesting about oxygen and bugs in the Carboniferous though is that although many other bugs grew much larger than they did today, not all of them did. Cockroaches for example, which also were around at that time, did not grow particularly large. In fact, I believe(?) that the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaberus_giganteus">largest cockroaches</a> that have ever lived are around today. In recent experiments researchers have raised dragonflies*, roaches and other bugs under hyperoxic (high oxygen level) conditions, and found that while dragonflies, and most other insects, grew bigger and faster than they do at normal O2 levels, the roaches grew at roughly half the rate the do otherwise, and their tracheal tubes were abnormally small.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Dragonflies are apparently a real bitch to raise in captivity. Feeding them is the problematic part…</span></p> <p>So what was my lady dragonfly doing just laying around on the sidewalk? Maybe she was old and about to check out. Maybe she was out hunting and nightfall caught her out and about. Or maybe, just maybe, she’d spent the night in unfamiliar country, in the middle of a migration. </p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKB2RmlUI/AAAAAAAAI2A/fdsLBtw2yck/s1600-h/IMG_7893%5B8%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_7893" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7893" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKCHjC6MI/AAAAAAAAI2E/TBvtjPI7Jco/IMG_7893_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="217" align="left" border="0" height="165" /></a> Out of thousands of dragonfly species, only a few dozen are known to be migratory. The Green Darner is one of those, but much about its migration behavior is still unknown. And in some respects, the more that becomes known, the more confusing the species and its behavior becomes.</p> <p>In the Eastern and central US, Green Darners are known to form huge swarms, numbering up to over a million, migrating South in the Fall. Their paths and destinations are not completely known, but swarms have also been reported in Central America, suggesting crossings of the Gulf of Mexico. Such crossings, if they do occur, are certainly possible. Although the maximum fat-reserve slight time of a Green Darner is thought to be only about 8 ½ hours, migrating dragonflies often feed while on long-distance journey, taking sustenance from what is known as “aerial plankton”, including tiny aphids, midges and spiderlings aloft in the sky.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The ~8 hour estimate comes from analysis of dragonfly body fat, which can account for up to 30% of body mass. Whoda thunk?</span></p> <p>Dragonfly migration, like that of monarch butterflies, is multi-generational; the dragonflies who fly South in the Fall are not the same individuals who fly North in the Spring. Long-distance migration is always awesomely impressive, but multi-generational long-distance migration even more so. How on Earth do they do it? Does every dragonfly have a built in instinctive geographic map and awareness of the world? Do they crawl up out of the swamp, do a final molt, and think, <em>“Oh hey, looks like I’m in Belize. Guess I better start flying to Ontario…”</em>? That’s hard to swallow. Insect brains are teeny-weeny-tiny, and in dragonflies, something like 80% of that teeny brain is believed to be devoted to visual processing. It seems unlikely that they could possess anywhere near that level of geographic self-awareness,</p> <p>To try and better understand dragonfly migration, researchers in the Fall of 2005 captured 14 Green Darners (1/2 male, ½ female), equipped them radio transmitters, and then monitored their positions for an average of 6 days each. What they found was that migratory flight appeared to follow simple, predictable rules. For example, the dragonflies migrated Southward roughly every 3 days. A Southward-flying day always occurred when the previous night was colder than the night before. Migration days tended to occur on days with lower windspeeds, and no dragonfly was observed migrating on any day where the winds gusted to over 16 mph. Winds were most often Northerly on migration days. Many of these behaviors are remarkably similar to migrating songbirds, who regularly mix up migrating and “stop-over” days over the course of their annual migrations.</p> <p>In other words, the behavior suggested that a dragonfly brain follows simple, almost Boolean, rules in migration and navigation, which might explain how something so small-brained might accomplish such impressive long-distance navigation and migration.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> There’s a wonderful analogy here that I can’t resist. Remember the <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TKMtRNffLMI/AAAAAAAAImo/j05v0zQ9YWE/s1600-h/LRACover5.jpg">Life Reference Architecture</a> tangent from the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/09/triangle-man-and-his-self-help-book.html">Triangle Man</a></strong> post? It’s like the Dragonfly brain contains a “Migration Decision Point”, a set of Boolean, context-driven rules, which guide its decisions in that part of its life. I wouldn’t be surprised if dragonfly behaviors in other areas- hunting, mating, predator-evasion- could be similarly encapsulated in Boolean format. Maybe the Reference Architecture is an effective analogy for how an insect brain works- a set of Decision Points that, in simple form, drive apparently complex context-based decisions.</span></p> <p>Green Darners don’t always migrate in swarms (and to my knowledge swarms don’t occur in the Western US). Sometimes they migrate solo, though again, it’s not clear how far or where. But fascinatingly, many Green Darners don’t migrate. Instead they over-winter, and do so in really cold places all over the US and Southern Canada. They over-winter not as adults, but as nymphs, in sort of a diapause, or delayed developmental state, under the ice in frozen ponds, wetlands, etc.</p> <p>So if Green Darners can over-winter in cold climes, why migrate? <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKCpaPudI/AAAAAAAAI2I/5Bt-L4hcy7E/s1600-h/IMG_7890%5B7%5D.jpg"><img title="IMG_7890" style="border: 0px none; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7890" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TNJKDKVMYcI/AAAAAAAAI2M/3uEa_-k2UkA/IMG_7890_thumb%5B5%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" border="0" height="180" /></a>A decade ago dragonfly researcher Philip Corbet suggested that maybe the migrants and non-migrants represented 2 distinct subspecies of Green Darner. Such an explanation would make sense. Maybe the non-migrants were Darners who had figured out how to survive the Northern winters, and were on their way to forming a new species of dragonfly. But subsequent research seems to have debunked the subspecies hypothesis. DNA analysis of nearly 100 Green Darners, both migrants and non-migrants, collected across North America revealed several distinct genetic lineages.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> This kind of lineage-analysis has been done with lots of creatures, including humans. You’ve probably heard of the “Mitochondrial Eve”, the presumed most recent common female ancestor of all people alive today. Subsequent research has suggested all sorts of more recent maternal and paternal lineages all over the world. A fascinating example is described in Brian Sykes’ <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Daughters-Eve-Science-Ancestry/dp/0393323145/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1288848833&sr=8-1">Seven Daughters of Eve</a>*</i></b>, which details research around the seven maternal lines from which the vast majority of Europeans appear to be descended within the last ~55,000 years or so.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*The concept and research of the book is fascinating. The fictional what-if chapters were a little less compelling for me.</span></p> <p>What researchers found was that both migrants and non-migrants existed in multiple separate Green Darner lineages, meaning that non-migratory (and/or migratory) behaviors had apparently come about repeatedly and independently, suggesting a significant degree of “plasticity” in migratory tendencies across the species. </p> <p>By now you’re probably getting an idea of why I characterized Green Darner migration as confusing. I don’t know where my lady dragonfly came from, or how she wound up on the walkway by the smoker’s hang-out. But I’m glad I stopped to check her out. Second bug rescued.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note About Sources:</b> I had awesome sources for this one. Thanks to friend and fellow nature-blogger <b><a href="http://romp-roll-rockies.blogspot.com/">KB</a></b> for her help in accessing materials. General info on dragonflies came from National Wildlife Federation<strong><em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/National-Wildlife-Federation-Insects-Spiders/dp/1402741537/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288849406&sr=1-1">Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America</a></em></strong>, the <b><a href="http://www.insectsofwestvirginia.net/">Insects of West Virgina</a></b> website, <b><a href="http://www.suite101.com/">Suite101.com</a></b>, and the <b><a href="http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html">Tree of Life web project</a></b>. Info on dragonfly wings and aerodynamic properties came from <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11003823"><strong><em>Aerodynamic Characteristics of Dragonfly Wing Sections Compared with Technical Aerofoils</em></strong></a>, Antonia B. Kesel. Info on Green Darner migration swarms, behavior and genetics came from <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17148394"><em><strong>Simple rules guide dragonfly migration</strong></em></a>, Martin Wikelski et al, <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1674/0003-0031%281998%29140%5B0325:MSMODO%5D2.0.CO%3B2"><strong><em>Massive Swarm Migrations of Dragonflies (Odonata) in Eastern North America</em></strong></a>, Robert Russell et al, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2311.2003.00521.x/abstract"><strong><em>Genetic diversity and widespread haplotypes in a migratory dragonfly, the common green darner Anax Junius</em></strong></a>, Joanna R. Freeland et al and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Phylogeny%20of%20the%20Dragonfly%20and%20Damselfly%20Order%20Odonata%20as%20Inferred%20by%20Mitchondrial%2012S%20Ribosomal%20RNA%20Sqeuences"><strong><em>Phylogeny of the Dragonfly and Damselfly Order Odonata as Inferred by Mitchondrial 12S Ribosomal RNA Sqeuences</em></strong></a>, Corrie Saux et al. Additional swarming info came from <a href="http://dragonflywoman.wordpress.com/"><strong>The Dragonfly Woman</strong></a>, the blog of entomologist Christine Goforth, which I recommend for anyone interested in dragonflies.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-29664095199948016922010-11-02T07:00:00.000-06:002010-11-02T07:00:06.706-06:00Bug Rescue Part 1: Black Widow Karma<p>Friday I rescued 3 bugs*. All were interesting, and I’m going to try to blog about all 3. The first one is easy, because I’ve blogged about it before. So I’ll just share a couple of quickie-pics, point you to the way cool details in the prior post(s), and then hopefully get a couple of real posts up on the other bugs later in the week.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Actually, none of them was a true bug, which I explained in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/04/jeezum-what-is-flipping-deal-with-all.html">this post</a></strong>. Specifically, I rescued an arachnid, an odonate and an orthopteran.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><strong>Tangent:</strong> It occurs to me- as it probably has to you- that on the heels of a 5-part series covering the <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLvJLyTLgfI/AAAAAAAAIrE/ysu5Srr5L6g/s1600-h/Upper%20Tuckup%20geo%5B4%5D.jpg">geology</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-3-high-times.html">flora</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-2-old-rocks-ancient.html">archeology</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-5-river.html">hydrology</a> and (a bit of) <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVNsVO_GI/AAAAAAAAIyA/Q4KsJ1WQKlM/s1600-h/RedSpottedcaption4.jpg">fauna</a> of- of all places- the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-1-lost-in-space.html">Grand Canyon</a>, posting about rescuing bugs may seem a bit tame, if not outright parochial, in comparison. To which I have a 2-part response:</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;">First, as much as I’d like to spend every week <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/05/twin-corral-box-canyon-part-1-videos.html">hiking canyons</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/costa-rica-part-4-all-about-cloud.html">exploring cloud forests</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/04/vegas-boondoggle-part-1-daggers-moths.html">biking deserts</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-search-of-blue-pinon-part-1-of-6.html">searching for rare trees</a>, <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/08/awesome-wife-bear-and-something-i-never.html">running away from bears</a>, making <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/gooseberry-helmet-cam-geology.html">helmet-cam geology</a> videos and <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/11/mountain-biking-moonlight-color-vision.html">camping with friends</a>, I am, alas, unable to do so. So to <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/03/point-of-this-blog.html">watch the world wake up</a>, I must do a fair amount of that watching a bit closer to home.</span></p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;">But second, many of the posts I’ve most enjoyed doing (and learned the most from) have been home-turf posts, blogging about everything from <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/02/pigeon-week-part-1-navigation-magnetic.html"><strong>pigeons</strong></a> to <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/magpies-part-1-basics.html">magpies</a></strong> to <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazing-housefly-part-1-stabilizers.html">houseflies</a> </strong>to <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/10/astroweek-part-1-compass-clock.html">stargazing</a> in the backyard to <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know.html">porcupines</a></strong> and <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/04/dandelions-are-way-cool-part-1.html">dandelions</a></strong>. </span><span style="color:#c0c0c0;">So get over it. I have- just while writing this tangent. Which BTW, is the real secret of the tangents in this project: they are wonderfully therapeutic.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-MypJM5GI/AAAAAAAAIzI/0qUEVkSaOBc/s1600-h/BW15.jpg"><img title="BW1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="BW1" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-Mz4rQheI/AAAAAAAAIzM/P1O8SpSmfWo/BW1_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="200" align="left" border="0" height="152" /></a> Friday morning I was riding the Shoreline trail before work right around dawn. I’d climbed Dry Creek in the semi-darkness, switched off my light at the first valley overlook, and was cruising along the next flat stretch, when I spotted a big, dark spider just sitting in the middle of the trail. I stopped to check it out, and it was pretty obviously a <b>Black Widow</b>, <i>Latrodectus Hesperus.</i> I flipped it over with a twig and confirmed the red hourglass on the underside. It was alive and moving, but very sluggish, presumably from the cold. It was probably a female- big, black and shiny, with a round abdomen.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M0RbfXWI/AAAAAAAAIzQ/Hg-qXzixo3M/s1600-h/BWidowDetails14.jpg"><img title="BWidow Details1" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="BWidow Details1" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M1Eu4jHI/AAAAAAAAIzU/63-mn7AO1D8/BWidowDetails1_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="439" border="0" height="334" /></a> I posted about Black Widows 2 years ago when I found one hiding in a pile of bricks in my garage. In the <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/black-widows-part-1-chemistry-of-venom.html">first post</a></b>, I highlighted their venom, which is about 15 times as potent as <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/07/steiner100-part-2-mallows-gilia-and.html">Rattlesnake</a></strong> venom, and, were it delivered in comparable quantity, would be routinely fatal to humans. The venom contains at least <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M17okZAI/AAAAAAAAIzY/ySnkAnsCjTk/s1600-h/BW211.jpg"><img title="BW2" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="BW2" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M2e-9EPI/AAAAAAAAIzc/FyCJnmhze_w/BW2_thumb7.jpg?imgmax=800" width="206" align="left" border="0" height="157" /></a>7 different toxins, 5 of which work on invertebrates, 1 of which works on vertebrates (us) and the last of which appears targeted specifically for woodlice.*</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Which posted a bit more about in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/11/weekend-clean-up-part1-garage.html">this post</a></b>, and then finally did justice to in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/06/patio-spider-part-1-prey-revisited.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p>What was she doing in the middle of the trail? Males do go wandering about in search of females, but adult females generally park it in a web and stay put unless disturbed or threatened. Sitting out in the middle of the trail like that, with the usual hordes of trail runners and mtn bikers only an hour or so behind, she didn’t stand a chance; she’d be smushed like a Darkling in no time.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M2x5lKTI/AAAAAAAAIzg/ecUUY-5oOuo/s1600-h/BWidowDetails24.jpg"><img title="BWidow Details2" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="BWidow Details2" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M3uJwVLI/AAAAAAAAIzk/BL-rPoU6lDQ/BWidowDetails2_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" width="435" border="0" height="331" /></a> My <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/06/black-widows-part-2-lust-and-brick-pile.html">second</a></b> Black Widow post, which focused on lust, ended with the spider escaping in my garage and me worrying about how to root it out. About a week or so later I happened across her out in the open and promptly squashed her. I hadn’t seen a Black Widow since.</p> <p><span style="color:#0000ff;"><b>Tangent:</b> As I hinted in the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/gumweed-darklings-and-killer-mice.html"><strong>Darkling</strong> post</a>, over the last year or so I’ve been going through sort a My-Name-Is-Earl thing with respect to bugs, and little critters in general*, trying to avoid squashing them and moving them out of harm’s way when possible. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M4Ia77hI/AAAAAAAAIzo/O1GaXJUBtwY/s1600-h/TwinB155.jpg"><img title="TwinB15" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="TwinB15" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TM-M457lhNI/AAAAAAAAIzw/dp60hoPbYJ8/TwinB15_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" width="181" align="right" border="0" height="138" /></a> Part of this is likely driven by just being a nature-freak-bleeding-heart-enviro-softie, and part of it is probably connected to my evolving worldview and perspective regarding the nature of self. But I suspect the lion’s share of it has been driven by the Gandhi-like example of Twin B, who never squashes a bug, and goes out of her way to help out little critters in trouble.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;color:#0000ff;">*Including a bird, a <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-things-that-fly-around-ponds.html"><strong>bat</strong></a> and a toad down in Florida 2 weeks ago.</span></p> <p>Using 2 twigs I gently lifted the Black Widow up off the trail and deposited her in the brush a foot or so downhill. First bug rescued.</p> <p><span style="color:#800000;"><b>Note About Sources</b>: As longtime readers <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/03/dangers-of-riding-on-clay.html">know</a>, I do not own an electron microscope. The spinneret inset is from the <a href="http://www.mnh.si.edu/"><strong>Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History</strong> website</a>.</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9199848742267562587.post-17501509388476144172010-10-28T07:00:00.001-06:002010-10-28T07:00:07.087-06:00Grand Canyon Part 5: The River<p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVBxc5wJI/AAAAAAAAIwo/t5BFq3I6EHE/s1600-h/IMG_75884.jpg"><img title="IMG_7588" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7588" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVChtwpOI/AAAAAAAAIws/-tqPh4vxZKQ/IMG_7588_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="240" width="180" /></a>We moved our camp down to the next- and only real other- junction in Tuckup, that of the main canyon and the Northeast arm, pausing to down-scrabble and hand off packs several times. Shortly before arriving at the junction, we passed under a feature I’ve encountered spanning no other canyon on the Colorado Plateau: a conglomerate arch.</p> <p>I explained conglomerate rocks last year closer to home, in <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/city-creek-part-3-rocks-global-warming.html">City Creek Canyon</a>. The hunk of conglomerate that the arch is carved out of is similar, though I’m sure it formed at a different time. But I don’t know when it formed. I suspect it was deposited in an existing channel in the Muav, but at a much later time than the Temple Butte formation we scrambled up in the <a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-4-alcoves-hanging.html">last post</a>. But I haven’t pinned it down in any of my geo sources*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*My best guess is that it was deposited in the last million years. I know that there are deposits from basalt flows in Tuckup and its tributaries laid down between 700K and 1M years ago. The arch/bridge appears to be made of conglomerate, not <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/S_WYczxsauI/AAAAAAAAH20/hNQ6wqNAWQI/s1600-h/VBreccia14.jpg">breccia</a>**, but I wonder if some of the eruption and flow events of that period could be related to the deposits that formed the conglomerate. Just a hunch.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**Which I explained in the <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/05/city-creek-part-3-rocks-global-warming.html">same post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVDNEELlI/AAAAAAAAIww/PFuJxszuJ9s/s1600-h/IMG_75985.jpg"><img title="IMG_7598" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7598" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVDZ5BoDI/AAAAAAAAIw0/7tsKzmLJDJQ/IMG_7598_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="156" width="205" /></a> In any case, it’s not technically an arch, but a natural bridge, in that water runs under it. Specifically it’s a waterfall natural bridge, a type that is created by <strong>subterranean stream piracy</strong>*, which is a fancy term for when the flow of a stream gets diverted underground into openings/crevices beneath. The flow eventually undercuts the surface, leaving a bridge supported by the former stream banks.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Is that the coolest term ever or what?</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVD7DsifI/AAAAAAAAIw4/2nrNFGyhAGQ/s1600-h/SSPiracy10.jpg"><img title="SS Piracy" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="SS Piracy" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVESrA5qI/AAAAAAAAIw8/tbTBOKeKP2U/SSPiracy_thumb6.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="250" width="431" /></a> The arch looks crumbly and fragile- like it’s going to fall on you any minute. Guidebook author George Steck claims that it’s stronger than sandstone, but The <a name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a href="http://www.naturalarches.org/">Natural Bridge and Arch Society</a>* calls it a “relatively fragile structure.” In any case, we didn’t try jumping on it.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Man, it is like there is a society for <i>everything</i>.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVFGXbdTI/AAAAAAAAIxA/bb6HWi8Iv40/s1600-h/IMG_76876.jpg"><img title="IMG_7687" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7687" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVFiDwdOI/AAAAAAAAIxE/N-DXJXjgNz0/IMG_7687_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="212" width="162" /></a> Our new camp was one of the coolest sites I’ve ever camped at, on ledges maybe 30 feet above the canyon bottom, with easy access to water, plenty of flat space for sleeping (pic left = my sleeping bag on ledge), cooking and lounging, and an overhang for rain protection (not that we needed it.) And the view from the “porch” was fantabulous, though our night sky was just a narrow band between the canyon walls. Ledge sites are nice also because you cook and sleep on rock, not sand, which means that everything- you included- feels clean, not gritty. If the site had any logistical downside, it was the necessary hike/scramble to access enough soil to dig a cat-hole*.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*To, you know, poop.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> While I’m on the topic, decent campsites in Tuckup Canyon are extremely limited. <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVGQwNjII/AAAAAAAAIxI/TtfcnF1S4As/s1600-h/Bedview5.jpg"><img title="Bed view" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Bed view" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVG0lNhbI/AAAAAAAAIxM/Pc5BUEG0TLQ/Bedview_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="214" width="163" /></a></b></span>This is because the canyon is narrow pretty much the whole way from about a mile below <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLvJOpdnWTI/AAAAAAAAIrU/ksPOW06qYZA/s1600-h/IMG_7520%5B4%5D.jpg">Shaman’s Gallery</a> on down to the river, which makes for great hiking, but tricky bedding. Really the 3 main camp-able spots are the junction with <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMSpywkLOJI/AAAAAAAAIwg/_R8zFa1yC_g/s1600-h/Tuckup%20View%20West%20from%20Esplanade%5B4%5D.jpg">Cottonwood Canyon</a>, the junction with the Northeast arm, and the beach on the river. Fortunately the Park Service limits the number of backpackers in the canyon via a permit system, but competition for sites is still possible.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVHuo53BI/AAAAAAAAIxQ/J5R-Ymoc6LQ/s1600-h/ASteveholecaption5.jpg"><img title="ASteve hole caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="ASteve hole caption" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVIAPJZeI/AAAAAAAAIxU/DHcwJTwU-HM/ASteveholecaption_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="138" width="181" /></a> We spent the afternoon exploring the Northeast arm, a fun scramble of ledges, chutes, pools and tunnels, before returning to camp, eating and crashing.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> Something else about camping. It was remarkable how much warmer the nights became as we progressed down-canyon. <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLfVFSxaoVI/AAAAAAAAIp8/53X3Y7Y7N1U/s1600-h/AZ%20Strip%20Southern%20Sky%20October%5B9%5D.jpg">Thursday night up on the rim</a> at ~5,800 feet there was frost when I awoke. At the Cottonwood Canyon junction (~2,700 feet) it got down into the low 50’s. At the Northeast arm junction (~2,100 feet) it didn’t get below 60F the whole night. Oddly, the days were still quite pleasant, never above ~75F.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVIYp9iCI/AAAAAAAAIxY/6BqxQQQlGrA/s1600-h/IMG_75576.jpg"><img title="IMG_7557" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7557" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVJBX3q0I/AAAAAAAAIxc/GpOM9fjpazk/IMG_7557_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="155" width="120" /></a> The next morning we packed lunch, rope, a couple of carabiners and headed down-canyon. By this point there was water pretty much continually, and after a couple of miles we reached a deep pool with a little waterfall that looked difficult to climb back out of an the return. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVJaww3VI/AAAAAAAAIxg/WHhn3n0kadI/s1600-h/BrightAngel5.jpg"><img title="Bright Angel" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Bright Angel" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVJ38CxXI/AAAAAAAAIxk/AbtmKE381ig/BrightAngel_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="270" width="206" /></a> We backtracked a short way and found a faint bypass trail that soon climbed high up above the canyon bottom. The (very exposed) trail followed a sloping band of shale-y soil that I realized was the Bright Angel Formation, consisting of extremely fin-grained shale laid down some ~515 - 530 million years ago that always forms slopes, erodes easily, and sometimes has a faint green-ish tinge. The green color comes from Glauconite, which is a kind of mica that forms in sediments either as or after they transform to solid rock.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVKT0QyJI/AAAAAAAAIxo/ps95bg7q7lg/s1600-h/IMG_76695.jpg"><img title="IMG_7669" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7669" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVKwOMEtI/AAAAAAAAIxs/HRogNZmsCNE/IMG_7669_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="83" width="63" /></a> Side Note:</b> We passed under a huge, exposed hanging garden here, probably fed by seeps occurring where the Muav limestone meets the Bright Angel shale.</span></p> <p>Dropping back into the canyon bottom, we were on/in rock again, but now a different rock- the Tapeats Sandstone. Tapeats, laid down ~530 – 545 MYA is thought to have been formed in tidal flats, tidal channels and beach deposits in and by a <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVLV7DxnI/AAAAAAAAIxw/jZxu7ftnc5s/s1600-h/IMG_76664.jpg"><img title="IMG_7666" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7666" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVMUDE4rI/AAAAAAAAIx0/U2FtAIjxgbI/IMG_7666_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="180" width="240" /></a>Cambrian sea. It features frequent ripple marks and trilobite fossils. From a hiker’s perspective, it seems to erode into many, many horizontal ledges, forming open plazas separated by repeated staircases. In spots where it gets steeper, the ledginess provides ample finger and toeholds.</p> <p>In and by the larger plaza-pools, we began to notice a number of toads, which on closer inspection, were decorated with bright red spots. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVM_D-YrI/AAAAAAAAIx4/j6VblfNsE4Y/s1600-h/IMG_76655.jpg"><img title="IMG_7665" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7665" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVNNODjFI/AAAAAAAAIx8/ONl9VU1PaMw/IMG_7665_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="146" width="191" /></a> These are <b>Red-Spotted Toads</b>, <i>Bufo punctatus</i>, and they are opportunistic breeders of the desert Southwest. Normally nocturnal, they became unusually active following rains, quickly mating and laying eggs in pools. The eggs hatch in about 3 days, and mature into toads in 6-8 weeks. The same rains that caused us such trouble on the drive in were the reason we were seeing so many of them now by day. They don’t “croak” like traditional toads, and we thought them curiously silent. But later I learned that their “croak” sounds more like the high-pitched “chirp” of a cricket, and that perhaps a few of the occasional “crickets” we heard in the evening were actually male Red-Spotteds seeking mates.</p> <p><i><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVNsVO_GI/AAAAAAAAIyA/Q4KsJ1WQKlM/s1600-h/RedSpottedcaption4.jpg"><img title="Red Spotted caption" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline;" alt="Red Spotted caption" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVOOLbH5I/AAAAAAAAIyE/5bh2-eBDYl8/RedSpottedcaption_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" border="0" height="327" width="429" /></a> Bufo</i> is a huge genus, with around 150 species occurring worldwide. As a rule they’re lousy jumpers (especially compared to frogs) and the Red-Spotted Toad tends to walk/shuffle more so than jump (they’re ridiculously easy to catch.) To compensate for their lame mobility, many <i>Bufo</i> species exude defensive, toxic skin secretions. <i>Bufo boreas</i>, for example, the common and widespread <b>Western Toad</b> (which you’ve undoubtedly seen if you live in the Western US and often hybridizes with <i>B. punctatus</i>) produces skin toxins that repel many predators. Other species produce skin poisons that can kill a large mammal that eats them, and some of these poisons, such as that secreted by <i>B. alvarius</i>, the <b>Sonoran Desert Toad</b>, are hallucinogenic (leading to the whole licking-toads-thing, which- like Datura- I recommend you not mess around with either.) But Red-Spotteds produce no such toxins that I’m aware of (which is maybe why they’re nocturnal).</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVOkeJbfI/AAAAAAAAIyI/zCa9FYfUqhE/s1600-h/IMG_76365.jpg"><img title="IMG_7636" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7636" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVPGuP-AI/AAAAAAAAIyM/wAJiIAImYaA/IMG_7636_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="162" width="212" /></a> One of the interesting things about a worldwide genus is where it came from. In the case of <i>Bufo</i>, this question has been the subject of various hypotheses for decades. The greatest diversity of species seems to be in South America and Africa. One hypothesis was that they originated in Africa, spread throughout the Old World, and then migrated to the Americas via (an earlier incarnation of) the Beringian land bridge. Another proposed the exact opposite, with a South American origin. But more recent genetic evidence seems to suggest elements of both, and yet neither, hypotheses.</p> <p>Apparently <i>Bufo</i> originated in Gondwanaland back when South America and Africa were either still connected, or close enough for them to spread between the 2 continents. The African <i>Bufo</i>s colonized the Old World, and the South Americans colonized the New. As the 2 groups did so, they adapted to different yet similar environments, creating morphological similarities that confused earlier researchers, and which had to be unraveled through DNA analysis.</p> <p><i>Bufo</i>’s story within the Americas is pretty cool: all North American <i>Bufo</i> species North of central Mexico appear to be monophyletic, the result of a single migration event. Central Mexico is a barrier for many species, particularly a water-loving amphibian. And even more interesting, though it’s not clear exactly when the earlier<i> Bufo</i> pioneers reached Central America from South America, it appears almost certain that it happened before the 2 were joined via the Great American Interchange*. This is less trivial than it sounds. Toads have water-permeable skins, and are adapted to fresh water**. Sticking most toads in saltwater is a good way to kill them. So continent or island hopping- even via <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/SZwLKJocMQI/AAAAAAAADZA/YXLy47zA2bc/s1600-h/RaftingNewWorld4.jpg">rafting</a>- by a freshwater toad is a pretty tricky undertaking. Whatever the specific details, it appears that not just Red Spotteds, but many of our most common toads in the US, have a fantastic migration history.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Which I explained in <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2008/08/cougar.html">this post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**The so-called “Salt Toad” of California, which is actually a subspecies of Western Toad, may be an exception. It lives in salty swamps. The Marine Toad, <i>B. marinus</i>, cannot tolerate seawater, despite its name.</span></p> <p>We continued down-canyon, each bend revealing a new series of plazas, pools and little waterfalls.</p> <p>In March 1985, my college roommate* and I flew to Phoenix for Spring Break. <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVPqJTZMI/AAAAAAAAIyQ/5J-AFkYsHpU/s1600-h/IMG_76415.jpg"><img title="IMG_7641" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7641" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVQLovNSI/AAAAAAAAIyU/cR2Nc_nDN0I/IMG_7641_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="212" width="162" /></a> We rented a car**, drove up to the South Rim, and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. At the time of course I knew next to nothing about the Grand Canyon, or the wider Colorado Plateau in general, but I was blown away by the scale and beauty of the place. In the decades following, I’ve moved out West, spent countless long weekends exploring the Colorado Plateau, often on the fringes of the Grand Canyon, and in the course of doing so learned plenty about the flora, geology, human and natural history of the region. But somehow, even after a quarter century of exploring and dinking around in the backcountry, I’d yet to return to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. So I was really, really looking forward to reaching the river.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*Yup, “Dan” from the <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/10/grand-canyon-part-3-high-times.html">Datura post</a></strong>.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">**In 1985, an under-25-year-old could still rent a car. And you could reserve a bunk at the Phantom Ranch with about 2 week’s notice.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Tangent:</b> Moments like this lead me to where-does-the-time-go type thoughts. 25 years is a long time, and I never imagined it would take so long to return. It just seems like we never have enough time. In a comment to my last post, <strong><a href="http://kanyonkris.blogspot.com/">KanyonKris</a></strong> mused about the benefits of slowing down the aging process so that we could enjoy more years of old age. But when I think about it, I’m not really sure the long-and-healthy-retirement-dream is the answer*. We already live for several decades- plenty of time to get around to doing, well, everything. I suspect that if we were given another couple of healthy decades, we’d just manage to suck that up with busy-time as well.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:78%;">*Besides, if we all live healthier and longer, we’re all going to retire later. The demographics won’t support an ever-increasing pool of long-lived geezers retiring in their 60’s.</span> </span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">The irony here is that when you do something really cool, like hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, you <i>remember</i> it. I can barely remember what I did a month ago at work. And if you asked me to list things I remembered over the last decade, hardly any of the events or happenings I recalled would be work-related. Remembering stuff is worthwhile; it’s high-value. The stuff of our brains, the material <i>us</i>, is constantly being replaced. There really is no <i>you*</i>. What there is, is the <i>story</i> of you, the storybook you build over your lifetime and carry around in your here-right-now ephemeral head. And that storybook is written from experiences recorded as memories**. If you’re not recording new memories, if you’re not doing stuff worth remembering, then your storybook isn’t being written anymore; it’s just sitting on the shelf, no matter how “busy” and “active” you seem to be…</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*I went into this in more detail in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2009/09/twin-the-henry-mountains-mailbox-and.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**I went into this in more detail in <b><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/08/things-you-remember-around-ponds.html">this post</a></b>.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">Dropping out and being a deadbeat isn’t the answer. Although money doesn’t bring happiness, lack of it, ironically, brings great and consuming <em>un</em>happiness. The trick is figuring out the balance. That sounds easy, but it’s not, because social interaction, by its very nature, drives us off-balance. We constantly compare our attitudes, values and lifestyles to those of whom we interact with. That’s not a bad thing; we learn and grow from the examples around us, and that interaction can lead us to improve and excel scholastically, professionally, athletically and otherwise. The challenge is structuring our lives so we’re regularly and continually doing stuff in the things-we-remember category and making sure that we’re prioritizing our big high-<i>value</i> goals (hiking down Grand Canyon, learning a foreign language, visiting New Caledonia) alongside our big high-<i>necessity</i> goals (key family relationships, raising offspring, providing for loved ones.)</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">You can’t do everything. So if you’re going to make the balance work, you have to figure out what you’re <i>not</i> going to do, or spend time and cycles on. I call this Selective Disentanglement (SD), which is probably just a fancy term for “figuring out what I should blow off…” I think I’ve been getting better at SD over the last few years, and over the coming year, I’m going to try and ratchet it up a notch…</span></p> <p>A short while later we came to the expected final pour-off, a 40-foot drop we’d need to detour around. Steve, walking ~30 feet ahead of me reached it first. He looked down, raised an arm, and called “Hi!” About a dozen people stood down below looking up, the first “others” we’d seen in a couple of days. They were rafters, hiking up from the river. There was water falling from the pour-off in a little waterfall. In the closed space of the canyon it made quite a little racket, and we had to shout to hear each other. I called down, <i>“How far to the river?”</i></p> <p><i>“200 yards- you’re there!”</i> came the shout back.</p> <p>Steve and I backed up 30 yards or so and found a place where we could pick our way up, <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVQYhvlqI/AAAAAAAAIyY/gEX-SPN6W-A/s1600-h/IMG_76615.jpg"><img title="IMG_7661" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7661" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVRGOlrnI/AAAAAAAAIyc/ViNifqFFaBg/IMG_7661_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="178" width="233" /></a>above and around the pour-off on the West side. We traversed a bit further, and then found it- the chute from the guidebook we’d need to down-climb. It wasn’t especially technical (maybe a 5.3?) but it was exposed and far from help. We rigged a hand-line for Steve to descend first, to a ledge ~ 20 feet above the canyon floor. I followed, bringing the line with me to use for the last portion of the descent.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Side Note:</b> If you do this trek and are a risk-averse non-climber, bring 2 ropes and 2 carabiners. There’s a good bolt for each section. The first rope should be 50 feet, the second one 20. If you’re not coming back up, one 100 foot rope (to pull through) will be fine, A hand-line is fine; you don’t need to rappel.</span></p> <p>Two of the rafters* backtracked to watch our descent, and gave Steve helpful toehold guidance on the down-climb. When we arrived on the canyon floor they introduced themselves as Lou and David, and offered us food and beer at their camp. Together we picked our way down the last few bends of Tuckup Canyon. </p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*The rest of the party, which included 2 climbers (they actually own a climbing gym back home in Tennessee) managed to ascend the pour-off and day-hike further up-canyon.</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVRdDDYGI/AAAAAAAAIyg/0ChqD_pXa80/s1600-h/IMG_76604.jpg"><img title="IMG_7660" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7660" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVR_raV0I/AAAAAAAAIyk/gbaC0Mw4Jl0/IMG_7660_thumb2.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="240" width="180" /></a> I asked them how the water was <span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">(with a mind to go for a dip…)</span> David replied, “It’s f***ing* muddy!”, and my heart leapt. In the old days, before the dam, the Colorado was pretty much always muddy/silty. But after the dam was built, the river ran with cold green waters from the bottom of Lake Powell, and that’s how I saw it 1985. But the rains of the past week had flushed mud and silt out of the side canyons, filling the river, and making it appear, temporarily at least, like its old self.</p> <p><span style="font-size:78%;">*The rafters, with their Tennessee twangs and “colorful” language, were highly entertaining to listen to. The F-word graced every other sentence. Our favorite usage-instance was when one of them, relating a story about a nude sunbather they had encountered earlier in the trip, used it in the middle of the word, “asleep”, as in “a-f***ing-sleep!)</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> The post-dam, colder flows have led to significant changes in the canyon. Cold-water trout have replaced native Squawfish and Chub in many places and prey upon their young. At least 3 native fish species have disappeared entirely. The presence of trout in the now-clear waters has attracted <strong><a href="http://watchingtheworldwakeup.blogspot.com/2010/01/bald-eagle-and-my-new-years-resolution.html">Bald Eagles</a></strong>, who first appeared in the canyon in the mid 1980’s. Then there’s the whole beach/shoreline/vegetation thing, but that’s a whole post in and of itself…</span></p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVSbIDMII/AAAAAAAAIyo/ILYV5CTuTQA/s1600-h/IMG_76425.jpg"><img title="IMG_7642" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7642" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVTWjK4gI/AAAAAAAAIys/7SZmcja05qk/IMG_7642_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="151" width="198" /></a> As we walked the last little ways down Tuckup we began to hear a distant “wind” or sound. First a whisper, then building, the road of the river. Around the final bend through the Tapeats slot, the wind was accompanied by a growing light- the bright, wide-open-space daylight of the inner gorge. Steve and I walked faster toward the light and the roar, Lou and David trailing a bit behind us, like modern-day guardian angels.</p> <p>And then all of a sudden the slot <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVT4slRQI/AAAAAAAAIyw/njl_GUuH9dY/s1600-h/IMG_76486.jpg"><img title="IMG_7648" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7648" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVUXGdGqI/AAAAAAAAIy0/YOSnLJBPKfM/IMG_7648_thumb4.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="168" width="220" /></a></span>opened up into the inner gorge, and there was light and sky and noise and a highway of roiling, fast-moving water before us, in all of its opaque, muddy glory and power and wonder, backed on the far side by nearly vertical Tapeats cliffs, and finally, 25 years later, I was back.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><b>Geo-Tangent:</b> What I had expected to see, but did not, was one more geologic formation- the Vishnu Schist. Almost 2 billion years ago, in what is now Northern Arizona, a mighty mountain range built up of metamorphic rock. The world was different then; when those mountains began to rise, Earth was fresh from the Oxygen Catastrophe, when recently-evolved cyanobacteria first filled the ancient air with oxygen*, and the ensuing Huronian Glaciation**. A day was only 20 hours long, and a year contained 450 of them.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >*Initially the freed oxygen combined with (oxidized) iron. But when no more could be oxidized it began to accumulate in the atmosphere, causing a mass extinction of anaerobic microbial life.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);font-size:78%;" >**An earlier, similar, “Snowball Earth”-type event.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVU5lCvQI/AAAAAAAAIy4/mGRnonRyV-M/s1600-h/InnerZoom5.jpg"><img title="Inner Zoom" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="Inner Zoom" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVVbfwe1I/AAAAAAAAIy8/NVAcW55JVO0/InnerZoom_thumb3.jpg?imgmax=800" align="left" border="0" height="158" width="207" /></a> The mountains rose and rose, till they towered high as the Himalayas. Over millions of years following, seas washed over and gradually eroded them down to their base. But the roots still lie there, and elsewhere in the canyon, further East, up around Phantom Ranch, the ancient rock, the Vishnu Schist, is exposed below the Tapeats sandstone, lining the inner gorge.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Extra Detail:</b> Between the Tapeats and Vishnu formations lies the Great Unconformity- hundreds of millions of years of missing rocks that were eroded away prior to the formation of the Tapeats by advancing seas. In some parts of the canyon intervening Pre-Cambrian layers appear- Chuar, Nankoweap and Unkar- and where they do, the Great Unconformity defines the missing layers between them and the Tapeats, while an earlier gap- the Pre-Cambrian Unconformity- defines the missing layers between them and the Vishnu.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">But (as I learned later) at the Western end of the Grand Canyon the Vishnu is not exposed, and the Tapeats continues clear down to the river in near-vertical cliffs. The roots of the Old World remained hidden beneath us.</span></p> <p>Lou and David produced beers and snacks, which seemed wickedly luxurious in the middle of a backpacking trip. I kicked off my shoes and ran my toes through the warm sand while we <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVWKjsI_I/AAAAAAAAIzA/y5A0kXYC90k/s1600-h/IMG_76477.jpg"><img title="IMG_7647" style="border-width: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" alt="IMG_7647" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TMjVWtFN3VI/AAAAAAAAIzE/WpnceL7N3-0/IMG_7647_thumb5.jpg?imgmax=800" align="right" border="0" height="149" width="196" /></a>chit-chatted about our trips. After a few minutes I got up and wandered barefoot down to the water’s edge. I stood for a moment, taking in the noise, light and tumult of the river, then <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_6LWjP0sZ22w/TLTlegKjRXI/AAAAAAAAIpM/ZlIKYkCj-D0/s1600-h/Watcher%20Colorado%20River%5B4%5D.jpg">stripped</a>, waded out hip-deep, and plunged into the silty Colorado.</p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);"><b>Note About Sources:</b> As with earlier posts in this series, much of the geologic info came from Bob Ribokas’ <b><a href="http://www.bobspixels.com/kaibab.org/home.htm">Grand Canyon Explorer</a></b> site, Stephen R. Whitney’s <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Grand-Canyon-2nd/dp/0898864895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278456848&sr=8-1">A Field Guide to the Grand Canyon</a></i></b> and Wikipedia. Additional geologic and hydrological info for this post came from <a href="http://www.grandcanyon.org/booksmore/epubs/origin/pdfs/34-volcanic_rocks_of_the_grand_canyon_area.pdf"><strong><em>Volcanic Rocks of the Grand Canyon Area</em></strong></a>, George Billingsley, <strong><em><a href="http://bulletin.geoscienceworld.org/cgi/content/abstract/88/2/199">Deposition of the Tapeats Sandstone (Cambrian) in Central Arizona</a></em></strong>, Richard Hereford, and the website of the <b><a href="http://www.naturalarches.org/">Natural Arch and Bridge Society</a></b>. Info on the Red-Spotted and other toads came from David Williams’ <b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Naturalists-Guide-Canyon-Country-Williams/dp/1560447834">A Naturalist’s Guide to Canyon Country</a></i></b>, the <b><a href="http://www.desertmuseum.org/">Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum</a></b>* website, Thomas Scott’s <b><i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=LorrYj5pkKYC&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=%22salt+toad%22&source=bl&ots=Kz9eyeoZo1&sig=1WDEw4GAibj7zYBlPo9HnNY3-uA&hl=en&ei=A4HITIG7HIeqsAOnsvT9DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=%22salt%20toad%22&f=false">Concise Encyclopedia Biology</a></i></b>, and <i><strong><a href="http://www.blogger.com/The%20History%20of%20a%20Nearctic%20Colonization:%20Molecular%20Phylogenetics%20and%20Biogeography%20of%20the%20Nearctic%20Toads">The History of a Nearctic Colonization: Molecular Phylogenetics and Biogeography of the Nearctic Toads (Bufo)</a></strong>,</i> Gregory B. Pauly et al.</span></p> <p><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 0);font-size:78%;" >*Can you believe I have not been there yet? How is that possible?? Adding to the high-value goal list right now…</span></p>Watcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02248341788957416471noreply@blogger.com3