Into town in the heat

Thursday May 19, 2011
Paso Duro Canyon
Site 20
Canyon, Texas

We were out running the Paseo Del Rio Trail
to the Rojo Grande Trail and back
for a total of 4.5 miles at 7:15 this morning. 
Our effort to beat the heat.

David took his camera and got a few pictures
of the trail as it ran through the trees

and toward the canyon walls

We passed the cairn to
Shal-A-Ko
The Rainmaker

 
Doesn’t seem that he’s been listening to the prayers.

There were lots of birds out this morning
and I was wishing I’d been hiking with my binoculars
and camera rather than running.

The trail was beautiful and
very narrow in parts.

At the end we passed one this dug out
which was one of the first permanent
homes in the canyon.
It had a wire screen across the door
so you could no longer go inside to
experience how cool an earthen home is.
The park had to protect it from
vandalism. 
It always amazes me when I see the
graffiti and defacement that people
do to lovely and interesting places like this.

After a delicious omelet breakfast
we slipped Winnona’s sox on to
keep her tires from getting sunburned
J

and then sat out in the shade of our picnic table cover.

It was around 11am and 76 degrees with a light breeze. 
Very pleasant for checking out
the information I’d acquired about the park and its hiking trails.
David was organizing all the business information and
calls he still needed to make.

Today was one of the few days
that I’ve just sat outside in my recliner doing
the sorts of things I used to always do in my “former life”.  
Reading, writing, thinking, pondering, planning. 

It was very relaxing and nice. 
Not having any phone or internet does have its advantages.

Here’s the view from my chair

looking toward the little stream at the back of our site
where the water is very low.
This area has been having an extreme drought
for quite some time now.
May is usually their month of most rain.

I heard one person mention that
”the rainy season is almost over
but there hasn’t been any rain since October”.
It’s VERY dry here.

Amazing how we had just come from far far too much rain
into a place that would love to have some of it.  

The weather seems to be getting more extreme with
stronger hurricanes, more frequent and violent tornadoes,
droughts, floods.  
Does it seem that way to you, or is it just me? 

The sound of the leaves rustling in the wind was soporific. 
Because of the stream, we have cottonwood trees,
along with the usual mesquite and juniper trees.
All waving in the breezes.

I’m familiar with the juniper tree
since it is a relative of what the folks in the east call
the Eastern Red Cedar 
which isn’t actually a cedar at all, it’s a type of juniper. 
But I was not familiar with the cottonwood
or the mesquite which are the other two
dominant trees in this canyon.

Wild turkeys wander through the campsites
calling to each other.
This was the view out the front window
this morning when they came around.
Don’t know if Duckie recognized the fellow fowl.

David had more pressing phone business
than he was able to get accomplished
before we came down into the canyon. 
Phone messages to retrieve and respond to.

 
Since it was 80 degrees in the shade at noon
and 10 degrees higher than that in the sun,
we determined that he could not sit in the car
at the top of the canyon in order to use the cell and internet

So, during the heat of the day,
we made a trip into the town of Canyon
and McD’s for their free Wi-fi
and a cool spot for phone calls.
While there I posted my final blog for a few days.
And I’m still WAY behind.

The temperature was well into the 90’s
by mid afternoon and the sun seemed to be blazing hot. 
I think part of our feeling of being totally drained
just by the little we were out in it
is the abrupt change in just a week
from the cooler rainy temperatures
we had been accustomed to.

We got back later than planned and after making dinner
didn’t think we had enough time to do
the two mile hike we had hoped we might do
in the cool of the evening before the 8:45 sunset.

We were both a tad irritable in the afternoon
due to the heat and
the need to do this business stuff
but have big plans for tomorrow.