Water in the Desert

I'd planned to hike to a cache near the microwave towers on New Years Day but that got trumped by the chance to hike to a brand new cache behind Tortilla Flat for the First to Find. It was another week before the rain let up enough that I could approach this cache without wearing rain gear.

The cache description mentioned passing a memorial to a lineman that I wanted to see. The college campus that I managed has a lineman program which helped me develop a real respect for the challenges of their job. This individual was a young journeyman lineman who was electrocuted while repairing the power line to the microwave station. His family visits this memorial often and keeps it clean and fresh.

The next day, in spite of the cold (to us) weather, BJ and I went back out to the Hawes Trail area for a hike. That week of rain had me anxious to get outside.

There was snow on the portion of Four Peaks that we could see

and water running in the wash normally dry wash.

It didn't look like much at the top, but was doing a good job as it dropped down through the cut.

Talking with other hikers that are out in the area on a regular basis, most had never seen it flow before. A couple fellows said it wasn't flowing the day before so we were especially fortunate to witness it. Typical desert dwellers - complain about a week of rain, and then celebrate water flowing in the desert...

On a different subject, our old dog has been learning new tricks. Turk has been in booty training, hoping to keep thorns out of his paws with some upcoming desert wandering in Quartzsite. He really didn't like them at first. Still doesn't, but he's doing better