Minutes for Meeting of 09-17-2003

WELCOME BACK RAMBLERS-
    -Ramblers meet every Wednesday at 5pm in the Forbes Bldg. in room
307.
    -Our new meeting place is the rock wall across the street from the
east side of Tyndall Parking Garage. Here is a map of the location
http://clubs.arizona.edu/~ramblers/wall.html

    -Don't worry if you don't have a car. We carpool from our meeting
place.

PAST HIKES:

Joe and about 6 others hiked the Butterfly Loop trail on Mt. Lemmon.
This is an area that was burned out by the Bullock Fire last year. They
saw lots of new growth, waist high plants and aspens growing from their
old root systems. Lots of flowers too. Ended up doing 10 miles, which was
further than anticipated.

Steve, Will and Markku spent the weekend in Goldstrike Canyon just below
Hoover Dam on the NV side. The canyon was flooded recently and several
hot springs soaking pools were filled with gravel and sand. They were
able to find pools to enjoy, and spent Saturday scrambling down the
canyon to the Colorado River. There was a large group of kayakers who
paddeled up from Willow Beach. They checked out the sauna "cave", actually
a tunnel dug by the dam builders but abandoned when a spring was hit.
Unfortunately, access to these springs will be limited while the dam
bypass is constructed, possibly starting in October of this year and
lasting up to 4 years. Wildlife included an encounter under moonlight
with a rattlesnake, many ducks on the river, lizards with spiney legs and
although none were seen during this trip, ringtale cats who take advantage
of any food brought in by hikers. Here are some pics from the trip:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/steve_newcomb/hikes/GSSept

Wolfgang was also up in the Catalinas last weekend, and crossed paths with
Joe's group. His destination was Novia Spring, which is along the Butterfly
trail. Also stopped at several areas along the Catalina Highway to survey
the Aspen fire damage. Saw lots of patchy areas containing pristine areas,
totally scorched ones and everything in between. Stopped at Molino Basin,
at the prison camp and hiked up to a vista of the east fork of Sabino
Canyon. Saw more patchy burned areas, mostly bushes and brush.

Wolfgang did this over the summer:

I did an interesting trip during June, getting up as far noth as North
Dakota. First, I left Tucson and stood the 1st day and night at Canyon de
Chelley, where I did some hiking the next morning. This allowed me to
finish something, which I started on a previous trip. Then, I went up to
Mesa Verde National Park, where I also hiked and visited some of the Indian
ruins and petroglyphs. I, then, did some day hikes in the San Juan
Mountains, such as along the Piedra River, where I saw this king snake, and
camped at Wolf Creek near Pagosa Springs. The hiking in those cool forests
and at those higher elevations with all those pine trees was so enchanting.
Then I spent on entire day driving from Wolf Creek up to Torrington,
Wyoming, passing through Colorado Springs, Denver, Ft. Collins, and
Cheyenne, Wyoming. I cvamped at a campground near Torrington, getting an
early start to drive north to Jewel Cave National Monument in western South
Dakota. I went on the ranger guided walk inside the cave. It was very
interesting! After eating lunch, I went to Wind Cave National park, where I
visited that cave also, on a ranger walk. I was particularly intrigued by
some of the geologic formations inside, called boxwork. I did some day
hikes the rest of the afternoon and evening and then did some more hiking
the next morning, inside Wind Cave National Park. I enjoyed hiking through
the prairie dog towns and seeing the bison. Then I did several hikes in
Custer State Park, which included a hike up to the high point in the South
Dakota, which is Harney peak. It was cold and windy, but the views were
spectacular, and the hike through the forests in the Black Hills was
enchanting. This was actually the 1st time where I also did some hiking in
a national grassland. From there, I visited Mt. Rushmore, which was an
interesting "side trip". I found it really interesting to learn about how
those faces of those presidents were carved into the rock. I also found
that I now have a greater appreciation for President Theodore Roosevelt,
who was so instrumental in the establishment of National Parks and National
Monuments. From there, I went to the Badlands National Park, and I did some
interesting hikes there, such as on the Castle Trail. I also saw some
interesting birds, such as the Magpies, which are in the raven family. Then
I drove north to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, where I
spent 4 days hiking. I did encounter rain, but I still did some hiking.
That National Park is also very enchanting, and I liked it more than
Badlands National Park. Part of the reason is because it isn't so well
known and there were fewer people. There, I also saw prairie dogs, bison,
birds, and some lizards. Heading south, I proceeded down to Wyoming along
the Belle Fourche River, stopping at Devils Tower National Monument, which
Theodore Roosevelt also helped to establish. I hiked around the tower twice
on 2 different loop trails, That is an interesting geologic formation. Form
there, I headed west into the Bighorn Mountains, where I did a hike and
spent the night. I also went south to the town of Thermopolis, where I
spent most of the day swimming and soaking in the hot springs. In addition,
this was the 1st time in my life that I went on a water slide, and it was
fun! I headed south to the Uinta Mountains in Utah, Flaming Gorge, and then
Dinosaur National Monument. I did stop at their visitor center to see the
disosaur bones and excavation work; however, the interesting part of the
time there was hiking around at various places. One of those hikes started
at some historic cabin and went up this canyon with red rock. Then I hiked
to some petroglyphs, and I also hiked in another section, which reminded be
of the badlands in South Dakota. I headed south, where I hiked and camped
at Hovenweep National Monument, before returning to Tucson. This was an
extremely interesting time, which was for almost 3 weeks.

In August, I was on a "mini-vacation" in northwest New Mexico and southwest
Colorado, where I was at Chaco Canyon, the San Juan Mountains, and Mesa
Verde. This was a trip, where I did several hikes, which involved Indian
ruins. In Chaco Canyon, I visited the ruins of Pueblo Bonita, Chetre Ketl,
Tsin Kletsin, Kin Kletso, and the Pueblo Alto complex. In the evenings,
they had presentations at the visitor center, where they had the 25 in.
telescope set up. We had the opportunity to see the Whirlpool Galaxy (in
Ursa Major) and the globular star cluster, M13 (in Hercules). The views
were spectacular. Mars was still too low on the horizon; however, it was
good to see Mars at its closest to the Earth in 60,000 years. Amazing!

I did some hikes in the San Juan Mountains near the Animas River, and also,
spent 1/2 day at Chimney Rock, which also has some interesting Anasazi
ruins. Last, I went to Mesa Verde. where I was in June, basically, to see a
few things I didn't see last time. On my return home, I was a little north
of Flagstaff, and I encountered a big hail storm. The ground was covered
with fallen hail that I thought at first, there was snow on the ground. (It
appeared as if Flagstaff had its summer snow storm.)

On this trip, I also encountered interesting wildlife, such as cottontail
rabbits, mule deer, lots of ravens, turkey vultures, night hawks, and, at
the campground at Mesa Verde, a lot of (about 12 - 15), wild turkeys. On
this trip, I had a great time!

FUTURE HIKES:

Joe will lead a hike to Tanque Verde Falls on the east side of Tucson. Meet
at the Wall (Tyndall and 4th St.) at 2 pm Sunday. Bring 2 quarts of water,
lunch, something to swim in (unless you're daring) and sun protection (lotion,
hat, etc.). You might want to bring sandals as well to enjoy the pools. Contact
jleisz@AG.ARIZONA.EDU if interested.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

     -On September 24th we will have a slide/photo competition. The five
favorite entries will be used to illustrate our website. Each person is allowed
three entries and they must be either emailed or handed to Hanna by the end of
the meeting on September 17th. Hanna will prepare the presentation and the
during the meeting on the 17th, all present will choose the winners. Your
slides/photos will be returned to you at this time. Please contact Hanna at
haacoy@yahoo.com for more information or to submit any digital entries.

    -If you need the list of Ramblers gear or want to borrow some,
please contact Mary.  maryft@email.arizona.edu.