Happy Halloween!

I decided to carve a kitty in this years pumpkin.

Mazatzal Mountains

Tahoe and I backpacked into the Mazatzals this weekend. We took the Saddle Mountain Trail to Sheep Creek Trail.

Since it's a transition zone, it's really diverse. I saw everything from hedgehog cacti to ponderosa pine.

There was a small section of Arizona Sycamores, and they were beautiful.

There are lots of old mine shafts in these mountains. When I entered this one, I was assaulted by flies; they were everywhere. I got creeped out, thinking there might be something dead in there, so I left.

I never found the fabled Squaw Flat Spring, but I did find this seep a few minutes from our campsite. It looks gross, but it tasted pretty good.

Wow! I found many gigantic mounds of scat. They must be from bears, and from the looks of it, I would guess this one really, really likes seeds.

Coatimundi

We were exploring near the campsite,when I saw a coatimundi, only the second one ever! It ran up a tree and made weird clicking noises and jumped all around, causing sticks and pinecones fall on us. It obviously did not like Tahoe's presence at all.

First, it ran up the tree on the left and then jumped over to the right one. You can see it way up near the very top of the tree. I could tell he was no going anywhere with Tahoe around, so we let it be and hiked up to the top of a mountain.

Here's our view. When we got back to camp, the coati was gone.

Birthday Boy

Tahoe is 4 years old today! He celebrated his birthday by going backpacking this weekend. He also had a bath and got to chew on a huge bone.

Ditch Day

I skipped school today, so Tahoe and I went hiking at South Mountain. It's nice having the country's largest city park 20 minutes from my house, and now the weather is cool enough (a brisk 90) that we can go during the day.

Tahoe lingered a little longer than necessary at the shady entrance to the rock tunnel.

This is Fat Man's Pass. I had to take off my Camelbak to squeeze through. There is a way around the crack, but that is no fun.

After the hike, I went to Cyclo, my favorite Vietnamese restaurant and ate tofu & veggies. Yum! I think I need to play hooky more often.

At least she eats her vegetables

Greta decided to try corn on the cob. After her first bite, she was in heaven, and she started making these weird happy meowing noises. I think Boulder was annoying her, so she ran into the kitchen, dragging the corn the whole way, and attempted to finish it off in peace beneath the kitchen table. However, her mean owner intervened and took it away.

Javelina Food

Javelina love this time of year when the prickly pear fruit is ripe and juicy.

How old am I?

My birthday party was a lot of fun. Wendy, thank you for helping me figure out my age since, apparantly, I have been wrong for an entire year. On a happier note, my little brother is becoming quite a lush. Good job, Chris!

Oh no! Now they can find me anywhere. So much for getting lost.

Cowboy showed Chris that he really is a lap dog. Maggie took on the role of alpha female.

Killer Views!

OK, we'll try this again. My commentary on these pics is below. Thanks to those of you who let me know when my pics don't appear. For some reason, that happens sometimes, but I can still see them on my computer. I know that makes no sense.

Woodchute Trail

Tahoe and I were very excited as we set out on the trail. Sometimes I have trouble getting his pack weight distributed evenly, so this time I gave up and stuck a small rock in one side of his pack, and it worked like a charm.

The trail begins in a transitional zone, so there is an interesting mix of desert and forest plants. I saw several agave families like this one. There were also lots of juniper, ponderosa, and even some large patches of sweet smelling sage.

It was the perfect time to see the fiery yellow oak leaves.

There's no water on this trail, except this nasty cow tank which I refuse to drink from. I have only resorted to drinking from a tank once, and after filtering the water twice, and it still smelled like crap.

Woodchute Wildlife

I saw two little horny toads.

We sat down to rest, and this little inch worm fell on me. I think it was in a tree.

I didn't see any big animals, but judging from the scat, coyote and deer live around there.

Killer Views!

This is one of my top 5 favorite views in Arizona. You can see everything: Verde Valley, Cottonwood, the red rock of Sedona, and the San Francisco Peaks. There was a small fire to the right of the peaks, maybe a controlled burn.

I had planned on camping near the edge of the cliff, but it was so windy that I decided to head back into the forest.

Normally I have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep, but stick me in a tent, and I'll sleep 12 hours! Tahoe always gets up earlier than me, so I just unzip the tent, and he wanders around outside and then comes back when he's done.

I was surprised to find this tree across the trail. It was not here when we hiked in. The strong winds must have pushed it over during the night.