Or, what are they up too now?
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| Crew update: Or, what are they up too now? |
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| With Zugunruhe stripped down and secure, we headed back home in April, not sure if we would be back to make the bash up the coast to San Diego or let her sit in La Paz until fall. It only took a few weeks at home, settling in and catching up, to decide that we were not yet done cruising in Mexico and so, Zug sits in the water, sealed up, hoping for a mild hurricane season come September. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back on the home front, between working part-time and home tasks, we brushed up on our climbing skills before starting a new season of banding Golden Eagle chicks, a volunteer project we have been involved with for the last three years. Much of April and May was spent off and on in San Diego's backcountry assisting our good friends at the Wildlife Reasearch Institute. Each year during the months of April through June WRI undertakes a project to band and wing-tag all of the Golden Eagle chicks born in the San Diego County area. Highly endanged in our region, Golden Eagles have a preference for remote and inaccessible places, making this a difficult task. Rarely are all of the identified youngsters banded as some nests are nearly impossible to get to. (Check out WRI at Wildlife-Research.org) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cheri and our friend Dave from WRI in a cliff nest with a Golden Eagle chick. This little guy is about 5 to 6 weeks old. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| RIGHT: If you look very closely at the the picture on the right you will see a memeber of the banding team descending the cliff (middle of the picture in a blue shirt) and another person in the eagles nest just to the right. This particular nest is actually one of the easier ones to access. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BELOW: Cheri heads down a cliff to a nest site. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ABOVE: Mike and team member Jeff at another cliff nest. Most nests are in cliffs but a few are in large trees growing on steep hillsides and can be even more challenging to get in to. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| During this period we also decided to make a commitment to tour the Oregon coast by bike, an adventure that had been high on the "to do" list for quite a while. After much research and advice from bike touring friends we purchased a pair of Cannondale T2000 touring bikes and outfitted them for the trip. Cheri's bike did not arrive until mid July giving us little time to train on the new bikes. In fact, neither of us had much time to train, read, "get out butts toughened up". Our legs were not a concern as you can take it slow until they get fit but there is just no substitute for time in the saddle to toughen up a tender crotch. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| July also found us on a trip to Alaska for a couple of weeks where we visited old friends and spent some time photographing the amazing wildlife with the folks we work with at WRI. This was Cheri's first trip to Alaska and it had been many years since I was last there. Much has changed. There are a lot more tourists these days and the prices, Youch! Hotel and car rentals were beyond outrageous and nearly everything was booked. We did, however, have a great time getting up close with grizzlies in Clark Lake Wilderness where we also paid way to much for marginal lodging and food that was good but served up in portions that would make "California Cuisine" sized servings look like a meal for six. I knew we were in trouble when after the first lunch was served one of our traveling companions said "I hope that was the appitizer." Needless to say, no one gained any weight while staying at "Redoubt Lodge". | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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