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| Crew update July 07: Continued | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| While I was in La Paz, Cheri's sister Beth came out to visit. The highlight of her stay was when Cheri took her to "Hawkwatch", an educational event put on each Saturday in the months of January and February by our friends at WRI. (Visit the WRI website at www.wildlife-research.org for more information.) As usual, Dave had been out early that morning trapping a few hawks for the demonstration part of Hawkwatch concerning local raptors and banding techniques, after which, he invited Cheri and Beth along to release the birds. Beth was absolutely thrilled when Dave handed her a very beautiful female red-shouldered hawk to release. If you ever are in the San Diego area during January and February be sure to make some time to attend at least one Hawkwatch event. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cheri's sister Beth releasing a Red Shouldered Hawk. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dave Bittner WRI Hawkwatch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MARCH - The National Parks Tour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Off again, just after the first of March, we headed for Zion, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands National Parks. We thought we would be well ahead of any spring break crowds but soon discovered that several schools were out already, and dodged the onslaught at Zion by only a day. Our original plan also included Arches N.P. but we discovered it was completely booked due to spring break. I think maybe the only time Arches is not filled to capacity is in the dead of winter as we have tried to stay on two other occaisions without success. After our National Parks Tour we spent a few days visiting Cheri's family in the Denver area. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Above: It's a long way down to the parking lot! Angels Landing - Zion National Park |
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| Right: Rock formation in Capitol Reef National Park. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| From Denver we headed south to one more National Park, Grand Canyon, to hook up with friends that had invited us along on a backpacking trip into the canyon. The gang included Doug and Beth Schanzenbach (from the Alaska trip last July), their surgeon friend Jim, and mutual friend Mike Puzzo, who leads a most interesting life as a mountain lion researcher. All bases where covered with this group. Mike could tell us how, where and why we might be attacked by a mountain lion, Jim could patch us up if we did, and Doug, being an old Marine, would chide us to quit sniveling, that having a limb torn off was no big deal and remind us just how fortunate we were to have seen a mountain lion so close. As it was early spring, the wildflowers were just blooming and the red bud trees put on their best colors just for us. The weather was a bit foul at times, raining and windy at the bottom with snow and temps in the low 20's on the way out, but we had a great trip. |
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| Click her to continue and for more photos of the Grand Canyon Trip. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cheri on the trail into Grand Canyon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Click here to return to the index page | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||