Back at the Indian Bread Rocks BLM Rec Area

I guess I am a desert guy, happy with just medium sized bushes around me as opposed to surrounded by large tall trees. 

I left the Chiricahua National Monument area this morning around 8:00 and by noon I was setting up camp at a new to me site in the Indian Bread BLM area.  My usual preferred side was occupied so I decided to check out a couple of candidates, and I am glad I did. 

It was a very windy day as I left Willcox, so I was glad that I decided to stop nearby at Indian Bread Rocks BLM Rec Area!

I found a wide site in a small warren of trails:

10x digital zoom of interesting rock

Altitude: 4068 ft.

Temperature high of 75°F, lovely.

I relax the rest of the day until about 4:00 in the afternoon when I went out for a short ride to see how full the camping area near here was.  There were still three small sites and one large primo site available! 

Here's some other rocks that were being painted by the afternoon sun: 

Can you spot the rock climbing cows?

Here you go...

An update about the leak in Yagi's rear tire's inner tube.  One still exists, however it is much slower now. I had pumped it up to 20 PSI before retiring for the evening yesterday; and it was at 10 PSI this morning.  

I feel did that come to 20 PSI before I loaded it on to the front rack on the RV and preparation for today's move. When I got to Indian bread rocks it was at 15 PSI.  So, she's quite rideable for now until I get her home. I'm not going to replace the inner tube on the road like I did the front tire, as the rear tire needs to be replaced as well.

Friday, March 13

This morning before things got too warm, I decided to try and hike up the rocks near the campsite to get a picture of the campsite from above. 

Lots of brush with spines in it but otherwise no issues. 

Bedrock Mortars used for grinding 

By native Americans 

Getting close to top

The Ocotillo isn't blooming yet...

Cool rocks seen behind the rock below

That's as high as I got....

As I was sitting by the campsite resting and cooling off, I decided to take some bino shots with the camera phone:

Rock at highest point visit from camp

Distant Balanced Rock

The rock I climbed to....

More to follow.... weather is supposed to be warmer the next few days

T'dubing for binos shots of Baboquivari Peak.

Sometimes, I Have Too Much Lens!

Perhaps it's a strange statement but I shall demonstrate:

I rode out on Yagi, my TW200 dual sport to get long depth of field shots of Baboquivari, the Mountain peak that dominates the view here in the wildlife refuge and surrounding areas. 

I was hoping to use my binos with cameraphone adapter to accomplish this goal as in previous postings.  This day however, it became clear I was using "too much lens".  Meaning that the binoculars were too powerful at their 10x magnification factor to be useful for the shots I was trying for. 

The first attempt was at the junction of State Highway 286 and the road that leads onto the Baboquivari trailhead a few miles down range.  From where I stopped the motorcycle just before a bend in the road, I walked all the way back to the fence line where the angles suddenly became bad for capturing both the motorcycle and the peak itself. 

You can't see I barely captured Yagi within the shot

This is the spot from which I shot the first pic.

I then motored onwards a couple of miles or so to a wide parking spot where I have camped before with the peak in the background as you can see below: 

You can ride closer, all the way to the trailhead for the trail which you can hike to get closer to the top of the peak. It's not a really well marked trail and I had lost it during previous attempts to do it.  This time I decided to turn around and try for a different spot closer to the refuge's visitor center. 

No binos used...I tried the binos adapter but the shots

Didn't turn out.

Next I rode to the small village of Arivaca as the sun rose ever higher in the sky and the light got more and more difficult to work with.  

About 3 and 1/2 mi south of Arivaca on the way to Arivaca Lake there's a set of small ridges that I have used before for long depth of field shots.  Previous ride

I didn't quite align the camera and bino eyepiece and sadly this was the best of the several I tried.  The lighting from the bright sun forced much post-processing afterwards too.

Below shows you how far I was from Yagi when I tried for the shot above it:

I believe this was using 10x digital zoom, no binos

At this point, the light was so flat I gave up on further pictures and proceeded back to camp.  The next shot was done later on in the afternoon once the light became a little better. 

Then, the light got a little better:

Is it apparently happens during this time of year, the shadows start to form on the peak as the sun moves across the sky.  So I tried this bino shot before the shadows completely covered the peak and made it appear as a hazy silhouette in the late afternoon. 

1x zoom with binos

(Obviously)

2.9x zoom with binos

Checking Out the CBP's TAS

Today's riding was mainly spent locating the Customs Border Patrol (CBP)Tactical Aerostats System (TAS).

Morning at camp:

The TAS is The smaller version of two types of blimps used by the CBP to do border surveillance. The larger version is mainly radar-based whereas the smaller version uses surveillance cameras mostly. It is the smaller version that is hanging out here on the north side of the wildlife refuge where I am camping. 

The blimp is about 11 mi straight line distance from my campsite. 

It was more like 20 miles by road to get to it, it's location giving away by the EFF website which apparently tracks such things for the public. 

From my campsite, it shows to the naked eye as a small white dot in the sky.  It's actually pretty easy to miss unless you're looking for it. 

Here's what it looks like close up: 

2.9x zoom with bino

This is how the blimp is anchored to the ground.  It's also the way it's retrieved for maintenance and for weather issues.  Apparently one of these made the news sometime back when it broke free and crashed in Texas. 

I rode away from the anchor site perhaps a mile or two south of it for these two shots: 

This was 3x zoom without binos, scaled up in post-processing 

These blimp systems are apparently hideously expensive and so the CBP has installed over 500 towers all along the border that carry out surveillance.  There's one about 3 mi from my campsite at the junction of our Arivaca Road and AZ State Hwy 286:

It's the one on the left, the other one is an old telecom tower

There is a noticeable increase in border patrol vehicles cruising about and also stationed about the area. 

A photo of Baboquivari Peak taken at the campsite using the bino adapter:

1x zoom with binos

2.9x zoom with binos

The Palm Trees of Palm Canyon

Today's sunrise was pretty good:

The whole morning was overcast and windy, with a high of only 68°F in the afternoon, it wasn't the most inviting weather!

Around 2:30 pm or so though, the clouds cleared out enough to allow the sun to shine through and make me decide to try the hike into Palm Canyon.

I rode Yagi the 5.7 mi to the trailhead for Palm Canyon, I'd seen one hiker coming out and I had the place to myself until I was done taking pictures.  The hike itself is not hard but it is uphill most of the way, with lots of loose rocks and a narrow trail, I was huffing and puffing but not as bad as I remember the last time I did this. 

Palm Canyon Trailhead 

It's only about 0.9 miles and then one comes to a small sign that points off to the left and up. It's a good thing to sign is there because the palm trees are easy to miss if one is not really looking closely. 

I set up the tripod and mounted the binos with the camera phone adapter to them. Here's some of the shots that turned out. The handheld shots were too blurry to publish so I am glad I brought the tripod. 

1x optical zoom + binos

3x optical zoom + binos

6x digital zoom with binos

The process remains fiddly when the tripod is involved. Especially since the tripod I travel with is not as stable or as fine in terms of controls as the big tripod that I left at home. 

Still, the images came out pretty good as long as you don't blow them up too much when viewing them. 

This is the best I could do with a real camera back in December of 2017:

Back at Yagi, I geared up as a couple showed up in a Jeep to do the hike.  I rode back to the campsite with no issues, broke down all the outside equipment and packed it away. I will be displacing to the Gila Bend area tomorrow.