The "hurrieder I go the behinder I get :-/

There doesn't seem to be any balance in life. Most times, I seem to struggle to do anything interesting, then I am swamped, and too busy to put anything to print.

My first cousin stopped by the house on his way to a Southern US vacation.  I requested that they stay for a while so that I could show them the desert . We have been trying to squeeze every thing we can in before he has to resume his journey. We visited Leslie Gulch Saturday, came home and took Hope out for a hunt.

I didn't want to drive all over after driving all day so we went across the road to hunt at the Ranch. I forgot to take my phone with me, so I have no idea how far we walked. The Rabbits were scarce so we covered quite a bit of ground before Hope connected with a Jack. I wasn't about to quit without a kill, so we kept trudging on. When she did connect we had gone far enough that the car was hidden by the curvature of the Earth. If it had not been for Hwy 95 going up over a hill we might still be looking for the car.

I finally got to see for myself the mobility of Hope's foot that she injured last year. It doesn't do all that much. She held the Jack with her left foot and the right was just sticking out along side of the Jack with the "ponces" (toe's) pointed straight out. It wasn't even holding any of the Jack.

Knowing how insecure her grip is, and that we lost most of those that she caught in the butt, I didn't waste any time in getting a grip on the Jack. That of course meant that my bare arm looked as though I had been petting a Porcupine. Grease wood doesn't take that long to get your attention.

I gave her the head to eat as we began our journey in the general direction that the car should have been. The head slipped out of both our grips and fell to the ground. Hope of course made a grab for it and only succeeded in using that bum foot to grab my arm. That long talon didn't have any problem at all in sinking into my arm, slicing it for about two inches. Not a big deal other than I really don't like  feeding a hungry hawk with all that blood covering my bare arm. A hand full of dirt soon solved the problem. We eventually did make it back to the car- obviously!

The next day we made a trip that included Jorden Craters, Baptiste's grave site, and "Rattlesnake" cave. ( Lava Tube).

We walked all around the crater,  admiring all the different Lava flows, and chutes. We even saw a Green racer on the path. Apparently it was cool enough that he was slow enough to observe. On the way back, Lowell asked me about the Deer in this area. I related to him that it is rare in the extreme to see a Deer anywhere other than at a ranch's Hay fields. As we topped a little hill we were both blown away to see a huge branch antlered Bull Elk running in the open grass land with no cover over 12 inches. It is Elk season and some one other than us spooked him. We actually began to feel sorry for him, he ran so far. Of course I had no camera.

Yesterday I talked them into staying long enough to go to the top of the Steen's Mtn. The day turned out to be one of the more pleasant days on the mountain. The tourist were all gone and we had the Mtn almost to ourselves, the road was great, no wind and the sky was remarkably clear. Since it is one of Connie's favorite places I had no problem convincing her to join us for the day.

Since we are right at the beginning of the rut for Deer

The "boy's" were courting.

 Alvord Desert- From 9700 feet

 Kiger Gorge

Connie, Nancy and Lowell

 Lowell eating a drink

 A view of the Burns side of the Mountain.

While we packed a week into three days it was well worth it. I think we drove about 481 miles in the three days, but the treasures of the High Desert are pretty well hidden, and worth the effort it takes to find them.