Summer of '21

Wildflowers - Goose Island State Park, Texas

I've been down in these last five months since David Soules died, but not completely out. I have done some hiking too. Back in June I hiked twice with friend Stephen Bendel to the Tonuco Uplift and to Broad Canyon. Broad Canyon had a bit of water flowing from recent rains, and was starting to green up as well.

Broad Canyon

 Also in June I went with a group of friends to Johnson Spring Mesa to show them the petroglyph panel I had found  this past winter and the artifact site David and I had found the winter before. 

Johnson Spring Mesa- Paul Bardwell photo

Johnson Spring Mesa - Paul Bardwell photo

We also braved the heat and humidity of Rockport, Texas for a visit with family, Not much hiking to be done there, but I did try some crabbing ( unsuccessfully) and a bit of fishing ( mostly unsuccessfuly). We also visited the giant live oak at Goose Island State Park. It was a fun trip. 

 On a humid July morning I took Patrick Nolan and some other Friends of Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks National Monument on a  hike to Split Rock Canyon in the Robledo Mountains Wilderness. I'm very happy to report that both the Ridgeline and the Discovery Site Trails in Trackways NM have both been re-configured and now are much more user friendly. Hiking on the ruined old roads up and down steep hills and negotiating the wasteland adjacent to the old quarry was never much fun and now both are a thing of the past.

If you follow this blog then you've already read about the mostly dismal trip Water Canyon in the Withington Wilderness of the San Mateo Mountains, I won't rehash it here, that's for sure. We also visited family in Connecticut, but I'll deal with those outdoor adventures in a separate blog. Someday soon I'll do some more ranting about " summer" and the southwest, but not today.