Karmic-Dragonfly

I went to Chaco again this trip, and experienced the last 5 miles of washboard dirt road to get there, omg...but I did NOT experience the same feeling of 'not being alone', -- when I was totally alone -- as before. Partly because I got to Pueblo Bonito just after a busload of kids, lol!

Still glad I went back.

For the first time, I think my iPhone rivals my Canon! I mean, phones take great pics now, but previously I could ALWAYS get a better picture by taking RAW images on my 'big camera', as I call it.

And that hasn't exactly changed...but for the very first time I am comfortable having 'just' the iPhone XS. They say the best camera is the one you have with you, but I always wanted to have the Canon with me. And I still do. But seriously, I was impressed with the XS photos!

Still if I need a long zoom...certainly I would use the Canon. Or if I were going to print an image at a larger size -- definitely would need the image taken from the Canon. Or if I wanted to use my wide angle lens, again Canon. But I really was impressed by the shots I got with the iPhone XS, and I think it would suffice for a lot of situations!

Here's a pic with the iPhone on the left and Canon on the right. I'm pretty satisfied with either! (Don't judge them by the warmth or lack thereof of the colors -- they were both edited - one on the phone, and the other in Lightroom. I wasn't intending to keep them the same. This just an example of the detail of the iPhone XS on the left and the Canon on the right.)

In general, I tend to chat with people that I run into. Maybe it's weird for an introvert, but I really enjoy that initial conversation with strangers!

There was the guy on the petroglyph trail at Chaco...we walked and talked together for a part of the trail. He was from Colorado....his wife died a couple years ago. He said she told him to not sit around the house after she was gone, and he is following her advice! He was on the way to Austin to meet up with his brother to see some music, drink some beer and hang out! Which sounds fantastic to me!

Then there was the guy at the bar at the airport...an applied mathematician on his way back home. He had missed the shuttle to his city, so he was having a bite to eat and a beer, waiting for the next time when the shuttle would leave.

Then there was the couple at House on Fire in Mule Canyon...she was a retired school Superintendent...and he was 6 months from retiring. They were from Albuquerque I think, traveling around with a camper to enjoy their time! The other folks at the site were from Tucson...and I think Santa Fe?

And even if I don't chat with them long, I usually establish some sort of rapport...the park ranger at Chaco....the guy in the bathroom at Chaco when he found out that there was no hot water...the woman sitting next to me in the plane...the ranger at White Sands whom I made laugh, etc.

Basically, I know how to start a conversation, if the other person is open to it!

I like looking at petroglyphs. This one was on the trail at Mesa Verde that leaves Spruce Tree House. It is the only panel on that trail, so while impressive, I took the trail mostly for the exercise.



There were on the petroglyph trail at Chaco Canyon --

I was glad to visit the Bisti Badlands again, this time during the day.

I kinda wanted to prove to myself that I was comfortable going out by myself to a place where there are no trails and no cell coverage. I mean, it's only a few miles in and out, so even if I got lost (which I did for a bit), I would still be able to find the road again using the sun as my guide. But it still freaks me out a bit to be out of touch by myself -- what if I broke a leg or something?

I saw 1 person at a distance in the first couple hours. Then I saw about 3 additional couples or small groups as I was leaving.

Bisti draws me, but it's not like I feel any powerful energy when I'm there or anything -- the area just seems to be like a grandfather that I have visited now a couple of times. And I tend to miss it when I leave. It was like that the first time (the nighttime photo workshop), and it was like that this time also.

So speaking of getting lost...I took 1 wrong turn. I already had waypoints on a GPS app on my phone from the last visit, and I could see the route, but the way the arrow was pointing was confusing. So I decided to just 'follow the wash'. 'Follow the wash' is the general instruction for navigating in and out of Bisti. But in addition to the main Bisti wash, there are a lot of 'feeder' washes, and I got attached to one of those feeders. This led me into a canyon which got narrower and narrower before I realized I was going the wrong way. (By the way, there were footprints in the wash through the canyon, so I was not the first there recently, lol!)

Anyways, I found my way after that. Everything looked so different in the daylight! I don't think I got great pics -- the hoodoos are a jumbled mass that are hard to compose into an image. Here are some --









Here's my selfie for the trip. See the 2 red hills? The photo group from last year's workshop agreed on the name '2 angry boobs' for these...and they are good for navigating. When I 're-found my way', I remembered the boobs as a sign post. I used them on the way out as well.

I had a couple hours before I had to drive from Albuquerque to Farmington, so I stopped at one of the trails that are part of the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque.

I went to the 'main' office, but I had already picked out this particular trail based on the time I had available. They told me how to get there (I got lost, until I stopped and turned on the maps...)...it is sandwiched between residential and commercial strips, but it has its own (free) parking area.

These are just a jumble of some of my thoughts and memory vignettes form the trip.

Flash of Light

We were out all night at Bisti 3 times. When you're out at night, there are distinct phases which happen during the night. How the night unfolds depends on time of year, weather of course, and the moon cycle. For us, the phases were: Sunset, Nautical Twilight, the dark time when the Milky Way is very visible, and then moonrise and finally the glow that indicates sunrise is approaching.

Moonrise always lit up the landscape to the point where we did not need our headlamps to navigate the hoodoos. You could just walk around in the dark, with no problem at all.

During the dark time one night, I was talking to the instructor, and there was suddenly a flash of light! The flash lit up the landscape the way moonlight does! My back was towards the flash, but the instructor said it appeared to come from one star in the sky.

He thought it was light from a supernova or something, with the light finally reaching us. The rest of the group (who were set up in a different place from me) also saw the flash, but their backs were to it as well.

I have not been able to find info on that anywhere online about it, and I have not reviewed my pics to see if my shutter was open during the flash.

Learned about Mongolia

One of the students was originally from Mongolia. She speaks Mongolian, of course, and I think Russian. She also is fluent-ish in German and English. I got to speak to her about where she grew up, and how Mongolian is written, etc.

A Little Cuddle

One of the folks at the workshop and I hug deeply whenever we see each other. This time there was more than a hug. We got some cuddling -- cheek to cheek (or beard to beard really). He was close to me, and leaned in to whisper something in my ear, so I put my arm around his waist and pulled him in for a cheek cuddle. It was nice.

TMI

One of the students provided WAY TOO MUCH information about his bodily habits. Do I really need to know that he gets sweaty balls? Or that he has hemorrhoids? Yea, so there's that.

Chaco Ancestors

Chaco Canyon came up in our conversations. One of the students had gone to Chaco (paid the permit, etc. etc.) for nighttime photography. While he was there, he and the ranger heard voices. He said it distinctly sounded like voices, and the temperature got cold. The ranger experienced the same thing.

I reminded me of when I was at Chaco (during the day), when I distinctly heard a child's laughter behind me. But there was nobody there. Here is is what I wrote about that experience back in 2015:

It is hard to put into words what I felt at Chaco. I certainly did not see it as just a set of ruins -- I sort of felt like I was intruding on the everyday lives of the people living there. But, of course, there were no actual people...but maybe impressions of people...or somehow I was intersecting from my time into the time when people were actually living at Chaco.

Not ghosts (which has a negative connotation anyway)...and not exactly spirits...just like I was there at the same time they were. It was an odd feeling, for sure!

When I was at Chetro Ketl, I swear I heard a child's laughter...I was taking pictures, and I looked up from the camera, expecting to see a child with his parents. But there was nothing but the sun and wind -- no child.

It was interesting to hear someone else having a similar experience!

Pack Weight

I was pleased with the weight I carried. Although I certainly love to hike, I'm usually only out for a few hours, so the water I carry is maybe a couple of biking bottles. I also never carry a tripod.

And I usually am hiking in a green area, so I carry a small water filter in case I need it. In the case of Bisti, there is no water...you have to carry it all, and we were outside about 11 hours, starting hot (85F) and then getting pretty cold (43F) at night. It's an arid area with no amenities, so you get dehydrated fast!

For the workshop, I carried 2.5 liters of water, a tripod, camera and 2 lenses, extra batteries, gadgets I need for shooting, food for dinner, and several layers of clothes -- for the big layers like my coat, I rolled them all together into a tube and tied them up, so that I just carried those with 1 hand - not on my backpack.

I estimate my pack was about 20 lbs, not counting the rolled up tube of clothes. And I did fine. I kept my knee wrapped, so it didn't cause problems. I did get a pretty bad blister, but kept that bandaged for the remaining hikes.

I was pleased with my own performance in carrying 20 lbs plus other stuff for 5+ miles!

MacBook Air

The little Air still worked very well! It's a 2013 model, so not new at all, but it performed better than some of the MacBooks and Windows machines there. I believe its performance is related to the flash memory -- there's no spinning hard drive on the Air -- just flash memory. I think that is why it is fast. I'm still really pleased with this little, light laptop!

Flowers

When I got back home, the flowers out front had exploded! I have a guy painting the trim on the house, and he said that it was like overnight! I also noticed I had 4" of rain in the rain gauge, so I suspect the rain is what caused the sudden bloom!



Time to go back to work...go back to reality! I am not prepared for that just yet!