Mostly Plants

The “Trap Dike” is a lovely little route up Mount Colden, in the Adirondacks, that ranges in quality from dry, blocky scramble to raging waterfall.  This is the story of how four intrepid adventurers from the Free Outing Club of Cornell/Ithaca ascended the dike in “slightly runny” conditions.
All photos are courtesy of my coadventurer Elaine [...]

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I didn’t write in my trail journal on Day 6, so this entry will be based on photographs and memory.

A Graphical Summary of the Trip

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This is technically the sixth day in the desert, but by that count there were seven. We Spent this day mostly on the road, so I do not count it–I give it an irrational number between five and six. Or maybe a complex number, with five as the real part and some non-zero [...]

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The walk from here to Lost Palm Oasis is only about 40 minutes. From the overlook, you see two oases–one down in the canyon, and one on the opposite rim. The trail descends steeply into the gorge, where we immediately encounter fan palms. Some are still well-covered in shag; others have recently burned. The canyon floor is very sandy and these are the beaches we read about–beaches without water. There is very little water here, only sparse seeps leak above the ground. Many of the seeps are fouled with decomposing organic matter. We find a few bones, too small to be Bighorn Sheep, too small to be rabbit. Coyote, maybe?

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3/18/2008
9:36 AM
Cottonwood Camp
Warm morning: everybody slept well. Ginger feels better. I’m wearing my kilt and t-shirt at 9:00 AM–a vast improvement over previous days! We cooked the rest of the bacon today, but fully half of it was consumed in a sudden grease fire. I washed the pair of pants that [...]

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In today’s edition, our intrepid heroes climb a mountain and hike through the desert to abandoned mines and the tomb of a desperado miner who died by the hand of a rival, fighting over a few scraps of land in the desert.

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From my hardcopy trail journal. Some of the first paragraph overlaps in content with the last post, but it moves on from there.
Monday, 3/17/2008 11:00 AM
The Sonoran Desert
Yesterday was angrily, bitterly cold.

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Random Encounter in the Desert Table–Roll 1d8:

1: Unexpected Volcano
2: Abandoned Mine shaft with 1d4 machines lying around
3: Boy scouts
4: Jerky stand
5: Ghost Town
6: Man biking across desert
7: Old friend
8: Abandoned mine with full industrial works still standing

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This and the next several entries consist of a report and pictures of my spring break trip to the desert. I will post them sporadically as I get photos edited.
We arrived at Las Vegas McCarran on schedule, and to my surprise, Delta got all of our bags there on schedule as well. The only thing that didn’t go according to plan was that Thrifty was out of midsize sedans, so we got a convertible instead. Fun, but not so practical–after we got all of our gear and groceries, there wasn’t enough room in the trunk to put the top down! Still, Las Vegas was sunny and 75 degrees–perfect weather!

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