Tuesday October 13, 2026

The mountains are finally fairly white.  It's been kind of drippy this morning, but began to clear off a bit.  So I thought I'd go walk up on Dave Wood at the forest boundary.  As I headed up there I could see that it was already starting to rain in that area.  I wanted some photos of the snowy mountains, so I turned off and headed over to Sims.  I went to the top of the hill and could see the wall of rain coming, so I took a few quick shots at a turn around spot and headed down.  Lights immediately came on showing the passenger rear tire was going flat fast.  I had to go on down the hill and got to a pullout at the bottom as the air was down to 5psi.  It was already spitting rain when I dug the jack out from behind the seat and got it underneath and the lug nuts partially loosened.  It then began to dump rain, so I jumped in the truck to see if I could wait it out.  The pullout area was a bit muddy, but had some gravel.  It rained pretty hard for probably twenty minutes or so.  As it eased up I went to the back of the truck to lower the spare.  I couldn't get the rod in right spot for anything.  I tried the flashlight on my phone, but to get enough light in there to see what I was doing I had to cover the tiny hole I had to look through.  I worked on it for several minutes and here the rain came again.  I called Joann and asked her to come up and bring my headlamp and rain gear.  As she was on the way the rain let up again and I finally could get my phone light in a position to see what I was doing.  I quickly got the tire changed and everything thrown in the back of the truck and called Joann and told her to turn around as I had got it changed.  I got back out to the pavement and it was dry.  Naturally it had to rain just where I was.  haha  Anyway, the photos weren't worth the flat tire.  I really get aggravated at trashy people.  Where I turned around I noticed some glass, but it was too late.  It seems that many pull off places around the mountains here have broke glass and beer bottles and trash around them.  Come on folks - only trashy people dump their trash in God's great outdoors!!!!  Panasonic G97

 Monday October 12, 2026

Edited some photos today, then took off to walk at Sandy Wash.  Other than Friday this looks like the driest day this week. It was the first walk up there since spring. Thankfully the wind was blowing pretty good or it would have been too hot. It was in the upper 60’s. It spit on me a couple times but no big deal. It sure felt good to hike outdoors again. We have walked around here a few times, but city walking isn’t the same. I only walked five miles but it was enough to scratch the hiking itch a bit. I only carried my camcorder and took the photos with it. Panasonic WX 991. 

Rain coming.  It only spit on me a few times.

Very unusual new grass growth for this time of year.  Usually it's all brown.

Unusual too that new plants are popping up in October.

Hopefully the San Juans are getting snow.

Ahhhh it's good to be back out here again.

There were lots of coyote tracks.

 Friday October 9, 2026

It was another warm day…close to 80. We had blood draw today then ate breakfast at Burger King. I edited photos for a couple hours. I then went up on P77. Joann had a stomach ache so stayed home. It was the best time I’ve had up there since the fire. The filtered light on the mountains was gorgeous. I only went on P77. I saw quite a few deer including a couple good bucks. I saw a few cow elk and heard a couple bugles. I also heard a couple coyotes. I sure hate coming down from there in the dark. You can’t watch for animals running into the road as headlights are continuously in your eyes. The traffic on that road has increased a lot and it doesn’t matter what time of day it is. Nikon Z50II and Panasonic G97