Archive for the ‘SCVN’ Tag
There’s a narrow trail that you have to scramble up a few feet before heading down under twisted alligator junipers. The best way to experience these ancient hoodoos along the Catalina Highway is to attack them from the rear, sorta speak.
This SCVN Friday Hike was to have two parts; explore the hoodoos followed by a hike from the Gordon Hirabayashi Campgrounds to Molino Basin. The hoodoos segment was led by naturalist Edi Moore, who is s long-time member of the Monday Morning Milers (MMM). The MMM was the first hiking group I begin hiking with after moving to Tucson. It was with the MMM that I first had an opportunity to explore the Catalina Highway Hoodoos. Of the 20 hikers on this Friday, Edi and I were the only ones to which this experience was not new. The views in and around the hoodoos are something else.
— kenne
Images by kenne
Click here to see more Catalina Highway Hoodoo photos.
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Madera Canyon is always a beautiful canyon in which to hike especially in the fall when the
Arizona Sycamores are in color. This SCVN Friday hike, in the Santa Rita Mountains,
provided a nice contrast to our usual hikes in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
This image is looking down on Madera Canyon below some of the higher pikes in the Santa Ritas
(The highest is Mt. Wrightson on the right with an elevation of 9,453 feet.)
Our hike began down near a dried-up creek bed, then taking us up along the canyon’s edge.
What a beautiful day to be hiking with friends and nature lovers.
Images by kenne
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus
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Bear Canyon Trail In Sabino Canyon Recreational Area — Image by kenne
We spent this morning teaching 2nd-grade students how the Hohokam peoples of southern Arizona lived hundreds of years ago. The Hohokam left much evidence of their presence in Sabino Canyon, which was not only their home but also the source of food, clothing, and shelter materials. Over the years, the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) have developed activities, Back to the Past (BTTP), geared toward explaining the Hohokam and how they existed in the Sonoran Desert.
Today was such a beautiful fall day in Sabino Canyon, I had to share at least one image taken on our walk back to the Visitor Center.
— kenne
Could I but speak your tongue
I would sing of pastel colored cliffs
Where, under sapphire skies,
The raincloud gently drifts.
Of wondrous sunlit valleys wide,
Timeless home of your clan — your tribe.
Could I but speak your tongue
I would sing a prayer that in future days
You would ever honor your ancient ways,
And that the Gods of health and peace
In their boundless blessings, never cease,
To be generous to these children here below,
These children of the Desert.
— C. J. Colby, “Song to the Indian,” Arizona Highways, August 1973
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The SCVN Friday Nature Hike was Aspen Trail, Marshall Gulch Trail loop,
which would provide an opportunity to see the beautiful fall colors on Mt. Lemmon.
The Aspen Trail has a grove of aspens, which I blogged in a previous posting.
After hiking through the aspen grove, I began to get out in front of the nature hikers.
With less fall color on the remaining part of the Aspen Trail I decided to pick-up my pace.
I knew from past experience there would be plenty of fall color on the Marshall Gulch Trail.
I was aware that my buddies, Jim Thompson and Tom Markey, were hiking the trail;
hence, I might be able to catch up with them.
I first began hiking with Jim and Tom nine years ago. They were part of the Monday Morning Milers (MMM),
the first hiking group with which I started hiking.
Most of the MMM were lifetime hikers in southeast Arizona, many of whom were in their 80’s.
Jim recently celebrated his 90th birthday.
While Tom is a youngster like me, he’s 79.
Images by kenne
It seems, as one becomes older,
That the past has another pattern,
And ceases to be a mere sequence —
Or even development: the latter a partial fallacy
Encouraged by superficial notions of evolution,
Which becomes, in the popular mind,
A means of disowning the past.
The moments of happiness — not the sense of well-being,
Fruition, fulfillment, security or affection,
Or even a very good dinner, but the sudden illumination —
We had the experience but missed the meaning,
And approach to the meaning restores the experience
In a different form, beyond any meaning
We can assign to happiness.
— from “Four Quartets” by T. S. Eliot
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In addition to the regular Friday Hikes,
the Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) also offer a Friday Nature Hike.
I usually help guide the regular SCVN Friday Hikes; however, last Friday,
I decided to do the Box Camp Trail with David Dean, as our nature guide.
Naturalist David Dean’s Mixed Conifer Forest Display Board
David Dean On Box Camp Trail
David Dean On Box Camp Trail
David Dean On Box Camp Trail Nature Hike
— Images by kenne
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The last Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist (SCVN) Lizard took place on October 12th.
It was a perfect fall morning for a lizard walk. However,
some lizards may have not agreed since the number of sightings were low.
Still, it was a beautiful morning for a nature walk.
Naturalists Tom Skinner and Fred Heath welcome the walkers in front of the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center.
Everyone gathers near lizard spotter off the trail,
a common side-blotched lizard.
Naturalists Bill and Lousie Kaufman share information on the common side-bloched lizard.
— Images by kenne
In the parched path
I have seen the good lizard
(one drop of crocodile)
meditating.
With his green frock-coat
of an abbot of the devil,
his correct bearing
and his stiff collar,
he has the sad air
of an old professor.
Those faded eyes
of a broken artist,
how they watch the afternoon
in dismay!
-- from "The Old Lizard" by Federic Garcia Lorca
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Jim and B.J. Martin, May 7, 2018 , were honored by achieving Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalist (SCVN) Emeritus Status.
— Image by kenne
I went to another funeral today, something I began doing at an early age while living with my grandparents. Old people’s friends die. Back then I didn’t always know the people and spent my time running around the graveyard across the road from the church with other children, in a small northeast Alabama rural town.
It’s different today being one of the old people whose friends are dying. When I became an SCVN member in 2011, Jim Martin had been an active member for 23 years, teaching elementary school children about nature and conservation, leading and participating in SCVN hikes, and serving a treasurer, VP, and President of SCVN. I first met Jim on one of the SCVN Friday Hikes. He was an 82-year-old active hiker, a quiet, pleasant guy to be around — always smiling!
Jim pasted away at the age of 90, July 16, 2019.
— kenne
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