Blog Rewind.

Ok kids, now we will go back in time to catch up of how we got to this point.



Today we will be heading to Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. We traveled through the park in about 6 hours back on Tuesday, June 24th. It is an easy park to do a short trip through since it is right on Route 40 and the north entrance is off of the interstate and then the southern entrance drops you out on a convenient road that takes you back to Interstate 40. Also on state Rt. 180 you can stop and buy your very own petrified log. But we will get back to that later.



The northern part of the park is full of overlooks over brilliantly colored desert. We took a short mile walk around the rim in this area. Of course the temperature at this point is just north of 100F. Some where in this area I came up with the great idea to get Paula to an area where the ambient temperature is 113F. That way she can say that she has been in 113 degrees above and below zero. Not many people can say that they have been to the same temperature above and below 0, and even less have if that number is greater than 100. Upon expressing this idea to her she pointed out that scientifically 0F isn’t a key point to anything. Since water freezes at 32F and 0F is just another number, so to have my completely useless point to have any interesting value she would have to be at the same numerical value above and below 0C. And since she has been at -80C to get to 80C would be the same as 176F. Now you all can see why I am the way I am… My completely pointless happy moment in my mind has been blown out of the sky and then consumed by a flesh eating plague. Facts are so difficult some times.

Where were we? Ah, the Petrified Forest. Yes, the northern section has some very nice view points to take in. Now to the middle section of the park. This is the area on the map where the railroad tracks cross the park. Here there are some very good examples of where people inhabited the park years ago. I think most of it was about 1200 years ago. But as you all know, don’t take my mumblings as facts. There were several Indian tribes that lived in this area over the years. There are remains of structures as well as writing on rocks in this area. You can see examples of this in the photos. I really like the bird that is carrying the man in his beak. Now remember this stuff is over 1000 years old!!! Try to get paint to stick to your front porch for more than 15 years and then tell me how this stuff is still here. Very impressive sight for many reasons.







Here we are a little further south from the artifact area at an overlook. This are is littered with even more Indian writing all along the cliff. The scopes that are provided are great for investigating the writing from afar. There were 20 times more figures in this area than the photos that I posted from the first area. The scopes worked well to view the passing train off in the distance.



This photo is a view of a petrified log still encompassed in a rock. This rock fell from the cliff that we are standing on, so it is hard to imagine all of the logs that you are standing on.



Here is the bridge log. As you can see it is a petrified log that was unsupported and bridging a small opening. Small meaning 40 feet or so.



And I said unsupported, and it was unsupported when it was originally opened as a National Park. Many moons ago the park system was concerned that left alone this log would collapse under it’s own weight and then it could no longer be enjoyed by tourist from all over the world. So they decided to build a support structure under the log. This was done in the WPA era by the conservation corps. This era of the National Park system is fascinating and it is when the parks really became accessible to the average public. The CCC built most of the infrastructure that is in the parks that we enjoy today. Now I am getting off track again. The point is if you ever get to a National Park or want to read about them, investigate the CCC, what they did was amazing.

The National Park Service now has a philosophy to leave things alone. Basically natural things will be left natural. So if this log was found in 2006 it would remain as it was found. If it falls down, then so be it. You will have to look at it as a pile in the bottom of the ravine.



Now we are finally to the part of the show that everyone has been waiting for. The big honkin’ colored heavy rocks/trees. I’ll mention it right up front; DON’T TOUCH THE LOGS!!! I will explain more later, but it should be very clear to everyone that you cannot take any pieces of the logs with you. Actually you are not allowed to remove anything from any National Park, but this one is of much more importance. There are signs everywhere to remind you of this point and when you entered the park they ask everyone if they have any petrified wood in their vehicles when they come in. This will be key later as well.

The logs are more brilliant than the photos show and more spectacular than any description that you have ever heard. Some logs are perfectly colored and they look like they have just been split and are in a firewood pile, others have hundreds of colors in them and they look like they are from a cartoon. And did I mention that they are now rock. So if you look at a small log that would weigh 5 pounds if it were wood, the same size piece would be 50 pounds. Very cool to sit and look at.



To give you an idea of scale these pieces are about 30 inches across.



Don’t these pieces just look like some rotted wood that is lying on the ground? The coloring is amazing. And these are scattered among the purple, orange, crazy looking ones.



Here is the extent of the wildlife that we saw while in the park. And we saw lots of them. I am guessing the reason we didn’t see much wildlife is because this place is very nearly equal to the surface of the moon. There is squat for water, not much for plant life and not much else. Pretty amazing to think that people lived here. And likely for many centuries.



This is my favorite log to look at. First the scale is huge. It is about three feet in diameter. And then you have all of the erosion factors working here in their natural state. This log was laying flat underground for years and years. Then erosion started working on one area and uncovered part of the log. Then years later most of the log is uncovered and part of it has dropped into the ravine left by the erosion process, while some of the log is still completely underground waiting to be exposed. Just gives you a scale of the time element involved here.



And this is just one area of exposed petrified logs. There are many more around, both in the park and outside. The park has negotiated with surrounding land owners to purchase a substantial amount of land to expand the park. And this has been approved by Congress to expand the park, now the park just has to wait for Congress to pass another bill allocating the funds to buy the land. It is interesting to think about how much petrified wood is out there just under the surface.

So, now what is the interesting and sad story of Petrified Forest National Park? Well all National Parks are there to preserve beautiful natural features for everyone to see and enjoy for generations to come. The key difference is what you are looking at. If you go to the Grand Canyon or Yosemite most people are there to look at a spectacular canyon. So you are actually looking at the absence of something, the rock that was carved out by rivers or glaciers. Go to Yellowstone and you are watching geysers and open plains. At Petrified Forest you are looking at a finite resource, the petrified wood. If you brought in a truck and took out all of the wood the area would still be beautiful, but not spectacularly unique which is what is needed to make it a National Park.

There is about one ton of petrified wood stolen from the park every two months. This wood can never be replaced, and it will continue to degrade the viewing experience for the public. Will this remove all of the wood that you can see in my lifetime? Not likely, but it is a measureable degradation of the natural resources that the NPS is there to protect. We got all of that info from the pamphlets that they pass out and the signs that they have posted everywhere.

We finally go the real scoop from the ranger at the visitor center when we started talking to him and explained that we were headed to Yosemite to work. Then he started to tell us about the security in place in the park. Remember way back when they ask you if you had any petrified wood in your vehicle on your way into the gate (like most people carry petrified wood with them incase they need to start a fire.) Well there are spotters way off in the distance at all times when the park is open. These spotters have very powerful spotting scopes and watch people while they are walking amongst the logs. These spotters also have radios; these radios are used to talk to the exit gates. “Do you have any petrified wood in your vehicle?” You might want to think twice before answering that question on your way out. Also, there is backpacking allowed in the park. Why you would want to sleep out in the middle of that in the heat is beyond me, but it is allowed. If you have a backcountry permit they explain to you when you have to be settled down into your camp and what time you can break camp in the morning. This is because they have motion sensors all over the park to detect anyone snooping around after hours.

Overall it is a very interesting park. The work that the National Park Service has to do to keep it in one piece only added to the experience. Most people don’t know all of the security pieces that are hidden from the average day visitor. And the location along route 40 makes it a perfect drive in and drive out park. We were there for about 6 hours and we saw a good portion of the park.

And yes, once outside of the park you can stop and buy your piece of petrified wood that is dug up off of federal lands.

When I get home I am going to have to dig out the piece of petrified wood that my grandparents got for me twenty some years ago while they were at the park.

Wow, I need to get a hobby. Six pages. My English teachers would flip if they knew I could write this much.

R.J.

What to do, What to do.

So think of yourself in one place for two months without TV, without the internet, without a phone, without a shower. Ok scratch that last one. I can’t imagine Gary without a shower for two months. What would you do with your time? What would I do with my time? I am still not even sure and we have been here for almost six weeks. So what have we been doing to pass time? Well think DVD’s and reading. Aside from our work, which we are required to do 25 hours total a week, we are closer to 50 hours a week with two of us. Then there is the daily walk or two. We spend allot of time walking along the bluffs over the ocean. Normally you go to the ocean and you stop, look out for a while, scratch yourself, and then move on. Maybe a picnic or something if you have some time. Well at that point you have a snapshot of the ocean at that point. That is what the ocean looks like to you for all of time. Well, with the time to explore and see the ocean at different times, in different weather, with different light, and with the change of tides we are getting more like the feature length movie of the ocean here. It is amazing the different views to see at the different levels of the tides. Since most of the area around here is bluffs and not beachfront there is allot of rock formations and sea life to observe at low tide. And if you look closely at almost any level you can see an interesting formation in the rocks. There are lots of small blow holes in the bluffs that are cool to see in the waves.

So when we aren’t hiking or exploring, what are we doing. Well in our travels cross country we have stopped at allot of libraries for internet access and most of them have had used books for sale. So I talked Paula into letting me get some good novels to read. Lets all pause while Beth gets up off of the ground… As some of the regular readers will recognize that is sarcasm. Paula would dig through all of the piles of books to get two books for 50 cents while I would stand around and drool or read a car magazine. I believe that her last book that she just finished was 1038 pages long. I noticed that it had 59 chapters and I am quite sure that I have read entire books with fewer pages than that. I have been reading some magazines that I had shipped in to me by various sources (Popular Mechanics, Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc.). As well as I have two books that I have carried to Antarctica and back twice now; both are on vehicle suspension design and both are way above my education level, but I am working my way through them. And while we have this time I deiced that I could work on my education level so I bought a physics text book to read. And since I am living with a math and science brain, we have class every day or two. I am amazed at the amount of math that I have forgotten in the last 20 years, and I am equally amazed at the amount of math stuffed in Paula’s head.

Each day that we go to town to use the web, I download as many Shredd and Ragan shows as I can so I can listen to them and the latest from the Niagara Falls Police Blotter as well as any other interesting things that I can find. I have finished three more FEMA self study courses, I now know what to do with livestock in a disaster. Mmmm, Burgers.

We are currently at the fourth season of Frasier on DVD, as well as the third season of the X-Files, season seven of the Simpsons, season four of Moonlighting, season three of Emergency, and I completed the entire series of the Greatest American Hero (thank Dave). So our television viewing has been varied. We get a local NPR station on the radio which is nice, and there is a local station that only broadcasts SF Giants Baseball and the SF 49ers football games. Even with this much time on my hands I can’t imagine listening to a whole baseball game on the radio. That would be about as interesting as watching house get new carpeting. But the 49ers games a good to listen to. They are about the worst 2-1 team in the NFL. They try to find ways to lose, but when you are playing against Detroit it is hard to do. Detroit still isn’t the same since Wayne Fonts left.

That is all you get for now.

R.J.

Abalone, the other white meat...

Abalone, mmmm that is good on a cracker. Ok, now raise your hand if you have ever heard of abalone before this. Hold then up now so we can get an accurate count. Abalone are medium-sized to very large edible sea snails. They are a very sought after creature and because of that they are very valuable and therefore very highly regulated by the California Department of Fish and Game. It is not legal to sell Abalone, however most people that we have talked to say that it does sell for between $40 - $90 a pound. So again if you are looking for an easy way to make some good money and you are not concerned about laws, abalone diving can bring in some good cash. Once again, another reason enforcement is big as well.

There are some other key reasons for some of the regulations. First, the minimum size of a legal ab. is 7”. And if you are diving for abalone you are required to have a sizing gauge with you at all times. The reason for the size limit is that abalone between 6” and 7” contribute the most to spawning the next generation. The other reason to require a gauge on divers at all times is because ab. do not have any clotting mechanism. Essentially they are hemophiliacs. So if you pop off an undersize ab. and you nick the body of the creature it will not likely survive. So ensuring that you have a legal size beast before you grab it is very important.

Here is what an abalone looks like…



The Ab. is the one in the bucket. The feet are of an ab. diver.

Here is the underside of and ab. And a little more of what an ab. diver looks like.



And finally here is the real deal. An abalone in real life, as well as an ab. diver. (FYI the ab. is the one with the orange zip tie in it. The diver doesn’t have a zip tie.)



Here is the beach on a Saturday afternoon. The ab. divers come out in mass. The go out in boats, they swim out from the beach, and they also scramble down the sides of the bluffs and jump in the water from there as well.









Here you can see three vessels out in the bay. And straight out, just past the little island you can see a few black dots. This is several divers. The next photo is a close up of them.



What is the one thing that you do not see on any of the divers? I’ll give you a hint; it is a good equalizer in the hunt. It is kind of like hunting grizzly bear with a knife, or hunting white tail deer by running them down on foot. You are not allowed to SCUBA dive while abalone hunting. That’s right, take a deep breath and keep reading and see how long you make it. (Hand on to the computer table with two hands in case you pass out.) So basically these folks are in wet suits with a mask and snorkel and some flippers and they wrap a bunch of lead weight around their waist to help them dive. As you can also see the round thingiee that they have is a buoy that they float out on, and it also is a holder for anything that they catch. So they snorkel around looking at the bottom for prospects and then they take a deep breath and dive down to try to grab there find. Abalone are basically a muscle on the bottom, and their defense mechanism is to suck themselves down to a rock and pull their shell down tight to the rock. When they do that they are basically impossible to remove. We tried to pull one off the tailgate of a truck an it was stuck on so hard that you could lift the whole tailgate with it. So in addition to holding your breath, you have to be stealth while doing this.

Sound like a great time doesn’t it. Well there are a few downfalls. Actually it sounds like there are numerous fatalities each season (April 1 – June 30 and Aug. 1 – Nov. 30) on the north coast. The water temp in this area averages in the mid-50’s. So not normally lethal in short doses with the proper equipment but a risk never the less. The bay that we are on is about 70’ deep at the max. And your dive depths will completely depend on your strength as a diver and your ability to hold your breath. Most people are in the 10’ to 20’ range. And as you can see from several of the ocean shots that I have posted there is lots of kelp in the area of the coast. This is thick heavy duty stuff. The stuff in the following photo was washer up on shore and it was 1.5” thick at the largest diameter. So, can you say entanglement??? That gives me an idea for a new SCBA drill!!! Basically it is a fairly safe sport as any if you take some basic precautions and are reasonable about your capabilities. And as in any sport there are screw-ups in with the reasonable people. This is one of those sports that doesn’t require allot of money to get into but it still requires some skill. Where as SCUBA you need to layout some serious cash before you jump in. So that alone weeds out some of the unreasonable types.



So after all of that, the fines for not following the rules are very high. If you are caught with SCUBA equipment on a vessel while you have an abalone, all of your equipment will be confiscated as well as a $1350 fine per ab. that you have. Remember these penalties as they are the same for all of the infractions. Over the bag limit which is 3 per day, and 24 for the season. Each ab. has to be tagged with a tag that you receive from the state as well as a report card filled out with your yearly catch. Any undersize abalone carries the same fine. So you can see it can be very expensive if you don’t follow the rules. And they are out there watching. We have seen the Fish and Game Warden on top of the bluffs with his spotting scope and binoculars watching divers while camouflaged in the brush.





The last two photos are just some cool shots that we got today at low tide while climbing around on the bluffs. As you can see the star fish population is very high here. Just kind of interesting to see this many stars at one time.





Until next time...
R.J.

P.S. I wrote this one at 2:30 AM, so if some if it doesn't make sense guess what your chances o getting your money back is!

Home Sweet Home…

Well we have settled in to our new jobs quite well. We work for the park 25 hours a week over 5 days. We have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off of work. So our day normally consists of a morning walk around the park to check on garbage cans and bathrooms. One busy days we have to empty and clean up a little from time to time. Then in the middle of the day we normally spend a few hours cleaning up around the park, picking up litter, or trimming brush, or generally whatever needs to be done. Then once again in the evening we will do another round of the park before things quiet down. Generally we assist with what ever the Parks workers need. They have a good group of seasonal workers that do all of the trash pickup and bathroom cleaning during the day.

The remainder of the time is ours to do as we please. We often taken time to walk along the coast, hike up the canyon, sit and read, and watch DVD’s. We don’t have any TV as I said before, so we don’t waste allot of time with that. Reading a DVD watching are both high on the list right now.

The weather has been great for the last few weeks. We have had 70’s and sunshine all the time. Sounds like the summer is very foggy and we have missed all of that and we are enjoying the sun without the 100 degree weather that the rest of California is enjoying. We had the fog and overcast for a week or so in August, but that is gone now.

Here is a map of the park. The deepest bay is the main attraction of the park.




This photo is taken from the top of the bluffs on the south side of the bay. As you can see there is some good fog here. You can see the point to the left of the photo. This is where the day use picnic area is and it is one of the popular areas of the park is.




Now we are standing on the furthest southern point in the park. Where you see the fog on the right side is the bay that we were standing over just a few minutes before. That is how the fog sits around here. It can be clear in one spot and socked in a ¼ mile away.




There are lots of people in the park all of the time. Here in this photo you see some Abalone divers sitting on the bank preparing for a dive. Then in the distance above them is a couple getting married just overlooking the Pacific. We have had three weddings here in the park since we have started.





Here if you look closely on the left side you can see some kayakers on the water. There are lots of caves and tunnels in the coastline, so the kayakers like this area.






That is all for now.
R.J.