Leaf Peeping While Hiking the Aspen Loop, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2020

Wednesday we drove towards the Arizona Snow Bowl on Mount Humphreys.  About 2/3 of the way up to the Snow Bowl is the Aspen Curve, a very popular spot for hiking - my best guess is that it is somewhere around 9,000 feet elevation.  The name comes from the 90 degree turn in the road and the large number of aspen trees, all of which are turning color now.  It is nothing like what we saw around our former home in Vermont, but it is still very pretty.  This is the view from where we (and many other visitors) parked.

From the parking area, it is less than a half mile to the Arizona Trail, where we turned north and headed out into Hart Meadow (where the US Forest Service is trying to bring back the Meadow).  About halfway across the meadow, we took pictures, some looking northeast toward the ski area and some looking southwest across the meadow.

Then we headed out on the Aspen Loop - as we approached a large stand of aspens, the views were colorful.

For about a quarter of a mile, the trail took us through the aspen grove.

We met hikers, joggers, mountain bikers and even people on horseback - everyone was enjoying the beautiful views and weather.

After we exited the aspen grove, we were in an open field but west and north there were many more groves of aspens.

I am not sure what they were, as we did not get close enough to identify them - but some of the trees had orange leaves.  Perhaps they were Gambel oak.

Near the end of our hike, Patty found a "Charlie Brown" style Christmas tree - it appeared that much of the lower bark and branches had been removed by deer or elk.

It was a great day for a hike and to see the fall foliage.

Another Ten Days of Mostly at Home due to Covid 19, OCT. 4 - 13, 2020

After seven months of mostly at home, I feel like I am starting to sound like a broken record.  However, there has been some change.  Halloween decorations are starting to appear.

Our decorations are nothing so intricate.  We have a real pumpkin by the mailbox, and our neighbor Lee gave us this shirt and pumpkin head which we have hung outside our front door.

Appropriate for Halloween, on one of my walks Sunday, I came across this friendly fellow in our very suburban development, only two blocks from our home.  You can see by comparing to my boot, he was about three inches across.

On my walks, I am seeing some fall foliage - although green is still the primary color because of all the pines and junipers and other coniferous trees.

We continue to bring Paulie to the rehab program at Kaibab Veterinarians.  Here she is as the water is flowing into the enclosure with the treadmill - this was the first time without a float to hold her up as she has been doing so well. At home, she now goes up the six stairs in the front hall for meals, snacks and when I take her out for walks - one time, Patty got her up five stairs beyond that, nearly one third of the way to the second floor.

I have started volunteering at Walnut Canyon National Monument.  All staff and volunteers wear masks, and we are outside all the time where we can keep distance between us and the visitors.  For October, my schedule is Thursday afternoons (after taking Paulie to the vet in the morning) and all day Saturdays.  Part of orientation included hiking out to the historic Ranger Cabin which dates back to 1904 and is the second oldest ranger cabin in the National Park system.

At the end of the day on Saturday the 10th, another volunteer and I "swept" the Island Trail, the one with 736 stairs (counting all the down and up stairs to get down to and back up from the cliff dwellings).  Our job includes looking for graffiti, making sure all guests have departed, picking up any trash and seeing if there was any damage.  One sign was loose and appears to have had some issues with erosion in front of it.

We still are not going to restaurants, movies, shows or anything inside other than brief shopping trips and that is most often first thing in the morning when the store opens.  No travel and only limited guests for Friday Happy Hour - always outside with at most 4 or 5 people and with at least six feet between us.  The news indicates that numbers of positive cases of Covid and hospitalizations are rising in much of the USA and most of Europe - with more people having to be inside more, I suspect it will be a rough winter.

Another Ten Days of Mostly at Home due to Covid 19, Sept. 24 to Oct. 3, 2020

Paulie continues to move along, slow but sure.  We manage to walk 1.5 to 2.0 miles each morning, and often meet neighbors, some with dogs and some without - everyone wants to say hello to Paulie.  We have now done two sessions of rehab with her at Kaibab Vet.  She is fitted with a flotation vest and then goes into the water to walk on a treadmill, making sure to use all four legs - her rear legs are her problem, especially the left rear leg.  But she is definitely getting stronger.  After the hydrotherapy, it is a combination of the laser therapy she had in Phoenix with acupuncture and electrical stimulation of the muscles.  She seems to do well - the change we see at home is her ability to climb the six stairs from the living room to the front door - it takes a lot of treats, but she does it ever more readily and easily as she gets her back legs working.

When we bought our home here in Flagstaff, we bought some of the furniture from the prior owner.  The dining room table was very dark brown, almost black.  So we sanded it to remove the original stain and finish.

 

 

And then we put three coats of polyurethane on it.  The natural color of the wood was darker than we thought it would be, so it is lighter than it was but not as light as we had hoped it would be.

It is nice to have an attached garage to work on projects like this.  While this project was going on, Patty also washed windows and screens - the joys of home ownership.

We continue to stay home for the most part, other than going to stores (I usually go at 6:00 when they open) and out on hikes.  The number of positive covid tests is on the rise again, as is the percentage of positive results.  Plus our President tested positive and is hospitalized, receiving multiple drugs and supplemental oxygen twice.  I believe we are in this for many months to come.