We took our time at camp and shot some footage for a tour of the truck video we’ll put together later (watch for it!!).
We went back into Organ Pipe Cactus NM to fill water and do a scenic and interpretive drive and four mile hike. The scenic drive was nice… scenic… and our hike was about the halfway point. We met several really nice folks on our hike today. On the way up to Bull Pasture in Estes Canyon, we ran into some hikers from Indiana who have hiked the AT a lot, Jake-Brake and Low Gear (Bill and Carol). We heard some sounds from the canyon that we had no idea what could make it… It couldn’t be human… maybe someone with a flute, echoing off the canyon wall? We found out it was someone yodeling. We caught up with the yodeler who claimed to be a Mormon Missionary who spent two years in Switzerland and when he got back, all everyone wanted to know was had he learned to yodel. You never know what you’re going to run into in the desert. He gave us a live performance of a poem about giving his wife a scare by pretending to slip and fall off the side of a trail, only to really slip and fall off the side of the trail. His wife came up the trail as he was finishing and declared it was all true.
We headed back down the trail into Estes Canyon through Saguaro and Organ Pipe Cactus, Ocotillo and several types of cholla. Many of the larger cactus and even the cholla have a woody skeleton inside to support it. We saw many cactus in varying states of life and death and saw these woody skeletons.
When we got back to the truck, we noticed someone checking out our bumper stickers. We chatted with Glen and Shirley Cope from Pagosa Springs, CO. They’ve been coming to the area for many years and gave up some of their insight on the illegal immigration issues in the area. We also chatted with them about Pagosa Springs, Colorado, running (They were both teachers and track coaches) and a million other things.
Just as we were leaving, we saw the yodeling poet coming off the trail and I went over to verify his name (of the video), and they gave us a copy of their book!! I couldn’t believe it! Al Hollis is a poet from Utah and he and his wife Kathy have a beautiful book out with their poetry and photos. Andrew and I read some of it tonight and it is really beautiful and with wonderful photography (although I didn’t read anything about his Mormon Missionary work in Switzerland). ![Wink [;)]](/emoticons/emotion-5.gif)
The sun was setting as we left the scenic drive, so we ran back to Crazy Woman Campsite to spend another night under the big Ironwood tree.