telepathic stuntman

During the past weekend we made a training/equipment check run up to the White Mountains. We fished the West Fork Black River, the Little Colorado, Reservation Lake and the Reservoir.

The fish weren’t biting much but we had a blast trying out the new Tenkara poles! We hiked the East Mt. Baldy trail to a beautiful meadow alongside the happily flowing Little Colorado and made camp on a small sandy beach.

The next day was filled with more hiking, exploring some of the 4X4 roads and fishing. We then made camp late at night atop Burro Mountain, with nearly 360 degree views and a clear sky, the stars were amazing!

Morning came with a fine view of the sunrise.

Lots of wildlife sightings on this trip: a Blue Heron gently gliding above the lake at sunset, a heard of elk, a hawk catching a fish, a huge turtle, deer, wild turkeys and just a few fish.

All of our gear worked well and we vowed to return to this wilderness paradise as soon as possible.

Lloyd.

I’ve been producing media for this wonderful group for many years now and hope to continue doing so. They raise millions of dollars for cancer research each year. This short video was shown at this year’s fundraiser.

Great project happening here – a way to bring the arts to underserved communities.

I climbed a 140 foot construction crane at sunrise to get some nice shots of the Phoenix skyline – fun shoot!

Best Chella ever!

After a boozy rowdy night in some of Belfast’s best pubs, today was a day of beauty and peace, wandering the coast along the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland.

I was treated to some one-on-one instruction of wildlife photography this weekend by my friend Bill at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. It was a lot of fun, but it showed me that I have a LOT to learn to become a serious wildlife photographer! Here’s a couple shots from the day – none of which I’m super excited about – but you have to start somewhere!

Just enjoyed a couple nights in the Superstition Wilderness, hiking across Barkley Basin From the Peralta Trailhead, then back across Miner’s Needle to Bluff Springs and finally looping back to the trailhead via the Bluff Springs trail.

The stretch across the basin as we heading toward Coffee Flat provided fantastic long views, with Picketpost Mountain far to the east.

Even though we didn’t find one drop of water flowing anywhere, the vegetation here is lush and thick. We found a small grassy spot to camp on for the first night and it seemed like the perfect spot until we discovered scorpions EVERYWHERE. Small Bark Scorpions, (the deadliest kind) were found under every rock and log we lifted… so we stopped moving things around!

We made a fine fire, cooked up a quick meal and sipped on Jameson while the sun descended. The night was quiet without a whisper of wind and shadows of the calm rolling hills were punctuated by the silhouettes sharp cliffs topped with hoodoos. It was a cloudy night so the star gazing wasn’t great, but reasonably warm.

The next day we hiked about 11 miles and landed atop a peak overlooking the valley – we decide to not use tents, just sleeping out in the open and enjoying the fine views. As the sun set, the clouds disappeared and we enjoyed a clear starry night. I watched three shooting stars before finally dropping off to sleep.

Returned to the Botanical Garden for some daylight shots!

Artist Dale Chihuly’s incredible glass creations have returned to the Desert Botanical Garden! This is an amazing exhibition of his vibrant works of art placed within the desert setting.

It’s a great time of the year to explore in the Superstition Wilderness, so I decided to combine some backpacking with a 4X4 adventure in the eastern section. I started at the Roger’s Trough Trailhead and hiked up into Reavis Ranch, then returned back to the truck to complete a 48 mile loop through some fantastic and exciting primitive roads.

Reavis Ranch is an abandoned homestead, named after Elisha Reavis, one of the first settlers here and known as the “Hermit of the Superstitions”. Reavis had a little farm high up on the plateau where he grew vegetables and would occasionally make his way into the Florence area to sell them.

The trail begins with a steep descent down to the creek, then climbs up to over 5200 feet in elevation. When I reached the top, a completely new ecosystem is revealed with abundant Manzanita, Juniper and Pines. I walked through beautiful open grassy meadows next to a permanently flowing stream, and there was a good bit of snow cover on the ground.

I found a pretty little campsite near the stream and quickly made camp as the sun set. Within a very short time, I had my tent set and a roaring fire. Manzanita makes a wonderful campfire with brisk flames and pleasant smoky scent. The temperature dropped quickly, but the fire and a flask of jameson’s kept me nice and warm! The skies were clear and moonless and perfect for a night of stargazing.

The next morning I rose early and decided to hike for a few hours before breakfast. Taking just my camera, I strolled through the pleasant valley in the morning sun. Moving quickly and silently, I saw a lot of wildlife: four bluejays, a cardinal, some kind of grouse, a couple hawks, about a dozen whitetail deer, garter snake and my first encounter with Arizona bears! I rounded a corner and surprised two of them – very small in size, probably about 200 pounds, and they bolted into the woods before I could even lift my camera.

I also discovered a magnificent giant and ancient Juniper tree , a good 10 or 12 feet in diameter.

Returning to camp, I made a quick breakfast and then packed up and returned to the truck. From there I continued along forest road 172 and then to 650 to complete an exciting but hairy drive up and over the mountains. It was single lane the entire lane and there were many times I thought there was no possible way my truck could handle the challenge of negotiating large rocks, deep gulleys, scary tilted hills and thick pools of mud. But the FJ had no problem with any of it, and when I wasn’t super scared, I actually was enjoying the fantastic views from high up on the range.

It was a terrific adventure and one I will definitely revisit!

My favorite shots from the last four Coachella Music festivals, all wrapped up into one frenetic music video!

An example of the roads leading to the cottage in rural Wales!

Hafod Y Garreg – or “Cottage on the Rock”, where we stayed in rural Wales. Beautiful! Thank you once again Roger!

A scenic little town in Gwynedd, northwest Wales.

Stopped here in Machynleth, Wales to purchase a cool Wales Red Dragon beer stein. Quirky owner is completely immersed in his rambling collection of odds and ends.

For Martin:

A collection of images of the roads we traveled in rural Wales near Dolgellau.