Journal Entries
Secrets of the Universe (part 1)
Posted May 29, 2008
Moab, Utah
I've made a breakthough discovery. You know those rolls of "Reynolds" tinfoil and "Gladwrap" clingpaper? You know how the rolls always come out of the box when you pull on the ends of the wrap and then get all messed up? Well...If you look at the end of the boxes, there are tabs on the end that you are supposed to push in when you open the box of wrap. That holds the rolls in place inside and allows them to rotate freely within the box without coming loose. Reynolds made that product improvement in 1996. Unfortunately, I never got the word.
We're back in Moab after a sidetrip to North Carolina to visit the grandchildren for a week. Hereafter, these will be refered to as Fireclouds 1-6.
Firecloud 1 is quoting Latin and playing Classical Piano very well. Firecloud 5 made a big sloppy mess in his diapers while I was watching 1-5 by myself. The only hope for it seemed to be to put him in the tub and soap him up completely as part of an irregularly scheduled maintemance procedure. It's been 38 years since my last diaper change. They don't use cloth and safety pins anymore. There are these new things that use velcro fasteners and are disposable. Who says that NASA research didn't improve our lot? However, the gag reflex still works even with the new technology.
We're off in the morning to a new place. I'm thinking northeast for awhile. The Colorado National Monument is just up the road a few miles. Time to see what that's all about.
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Latest reply: May 29, 2008
Canyonlands National Park
Posted May 23, 2008
It was a bone-jarring ride in the jeep over 50 miles of sandstone desert bedrock. It took eight hours to bump and grind up the narrow four-wheel drive road. On the way we found some very unusual rock formations, an old movie set, ancient Indian petroglyphs of horned devils and lots of spring wildflowers.
Out here you need to watch for human witches (also known as skinwalkers or shape-shifters). The Yeenaaldlooshii (it goes on all fours) shapeshifter has the power to assume the form of any animal they choose, depending on what kind of abilities they need. Most commonly they appear as coyotes or owls. You can tell a Yeenaaldlooshii in human form because its eyes glow in the dark. Never look a Yeenaaldlooshii directly in the eyes because that allows them to take over your body.
The other problem is chindi. These are spirits released from people at the moment of their death. The good parts of people end at death, but troubled parts continue to wander as chindi. Usually these are malignant forces or entities that manifest themselves as whirlwinds. The clockwise whirlwinds are benign and the counter-clockwise ones are evil..
We spent some time at Thelma and Louise Point. "Thelma and Louise" was the movie that ended when Thelma and Louise, persecuted for their armed robberies and for blowing up a gasoline tanker truck, drove their convertible off a spectacular cliff.
At first, because the scenery is so impressive and varied, I was disappointed, even depressed, with the pictures. When you blow up the pictures into the full 2 gigabyte format and look at them, they begin to hint at what your eye might have seen. However, when you try to shrink the whole thing down to a 2" x 3" picture, it doesn't translate very well.
So it's not my fault, but you can look anyway, if you want to see the pictures.
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/canyonlands-by-jeep.html
Some of the roads are wide enough for one vehicle and run for several miles on the edge of a thousand foot cliff with a rock wall on the other side. You get a major pucker factor when you meet even a dirt bike. We were lucky not to meet any larger oncoming traffic. You feel the presence of the creatures-that-throw-people-off-cliffs when you stand or drive close to the edge.
There is a climb out on a long series of switchbacks to the top of the mesa. Meeting traffic on the climb would require you to hang two wheels over the cliff. This time I screwed up my courage and did the whole drive myself instead of turning the wheel over to Mrs. Phred.
Canyonlands has some great vistas that you can reach in the family station wagon. However, the back country has enough four-wheel, high-clearance vehicle trails that it takes four or five days to do a complete circuit of the backcountry on the rims and valleys of the canyons.
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Latest reply: May 23, 2008
Rafting the San Juan River
Posted May 20, 2008
Monday, 5 May 2008
Bluff, Utah to Mexican Hat, Utah
At 4:32 AM this morning the International Space Station became visible in Bluff, Utah. It wasn't as bright as I expected it would be. You would think anything with a $190 million dollar toilet would be dazzling.
The raft trip departs near Bluff at 8 am and ends up in Mexican Hat, 26 miles downstream, around 5 pm. Our guide, for some reason, wears a striped blue necktie with his straw hat and tennis shoes.
The first stop is a sandstone wall with 150 yards of petroglyphs. The earliest of these may date back 10,000 years to Clovis Man. More elaborate designs are about 1,000 years old by the basketweaver culture. I suspect that the ones that say "BLM Sucks" are fairly recent additions. One recurring enigmatic design appears to be Kenny from South Park. A petroglyph is carved into rock. A pictograph is painted onto the rock.
We see Indian ruins, after a 1/2 mile hike, a little later in the morning. These were homes of the Anasazi, ancestors to the local Zuni, Hopi and Ute tribes. The cliff shelter forms a natural amphitheatre. I can clearly hear the group conversations from 100 yards away. You can imagine voices from the inhabitants on a warm summer day.
We run into some mountain goats about halfway though the float.
It's interesting to watch the layers of sandstone along the river. One yellow layer traps petroleum. Sometimes it dives into the earth, sometimes it reappears. Mrs. Phred claims she can smell oil. The red layer is Navajo sandstone, petrified ancient sand dunes. There is one very old layer called Paradox. It is believed to have originated near the equator, in a shallow sea, back before the continents drifted apart.
The thing about the yellow layer of rock is that it's fairly impermeable. If you can find a place where it folds up into an anticline, the low density oil and gas bubbles up and accumulates at the top of the dome or fold. It's the kind of structure that gets oil geologists really hot.
Here are somepictures I liked. My favorite is the desert bee wallowing drunkenly in a prickly pear cactus flower.
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/san-juan-river-raft-trip.html
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Latest reply: May 20, 2008
The Valley of the Gods
Posted May 18, 2008
Southeast Utah Desert: Early May
It is about 600 square miles of desert valley uplifted 6,000 feet. Twenty miles of empty dirt road winds though the valley past the strange spires.
This is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. Camping is permitted anywhere you can find a spot to pull off the dirt road. Light pollution doesn't exist here. There are no small towns within a 100 miles and the valley is surrounded by 7,000 foot bluffs and mesas.
In two days there will be a new moon. We'll find a spot to camp near a mesa and listen to the coyotes talk to each other.
At 4 AM the Navigator's Triangle (Deneb, Vega and Altair) is directly overhead this time of year. The Milky Way burns a gossamer silver swath across the sky though the middle of the triangle. The Navajos think that it is very bad luck to try to count the stars. It's hard to imagine all this springing from a point smaller than an atom at the moment of the Big Bang. Trouble is that none of the other explanations seem very credible either....Just an ant wandering the inside of an empty can trying to grasp what it all means...We need bigger brains.
So. the evening of May 3rd, we'll be out here alone, in the inky black night, ten miles from the nearest road and thirty from the nearest electric light or human habitation.
This place is not well known or widely publicized. Only one of my maps even shows that it exists. It's a lovely, lonely desert. Right now the desert is blooming with wildflowers and greenery from the spring snow melt.
Here are a few pictures of the Valley.
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/valley-of-gods.html
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Latest reply: May 18, 2008
If a Coyote Crosses Your Path
Posted Apr 28, 2008
Antelope Canyon, Navajo Tribal Land, Arizona
I'm a little nervous about offending anyone on the Navajo tribal lands, so I brush up on do's and don't. The problem is that there are hundreds so I memorize a few of the most relevant. Most of them seem sensible or whimsical. I wonder how many are from the coyote trickster.
The Navajo guide leads us into the otherworldly slot canyon.
If a Coyote crosses your path, turn back and do not continue. If you keep traveling, something terrible will happen to you. You will be in an accident, hurt, or killed.
Don't point at a rainbow with your finger. The rainbow will cut it off or break it.
Don't throw rocks at a whirlwind. It will throw them back and chase you
Don't call whirlwinds a name. Evil Spirits will get you.
Do not roll a rock from a mountain. The holy people put them there and it will be bad luck.
Do not watch a river flowing swiftly, or you will get dizzy and fall in.
Do not run over s snake in your car or you will have a bad life.
Do not talk to dogs or other animals because they might talk back and you will die.
Do not say, "I wish I had some meat" when you have the hiccups or your livestock won't grow.
Do not eat frogs because you will have bad luck or bad breath.
Do not eat the heel of a loaf of bread or you will have lots of children.
Do not bite on roasting corn and then put it back or it will get cold and ruin the rest of your crop. Also, your teeth will fall out.
Do not burn blood from a nosebleed because you will get headaches and your head will split.
Do not have three people comb each other's hair at the same time or they will get stuck.
Do not turn pages backwards or you will go blind.
Do not peel potatoes or apples when you are pregnant or the baby will have a flat face.
Here are a few pictures of this slot canyon.
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/04/if-coyote-crosses-your-path.html
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Latest reply: Apr 28, 2008
Phred Firecloud
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