Storm Chaser

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY EIGHT

And I thought yesterday was humid.

When I walked out of my house to go and do my hike this afternoon I wasn't sure where I was going. When I looked South and saw this cloud formation I knew. I was going to go and chase some rain.

On the way I saw the biggest rainbow I've ever seen; it was so large in fact that I couldn't fit it in one picture. I uploaded a video below with the whole thing.

I got out to some fields in Thermal and headed up toward the mountains near Rabbit Peak. I doubted I'd be able to get very far but the main concern was to be safe and not get lost in the flood.

I got as far as I could drive and got out and started walking. I wasn't going to be able to cross this area here so I'd have to find another crossing.

This was actually not bad. It never got more than just a bit over ankle deep but I wasn't going to able to cross the same area when I came back. It filled up that quickly.

I follow the alluvial fan up a bit and am pounded by the rain. Being in the desert I don't generally have rain gear with me and the only thing I have is a blanket that I use to try to keep the water off my camera. It's not very effective.

The water is really moving down this wash. That bush in the middle of this picture is actually moving. The water is washing it down toward the Salton Sea.

I hike around a while until the rain diminishes. It doesn't help that not one bit of my body is dry. I actually have nothing that will help me dry my camera lens.

I made sure I parked the Jeep in a good place, on high ground. It looks like someone didn't do the same during a previous flash flood.

These floods are nothing to mess with; every year people get killed in flash floods in the desert of the American Desert Southwest. I have to walk around a bit before I find a safe place to cross and get back to where I started. I'm not really sure how far I hiked today but I know this: it was far enough.

Below are a couple of short videos I took. The first one is the rainbow and the second one is of the flood. I didn't bring anything to shoot video on the actual hike and that's a good thing. Everything got soaked including my camera. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work again.

My Life Is Not My Own

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHT

Whenever I have a day off I get this illusionary idea that I am going to be able to go to the mountains and do some great hike in cool weather. I should know better. With the wife working I have babysitting duty and the boys would rather hang out with their friends watching endless reruns on Nickelodeon than do something wonderful and memorable with their dear old dad. Kids. Also, my wife made an appointment for me to draw some blood--don't even ask!--so I had to be home by three in the afternoon even if I had taken the kids away by parental force. So my dream of cool mountain air vanished in the intense glow of family responsibilities. It's not the first time.

Since I couldn't get to the cool mountain air as I'd hoped it was back to the heat. Since I wasn't traveling far, Kahlua insisted on coming along.

We went just south of The Quarry and were quickly into the wilderness.

The horse trail heads up to the ridge above this canyon but this is a better way for hikers to go even though I am a bit concerned about snakes in all these boulders.

Hiking uphill in the sand in 100º heat was not what I'd hoped for today but, hey, it's better than working.

You can see the sun shining on Rabbit Peak in the distance but we are completely in the shade. If not for that, we wouldn't last an hour out here.

We make a nice little loop using one of the many trails out here and head back to a cooler with iced beverages.

There are some little dens and small caves along the mountain side but we don't see anything in there at the moment. Any critters may have sensed us coming and gone into hiding.

The one animal we see are bats flittering across the sky. There are hundreds of them but since I don't have my good camera (that's another family story) so I can't get any good pictures of them but trust me, they're out there.

We get to the water faucets near The Quarry but they have turned them off for the night and I don't have a key to turn them back on.

But that's OK. I prepared for that. Kahlua enjoys some iced water in the cooler and dreams it's a cold mountain stream.