Ellen resigned her civil servant position on Fort Huachuca. Her experience dealing with the "Good Ole Boy's Club" is what made her resign and take up a more lucrative position with an engineering contractor on post. Her story tells me that opportunities for talented woman engineers hasn't changed much since my days with the army. I hope she is happier now. Her last week is next week and then she's on vacation for a while. Her attempt up Half Dome is a part of her time off.
(photo by Ellen P)Not much had changed since my last hike up the peak two weeks ago. The same flowers were in bloom, although the red sage is now finally popping up in small patches among the sea of yellow flowers. It was breezier today, so less butterflies and insects were out. There were more Golden Columbines near the aspen groves. The aspens have just about lost their leaves, too. We didn't see any eagles or hawks, perhaps because of the breeze. The water that was still trickling down the rock wall has dried up, so I had to stop to give Zeke his water.
The one cool wildlife experience was nearly stepping on an alligator lizard near the peak. I first encountered an alligator lizard two years ago along the San Pedro River trail. It looks at first glance like a smooth snake, until its legs become visible. What was a lizard doing so far high in elevation, where it surely was in the upper 50s? We saw another one on our way down.
Zeke is always at his best behavior when he's the only dog around. He stayed by my side the entire time. At the top he had his own can of food to enjoy, yet still tried to schmuse treats out of Ellen. We met several other couples today, all who praised Zeke for his good trail etiquette.
We were back at the truck at 3:15 and I was back home 30 minutes later. Even Kevin was still up.
No comments:
Post a Comment