Sunday, February 3, 2008 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM
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Tularosa Basin from Dog Canyon Trail, Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo, New Mexico, February 2, 2008
A clipping from my collection
Absolute Silence
I remembered hearing of a backcountry Park Service ranger who was cleaning up after dinner one evening when he heard a chilling scream. He ran out of his cabin in time to see a mountain lion standing with a dead deer next to her. The lion saw the ranger and bounded off. The ranger realized this might be a rare opportunity to closely observe a mountain lion, so he stationed himself a short distance away from the deer carcase. He sat in absolute silence, and listened closely as night deepened. After sitting in darkness for well over an hour, he gave up hope of the lion's returning and stood up. In the powerful beam of his flashlight, he could clearly see that the dead deer was no longer there. ...
Caught in Fading Light: Mountain Lions, Zen Masters, and Wild Nature by Gary Thorp
This too is lion country. Thanks for letting me drop by guys.
Night camp
Site 8 - Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, Alamogordo NM
- Verizon cell phone service - good signal
- Verizon EVDO service - very good signal and access speed ( I have to qualify this - during my January 2008 visit the signal and access speed was excellent - in January 2009 it was practically non-existent during the day and slow at night with unpredictable short periods of excellent access)
- Go to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park website
- Go to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park on my Nightcamps map
- Check the weather here
We Are Clearly a Species Worth Saving
Our world is entering a time of profound and perhaps catastrophic change. My hope is that by getting people to care about and learn about what is in their backyard, they can be made to realize that while it seems like we are destroying the planet in out greed and excess, what we are really destroying is ourselves. The planet and life in general has dealt with catastrophe many times before. Cataclysm on Earth is a creative time and evolution can handle it. Culture is much more fragile and we as individuals are more fragile still. I think that it is time for people to come to terms with the fact that our own behaviors put humanity at risk. While people have always done atrocious things, I believe that we are a species capable of beautiful, amazing and important things as well and we are clearly a species worth saving.
Jon Piasecki