Saturday, December 26, 2009 - Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM
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A Ghost Ranch Christmas, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM, December 25, 2009
Ten below zero is cold for this old rig. When I opened the door and took a reading with my infrared thermometer this morning here at Ghost Ranch, that's what it read. My 3,000 watts of electric heat is barely adequate and would only hold the rig to about 60 degrees inside. That translates to a drafty 45 degrees down at floor level. Brrrrr...
Enjoy yesterday's picture - I skipped my pre-sunrise photo walk this morning.
[later] Interesting. By 10:30 or so the bright sunshine warmed the rig to the point I had to turn the electric heaters off. Around noon, thinking surely it was warm enough to go off for a hike, I took a temp reading outside the door. Amazingly, it was still only 10 degrees. Isn't solar insolation a wonderful thing?
Night camp
Ghost Ranch Campground, Abiquiu NM
- This is a basic, small campground with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are not available here.
- Locate Ghost Ranch on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
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