Thursday Evening Hike

I've got hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures that I never labeled when I took them figuring I'd do it some other day. Some other day is here. The summer season is slow so I've got some time to catch up and I'm running across pictures of things that happened two or three and up to six or seven years ago that I'd forgotten about. I had a running winter long battle with a sharp-shinned hawk three or four years back and eventually tracked, that's right, I can track a hawk (if the conditions are right) to it's home and threw snowballs at it all day as it was coming to my home everyday and despite my best efforts taking a horrible toll on the songbirds. In time we worked out a peace agreement and he brought me a gift, I petted him for awhile, and we came to terms. I would not go to his house anymore if he didn't come to mine. We have both honored that agreement. Sometime later Kobae escaped and while I was out looking for him I came across the remains of a sharp-shinned hawk that looked like my frienemy. After that I occasionally saw one in the canyons that looked similar so I don't actually know for sure if he met his demise with the ravens as it appeared. There are four finger canyons back there. Access to three is pretty easy, the fourth is difficult to find entry to and that's where the sharp-shinned was living. Jax and I have headed out to the fourth finger canyon to see if there is any sign of my former enemy and eventual friend.

On the way to the finger canyon I found, for the third time, a bush that was healthy just a few days ago, now completely destroyed. All three have been in this canyon all over the last few months. Whatever broke this one was heavy. You can see the thickness of the broken branch still on the tree.

Jax and I have reached the one time home of the sharp-shinned and we've been sitting in the back of the canyon, just listening, to see if our friend might still be making home in here. It's quiet. No sound from above. Still, the sharp-shinned could be out somewhere.

As I stand up to hike out of the canyon I find the last thing I wanted to see. The ravens own this canyon. There's no sharp-shinned living here.

Trying to find a different way out of the canyon Jax and I run across the place where I fell and did my first hospital trip. I'd been following big horn and they went down a steep slope and then did a jump. When I did the jump, the bottom was frozen, I fell and got a nasty shooting pain in my right shoulder. Trying to find a way back in the snow and ice, with one arm, I tried to get down right here. I put my back against the wall and my feet against the other wall and with one arm tried to work my way down. I fell again. The next day after x-rays they found a chipped bone in my right rotator cuff. Prior to surgery it slipped back in it's slot and has been there since.