Week of May 3, 2007 - May 10, 2007
May 4, 2007, Friday: We did the west Vekol route. The gallon of water remains untouched. Picked up a brown Budweiser beer bottle discarded at the foot of the gate. Found vehicle debris in the west Vekol at the first major crossover between the north and south lanes.
In the south lane near the steep bank of the southernmost hill with the large Saguaro strand was an abandoned blue backpack.
Around noon a newer model white passenger van drove down the road past our house and parked at the entrance to the Vekol. They sat there for about 45 minutes before they turned around and came back, crossing Ivory and continuing southbound on Sage. The driver was a dark-skinned man with shoulder-length black hair, wearing a mustard yellow sleeveless shirt. I got him and the van on video.
May 5, 2007, Saturday: We went down to the Vekol to see if we could determine the white van’s activity. Saw nothing except for some vehicle debris (a gray plastic bumper with red paint on it) on the west side of the road north of the Vekol. We walked up and around the west hill just south of the Vekol. On the west side about midway up I could see some recovery over the creosote plain. No ORVs had been back there lately.
Later that afternoon what looked like an old Chevy Blazer followed by a guy on a yellow ORV rode northbound past our house and into the Vekol. By the dust cloud that followed them it appeared that they stayed on the road heading straight back to the canyon rather than turning eastward on the Vekol. In about an hour they returned. The yellow ORV guy was wearing a black cowboy hat. He went by first and then waited for his friends in the Blazer to catch up before they both turned left on Ivory heading east. Around 6:00 p.m. another yellow ORV with a helmetless driver recklessly sped past our house and into the Vekol. He was going too fast for me to capture on video but I got his enormous dirty dust cloud. By the deafening noise of his engine and the direction of his obnoxious pollution he headed east down the Vekol.
Motorcycle tracks and smaller ORV tracks were also visible near the gate, down the middle trail, and across the first east wash. The ORV tracks continued down the east trail. The motorcycle tracks veered south past a prominent desert tortoise sighting location and down into the north lane of the east Vekol right through a fragile area of the bank I call the swimming hole. It’s where the first east wash empties into the Vekol down a cascading series of mud steps. The lowest one fills up with water when it rains making a great play pool for the dogs. The motorcycle tracks weaved in and out of the Vekol along the north bank near an empty cigarette pack and beer bottle.
Saw many musical Phainopeplas and beautiful bouncing cottontails.
May 9, 2007, Wednesday: Discovered a new ORV entrance to the east Vekol on the north bank not far from the location of my desert tortoise sighting. This illegal, ugly, and destructive activity has got to stop.
May 10, 2007, Thursday: Pleasantly surprised to spy another Gila Monster crossing the road on the north bank of the Vekol toward the gate, but my camera battery was dead! After taking the dogs home I went back to track it but it was gone. Discovered an interesting mushroom, however.
Afterwards I went down to the far east area of the
Around noon we saw two Mexican men walking southbound from the Vekol each carrying a gallon of water. Then a compact silver pickup truck with a hard-shell bedcover suddenly emerged from the Vekol and they turned around to walk toward it. The truck stopped and they got in. The truck then continued south across our wash and then east on Ivory. I got it all (including their footprints) on video. It was almost exactly a week ago around the same time of day when I spotted the white passenger van back there. Is a pattern beginning to emerge? Is this becoming a popular pick up spot for illegal immigrants?
Week of May 11, 2007 – May 18, 2007
May 11, 2007, Friday: Photographed some new illegal ORV tracks in and out of the first east wash just north of the Vekol including some beer litter they left behind.
That evening around 11:30 p.m., the sounds of two vehicles going past our house and into the Vekol woke us up. I went outside to keep an eye on them. It sounded like they stopped in the Vekol, got out, and slammed their doors. We heard male voices but couldn’t distinguish words. Then they walked around flashing lights here and there for about 45 minutes. Finally, both vehicles emerged from the Vekol and returned to Ivory where they stopped again. After a few minutes, one went back to the Vekol. Then after a while it came back out followed by two more vehicles. They all stopped on the other side of our wash at the corner of Sage and Ivory. By that time I’d made out that one of the trucks was a Pinal County Sheriff vehicle. Around 1:00 a.m. a tow truck appeared. I could only catch fragments of their conversation from my front steps, but from what little I heard I ascertained that all the fuss was over another abandoned vehicle. The neighbor must have reported it and the cops thought maybe the suspects might still be on the BLM land across the Vekol assuming that’s where they came from. Finally, they all left around 1:30 a.m. and we could finally get back to sleep. I got as much of the event as I could on video – lights and voices mostly – as it was much too dark for anything else. May 14, 2007, Monday: When we went back to survey the weekend damage, we saw no visible evidence of ORVs, but the Sheriff vehicle’s tracks were everywhere. It had to have been their oversized back country truck because the tracks were deep, wide, and ugly. To my horror, they actually drove down the middle trail, ignoring the AZ Game & Fish sign banning vehicular activity due to restoration efforts. At one point when the trail got too narrow, they went around some creosote bushes until they could get back on it. When they arrived at the first east wash, they veered to the south toward the Vekol and then stopped. They must have gotten out there to look around. Then they backed up, turned around, and proceeded northwest across the creosote plain until they met up with the road again. Fortunately, they missed most of the bushes but regrettably left some very disfiguring scars. They had also driven over some freshly made animal burrows. In my opinion they did not have to do this. If this were a rescue effort, then perhaps understandably. But for chasing suspects, they could have covered the area just as well on foot in just a few minutes. It’s not that large. I do it all the time almost every day.
May 15, 2007, Tuesday: Went almost all the way to the back of the canyon on the road, then hopped into the northernmost end of the first east wash (otherwise known as the ridge trail) and headed south. It is one of my favorite hikes – very secluded and shady. Lo and behold we came across footprints in the wash identical to those I photographed on the road belonging to the Mexican men. Sure enough, we came upon their abandoned camp where we found the discarded evidence of various prepared food items from
- Tuny Pavo: Ensalada de Pavo con Verduras
- Tierra Grande Salsa Casera Mexicana
- La Costeña: Elote Dorado Entero
- 3 Barritas Marinela Fresca con Salvado (galletas con salvado mermelada de fresa adicionales con vitaminas y minerales)
- Tortilleria “Chela” de Sonoyta
- Black Jio Backpack
- 2 limes
- label from Wrangler size 32 (largo) Mexican jeans, boot cut, western fit
- used toilet tissue
Got it all on video as we found it. Then gathered it all up (except for the toilet tissue) and took it home for a group photo.
My tape ran out so I took some additional stills and headed for the house. While I was inside getting a new tape, John and the dogs spotted yet another Gila Monster in our backyard! He brought the dogs in and I spent the next several hours tracking and filming this second one. It crossed the road, and at one time looked as if it were headed straight for where the other Monster was. Excitedly I thought, could this be a mating pair? The first one had already disappeared however. Then this second one crossed the road again and eventually slipped into a dense bush on the south bank of the east Vekol where I suspect it has a burrow. I waited for about a half hour but it never resurfaced.
Later I compared the stills of all three Gila Monsters recently sighted – the one in my initial video and these two. All are three separate and distinct individuals! What I don’t know is if the one I sighted the previous week on the north bank of the Vekol was one of these or again a fourth individual. Four sightings of Gila Monsters in less than four weeks is incredibly rare. What’s going on here? Now that I have evidence that this is a high traffic area and that they are indeed crossing the road and probably frequently, the BLM should do the right thing and SHUT THE ROAD DOWN – whether it’s on their inventory or not. This could be a highly significant reproductive clutch. May 18, 2007, Friday: We decided to do something different for a change. First we went to the far west end of the area to check the AZ Game & Fish signs and their fence repair. While there were plenty of ORV tracks going on and off
After traveling through the
Judy Kennedy
www.judykennedy.com
www.waywardmuse.com
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