Back in the late 70's when folksinging duets were popular there I was at a bar in Denver and heard this song. For some reason the lyric line stuck with me, maybe because I've always enjoyed studying 19th century Native American conflicts with the opressive US Government. This area of Arizona was homeland to the Apache and Cochise was the war chief for a while.
As I was driving northeast from Apache Junction I tried to visualize how the Apache made their way through these canyons. When I pulled off the road a couple of miles past Lost Dutchman State Park and hiked into the desert to get a view without powerlines in the way I could barely move through the landscape without getting punctured. If it wasn't the Cholla it was the Pencil Cactus. If it wasn't the Pencils it was the Prickly Pear. If it wasn't the Prickly Pear....well, you get the idea. Everything out here will either bite you, sting you, or stick you and more than once I had to find a rock to bump Cholla clumps the size of golf balls off my pants leg or my hiking boot. I was fortunate that none of them penetrated my skin. But I digress.....
Mostly I was thinking "how the heck did those people travel up these slopes in leather moccasins? How did they keep thorns out of their bodies?" Amazing...legend has it that an Apache youth could run all day with only a pebble in his mouth to make the saliva flow. I could barely walk at a slow pace without becoming a pin cushion.
I blogged a few months ago about my past inability to come away from here without any images that I liked. Well, today I got some stuff I'm pretty proud of. Maybe not world class but I like them. Definitely an improvement over what I've done in the past. I guess the key is to remember that the "magic hour" is barely 30 minutes here before the light gets harsh and ugly. In other climes good shooting light can run nearly an hour but not here. Now I know.
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