Final Canyon Lake Post (in HDR)

Here's my last post on the Canyon Lake Drawdown. About a week ago SRP started refilling Canyon Lake. However because of expected rain this weekend they stopped. We decided to go out for one more look before they refilled it. We would not get another chance for 20 years. This time there wasn't much of interest to find as most everything was washed away by the rains we've had recently. However we did get to see how much of the sediment had washed away from the runoff. If you look closely in the picture below you will see Chris in the lower right hand corner, he is 6' 6" the runoff removed about 15' of sediment, leaving this formation that looks like something you would find in the Grand Canyon.
Chris and Mike spent a few minutes throwing rocks at some of the overhanging sediment and caused a small avalanche.

After this we went to the marina, sat around and then had lunch at the Lakeside Restaurant & Cantina. The food was pretty good but maybe just a little over priced. We walked around the marina a bit and saw this collection of anchors that were recovered from the lake bottom (39 to be exact).
After that we decided to drive to Roosevelt lake. A couple of miles out side of Tortilla Flats the paved road ends and a dirt road begins. this road narrows down to one lane for about 2 miles and twists and turns down steep mountain grades, a ride not for the faint of heart. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures going down the road (to busy driving). At the bottom is a one lane bridge (left pic), The center pic is looking back up the mountain at the road, and the right pic is looking at one of the many cars that we saw that had gone off the edge.

We got to Apache Lake and drove around but there wasn't much to see. Here is a pic of the lake on the way to Roosevelt Dam.
We stopped at the entrance to the dam and took a few pics.

Here is one of the many SCARY signs warning people to stay out.
We then went a little further up and stopped at the lookout point to take some more pictures.

We went further on to the back side of the dam for more pics. Once more passing a SCARY sign. This one guarding another entrance to the dam.
Here are the pics from the back side.

After that we drove to the 87 and went home.

Christmas 2007

Every year my Mother-In-Law Carol has a Christmas eve party. Anyone who wishes to come is invited. However there were some no shows:
Santa-Joe - Who is in hospice recovering from Cancer of the throat.
Alan - Who was in town but otherwise engaged.
David - Unknown reason.
Eric - Was in town earlier in the month.
Here are some of the pics from Christmas eve.

From Left to Right, Kayla, Sean, Dixie, Kathi, and Carol.

From Left to Right, Juliet, Maeghan, Amanda, Haven, Amanda, and Kayla.

Tammy, and Carol, Amanda Maeghan, Dixie, and Mindy.

Maeghan, Tammy, Amanda, Mindy, Kayla, and Chris
Here are some pics from Christmas day.

Mary, (yes she can smile).

See I told you so!

Candy, the other Eric, Barbara, and Daniel.

Megan (who gets beaten with reeds if she smiles).

Average Weekend at Robert's

Once winter hits, Mike, Chris, and I can finally go out and do the things we like to do. So whenever we get a chance we head out to the Florence Military Reservation, where we go "hiking".

There is something about the desert in winter... IT'S COLD! But we wouldn't miss it for the world. After hiking around for 2 to 4 hours we head back to my house. Today Chris went home as he was tired, Mike and I went to the grocery store. We came back to watch a movie and Mike was out like a light, along with his son.

People Interested in Office George Cortez Jr.

Lately my site has been receiving a lot of traffic from Google in reference to my post on Officer George Cortez Junior's Funeral procession. If you are here to read about the funeral procession, please leave a comment below or sign my Guest book as to what has brought you here. Please visit his web page at: http://www.georgecortez.com/

Not Another Canyon Lake Post!

Yes... Another one.

We went there Saturday to pick up the great quantities of cans at the bottom of the lake. We were doing this because Mike's roommate owed him a lot of money. However it had been raining for 2 days, and as I feared everything was soaked and sections of the lake bed were in the process of washing away.

At the first bridge the floor of the lake had been eroded by about 6 feet.
The flood waters had washed the newspaper vending machines (all 6 of them) a couple hundred yards down stream, and uncovered the remains of the second car we had found on our last visit.

The good news is that "if" we have to go back to pickup the cans most of the soft mud has been washed away. While at this locations Mike's narcolepsy kicked in.
Just kidding!!! We moved on down to the east of the second bridge and the same thing was happening there.
We stood around and watched the banks of the river wash away.

The sun came out for a few seconds and I got a couple of good pictures of it.
Finally we moved on to the second bridge.

There will probably be at least one more post about the lake before they refill it. I know you can't wait.

Canyon Lake Drawdown Revisited

Today we went back out to Canyon lake, this time with my trusty metal detector. I wanted to see if there was anything really interesting or valuable buried in the mud under the first bridge.
We quickly found this was going to be a problem as there was an insane number of aluminum cans buried in the dried mud. However while looking around I found one very interesting object buried under about 1 inch of mud. The mud had dried and cracked revealing it to me. I am surprised no one else had seen it as many people had been through this area, here it is after I got it home and cleaned it up:
You will note from the above image that the number has been removed from the lower part of the handle using a drill and a chisel. No other number is on the item. The slide and everything else was not attached and was not within 10 feet of it, possibly the other pieces had been dumped somewhere else. From where it was located it looks like someone threw it in as they drove onto the bridge. After we had finished our explorations we attempted to drop it off at the local constabulary in A.J. but it was not open on Sunday. Since the important parts are missing and there is no number I will probably remove the nickel plated parts that did not rust and dispose of the rest.

On this trip we decided to check out the second bridge, here are some pics:



In the above picture of the Bridge with the sun behind it I am standing next to the column for scale.

We had to do some hiking to get down into the lake bed under the second bridge. Once down there we could not walk on most of the mud as we would have sunk up to our knees. We carefully hiked around to the other side and walked to where the marina used to be before it was temporarily moved. In that area we observed (but could not get to):
more of everything we noted in my first list plus
A Boom Box.
2 Potted (but dead) ficus trees.
A stereo.
A Direct TV satellite dish.
A 20 foot mast with antenna attached.
Lots of shoes.
Many more lawn chairs.
A stereo amplifier.
Several badly rusted anchors of various design.
A complete and upright gas grill stuck in the mud.

As we were hiking out of the lake bed we saw this guy flying over head.
It appears to be a fully armed Huey Cobra.

No we did not find the wallet.