Quemado Lake

Apache National Forest

Click for map.

I decided Timmy should get a little stroll out to the lake. I don't want it to be too late in the day because the poor boy seems to start feeling the heat around 70°F with all that fur. It's the same start on Largo Trail #14 as before, and this time I'll get those benchmarks along the way. When the road tops out on a little hill, it'll be time to turn down a use trail and wander toward the lake.

road with a few trees — Following the road, driveway really. The overlook is above, but we'll not go that far.

The little bit of use trail at the top of the tiny hill.

cat ignoring the benchmark — Timmy knows benchmarks are boring. He gave it a sniff at least.

There's a bunch of bones along the way, so I stop to see what Timmy thinks of them. Not a lot. Off we go again toward the low lake and what is sometimes an island in it. I figure the lake should have plenty of funky sounds and smells to interest the cat, but no again. He's having a less than stellar time. We walk through crusty salts were the lake should be and normal dirt where things are high. It is funny to see that there were once trash cans on the tiny island.

grasses growing out of low water — Up on the sometimes island and looking out on the lake. It is easy to avoid the marshy spots.

mesa and justting big — The overlook and mesa with El Caso Lookout behind it and Largo Creek coming in.

He's more willing to sit among the reeds than head back, so I watch the birds and he sometimes listens to them. Swallows are sweeping through the sky where there is a swarm of insects. Egrets are running away from the disturbance of a fellow who keeps fiddling with the sail of a tiny sailboat in the almost complete lack of wind. He brings it up, puts it down, tries to set it so it'll do something, but there is not much for it to do. Even if it wasn't a sailboat he was fiddling with, it shouldn't get particularly noisy here. Motors must be electric on this lake. Out in the mud, there is a tiny bird that looks almost like a sandpiper, especially in action, but as I look closer it looks more like a tern. Probably none of the above.

panorama of herons in flight, landing, standing — A panorama in time as well as space. One heron takes off at the right, in flight with another left of middle, landing with more at the left. (Click to embiggen.)

Timmy is ready to sit all day, but I was intending this to only be for the morning. I pack up and head back. He is happy enough walking for a short while, but then not so much. It is getting warm. It's nice that he's starting to recognize shade, though.