Trip Statistics and a Final Word

As promised here's a summary of the trip's statistics. In total I drove 4800 miles and stopped to do geology in 8 states including Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. I was gone for 20 days with only 2 days off for vehicle repairs.

 

I crossed the continental divide a total of 10 times (twice through Ute Pass, CO) and they are highlighted in red in the chart below. The highest elevation crossing was at 11 939' in Hargerman Pass, Colorado, the lowest at 5922' in Deer Lodge Pass, Montana. I went through numerous other passes along the way and the noteworthy ones are listed below.

Grover achieved a fuel economy of 16.3 MPG (US gallon) or 15 L/100km. This is about average for a Land Rover with a 2.25L petrol engine. In total I burned a total of nearly 300 US gallons of gasoline emitting approximately 2.6 metric tonnes of CO2. To make myself feel better I calculated the emissions for a flight from Calgary to Toronto and on to Argentina, another area students from my department work. This would emit 4.0 metric tons of CO2.

Of the 17 sample locations 9 were within national forests, 5 were on Bureau of Land Management land, 1 was on Bureau of Reclamation land and 2 were on county or private land. I only missed one sample which I had firmly planned to get, the Ladore Sandstone in the eastern Uinta Mountains.

Here's a list of the National Forests I worked in.

• Lewis and Clarke (Montana)
• White River (Colorado)
• San Juan (Colorado)
• Gila (New Mexico)
• Tonto (Arizona)
• Toiyabe (Nevada)
• Fishlake (Utah)
• Wasatch-Cache (Utah)
• Helena (Montana)

In the end I collected 40 samples averaging around 20 lbs per sample. 39 were for my research with 1 sample collected for a collaborator.

What were some of the highlights? I think the people I met were one. The folks at 4x4 and More in Durango, CO. The French cyclist in Nevada. The Gordon Lightfoot fan and the drum maker in Colorado. The old couple with the rock collection in Utah.

Overall I found people to be very warm, welcoming and helpful. Grover was a great way to meet people as numerous strangers approached me to ask questions about the truck. I must have been asked 100 times "What year is your Jeep?"

In terms of scenery I think Colorado may be my favourite state. The desert is okay but I like trees and high altitudes so Colorado was great. Western Montana may also compete for my favourite.

Would I do it again? Of course! I wiil likely do nearly the same thing next summer as I head north from Calgary to collect the remainder of my sample suite through Alberta, British Columbia and into Yukon. Look for a part 2 to this blog around July 2013. Thanks for reading.

What worked well..... and not so well!

I thought I would do a "lessons learned" post to review what went well and what didn't go so well.

First what went well:

• Scientific preplanning
• I spent a lot of time planning out the science behind this trip (where to go and why). This time was well spent as I had absolutely no issues identifying which rocks to sample or finding appropriate exposures. I attribute this success to the extensive use of Google Earth and Street View to visualize the geology and the terrain and to overlay the former on the latter to identify outcrops. This made the work very efficient. Despite having some vehicular issues I managed to collect 17 of my 19 sample locations in just 3 weeks.

• Vehicle Preparation
• Dual fuel tanks were very handy when driving long miles. I never worried about whether I would make it to the next gas station.
• The auxilliary battery and split charge system was also invaluable as I could run my computer and satellite phone continuously and never worried about running the battery down and getting stuck. This allowed me to do things like blog, listen to music and talk to the family.
• Several months ago I installed new Rocky Mountain Parabolics springs and shocks, which have less interleaf friction than a standard leaf spring, giving a more comfortable ride. The suspension worked flawlessly and my decision to use a heavier set of rear spring proved valuable in carrying the heavy load of rocks.
• My bed was fantastic. Very comfortable, particularly in the colder climates.

Things that went not so well

• Navigation software
• I am not entirely enamoured with Microsoft Streets and Trips. The software had a difficult to use interface and often would lose a hundred miles between the route planning and navigation interfaces. For instance, route planner told me it was about 380 miles from Helena to Calgary, a number I directionally agree with. However, when you started navigation the distance to end was immediately 270 miles. Where the 110 miles was lost I don't know.

• Vehicle Preparation
• I should have taken more time to address the persistent miss I had in Calgary before departing. It got worse as the trip went on and caused me stress until the guys in Durango helped me fix it.
• The swivel balls were a known weakness and I should have, sometime in the last 6 years, fixed them before departing on this trip. Other than missing one sample location and a bit of stress this turned out not be big issue.
• Sleeping in the truck in hot climates was not great. A tent would have been preferred at some of my hottest stops as the heat capacity of the truck and its contents kept it pretty warm long after the air outside and cooled off. Perhaps this speaks to the popularity of roof tents in Africa.

Overall I think it went very well. I don't think driving a classic Land Rover around to do this type of sampling is for everybody. However, given the truck is 53 years old and was carrying far more than it was ever designed to I think it went quite well. Now I just have to figure out how to get those two samples I missed.

Helena, Montana to HOME!

Today (Saturday, June 16) I arrived home to an empty house. After driving 380 miles to see my family it turns out they went to the mountains for the day. Oh well.

The drive from Helena, Montana to Calgary, Alberta was uneventful. I no issues at the border, they didn't even ask what I had in the truck, and the mechanical situation did not worsen.

I will take a few days to get reacquainted with the family and then I will do a wrap up of the trip early next week.

High Creek, Utah and the Drive to Helena, MT

Today I drove from Huntsville, Utah to Helena, Montana and on my way I collected samples of the Mutual Formation and the Geersten Canyon Formation along High Creek in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. This was the longest driving day of the entire trip at ~470 miles and 8 hours. Thankfully as I've driven north the temperatures have cooled off and made the driving much more pleasant.

Here's a shot of High Creek Valley. The Land Rover can just be seen at the bottom of the valley.

The road to access these samples was a little rougher than I would have preferred given the state of my steering but I persevered, drove slowly and got the samples anyways. The Geersten Canyon Formation has truly remarkable cross lamination which creates a texture akin to that of wood. Here's a shot of a beautiful piece in a rubble slope beneath the sample location.

I arrived at Canyon Ferry, Montana (near Helena) fairly late but still managed to collect my last sample, the Tintic Sandstone inside Helena National Forest just before sunset. Helena National Forest lies within the Big Belt Mountains and just west of my first sample location at Neihart within the Lewis and Clarke National Forest (Neihart). At it was already quite late I decided to randomly camp on the edge of Canyon Ferry Lake. Here's a shot of my final campsite.

I don't know for sure but I suspect the Land Rover is now carrying ~800 lbs of rock (40 samples at about 20 lbs/sample) plus all my tools, spares, camping gear and water. It is going down by the stern a bit at this point and the acceleration is uninspiring. No major deterioration in the swivel pins situation. They are clunking a bit more than they did yesterday but they seem to be holding together okay on the highways. Tomorrow I will be heading for Canada and home to the family. Here's hoping Canada Customs doesn't object to rocks covered in lichen!

Fillmore, Utah and New Vehicular Issues

I guess you should never embark on a long drive in a vehicle with a known issue. Before leaving Calgary, Trish and I discusssed the possible vehicular failures that could occur given the known and potential issues with the vehicle. One thing we discussed was the condition of Grover's swivel balls. Swivel balls are part of the mechanism which allows the front wheels, brakes and hubs to turn relative to the axle which is attached, via the springs, the frame. Grover's swivel balls are 53 years old, corroded, pitted and leak oil like seives.

I knew prior to the trip that the condition of the swivel balls was an issues as anything that leaks oil can also allow in water leading to corrosion and eventual failure. However, I had neither the money to get somebody else to fix them (it is a very time intesive job to fix) or the time to fix them myself before my departure. Today they started to show the first signs of wear and tear with the upper swivel pins, the parts that actually allow the front tires to steer, exhibiting significant play. I guess several thousand miles of driving and the 60 or so miles of corrugated roads yesterday did them in.

I decided today to drive to Salt Lake City, instead of to my next sample location in Vernal, Utah to discuss the issue with a Rover shop there called Great Basin Rovers. They agreed with my diagnosis and we discussed the potential failure modes. Having decided that none of the possible failures were particularly dangerous I elected not to fix the swivels at this time and continue my journey. It is highly likely that the I won't have any problems getting back to Calgary as long as I don't do anything to stress the swivel pins futher. This means that offroading is out of the question, unfortunately precluding me from collecting my eastern Uinta Mountains sample. This sample location was just not meant to be. It was the location I skipped on my journey south due to issues with White River National Forest.

Today I managed to collect samples of the Tintic Sanstone up Chalk Creek Canyon within Fishlake National Forest and samples of the Tintic and underlying crystalline rocks in Ogden Canyon, near Ogden Utah. Ogden Canyon was by far my most dangerous sample location being on a narrow road through the canyon with no shoulders and bordered by shear cliffs. Here's a shot looking to the east up the canyon.

The Tintic Sandstone itself was quite pretty with large and small scale cross bedding and conglomeratic beds. Here's a panorama of the Tintic exposed on the northern side of the canyon.

The pipeline running through the panorama is the Ogden Canyon Conduit, a 75" pipeline with connects the Pineview Dam to several irrigation canals near Ogden city.

After collecting my samples from Ogden Canyon I headed east toward Huntsville, Utah and I am camped at the Andersone Cove Campground.Tomorrow I head north to a sample location within the Wasatch-Cache National Forest near High Creek and on to Helena, Montana.

Cricket Range, Utah

Today was a big day. I drove 350 miles from Lake Mead up to Fillmore, Utah with a stop for geology in the Cricket Range just north of Milford, Utah. I don't know how the Cricket Range got its name. However, this being Utah and ground zero for Mormoninsm, I like to think that it has to do with folklore surrounding the "Miracle of the Gulls".

As I mentioned in a previous post (Young family), in 1847 Brigham Young had recently ascended to the presidency of the LDS church. In an effort to escape religious persecution in the eastern United States, Young lead the first band of Mormons west to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, which was not yet part of the United States. The settlers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1947, a date now celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah, and under Young's guidance strove to become a self sufficient colony. In 1848, after suffering some earlier minor setbacks due to a late frost, a plague of crickets descended on the settlers crops causing severe damage and threatening the survival of the settlers. On June 9, 1948 legions of gulls are said to have appeared, gobbling up the hordes of crickets and saving the settlers remaining crops. Many mormons viewed the arrival of the gulls as a miracle and the incident is prominent in Mormon folklore. To ths day the Califonia Gull is the state bird of Utah.

I don't know if the Miracle of the Gulls has anything to do with the naming of the Cricket Range but crickets are clearly important in Mormon early history.

Of course I was in the Cricket Range to look at rocks. At this location I was looking, for the first time, at the Cambrian Prospect Mountain Formation and the underlying Mutual Formation. These units had been mapped in the area and I found them precisely where they had been mapped. Here's a shot of the Mutual Formation (foreground) with the overlying Prospect Mountain in the background.

Immediately west of the Cricket Range is Sevier Lake, an endorheic lake. Endorheic lakes are lakes with no outflow where all the water that enters the lake basin either evaporates or seeps into theground. Some of the worlds largest inland water bodies such as the Aral and Caspian seas are endorheic. Sevier Lake has, for the majority of recorded history, been a dry lake bed but occasionally during periods of higher than average rainfall the lake temporarily fills. I didn't note any water while I was there.

The majority of the land within the Cricket Range is BLM land (see explanation here: Summary of US Land Administrators) and therefore the peoples land. You are permitted to camp almost anywhere with a few restrictions regarding proximity to water sources. I met a very interesting and older couple who were camping near my sample location. It is not unusual for people, once the find out you're a geologist, to want to have you look at their rock collections. Normally I try to express some enthusiasm for the rocks in the collection as I try to support the general public's interest in the geosciences whenever I can. However, the first rock I was handed was about as boring a sandstone as you could imagine. Part of me wanted to ask "what exactly possessed you to pick up this rock?". However, I dutifully pulled out my hand lens and went about describing the mineraology and texture of the rock. Thanfully the next rock in the collection was a limestone with abundant bivalve shells and I was saved the awkwardness of having to feign interst in rocks that are uninteresting.

One last piece of geology before I move on from the Cricket Range. Unlike my earlier stops in the eastern part of my thesis area, these western mountains are not the direct result of contractional or compressive plate tectonic processes (a.k.a mountain building). These mountains were formed as part of Basin and Range extension which began in this area around the Early Miocene (~23 million years ago) and are therefore much younger than the mountains to the west which formed in the late Cretaceous and early Paleocene (>55 million years ago). One fo the faults associated with this recent extensional phase of deformation occurs immediately west of the sample area and is the reason Sevier Lake exists. This fault clearly affected the rocks in the sample area and several smaller faults were present in the section. Here's a cataclastic rock or a rock that has been shattered by stress associated with the nearby faulting. The right side of the boulder is undeformed Mutual Formation. The left side is the same formation but broken up by the stresses associated with the fault.

After finishing my work in the Cricket Range I headed over to Fillmore, Utah for the night. I am staying in a KOA and will go sample some rocks near here tomorrow before heading to the eastern Uinta Mountains tomorrow.

Vegas Baby, Vegas!

For me, Vegas epitomizes what went wrong with modern western capitalist society. Rampant consumerism, greed and predatory marketing all wrapped up in an environmentally unsustainable package. The only thing I like about Vegas is it may be the least prudish city I've ever visited.

Today I visited Vegas for the first time. Today I drove from Pahrump Nevada to Las Vegas Nevada, slightly less than 65 miles. Here's the map.

I started my day collecting rocks in the Spring Range just northeast of Pahrump. I had preselected this location based on satellite imagery and maps (as I did for all my locations) and was pleasantly surprised that the road I intended to use went far further into the mountains than I had anticipated. Less walking!

Roadrunner Road started out a benign gravel track but very quickly got interesting. Several steep, although short, twisty climbs with high potential for getting cross axled added interest. On the way down several of these sections I was on three wheels. The road eventually gave way to a gravelly wash which narrowed as it entered the rocks I was there to sample! I had to quit at the first real obstacle as with no spotter a misplaced wheel could result in a real test of my rock sliders. Also if I broke something or got stuck I was on my own, never a good thing. Here's a photograph of the Neoproterozoic Stirling Quartzite and the obstacle that thwarted me.

 

After sampling the Sterling Quartzite and the overlying Middle Member of the Wood Canyon Formation (MMWC) I made the short drive to Las Vegas.  I decided I couldn't drive through Vegas without seeing the strip so I exited the interstate and drove the entire length of the strip. It was everything I expected it would be.

My sample location was on the northeast of Vegas on the flanks of Frenchman Mountain. Normally I have to do some geological sleuthing to ensure I'm looking at the correct rocks. At Frenchman Mountain somebody had put signs up, creating a small geological tour, with the formation names on them. Very handy. Here's the sign telling me I'd found the Tapeats Sandstone, the formation I was here to sample, complete with an environmental interpretation.

Here's a shot of the usual unconformity between crystalline basement and the overlying Tapeats Sandstone. The hill in the foreground on the right is crystalline. The left hill is Tapeats. Las Vegas is in the background.

After doing my sampling I drove through Frenchman Mountain to Lake Mead, where I camped for the night. Lake Mead is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume and was created in 1936 with the completion of the Hoover Dam. Recently drought conditions in the western US has resulted in a dramatic drop in lake levels. The lake is currently about 110 feet below normal capacity and studies have suggested that if current water usage and precipitation trends continue the reservoir will need to be retired by 2021. Here's a shot of the reservoir from one of the many viewpoints. The light tan areas in the foreground are areas exposed by the drought.

I camped at the Boulder Beach campground in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I befriended and cooked dinner for a cyclist who was making his way around the western US. Turns out he was from France and spoke very litte english. Thankfully I speak french so we had a delightful dinner and then went to Boulder City, Nevada to use the WIFI at the local Starbucks.

Tomorrow I'm off to Utah. Cricket Range and then to Fillmore. Hopefully I will be able to update you from there.

Dunes and Cinder Cones, Mohave National Preserve

With a hot miserable night at the foot of the Marble Mountains behind me I decided to relax a bit today. I had a relatively short drive to do, from Southern California to Pahrump, Nevada, a measly 162 miles through the heart of the Mohave Desert. Kelbaker Road cuts through the western Mohave National Preserve and provides the most direct route from Cadiz to Pahrump. Along the way I took in the Kelso Dunes and the Quaternary-Pleistocene Cima Volcanic Field. (June 11, 2012)

The Kelso Dunes rise about 200m out of the desert. I decided to walk to the crest of the dune field’s east end. When you leave your car you feel that the dunes are right there with nothing providing any sort of perspective. I was tempted to not even bring water, thinking it would be a short hike. Thankfully I thought better of it and put some food and water into my backpack and set off. Coincidentally a group of multitalented individuals from Joshua Tree departed the parking lot at the same time and we discussed life in Joshua Tree while we walked. Apparently people in Joshua Tree “do what’s needed to get by”. This group held more odd jobs then I have had in my life.

About an hour and fifteen minutes and a litre of water later, I was on the crest of the dune, sans Joshua Tree friends who turned back after 20 minutes. Wow, that was a lot of work. Here are the dunes from near the highway.

As I walked up toward the dunes I was amazed at the assortment of tracks left by animals in the sand. Here’s a selection.

This one was quite recognizable as the trail of a small Sidewinder, a type of rattlesnake that moves sideways.

As I gained elevation on the dune the views got more impressive. The perfectly smooth curvature of this ridge captivated me for some time.

Shortly after taking this picture I set off a small avalanche of sand down the lee side of the dune. The small avalanche spread to incorporate 25’ of the dune crest, moving to a depth of 3”. The moving sand made a sound reminiscent of a jet aircraft on approach to an airport. That peculiar sound you get when they open their flaps up. Until I realized what it was it was a bit disconcerting. The sound persisted for about 15 seconds, the duration of the avalanche. Apparently this is referred to as “Singing Sands” and is created by the moving sand vibrating as it moves over top the stationary sand below it. This effect is well known but is only produced by sand in some 30 dune fields worldwide. Very cool. I wish I could have recorded it for you. Here’s a view from the crest looking to the West.

 Here's the Wikipedia article if you want to read more about it.

Singing Sand Wikipedia Article

After the super cool experience I had at the Kelso Dunes I continued my voyage north eventually passing through the Cima Volcanic field. A bit of light off-roading and 45 minutes of hiking later I was on the summit of one of the cones. Here’s a view from the top of one of the cinder cones. You can see lava flows emanating from the volcanoes, merging and flowing off to the west.

I arrived in Pahrump in the late afternoon, checked into an RV resort and casino to do laundry and have a shower. Tomorrow I'm off to look at rocks in the Spring Range, here in Pahrump and then I'm off to Vegas and Frenchman Mountain. After that Utah!

Southern Marble Mountains, California

Sunday I drove historic Route 66 into Eastern California to sample the Cambrian Middle Member of the Wood Canyon Formation (MMWCF) in the Southern Marble Mountains. This would be the hottest and one of my more remote sample locations. The Southern Marble Mountains are located near the settlement of Cadiz and just south of historic Route 66 through the Mohave Desert. This was one of my longest driving days at 366 miles or about 7.5 hours.

While the range is somewhat unimpressive, reaching perhaps 300m above the surrounding alluvial plane, the sheer “desertiness” of the areas was quite spectacular. Here’s a view from near the top of the mountain.

The green patches in the distance are irrigated fields managed by Cadiz Inc., the only local employer. The tan areas are amalgamated alluvial fans which mantle the mountains.

The rocks were very well exposed, but unfortunately I had to climb to the top of the mountains to get a good look. Normally I wouldn’t shy away from a bit of climbing but it was 4:00 and 43 C when I left camp. Here’s the unconformity between the underlying Proterozoic porphyritic granite and the basal sandstones of the MMWCF.

Very nice desert varnish on the rocks makes it easy to see variations in bedding and grain size. Here’s a shot of some very nice cross lamination.

I random camped on BLM land at the foot of the mountain. This would be a terrible place to camp if it rained. Thankfully there wasn’t a cloud in the sky all day.

They always say that deserts get cold at night. This has not been my personal experience. It was insufferably hot until about 1:30 AM and then just miserable until around 5:00. I did not sleep well and decided that in hot weather a roof top tent would be better than being in the vehicle. I wonder if I could convince Trish…..

Payson, Arizona

Today I drove through some of the most spectacular desert scenery between Tucson, AZ to Payson, AZ. I decided as usual to forgo the most direct and fastest route and picked a direct line through the heart of Tonto National Forest and the Superstition Mountains. The most direct route is the Apache Trail, or Arizona route 88, a narrow, steep, twisty road which starts off paved and later becomes gravel. The paved section was a hoot and I enjoyed the performance handling my Land Rover had to offer. The gravel part was a 22 mile misery of washboard and badly corrugated road surfaces. The scenery was spectacular though.

The trail runs along the side of three reservoirs. The first and smallest is Canyon Lake held back by the Mormon Flat Dam. Here's a shot, unfortunately with power lines.

The second is Apache Lake, which unfortunately I didn't take a picture of. Here's a shot of the road just beyond Canyon Lake. One of the few places they provide a railing to prevent you going off the shear cliff to the left.

Further up, mercifully at the end of the gravel section, you reach the spectacular Roosevelt Dam. Originally built from stone around the 1910's the dam was at the time it was completed the largest stone dam in the world. The dam could not handle the largest conceivable flood that could occur in its watershed so in the 1990's the dam was enlarged using concreted to increase the capacity of the reservoir. Here's a shot of the downstream side of the dam.

Here's the upstream side with the stone original dam visible above the waterline.

To get to Payson you must cross the Salt River. In the 1990's when they were improving the dam they built the largest single span, steel arch bridge in North America. Very pretty bridge.

Payson is a small'ish town lying at the geographic center of Arizona and just south of the Mogollon Rim, the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. Despite its mundane appearance the town is a tourist destination due to its location within Tonto National Forest and its proximity to the rim. I elected to stay in the Houston Mesa camground run by the national forest.

Today I was looking at the Tapeats Sandstone where it is exposed at the East Verde River just North of town. Here's a great shot showing the basal unconformity, climbers for scale. The uconformity between the Tapeats Sandstone and the crystalline basement in just above the tops of the trees at the base of the cliff.

 

I disgorged the contents of the Land Rover onto my site to reorganize. I'm at 24 samples now. Probably close to 500 lbs of rock. They're in the plastic bags. It will soon be difficult to get it all in and organised.

 

I'm off toward California tomorrow. My next sample location is in the center of the Mohave Desert and I'm a bit worried. This will be the hottest and potentially the most miserable sample location. It's probably too long a drive for one day so I will likely camp just short of California tomorrow and nip in early Monday morning.

Silver City, New Mexico (a.k.a. Cactus Land)

I'd love deserts, If it weren't for the heat

I drove the last 98 miles from Elephant Butte Lake State Park to Silver City, NM this morning. In the spirit of avoiding interstates and taking the most direct route between sample locations I took Hwy 152 through Emory Pass. At 8,828 ft Emory Pass pales in comparison to Hargeman Pass (11,960 ft) but may be the most beautiful drive I've ever done in North America. I actually laughed aloud as the road switched back and forth, back and forth up the pass. Here's the view from the top.

In the middle distance is the old silver mining town of Kingston, which sprung up in the late 1880's only to be abandoned in 1893 when silver prices fell. 

Mining remains a major component of New Mexico's economy. Silver City itself was incorporated in 1870 following the discovery of silver in the area. Today, the Santa Rita Copper/Molybdenum mine forms the basis of the local economy, providing some 1250 jobs (Silver City's population is only 10,000). The town's "Historic Downtown" is quire reminiscent of other western towns I've been through lately.

Here is Javalina the coffee shop I visited this morning while waiting for the Gila National Forest to finish my permit. The building was built in the late 1800's.

The decor was more modern.

The first serious mining at Santa Rita began in 1909 when a rail line through the area made economical shipping of ore possible. The mine is an open pit over a mile across. Here's a shot from the observation area.

Here is another shot from near the continental divide at my sample location. You can see the mine in the distance. Also a good shot of New Mexico.

Today I was describing and sampling the Bliss Sandstone in the Silver City Range right at the continental divide. The area was rife with cacti off all varieties. My personal favourites were the Perry's Century Agave and the Pin Cushion. Century Agave on first then the Pin Cushion is on the right of the second picture. Also shown are prickly pear cacti.

The geology looked much the same as previous locations. Sandstones overlying, in this case, proterozoic granites. The only major difference was the occurence of ironstones. I have to admit I don't know much about ironstones. I will have to look them up. Here's a photo of one.

I decided I'd include a self portait today. I'm always behind the camera so I rarely get to be in my blog.

Tomorrow I head for Tucson to stay with a collaborator for a night. Then on Saturday I'm off to Payson, Arizona. Silver City was my most southerly sample location. It's all west and then north from here!