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July 30, 2004
Riding Around America: Last Day in Tucson
Josh and I started our day early, planning to get out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum while it was still "cool" enough for the animals to be out but were delayed for quite a while when I realized that I was missing something - my iPod. It was gone. I either forgot it on the train or, more likely, someone snatched it when I was away from my seat. I put in calls to Los Angeles which is where the train was cleaned and serviced but they did not have anything matching the description. It was in a little case along with a nice pair of headphones and my Belkin digital camera link. The total value is over $350 so it's a big financial loss. I consoled myself with the thought that it could have been much worse, considering all the other gadgetry I have with me. But life goes on.
I had heard of the desert museum from several others besides Josh, including the older couple I had lunch with a few days ago. They said it was the best museum they had ever been too. I probably wouldn't go that far but it definitely ranks high on my list, which is surprising since I'm more interested in history than nature. The word "museum" is a bit of a misnomer. The place is more like a zoo, but not in the traditional sense. The museum is a near perfect representation of a desert environment and it largely outdoors. They go to great pains to conceal any sort of human intervention which contributes to the feeling that these animals are in their natural environment. Virtually all animals that dwell in the desert are represented, from bobcats and bears to spiders and snakes - they have everything. With Josh as my tour guide I learned a tremendous amount of information during the several hours we spent at the museum.
Next on the agenda was a tour of AMARC, the aircraft "boneyard" at Davis-Monahan Air Force Base. The facility holds roughly 5,000 aircraft and they have several purposes. Some are slated for destruction, others for spare parts and still more are kept in flying condition in temporary storage. It's difficult for me to explain the size of this facility. It is entirely outdoors. The desert environment is perfect for keeping the airplanes in good condition and so they just sit there. Rows upon rows of every type of aircraft imaginable, from every branch of the military service. F-4 Phantoms left over from Vietnam, old transport planes, B-52's, B-1 bombers, F-14's, training jets, helicopters, A-10 attack planes and piles of equipment including ejection seats, jet engines, missile parts and fuel tanks. Everything. The most fascinating part of the facility were the rows of planes which are literally chopped into pieces. As part of various treaties with Russia, many planes with nuclear capabilities are being destroyed. The terms of the treaty stipulate that planes be chopped into several pieces to render them unusable. The facility uses a 13-ton steel guillotine which they drop from a crane to accomplish this. Next, the planes sit for 90 days to allow Russian satellites to photograph the severed planes and verify their destruction. Then the planes are melted down and the resulting metals are sold as scrap. It's a fascinating facility and my mind still boggles at the number of planes that just sit out there in the desert heat.
As dusk approached we grabbed some excellent pizza at Josh's favorite spot near the university and, after checking that my train was "significantly delayed" - that's Amtrak speak for "your train is hopelessly late and will be arriving about 12 hours late" - headed up into the foothills for an evening of snake tracking.
Snake Tracking in the Sonora Desert
I suppose it would be a good idea to explain how I ended up smack in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night under a full moon looking for snakes. I never would have had the opportunity to do something like this if it wasn't for Josh, a friend of mine from college. He moved to Tucson last year to work on various herpetology projects. Basically, he is unable to resist any type of work, paid or volunteer, that involves snakes, lizards, toads, and especially turtles. His current project is tracking Tiger Rattlesnakes in a sparsely populated housing development to determine the effects of human development on the animals.
We drove up to the development, which turned out to be not at all what I expected. It's a gated community and apparently some very wealthy people live in the area. The development has maintained much of the natural environment and the houses are spread thinly. Throughout the entire evening we never even got close to the buildings and many of the plots have not been built on yet.
There are about 300 snakes that are being monitored, 22 of which have radios inserted in them so that they can be located for data gathering. Josh and three others go out as often as possible to locate the 22 snakes and enter the data into a spreadsheet on their Palm's. Later, the data will be analyzed to figure out what effect the development is having on the snakes.
We arrived just as the sun was setting and the full moon was already shining brightly. Josh gathered up his equipment: Palm Pilot, GPS locater, thermometer, headlamp, snake tongs and telemetry gear and we started trudging off into the darkness beside the road. Josh took the lead, holding a four-pronged antenna above his head and listening intently to beeps on the radio hung around his neck. The sound of the beep indicates the proximity of the snake.
The moon and stars shone brightly in the cloudless sky as we walked around in the hills. Josh deftly made his away around the cactus with me close behind. After a bit of searching and waving the antenna in various directions, we came across the snake, or a snake. It actually wasn't the one that Josh was looking for but a different one. It lay on the ground, coiled up, waiting for something to come by that it could eat. Although it wasn't the one he was looking for, Josh had to bring it into the lab to gather some information so he pulled a large pillowcase out of his backpack, picked up the snake with long metal tongs and dropped it in. I stood watching in amazement.
Next, Josh resumed the hunt for the snake that he was actually looking for, which he found close by in a burrow. While he began collecting data I, somewhat reluctantly and after a bit of encouragement, crouched down and stuck my camera in close to the burrow and took a few photos. The snake is only visible in one and he's looking right at the camera with eyes glowing from the flash and tongue flicking out.
When Josh finished we drove to a different site to find the other snakes he was looking for. Along the way we stopped to check out a big toad who was sitting in the road. We hopped out of the truck and Josh grabbed him so that I could take a look. It was a Sonora Toad and it was about the size of Josh's fist. He held it up in the light of our headlamps so we could get a closer look. Believe, it or not, it's the type of toad that you can lick to get high. And here I thought that was just an urban legend.
We continued down the road and this was my favorite part of the evening. The other snakes are "controls" which are outside of the development on a hill on private land. To get there, we opened a barbed wire fence and proceeded down a ranch road which was barely a road at all. The previous day's rain had swept sediment down the road and it was a succession of little dips with trees and cactus on all sides. I quickly learned to pull my hand inside the truck as we went down the "road", jostling up and down with cactus and shrubs scraping along the sides. Josh referred to all the scratches on his truck as "Arizona pinstripes". We were far from habitation and as we headed deeper off road it reminded me of the stereotypical horror movie where the villain drives the victim into an abandoned spot far off the road to kill him.
We arrived at Josh's "parking spot", a small clearing, and set off to the find the remaining snakes. It didn't take Josh long to find two only a few meters away from each other. He gathered the data while I got as close as I dared and took some photos. Continuing on, Josh spotted a tarantula walking across the desert floor in front of him and kindly corralled him with his antenna so I could get some pictures.
The last of the snakes took more effort to find. Because they were up on the hill, the signal was bouncing around and it took a while for Josh to pick them up on the antenna. At one point we were at the top of the hill with the desert floor and the lights of Tucson twinkling miles away. Because of the moon, the mountains and tall cactus on all sides of us stood out vividly against the horizon. The night was still and quiet. No traffic or airplanes noise; just a heavy silence and a beautiful desert view. So far, it's been the best moment of the trip and I'll always be grateful to Josh for showing me a part of the country that I never would have seen before, in a way that I never could have imagined.
After finding his snakes and gathering his data, we headed out, back down the "road" and onto pavement again. We had spent part of the evening talking about how Josh had never seen a mountain lion or bobcat while tracking even though others had had several sightings. Then, as we drove along, highlighted in the headlights, we saw a bobcat bound across the road. We came to a quick stop and hopped out of the truck to get a better look. Josh grabbed a spotlight and we walked over to the side of the road. The bobcat was walking slowly away from us but then it turned around and looked right into the spotlight, eyes glowing. It was an amazing sight and it was a beautiful animal. After a while it got bored with us and walked away. Josh walked a few feet off the road to find it but it was gone. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to get a picture. We headed back, both of us excited that we had seen the cat, and me very glad that I stopped in Tucson on my ride around America to hike through the desert with my friend Josh looking for snakes. I may like history and airplanes, but the snake tracking has been my favorite thing I've done on the trip so far. So thank you Josh, for giving me a proper introduction to the desert.
Posted on July 30, 2004 at 12:00 AM