Picture of the Day - Speed Racer Snake

While helping out my friend Janet a couple of days ago I encountered this California Striped Racer trolling for food while I was catching my breath in the shade under some oak trees. This race car of a snake replete with racing stripes froze hoping I would not notice it. Once I was done taking capturing images of it then suddenly in an explosion of motion it 180'd in the opposite direction and "raced" back down the hillside and into a brush field. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes by means of iPhone 3 (all rights reserved).

That Place In Your Heart

The very first time I ever heard Ronan Hardiman's hauntingly gorgeous "That Place In Your Heart" I was shunpiking (driving the side roads to avoid the freeways) as I was oft wont to do during that period of my life. I was in the Manteca-Tracy area in the northern San Joaquin Valley area near where it merges with the California Delta driving home to Atascadero from a visit to the Gold Country. It was during the rush hour late one afternoon/early evening in January 2001 and I was listening to 105.5 FM "The River" when it came on and quickly transfixed my heart and blew my mind. I perceived its beauty at that time as transcending most other songs I had ever heard to that point as it really seemed to resonant with something in my then-wounded heart and mind and soul. I made a note of the radio station and the time and upon my return searched the internet for and found the phone number of the station. I called them up and asked them to check their playlist using the info I provided them and we quickly narrowed it down to the correct song. I then proceeded to order two copies of the CD Anthem which contained the song, one copy for me and one for Sally, the extremely nice and helpful lady I talked to on the phone who worked for the radio station (who later sent me a sweet THANK YOU card) as a token of my gratitude for her helping me find the song.

Until I viewed this song on Youtube tonight (last year I checked and none of Hardiman's songs were there) I had not seen the visually sumptuous music video for this song which does the song justice. 

On a side-note it is worth noting this happened at the time in my life I started listening to music again after a dozen-year hiatus (which is another story altogether). That very month of January 2001 I made the transition from analog music (cassettes) to digital music (CD's). This was my very first ever phone order/mail order of CD's as I had just that very month also purchased my very first CD ever (at the now-defunct Wherehouse music store in Atascadero where Cowgirl Cafe is now located) as described in my previous blog post Melancholy Rose by Operatica. Ah, those were the days! I'm now poorer and older but wiser yet I think.



I have included the lyrics below for your edification (courtesy of Justsomelyrics:

walk with me
break some bread here with me
Enemy Why can’t you live with me?
Who are you?
what did i do to you?
Wish i knew Why can’t i live with you?
We are all born the same
Then we seperate
Then the world falls apart
and blame turns to hate
we must not contemplate
how far apart we are there is always a way
to that place in your heart.
Hated one Just put down your gun
done is done
why can’t we live as one?
feel no shame
the air we breath is the same
heal the pain
why do we live in vain?
We are all born the same Then we seperate
Then the world falls apart
and blame turns to hate
we must not contemplate
how far apart we are there is always a way
to that place in your heart 

Picture of the Day - Snake Skin

I snapped this photo at my friend Steve Shear's place in the Adelaida area last week.
It shows the skin of a gopher snake it shed as it entered a gopher hole.
Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

March 2009 Ant Hill CFMS Field Trip

On Saturday, March 21, 2009, I attended my first CFMS (California Federation of Mineralogical Societies) field trip which was a visit to Ant Hill outside of Bakersfield and across the Kern River from the famous Shark's Tooth Hill.

This field trip was led by the infamous rockhounding raconteur Shep Koss which was a good thing because this was my first visit ever to this location and I needed the proverbial "trainer wheels" my first visit there.

I must say I was very excited to finally make it to this locale that I've heard so much about over the years and it's nice to know where it is now and what to look for when I come back in the future on my own.

I set my alarm for 4:30 AM as I had to make breakfast, get my truck packed with what I needed and then drive out to my friend Dave Brooks' house out in the Adelaida area west of Paso Robles as I would be parking my vehicle at his place and carpooling with him to Ant Hill.

I had NO intention of leaving my truck parked all day in the neighborhood in Paso Robles where the Santa Lucia Rockhounds and SLO Gem & Mineral Club were to rendezvous prior to convoying to Ant Hill.

I AM NOT a morning person (I'm a night owl) and getting up before 5 AM TWICE in a month's time is perhaps a first in my life not to mention an alarming development.

The first light of dawn became discernible only by the time I was driving on Vineyard Avenue near Highway 46 West en route to Dave's place.

It was misty and drizzly for the most part during the drive on into Paso from Dave's place and it made me worry the storm that was to hit Saturday night was arriving early and might adversely effect the comfortableness of the field trip.

Another thing that concerned me was the realization that I neglected to bring extra layers of clothing in the event it was cold and windy or cold and rainy at any point in the day.

We all left around 7:20 AM and headed out Highway 46 East towards the Kern County and the San Joaquin Valley (Central Valley).

Strangely, once we got into eastern SLO Co/ western Kern County the precipitation stopped and a bit later the low clouds broke up and it was clear and sunny with just a few high clouds and a layer of low-laying clouds behind us to the west from whence we came.

Normally, the Central Valley this time of year is oft clabbered up with fog while the Central Coast is clear and sunny but today the roles were switched.

Our drive to Bakersfield was uneventful by way of Highway 46 East to Highway 99 and that south to Highway 178 which we then took east through and out of Bakersfield proper and out into the area on the northeast margins of the Bakersfield area which are the front lines between New California (rampant development) and Old California (the natural world).

We turned off of Highway 178 at Alfred Harrell Highway and took it north and around the corner to the left and back west a very short distance to Ant Hill.

When we first arrived at Ant Hill we found ourselves pulling off the road at Morning Drive which wends its way through the Ant Hill site but is off-limits to motorized vehicles and we saw no other vehicles.

However, off in the distance to the west we could see scores of people walking up to and about the Ant Hill site.

Therefore, we got back on the highway and drove a short distance down to where all those people appeared to be disgorging from and saw a packed parking lot and drove down into it and squeezed into one of the last remaining empty spots.

What follows is my day in photographs.

It was nice to see the large and enthusiastic turnout for this field trip.
Seen here at right are Santa Lucia Rockhounds Barbara Bilyeu and Joyce Baird.

My friend David loading up our cart while Tequila ambles about.

Even more folks had shown up by the time I was walking away from the parking lot.

David proudly posing next to his expertly-packed mobile rockhound module.

Not long after getting to the dig site we encountered this Northern Pacific Rattlesnake.

David is a herpetology buff and really "dug" the Crotalus oreganus oreganus at the dig.

Tequila asking me to let her off the leash while also telling me she felt a bit hot.

David working a dig.

My first dig site which also yielded my first shark's tooth once I got to screening.

Some smallish tabular petrified bone inside a concretion.
Concretions are common here and worth checking inside.

David and Shep Koss talking about the rattler and sharks and other guy stuff.

Wootz! My first ever shark tooth (anywhere/anytime).
I found a total of five for the day, but this was the largest.

Petrified bone inside another concretion.

David cleaning out our largest and most ambitious dig of the day.

Shep tutoring some of the folks.
What would we have done without him?

SLO Gem & Mineral Club Secretary Lynette Bayless getting down and dirty.

I came upon a guy late in the day working a hole with a bone-filled concretion.

The guy's name was Scott Harlan from the Salinas area.

David holding a large concretion I found and dug out.

Me holding my prize I hoped contained something cool.

Shep led our careful opening and inspection of the concretion.

The concretion contained nothing but a small amount of rotten bone.

On the other hand, Scott had a winner concretion and knew it.

Tequila started earnestly and self-importantly digging.
First I wondered if she was merely imitating us digging.
Then I began to wonder if she was about to squat.

As it turned out she was constructing a nest for her butt to sit on.

Wimins, I tell ya....

After a couple of hours of assisting Scott he finally got his concretion out of the hole.

It broke up once he got it out of the hole, but no prob, no broken bones!

Scott couldn't wait to get home before doing some cleaning to see what he got.

Scott soon found at least one really good vertebra seen here. All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

After we got Scott Harlan's bone concretion free we all left it on the hill and took our stuff down to the parking lot.

Once we had unpacked David's cart we lent it to Scott and his wife and they took it back up the hill and retrieved his concretion.

While we waited David and I continued to load up for our return to the Central Coast after dark as the Sun was now rapidly lowering.

We also got the opportunity to meet with some other rockhounds including rockhound and dealer David Walblom and his wife, CFMS Secretary Susan Chaisson-Walblom.

After the Harlans returned with their prize we loaded up the cart and retraced our route home.

It was a beautiful drive across the San Joaquin Valley with the Sun soon setting below the western horizon with a gold lining to the clouds hugging the Temblor Range to the west.

The sky was mostly clear of clouds which surprised me given how the day began and the forecast of the approaching storm that night. Actually, it seemed that as the day progressed the weather got nicer which was a nice surprise.

However, there were a series of cumulonimbus buildups visible in various directions in the northern half of the horizon which appeared to be located in the Sierra foothills and in the Coast Ranges northwest of Coalinga and points in between.

After dark some of these storms generated vivid lightening that was so cool we pulled off of Highway 46 and onto Devil's Den Road and stopped in the dark and watched for a short time.

We did stop for food in Wasco and found a great little local (non-chain) burger joint run by Indians (the sub-continental type) called "Jolly Kone." I found it interesting to watch it serving a mixed white farmer/brown farm worker community (what a great melting pot!).

Once we got back over into San Luis Obispo County we found ourselves back in low overcast with intensifying precipitation the further west we got until it was drizzling in Paso Robles where we got gas. It was downright raining out at David's abode (Adelaida area) where I picked up my pickup and drove home (where it wasn't raining a drop).

All in all this adventure was a real hoot and well worth the time and effort and money.

I know some folks expressed a concern about Valley Fever prior to the field trip.

If anybody on this field trip gets Valley Fever it will be me because I used no mask or other protection and I shoveled dumploads of dirt and breathed a lot of dust while screening material and I really got down and dirty helping Scott dig out his stubborn concretion.

Therefore, consider me your guinea pig in an unofficial experiment (or the canary in the mine!).

Now that I know where Ant Hill is I plan to go back as oft as I can (and not wear a mask).

I did talk to Shep and he generously agreed to join us (or perhaps I should say we join him) for a visit to Ant Hill next month to which I'm looking forward like an excited little kid.