Hunting for Black Gold
With the aid of my headlamp, I carefully check the contents of my backpack in the pre-dawn darkness. Food, water, vials, coin envelopes...check. I strap a shovel to the outside of my pack and swing it across my shoulders with a huff, shrugging to adjust the weight. Two and a half gallons of water is not light, but I’ll drink most of it over the course of the next 12 hours. And I always carry a little extra when traipsing around the Sonoran desert in summer. I enjoy the June morning, about 70 degrees Fahrenheit, knowing the temperature will rise at least 30 degrees by midafternoon. A warm breeze blowing across the Pinta Sands, a remote area on the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, hints at the heat to come. I sling the strap of my binoculars over my shoulder and start walking at a brisk pace so I can cover the three plus miles to the first wildlife water before sunrise. If I’m lucky, I’ll see a pronghorn at the edge of the playa—a dried lakebed—like I did last year. (read more)