Tar Creek, 06/27/2011

12/10/13: The US Forest Service will be enforcing access restrictions to Tar Creek soon. TC is part of the Condor Sanctuary established as critical habitat to this endangered bird and other wildlife. Epic numbers of visitors, and the trash and graffiti they have left behind, has led to the acknowledgment by the Forest Service that access must be curtailed and enforced. For more information on the impending action visit: Tar Creek Closure.

I was on call for the Cath Lab all weekend, worked too much, had a couple good saves, and was begging to get out by the time Monday rolled around. Fortune smiled upon me and I was able to get out of that place by noon. I splashed down into the deep pools of the Land of the Lost by 13:45.
I continued on to the bottom. No bugs today. No condors either. However, there was a surplus of college students. I met kids from UCLA, Chico, Stanislaus. Huh? I was a bit confused at first, but no, all the kids in this canyon came from about 10 different cars. The UCLA three were Matt (or Mark?), Taylor, and Ben. Good cliff jumpers.

It was a nice, hot day. I made the most of it.

I picked up all the trash my pack could hold: bandaids, water bottles, wrapper bits, bottle caps, cigarette butts, coins, a sock, a full bottle of SPF 50. And a handfull of brass that some drooling goon had fired from the edge of the condor roost at the bottom of Tar. The problem with coins, glass, or shell casing is that the condors are stupid. And curious. And they explore items of interest with their beaks. Which means that they might eat these items, in which case, bird digestive tracts being more complicated than most might think, the condor will probably die a horrible death. And North America's rarest, largest bird species will be down by one.