Sunday, December 27, 2009 - Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM
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Photo Shoot, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu NM, December 22, 2009
Brrrrr... 1:30AM and it's already 5 degrees below zero. Last winter, camped down at Leasburg Dam State Park, I met fellow fulltimer Jan, living in his Honda sports car, who observed that the temperature drops noticeably an hour or two before sunrise. Will tonight's low break LD's record 10 below set just last night? [6:30AM] Nope - didn't happen - in fact it warmed up a tad to -3 degrees.
Where will I find warm enough weather in the next week to thaw the tanks in time for the next dump? I may have to take a southern route to Las Vegas this week to get enough hours above freezing to thaw the tanks. The shorter I-40 route won't see much above 32 degrees for most of the way.
Night camp
Ghost Ranch Campground, Abiquiu NM
- This is a basic, small campground with full hookups.
- Verizon cell phone and Broadband service are not available here.
- Locate Ghost Ranch on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Heliograph routes of the 1890 Practice
The date was May 15th, 1890, and the Army's Department of Arizona had just completed a major heliograph practice; it was, in fact, the largest the world had ever seen. I call it the "Volkmar Practice", after the man responsible for it, Col. Wm. J. Volkmar, the Assistant Adjutant General and Chief Signal Officer for the Department of Arizona. Although the practice lasted only sixteen days, preparations for it took months of reconnaissance and preparation. Involved in the long range signaling maneuvers were twenty-five heliograph stations stretching from Whipple Barracks near Prescott to Fort Stanton near Ruidoso, New Mexico. My guess is that close to two hundred men were involved, both cavalry and infantry.