Desert Candy - a photo on Flickriver

Desert Candy

            Ah, the desert Cholla cactus. Nice look in pictures—not so much stuck all over your body… I was warned about these little velcro bastards with their barbed spikes and little “cholla balls” all over the ground. It turns out, they are worse than I thought. At the base of the Superstition Mountains here on my quest for some nice desert scenes. My focus was on the Three Sisters peaks of the mountain but the light had fizzled out, and as usual facing the wrong direction, when I happened to turn around I saw this massive pink whispy cloud picking up some nice last light color. So in my usual form, I came flailing down the hillside and quickly located a patch of cholla and darted towards it. Let’s just say I will not be desert running again… About half way there, I thought I got bit by a snake and let out a scream I’m thankful no one will ever hear. When I looked down I had about five of these cholla balls stuck on my legs in various places—even stuck on my tripod feet. These things are magnetically charged or something as they seem to come out of nowhere. So now I’m debating: save my legs or get the shot. I picked up two rocks to pull off one cholla ball that really got me good. Hobbling up to the shot I set up my composition and fired away just before the color left. With my adrenaline now wearing off, my cholla parasites were starting to really feel nice. I spent the next 15 minutes on the ground like a neanderthal with rock wedges pulling out hundreds of barbed spikes and bleeding all over the desert floor—just what I had envisioned for my first cholla experience. Wish I got a better shot as a reward for my pain. Now, I have added a new item to my camera bag: Tweezers.
   

Taken on: April 3, 2017

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superstitions

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Ryan

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