Memorial Day Weekend in the Beaverhead Area

After the May newsletter went out, we had several phone calls and e-mails complaining that we had cancelled the camping trip to Wildwood. That (as with most of our events) was in our annual schedule published in the January newsletter as well as was on the club website.

Since we got no information from people interested in going to another Wildwood event, we made the assumption that there was no interest. Since a Wildwood event requires a monetary deposit, it was cancelled.

Note, we still have a Wildwood event on the calendar and there is enough time to make plans and deposits right now.

One of the e-mails that we got asked if we could plan a Memorial Day camping trip to the Gila National Forest in the Beaverhead area. That does not take as much planning effort, so we pasted in a "seat-of-the-pants" event for that weekend. A notice was sent out to the people on the campers address list from last years Wildwood event.

There was a nice welcoming deluge waiting for the SunTree gang who showed up at the Beaverhead camping spot on Friday. It included wonderful gallons of water falling from the sky, spectacular lightening-style fireworks and major wind exhibits. That was only the welcoming ceremony from the spirits of the forest. After that was over, the weekend turned out to be “near” perfect.

The sky had only a few fleeting puffy white wisps of clouds the rest of the weekend. There was some light breezes on Saturday, but that calmed down too. The sun shone on the campsite for the rest of the weekend. The night-time temperatures were in the mid-40’s and the daytime temperatures got way up into the low 80’s occasionally. With the low humidity, the shadows were downright cold even during the hottest part of the day.

There were other campers in the area, but by no means was the area crowded. At one time, when I was alone in the campsite reading a book, some of our neighbors rode into our campsite on their ATVs. They stopped to talk and did not seem to be upset at my lack of clothing. They stayed for about five minutes to talk, then rode off.

It was a wonderful weekend. It was unfortunate that we decided to have it on the same weekend as the Silver City Blues Festival. That would have been a fun event too. In the past, we would camp at the now defunct Faywood Hot Springs and drive into the Blues Festival during the day time and return for a soak at sunset.

The area also provided us with a parting ceremony as we left the campsite on Monday, Memorial Day. Just as the car was approaching Poverty Creek, we had to stop to enjoy the slow moving parade. The participants were all javelinas. There must have been about ten of them.

What’s happening in July?

Our short notice camping trip on Memorial Day caught many people unprepared. We always put out an annual prediction of club event in January in order that the club members can be prepared or can register their comments before it is too late to make changes. We broke our own procedure by leaping into the Memorial Day weekend camping trip at the last minute. In fact the event was planned after the publication of the May newsletter. The word was sent out to the addresses of the people who had indicated interest for last year's Wildwood camping event. Naturally many had other plans by that time. We were also in conflict with the popular Silver City Blues Festival.

In spite of all of those bad things, the weekend was very enjoyable and the weather was perfect (except for those who arrived at the campsite on Thursday and met a true toad-choker of a rain storm).

With the experience of the delightful weekend over Memorial Day, we are tempting the manufacturer of New Mexico weather to schedule another camping trip to the Gila National Forest in July (yes, I know that is in the middle of the New Mexico rainy season).

We will go back to the same area (generally) on the weekend between the Fourth of July and Bastille Day (14 July). If you plan on attending this camping trip, contact the club since there are already some conflicts on the camp site. If you let us know that you want to participate, we will contact you to keep you up on any plan changes that happen.

Early warning about late August at Wildwood.

We have once again reserved the entire Wildwood Camping Resort for SunTree on the last weekend of August (27 - 29).

If you remember last year, we advanced upon that resort on the weekend following Labor Day Weekend. It was great but was a little chilly and we got soaked. I cannot guarantee that the weather will be any different this year, but we are moving the event two weeks earlier to be on the weekend prior to Labor Day weekend.

Once again, the club will have to make a deposit to hold the area and we will have to cancel or lose the deposit. As with last year, SunTree will pay for the facility using money that the participants will give us. If we do not get enough commitments prior to the first week of August, we will cancel the event rather than swallow the loss. Please contact the club as soon as you are aware that you wish to participate in this event.

That reminds me of a note of gratitude that I owe to several of the participants last year. They were aware that we did not get enough participants and lost the deposit. We went on, of course with the event will a reduced number of people. Several were aware of this made contributions to help cover the extra cost of those who did not show up. I wish to thank them in this medium to let all who read this know that there are some truly wonderful people about. Unfortunately, in keeping with the policy of this newsletter, I cannot publish their names without their permission.

Celestial News for July

Venus Outdoes Herself This Month And We Have A Solar Eclipse

Earth reaches aphelion, its farthest point from the Sun, on 6 July. You were probably wondering why the weather was so cold.

You may remember last month when this section of the newsletter told you to look to the west after sunset and see Venus and the Gemini brothers (Castor and Pollux) are aligned in a straight line across the fading light of dusk. Well the marching band forms another pattern this month on the first night of the month. The Gemini brothers have gone on to other things, but there is a nice straight line slanting up and to the left from brilliant Venus at about one hour after sunset. The participants are Venus with the star Regulus up and to the left followed by that warlike orange planet, Mars, then up and to the left of him Saturn.

I guess that Venus has started to feel that she is not being notices, so she is putting on brighter gowns. She will increase up from magnitude -3.9, where she has been since January, to -4.0.

Because of the path that Venus has chosen this month, the brilliant planet is lower at dusk than it was a month ago, as it passes Regulus on 9 and 10 July.

Venus then pays a visit to Mars as Mars approaches Saturn.

Low in the west an hour after sunset in the final days of July, Mars passes below Saturn and is the dimmer of the two.

There is something that I did not tell you about last month, but it was because I did not think that you would be able to see it. It turns out that I was right, but I wanted to mention it. We had a visit to our planetary system this past month. Comet McNaught decided to do a fly-by in June. He is still around, but is so close to the Sun from our point of view that you cannot really see him. In fact his whole visit was pretty well hidden in the glare of the Son. I am only mentioning it because for those who had the proper optical equipment, he was truly a colorful comet. Alas, he has faded totally by the time that you get this newsletter.

The club members who are into sea cruises should drive their cruise ships into the south Pacific this month to get there by 11 July. There will be a total eclipse of the sun on that day. This will be the longest solar eclipse for the next 123 years, so you need to get there or risk waiting for almost a century and a quarter. This eclipse will last a full 6 minutes and 39 seconds. Wow!