Tuesday

Still at the Rio Grande campground; a triple digit furnace. Forays out into the Chisos Mountain Basin at 5,000 feet to hike. Cooler there. Only about 85. Today, the Laguna Meadows and Colima Trail for the Colima Warbler. Judy got a giant blister yesterday, so she stayed back with Annie and Eddie while Jeff, Carol and I went.

Another demanding hike. We didn’t mean to do a loop, just an out and back; get the warbler at Laguna Meadows and return. A 3 ½ mile grind to Laguna Meadows. No bird. We continued on to the Colima Trail. How could a person not get a Colima Warbler on a trail named after the bird? No bird. We did hear him three different times but couldn’t get eyeballs on him. By then we were well over halfway around the loop, so no out-and-back hike. We continued on over the Pinnacles Trail. Still no bird. We headed down.

The whole hike was wonderfully scenic. We gave the bird every opportunity, but he just didn’t take advantage of the situation and make an appearance. When we got home, I put him down on our life-list as a “heard only”. We’ll come back again some day and try to get an actual sighting.