The Color of Spring. around Phoenix

Transcription

1 April Where, when, and how to discover the best photography in America Published since 1989 The Color of Spring around Phoenix Rain, drought, freezing winter storms, and the first hot days of spring all affect the appearance of desert wildflowers. Memorable wildflower displays occur infrequently across southwestern states and are something every nature photographer waits for. Heavy rains recently fell on southern Arizona. A report appeared on The Weather Channel that reminded me to mark my calendar. Internet wildflower hotlines predicted that mid-to-late March should see a good display of spring colors across southern Arizona. I packed my gear and booked a flight to Phoenix.

2 issue page 2 Arizona is the sixth largest state in the Union, after Alaska, Texas, California, Montana and New Mexico. Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, is the sixth most-populous city and the most populated inland city in the United States. You can drive for many miles looking for great spring wildflower displays and you can t always tell if you ve arrived too early, too late, or if they are not going to bloom at all this year. When I arrived, the wildflower reports were good for areas to the northeast of Phoenix, but not so good in the Tucson area, to the south. Arizona locals told me that there were no wildflower sightings in the Puerto Blanco Mountains in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the news from Picacho Peak State Park was negative. I decided to concentrate on the best wildflower locations in and around Phoenix. The best reports were centered on the northeast side of the city. Its suburbs have spread for miles in all directions. The city of Phoenix, and its surrounding suburbs are now 62 miles wide. If you will be traveling to Arizona with your family and want to simplify your travel plans, find a motel or hotel in the center of Phoenix where you can stay for the duration of your trip. Your family can unpack, relax and enjoy an upscale city hotel while you take day trips in search of blooming wildflowers. The directions in this newsletter all start in the center of the city of Phoenix. Buy a large, well-detailed map of Phoenix or pack your Delormé Atlas. The latest GPS navigation systems permit hands-free operation using voice commands. Enter and save your planned destinations before starting out each day and your navigation problems will be solved. While on the road, you can find the nearest gas station, your favorite restaurant, or a nearby motel. Directions usually include an address and a phone number to call for reservations. I looked for motels that were close to the wildflower locations I wanted to photograph from Chandler, to Mesa, to Globe, and Cave Creek, north of Scottsdale. East Main Street, through Mesa, was the main street from Phoenix to points east in the old days. Many of the original motor courts and early motels still line Main Street where you can find some bargain lodgings. I stayed three nights in a budget motel in Mesa, a quiet suburb of Phoenix and close to the Desert Botanical Garden, a good place to start a photo exploration of the area. Desert Botanical Garden Nine miles east of downtown Phoenix on East McDowell Road, these gardens are a must-visit spot for any photographer. Be sure to pack a tripod for your visit to the Desert Botanical Garden. You ll want needle-sharp images of these cacti. Use a longer macro lens or a telephoto in the mm range to concentrate on cactus patterns and wildflower close-ups without the background clutter you ll get with a wide-angle lens. You can t spread out your tripod legs and lay down on the busy walkways through these gardens. A monopod works well on a busy weekend when a tripod can be bumped. Not knowing what to expect on my first morning visit, I carried my full backpack and switched from wide-angle to telephoto and back for almost every shot. After lunch I left the backpack in the car trunk and carried the tripod and camera with a mm

3 issue page 3 telephoto. Small details are most interesting in the warm afternoon when temperatures began to open more cactus blossoms. You can easily stay on the trails and still tightly hedgehog cactus blossoms frame a blooming cactus from ten feet away. The Garden s free map will help you find all the trails that loop through a variety of desert environments. The Desert Botanical Garden is home to a rare crested saguaro. Biologists disagree as to why some saguaros grow in this unusual form. Some speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of lightning or freeze damage. Only about one in 150,000 saguaros develop this unusual growth. Watch for it along the Sonoran Desert Loop Trail. a crested saguaro Longer telephotos, used at large apertures, will give you soft, out of focus backgrounds. Turn off your auto-focus and manually focus at the distance that will give you the sharpness you ll need from front to back of the part of your image that you want to be in sharp focus. If you have one, use your camera s depth-of field preview button while opening and closing your lens aperture to determine the range of sharpness you ll need. A focusing rail attached to your tripod head will let you move your whole camera and lens forward and backward for more precise focusing on extreme close-up subjects. I carry a round, folding diffuser on sunny days and a reflector for overcast days. I lock up my camera s mirror before using a cable release for each exposure. I carry a dozen 8 GB Compact Flash media cards in my camera bag. I change cards each day so I won t loose everything in case of a disaster. Parking is free at the Desert Botanical Garden. An admission fee is charged at the gate. A colored wristband gives you come-and-go privileges. Near the garden entrance is a small nursery where a variety of potted cacti are available for sale. Two days later, my morning was filled with a second photo trip into the Desert Botanical Garden to work on more close-ups with a 105 mm macro lens using multiple-exposure HDR techniques. A calm morning with no breeze was perfect for shooting multiple exposures. Low contrast subjects don t need more than one exposure. Darker, backlit subjects against a bright sky need three or sometimes five exposures. If it turns out later that only one exposure was necessary, I ll have a good range of bracketed exposures to choose from. Shooting a digital camera allows me this extravagance. After a few days of concentrating on the Desert Botanical Garden for macro details, I set out to find the area s best mountain trails for desert landscape photography. I visited some locations in morning light and again in the afternoon. The time of day always makes a difference, sometimes a dramatic difference, sometimes subtle. Good photographs depend on the type of weather that can give

4 issue page 4 you great clouds or a thin overcast. A clear blue sky can be dull, but sometimes can t be avoided. You can t always control your travel photography. You have to get the best shot possible and then move on. Pass Mountain Trail Thirty-four miles northeast of Phoenix, Meridian Road heads north toward the Goldfield Mountains. At the end of Meridian Road, the Pass Mountain Trail climbs into a large horseshoe canyon where you will find dense forests of saguaro cactus on the hillsides and colorful splashes of wildflowers in the spring. of the wash is the Pass Mountain Trail. Turn right and follow the gradually rising trail for a mile and a half into a wide box canyon. As the trail bears west and you round the bend, you will lose the view of the parking lot. As you climb higher, a greater variety of wildflowers become denser and more colorful. Mexican poppies, a smaller version of the California poppy, are most common. Mixed into the hillside color are blue lupine, white tackstem, purple fairy duster and orange globemallow. Bright red blossoms were starting to appear on the ocotillo. A Gorilla Pod camera support is perfect for quick low-level shooting when your tripod legs, even when splayed straight out, won t get you low enough. A foam rubber kneepad (for gardening) helps a lot when kneeling on rocky soil mixed with cactus needles. If you forget to bring yours, pick prickly pear cactus saguaros on the Pass Mountain Trail From the edge of the parking lot, the trail heads toward the northwest and, in a quarter-mile, it reaches a deep, and hopefully, dry wash. Follow the trail as it drops into the wash, turns right, follows the bottom of the wash for two hundred feet, and then climbs up and out the other side. On the other side one up here at a local garden supply store. I also pack my 24 x 48 black waterproof canvas ground cloth. This is a lifesaver when doing wet belly photography or lying at eye-level with desert wildflowers. My kneepad and my reflector and diffuser hang on each side of my backpack, connected with carabineers. I made slow progress walking up the trail. When I finished photographing something on one side of the trail, I d turn around and find something even more deserving of a portrait.

5 issue page 5 The trail is a mix of loose rocks, solid stone, and smooth, sandy stretches. Walk slowly and it s not a strenuous climb. The concentration of desert landscapes is worth the effort. After an hour on the trail, The trail continued to zigzag up the steep canyon wall to cross through a distant notch in the rim, hundreds of feet above. Hikers up there were tiny dots. It was impossible to turn around because the photography kept getting better the higher I climbed. I knew that, when I reached the top, I could photograph everything again in dramatic backlight on the way back down. At the top, the trail continues down the other side, into the wilderness of the Tonto National Forest that is actually a desert. Though part of the cactus family, large groups of saguaros are called forests. I found a small patch of shade on the rim, where I reviewed my morning images, and then started back down. brittlebush along the Pass Mountain Trail An iphone application called Odometer+ showed my progress up the trail and back, on a Google satellite map of the area. My total, all-day, round-trip distance was 4.92 miles with an elevation gain of 458 feet. This app relies on GPS satellites and does not need to receive a cell signal. Odometer+ is great for hikers, if you remember to start it at the trailhead. Lost Dutchman State Park Forty miles east of the center of Phoenix, on the east side of the suburb called Apache Junction, is the Tonto National Forest Boundary and the Lost Dutchman State Park. This is a great afternoon background for wildflower-covered hills dotted with saguaro cactus. The big attractions here are dramatic vertical spires and cliffs rising on the north side of the Superstition Mountains above rising hillsides covered with saguaro and, hopefully, carpets of wildflowers in the spring. A fee is collected at the gate. Be sure to pick up a trail map. Three parking areas each have a trailhead. Park in the Saguaro Lot for the shortest walk to the best tripod holes. These trails all climb the slopes and meet at a loop trail at the Green Boulder Overlook halfway to the top. Jacob s Crosscut Trail connects them all to make an easier, smaller, lower loop with less climbing needed. Depending on the amount of recent rainfall, the slopes below towering red rock spires can be covered with desert wildflowers. I arrived here to find scattered patches of yellow poppies, brittlebush and blue lupine. Trying to find colorful foregrounds surrounding saguaro cactus and picking the right angle to photograph everything against the dramatic cliffs of the Superstition Mountains looks easy from a distance. It s not easy when you have to obey the signs and stay on the trails. It takes some hiking to find a good foreground to include in your images of the Superstition Mountains. Lost Dutchman State Park

6 issue page 6 The cliffs face the west and stand in morning shadows. Late afternoon sun sidelights the volcanic spires and makes a dramatic background for desert landscapes. This is definitely an afternoon location. If you stay out on the trails to capture a sunset, be sure to pack a flashlight for the hike back to your car in the dark. There are 72 campsites and hot showers at Lost Dutchman. Thirty-eight of the campsites have electricity and water. Apache Trail Beyond Lost Dutchman State Park, Route 88 is called the Apache Trail. Built in 1903 as a wagon road to support construction of the Roosevelt Dam, this is one of the most exciting mountain roads I ve ever driven. Partly paved and partly graded dirt, these thirty-nine miles of steep and winding road follow the northern edge of the Superstition Mountains past manmade lakes in deep and narrow canyons. These canyon walls are covered with wildflowers and a great variety of cactus. This narrow road has enough wide pull-off spots to keep photographers happy. The best wildflower displays followed Canyon Lake on the Apache Trail the paved, western end of Route 88 and were mostly on the north side of the road. Infrequent rains run off paved roads and give roadside wildflowers a better chance of surviving and thriving. Near the end of the paved half of the road are the rustic remains of Tortilla Flat, an historic mining settlement. It s a tourist attraction now, with a cafe and a saloon but no gas and no motel. Just beyond Tortilla Flat, the road fords a stream there is no bridge. The Apache Trail continues as an unpaved road, all the way to Roosevelt Lake. From Roosevelt Lake, south to the old mining town of Globe, Arizona, is forty more paved miles of Route 88. The main attractions along this fast highway are the Tonto National Monument and cliff dwellings where the Salado people lived 700 years ago. The Lower Ruins are open to the public with a short hike and a 350-foot climb to the edge of the ruins. That trail was lined with yellow and orange wildflowers and many types of cactus. Stop at the Visitor Center to sign up for a ranger-led Upper Ruin hike, a three-mile round trip trek with a climb of 600 feet to photograph the 40-room cliff dwelling. The town of Globe, Arizona, is a good overnight stop after a day of photography along the Apache Trail. This mountain town was the site of silver discoveries in After the silver mines dried up, copper was found and is still the main industry. Globe has one of the few operating copper smelters in the United States. Sitting on the west side of the mountain, the historic old town makes an interesting subject in late afternoon light if you find a high spot for your tripod on the bluffs to the south of historic North Broad Street. Boyce Thompson Arboretum Sixty-one miles east of downtown Phoenix, near the town of Superior, Arizona, this 392-acre botanical garden has long been Arizona s largest public garden featuring 2,600 different types of the world s desert plants. Located at the base of 4,375-foot Picketpost Mountain where three miles of trails wind through fully mature cactus gardens, trees of the world s deserts, wildflower gardens, and herb gardens, are all surrounded by a natural Sonoran desert environment.

7 issue page 7 Most of the trails are level. More rugged trails climb higher into the surrounding mountains for spectacular views. Everywhere you wander is something you ve never seen before, like strange cactus with long blonde hair and bizarre boojum trees from South America. They look like Christmas trees with a huge ornament on top. golden barrel cactus - 5 exposure HDR Morning light filters through mesquite and spreading acacia trees framing massive clusters of golden barrel cactus that glow in warm backlight. With wide-angle and telephoto lenses, I worked at capturing a different view of the desert. Cactus and succulent gardens line the walls of narrow openings in the base of an ancient magma ridge. Look up narrow canyons for views of distant saguaros pointing to the top of volcanic peaks. saguaro at the base of Picketpost Mountain - 5 exposure HDR On a calm and clear morning wildflowers were easy to capture, standing very still. Afternoon breezes cause a problem with photographing wildflowers. Warmer afternoon temperatures opened some of the bright magenta blossoms on tiny pincushion cactus. This sturdy cactus is seldom moved by the wind. Longer lenses in the 300 mm and longer range can work wonders at picking out distant cactus blossoms. Visitors are expected to stay on the trails. With a long lens, you can create overlapping images of near and far subjects and, with large apertures, backgrounds can become soft blurs of color. Most of the long lenses I saw in the gardens were around Ayer Lake, halfway around the longest loop trail, where other photographers were concentrating on water birds easy to photograph on the lake. Lizards, ground squirrels, butterflies and huge black bees pollinating open blossoms made interesting subjects. A fee is collected at a gate that opens at 6:00 AM from May to August and at 8:00 AM from September to April. The arboretum is open for nine hours a day, every day. During the summer, they close at 3:00 PM. You may not get to photograph a sunset here. The Visitor Center sells cold drinks and packaged sandwiches and has an excellent bookstore on

8 issue page 8 desert related subjects. They also sell cultivated examples of young potted cacti from their collection, tempting but hard to fit into an already full suitcase. With a little care, you can avoid bumping into any sharp spines. In this arboretum, I saw no jumping cactus, the opuntia bigelovii, that is such a nuisance in most Southwestern deserts. On desert hikes, I always carry a pocket comb to pull the prickly buds from my trouser legs I never wear shorts in the desert. South Mountain Park Seven miles south of downtown Phoenix on Central Avenue is South Mountain Park. At 16,000 acres, this is the largest municipal park in the United States. You will find no lawns or children s playgrounds here. Enter at the southern end of Central Avenue. Once inside the park, follow the steep and winding road as it climbs to high viewpoints above cactus-covered peaks for great sunset views across the Sierra Estrella Range to the west. To the north is a panoramic view of downtown Phoenix, best photographed on a clear night. sunset from the top of South Mountain Park It s a four-mile drive to the top of this park. On the last curve to the right before reaching Dobbins Overlook parking area, I spotted blooming cactus on the hillside just spots of magenta on the edge of my vision. From the parking lot, I returned to the spot, climbing down the hillside from above. Several clusters of strawberry hedgehog cactus were easy to frame with a 105 mm macro lens, both in direct afternoon sunlight and under a diffusion screen. These early blooming cactus were some of the few I saw in the wild along the trails. Hedgehogs arrive in late March strawberry hedgehog cactus and April, while Arizona s state flower, the white saguaro blossom, opens in May and June. The agave family of plants, including yuccas, bloom from late spring through the summer months. When winter rains cooperate and spring wildflower conditions are exceptional, trails through this park are lined with color. Park at the bottom of the hill near the Bajada Trailhead to follow the paved San Juan Road that has been closed to motor vehicles. The road is open to hikers and cyclists for five miles to the west end of South Mountain Park, a spot best explored on a mountain bike. Bartlett Lake This lake is a reservoir on the Verde River, located 54 miles northeast of Phoenix. Early reports promised this area would be the best wildflower location this spring. From the center of Phoenix, drive north on Interstate 17. Take Exit #222 and drive eight miles east. Turn left onto North Scottsdale Road and then turn right onto Cave Creek Road. Two miles north, turn right onto Bartlett Dam Road. A half-mile from the intersection, watch for a ranger station on the left where you can buy a Day Use Pass for the Tonto National Forest. If the ranger station gate is closed, you can buy a pass in the Convenience Store at the Bartlett Lake Marina. Permits are half price if you already

9 issue page 9 have a National Park Golden Age Passport or a Senior Pass. One of these passes must be displayed as well as the day-use pass. Scratch-off day-use passes are good for 24 hours from the time you first use them. Buy several if you are going to stay a few days. Park rangers can give you a citation resulting in a fine if you park anywhere without displaying a permit. saguaros at Bartlett Lake Bartlett Lake is eight miles east of the ranger station. When you see the lake in the distance, start watching for a sign marking a left turn onto West Side Road #459, the road to Rattlesnake Cove and Bartlett Cove campsites. The West Side Road heads northward before reaching the Bartlett Lake Marina. If you reach the marina, you ve gone too far. Turn around and go back. The West Side Road is paved. It climbs over a summit called the saddle with wide roadside parking areas where you will probably find Mexican poppies, globemallow, penstemon, Coulter s lupine, brittlebush, and red chuparosa. All these and more varieties of cactus cover steep slopes above the lake when conditions are perfect. Large patches of color were visible when I arrived on the morning of March 19th. From a distance, yellow patches of brittlebush were most visible surrounding tall saguaro cacti. A 105 mm macro and a mm were most useful. My mm telephoto-zoom lens was used to frame distant compositions. Saguaro with upturned arms reaching up to thirty-feet tall are everywhere. Scattered among them are cholla, barrel cactus and ocotillo. From the road, I photographed forests of tall saguaro, covering steep slopes above the pavement. Their needles glow in sunlight when you photograph them in backlight as silhouettes. Shoot a series of exposures with bracketed exposures to merge into an HDR image. You can capture the full range of highlight and shadow detail for more realistic photographs. Across the lake are more forests of saguaros climbing the hills from the edge of the lake to distant summits. The best wildflower display was scattered along the right side of the summit of West Side Road, at the saddle. Most of the color I photographed was along this stretch of road. A great number of saguaro, cholla, organ pipe, and barrel cactus were growing with palo verde trees. Their young branches are light green. Be careful when walking in the desert, you never know if rattlesnakes are around. on the ridge above Bartlett Lake

10 issue page 10 There is a great choice of lodgings scattered around Phoenix including the suburb of Chandler to the south, Tempe and Mesa to the east, and Scottsdale to the north. For sunrise photo sessions at Bartlett Lake, Cave Creek and Carefree, Arizona, are the nearest locations with motels. Peralta Road Seventeen miles west of the Boyce Thompson Arboretum and halfway between Apache Junction and Florence Junction along Route 60 is a stoplight at Peralta Road (half paved poppies and lupine at the Peralta Trailhead and half dirt). Eight miles north of the light is the end of the road and a trailhead at the base of the Superstition Mountains. The best spring color here was between the edge of the parking area and the base of the cliffs. Five trails branch out from this point to climb steep-walled canyons along spring-fed streams that were still flowing in March. Canyon walls were yellow with brittlebush and the trail was lined with orange globemallow. Blue lupine and bright yellow Mexican poppies were visible in every direction. Twenty minutes up the trail, the sound of falling water was still pulling me up the canyon. A narrow stream cascaded down smooth, water-worn rocks. After a few quick photos of the scene, I pulled off my hot boots and cooled my feet. From this spot, it was a gradual climb of 2.5 miles and an elevation gain of 1,300 feet to Fremont Saddle for an awesome view of a distant spire called Weaver s Needle. Other hikers on this trail were packing ropes and gear for a climb to the top of the needle. I was ready to return to the trailhead. Silly Mountain Four miles west of Peralta Road, at Mile Marker 200 on U.S. 60, halfway between Apache Junction and Florence Junction, watch for yellow hillsides very close to the highway. Heading west, watch for a sign marking Silly Mountain Road. If you are heading east, drive to the next turnaround to cross the center highway divider and make a U-turn. There is a large parking area at the trailhead, just off the highway. This area is best photographed in the late afternoon. The trail heads north, along an old jeep road that used to climb to the top. The damaged area was badly eroded and has been fenced off. It is slowly being restored. When you reach the No Trespassing sign at the bottom of the slope, turn right to follow the Brittlebush Trail. From the parking lot, you cannot see any of these trails, except for the wide off-road 4x4 route going straight up to the peak. A hundred yards east, the trail turns left and starts to climb the slope in a series of switchbacks. It climbs to an overlook and a view of the Superstition Mountains to the north. You can follow a trail along the rim to climb even higher. My on the Brittlebush Trail at Silly Mountain

11 issue page 11 favorite compositions were those from the bottom of the trail, looking up the steep yellow slopes that include saguaros in the foreground. Working close to the saguaros with a wide-angle lens allowed me to include a frame-filling amount of yellow foreground and a blue sky streaked with white clouds. By moving farther back and using a mm telephoto, I could frame several saguaros against a solid yellow hillside without including the sky. There were a few Mexican poppies along the trails and some red chubarosa near the summit. Saguaro Lake The largest patches of poppies I saw during my two weeks in the Phoenix area were north of Saguaro Lake. Thirty-eight miles northeast of downtown Phoenix or twentyseven miles northeast of downtown Mesa, Arizona, Power Road heads north to loop around the Goldfield Mountains. This fast, paved road passes the Saguaro del Norte Recreation Area. After passing the Saguaro Lake Marina, watch for a road marked Butcher John Cove. Keep driving north. One mile beyond the Butcher John Road, both sides of this Highway (called the Bush Highway here) were lined with large patches of Mexican poppies stretching for more north of Saguaro Lake than a mile. Along the east side of the road, solid fields of poppies were growing between the highway and a long, cactus-covered ridge a hundred feet beyond the pavement. There were a few gaps in the fields where previous photographers had moved to find the best tripod locations. Most of the fields were untouched and not trampled. I used a 10 mm wide-angle lens on my D30os set at f 22. My tripod legs were collapsed and spread straight out. The lens was just above flower height. This was the perfect place to use my rubber kneepad. The roadsides along Bush Highway, north of Saguaro Lake and three miles south of Highway 87, were lined with the largest patches of poppies I saw during my two weeks in the Phoenix area. Not a great variety of color, just solid carpets of orange. Cave Creek Regional Park Cave Creek is a 2,922-acre park located within the town of Cave Creek, Arizona, which is thirty-six miles north of Downtown Phoenix. Drive north on Interstate 17 to Exit 223. Head east on the Carefree Highway to 32 nd Street. Drive north 1.5 miles to the entry gate. The ranger on duty at the gate told me that the best wildflowers had been reported along the Go John Trail, a 5.8-mile loop trail that winds around a mountain peak located in the middle of this park. Make this loop hike in a counter-clockwise direction for a distance of 1.25 miles and you can find plenty of wildflowers and avoid the steep climb at the north end of this trail. I found a good variety of cactus all along the trail with the best patches of color near the highest point, on the southeast side of the loop. During my two weeks in the Phoenix area, I found a variety of wildflower locations. Next year, watch the Arizona weather forecasts through the winter and search Internet hotlines for next spring s wildflower season. Always be ready to travel.

12 Through April and May, across this high desert landscape, the claret cup cactus is covered with red-orange blossoms, prickly pear cactus is covered with large yellow blossoms and the hedgehog is topped with magenta blossoms. Large white blossoms with yellow centers open on the outstretched tips of saguaro arms from May into June. Saguaro blossoms open at night and remain open through the next morning. Barrel cactus wait until August to open their crown of yellow blossoms. Arrive out here in the early morning on a hot summer day to photograph a different kind of desert color. Have a great trip and send me an ! claret cup cactus - 5 exposure HDR My life-long career in photography began at San Jose State University in After college, I enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, serving as a photographer and darkroom technician. In Germany, my skills and experience with equipment and lab work were developed and polished. I took the opportunity to photograph the beauty of nature in the Black Forest. Returning to California in 1965, I produced industrial and military training films for Raytheon Electronics and began showing my color nature prints. From 1969 through 1981, my photography was exhibited and sold in West Coast galleries. During the early 1980 s, I taught color darkroom workshops, then expanded to include field trips. Former customers, who had purchased my framed photographs, wanted to learn photography. My Pacific Image Photography Workshops offered adventures to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest deserts, national parks, Hawaii, New England, Canada, England, and the South Pacific. The workshops evolved into writing and sharing my adventures with others. Photograph America Newsletter provides information on where, when, and how to discover the best nature photography in North America. Photograph America Newsletter is published quarterly (four issues/year) by Robert Hitchman assisted by technical associate/wife, Katherine Post Office Box 86, Novato, CA All contents of this newsletter copyright Robert Hitchman Please don t make copies for your friends. This is a violation of Federal copyright laws. This newsletter survives on subscriptions.