The other day I asked some other mountain bikers whether they too noticed the saguaro cactus getting stout, and they said "yes". Good to hear -- I was afraid I was just imagining it. Saguaros are supposed to 'accordion out' after rains.
Why not just measure the circumference of a specific saguaro (or two) with a tape measure? It looks impossible to wrap a tape around the saguaro with all those spines on the outer diameter.
So I was left with the subjective and uncertain experience of sensing the expanding girth of the saguaros as I rode by them on the bike. It was probably more fun than knowing for sure.
That wasn't the only experience of that type. Ocotillos seemed to be budding out. But was I getting ahead of Mother Nature on that one?
These experiences were similar to something I wrote about years ago: that a favorite outdoor experience was to start a hike or bike ride on a trail that was easy to see, and then watch it slowly evanesce into something barely real. There is a special moment when the confusion between the real and the imaginary is exquisite.
Subjective experiences like this might seem too imaginary or self-indulgent for 'practical' scenery tourists.
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