“I got lucky and saw a Desert Tortoise.”

Or said another way:

“I have hiked in the desert enough so that statistically I was likely to see a Desert Tortoise.”

Back on September 26 I saw this guy on the National Trail in South Mountain Park. He was about the size of an iPad, but fatter. It was my first sighting of a wild Desert Tortoise ever and I’ve been hiking in their desert habitat for more than twenty years. It made me think of Howard Rotter of blessed memory.