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Show WedThursFri. October 9-11. 2002 B-10 77re Par Record I Ms Bodacious Barbeque! 1 VH II 20 off entire bill (Excluding Alcoholic Beverage:) a mmm i mm a Fins Monday turn mrscay we u - tnrow in dessert! Writers on the Range Tarantulas: one woman's appreciation By Terri Likens NgM$ FALL COME III US! ! - JJ- . TEZAS EEC'S FIT BARBECUE 3 MAUI STEEET vyii ft- , lYudential UtakMlEtal 435 655-8574 888 655-8574 (toil free) susancfa xfnission.com IWcssioiMl & frhndly real estate service Susan Catenacci Associate Broker "Si v m) J QGelping home buyers and sellers achieve rewarding results One of Ihe best things about Arizona's monsoon season is the way the threat of flooded burrows sends tarantulas scrambling to the surface. It s one of the joys of summer. sum-mer. My first tarantula encounter happened hap-pened years ago in the coolness of a Sonoran desert morning. Beneath the granite bulk of Tucson's Santa C'atalina Mountains, someone placed one of these shy and gentle arachnids in my open hand. It was love at first touch. Think about it: What woman wouldn't love a hairy-legged creature crea-ture that can outlive a male by about 15 years? Males, alas, once they reach their prime, only get one chance to mate with a female, and those that donl become their partners part-ners bedtime snack after mating, die naturally within a matter of weeks. Arachnaphobics and there are many fail to share my arachna-fondness. arachna-fondness. That's why I make an effort to move tarantulas to safer ground whenever they wander into unfriendly territory. My most dramatic rescue occurred in front of a restaurant in Sedona. Ariz. Clouds that had been promising rain all week finally delivered. deliv-ered. Some friends and I were waiting wait-ing under an awning for a break in the downpour when a big female tarantula scuttled from behind a bench. She headed straight for the busy parking lot. The odds were against her mak ing it across the sea of wet pavement, pave-ment, so I lowered my arm to offer her a living on-ramp. She gingerly climbed aboard. When I stepped back inside the restaurant and calmly calm-ly asked for a to-go box. my newfound new-found friend scrambled across my shoulders. The cashier and a handful of customers cus-tomers in the front stared with their mouths open. Some recoiled. I thought to myself: "They think I'm with a freak of nature." Or maybe they thought I was a little weird myself, though I got my to-go box. When the deluge stopped. I drove the tarantula, now placidly resting in a clear plastic salad con- streak and it really does swallow birds. Arizona boasts about 30 kinds of tarantula, and although the spiders spi-ders sport venomous fangs, they rarely use them except under extreme provocation. Even then, the tarantula is more likely to use another anoth-er defense hair flicking. It flings tiny, irritating hairs from its abdomen at the skin or eyes of the offender. Think itching powder. If you ever find a tarantula with a bald spot on the abdomen, you'll know it has had to defend itself. Hollywood has done this creature crea-ture a disservice. The B-flicks of horror hor-ror often show a tarantula, deposited deposit-ed by an evildoer in someone's sleeping cham- bers, creeping t. -;i,. slowly across iviuvitmiantm yui uttc uuiiy itytii. the the tarantula does prefer to hunt at intended to the "vic- t i m night. Otherwise... (it) has little desire Moviemakers got one thing right: the taran- for an encounter. ' Terri Likens tainer. to a remote area high in the red rocks. She stepped out of her box and hightailed it to higher ground. Tarantulas have always been misunderstood. mis-understood. Most are gentle, with one very notable exception: the Goliath bird-eating tarantula of South America. It has a 10-inch leg span, a well-documented mean tula does prefer to hunt at night. Otherwise, unless you are an insect or a bird in South America, the tarantula has little lit-tle desire for an encounter. The real horror story involves a tarantula's daily trials. Did you know they are prey as well as predator? Raccoons, coyotes, skunks and other mammals enjoy the occasional tarantula tartare. It gets worse. Tarantulas are the targeted food source for the tarantula hawk wasp. ! This large wasp finds a tarantula unlucky enough to be above ground; and stings it with its own paralyzing;' venom. Then it drags the immobi-' lized spider to the nearest hole," stuffs the spider down it and lays its eggs in it. The new ly hatched larvae eat the twitching, still-alive tarantula slowly, from the inside out. Talk about your fresh meat. But there are human beings who appreciate these gentle spiders. A couple of years ago. for instance, I was being ticketed for a faulty tail-light tail-light below the ruins of Tuzigoot National Monument in Arizona. I waited on the unpaved shoulder of the road, grumbling to myself about my luck and the station wagon that had let me down. When the polite young police officer handed me my ticket, he added an unexpected i warning. I "Dont step backwards, ma'am.; or you might squash that tarantula on the ground there behind you." ' He pointed with his 18-inch-long flashlight, and as he did, the spider's I shadow extended to exaggerated proportions. My mood changed' abruptly. 1 accepted my ticket and beamed back at the officer with new " appreciation: A spiderman. Terri Likens is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a sen'ice ofl High Country News in Paonia, Colorado (hcn.org). She is also fond of snakes, lizards and bats in Cottonwood, Arizona. I Builder looks to expand Powder Mountain area: LOGAN, Utah (AP) Powder Mountain could turn into a little Park City, and some Cache Valley residents arent happy about it. The ski area operates in a remote area that straddles the Cache and Weber county line near the town of Eden. A 20-minute drive up Ogden Canyon, it is inaccessible from Logan during the winter. Only a small rural road meandering meander-ing through the extreme southern end of Cache Valley leads to Pow der Mountain. But a developer wants to change all that, and on Tuesday the Cache County Council could make a decision on a zoning request for the project. Developer Brent Ferrin Associates, located in Park City, wants to develop more than 12 square miles of Powder Mountain, 3.500 acres in Cache and 4.500 acres in Weber County. The company has been involved with similar projects at Jackson Hole and Park City, project proj-ect manager Dave Johnson said. The company helped develop Deer Crest, a master planned community at Deer Valley ski area, along with the Marriott Summit Watch. Like Alta. Brighton and Snow bird, Pow der Mountain gets an annual average of around 500 inches of snow. The resort already has seven chair lifts and 2.800 acres of ski terrain, but Ferrin wants to make Powder Mountain a destination resort, which would include the construction con-struction of a highway from Cache Valley. Over the next 12 vears, Ferrin also plans to construct two golf courses, major hotels, multi- and single-family housing, plus condominiums, condomini-ums, schools, shops and restaurants. It would be like a little Park City, said Jim Gentry, Weber County planner. In August, the Cache County Council, with the prodding of Ferrin, approved a new type of zoning. Resort-Recreation. The new zoning allows denser resort development in the unincorporated county. Currently, Ferrin's proposed resort area on Powder Mountain is zoned Forest Recreation-40, which only allows one structure per 40-acre lot. A public hearing by the County Council last month had the council chambers overflowing, with most citizens in opposition to the develop ment. ; A picket line formed outside with people shouting, "County Council, the choice aint hard. No more ski resorts in our back yard." Other ', signs read, "We want Cache, not ; cash." ; But the development of Powder Mountain may be inevitable. '. Ferrin could develop the land without Cache County's blessing, ; said councilwoman Kathy Robison, by incorporating his own city. ' If incorporated as a city, the resort would still be in place, keep-; ing valuable tax dollars away from ' both counties. . Approval is being sought from ; the Weber County Commission, but it is currently taking no action, ! Gentry said. ; "We view The Park Record as an effective means of advertising to increase our business sales with its timely distribution and maximum exposure to the local community." : v ar "mm0j'- T!k. jT- I P I r i,.- , mm Willi- , l ' t ; , I 1 1 - M Prudential r .HI fine -7dines ..! t IMI Ktlll - -;t) f f : 7-: ' araasn V4: Prudential Utah Real Estate Call The Park Record today 1-9014 to advertise! 649 PREMIER TRAVEL Park City's Only FulJ-ServiceTravel Agency Specializing in Corporate Travel & Vacation Packages Cruises Hawaii Caribbean Ask about our Discounted Airfares Call Our Travel Specialist Today! 647-9976 www.premierfravelonline.com KVfcul&j-4i faro- ifaH& to. qdlfo Mount Air Cafe Family Restaurant Since 1979 Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Specials Daily Open 7 days a week Great family menu Breakfast served 6 a.m.to 9 p.m. Park City Jet. 224 & 248 East 649-9868 wm Check us out online... at mm |