Home on the Range: The Wayback Machine: late February

Argghhhh! I've been meaning to get this thing up FOREVER. Alrighty, so a somewhat outdated post follows. My current life is revolving around getting ready for the upcoming field season, so I've been managing some jaunts in the local BLM sagebrush, but no more. Starting on Saturday, though, I start collecting data. Yahoooooooo!

[entering the Wayback Machine ..... whooooooooshhhhhhh]

Wheee! Got back today from an overnight jaunt/gear test. Very fun. Headed up near Juniper Spring, up in the Sahwaves. Not much of a hike – I piddled away much of the weekend, until my get up and go, finally got up and arrived, and the dogs and I set out. Parked, and just walked until sunset, at which point, I stopped. Ahh, the joys of bivvying. Sunset was gorgeous – Juniper Mountain was lit a golden purple. I know it sounds weird, but I can’t think how else to describe it.

Following Cash down a horse trail...

Dogs playing in camp

It was a tad chilly, so I bunged out the stove, and made myself some soup and cocoa. Big mistake. Lesson #1, never hydrate at night, when it’s cold, and you really really don’t want to leave the relative warmth of your sleeping bag!

Lesson #2, when entering a bivy that contains dogs, make sure to have your face well and truly covered up. Hooey. I was entering their den, at their level, and lying down right next to them! This means I MUST want to be licked. My bivy’s one of REI’s bug huts, that I sling my poncho over. It’s great! It’s big enough for 2 dogs and my shoulders up. (Or as I discovered on a rainy hike into the Pasayten with Steph and Jackie, big enough for 1 dog and all of me but my feet – when I really curl up tight!) Anyway, it was a grand cold night – the bits of me under the poncho were fine, though my feet were cold most of the time. Then I awoke to sagebrush and overcast skies, with a hint of sunrise pink – and a joy-filled surprise, the song of one of my favorite birds, the Sage Sparrow. Spring is coming!

Cash was entrusted with Pepper’s old pack to carry the dogs’ water, and their blankets – I cut up an old sleeping bag for when it gets really cold. This was his first time carrying a pack for any distance, and this was one of my gear-test goals. Lesson #3 – load that sucker up! The water and blankets were as nothing, and he was perpetually acting like an ill-trained pack horse, or perhaps a performing monkey. Leap and twist in the air here, bulldoze through the shrubbery there. Goober. Good thing those packs are well-made. Had to keep my eyes on him to make sure he didn’t lose it without my noticing! However, it arrived to and from camp in safety. Minnie, of course, was The Good Dog.

All in all, a very happy day! My camera battery was running down to zero, so I didn’t take too many pictures – plus I missed a few shots – my new camera’s power button is where my old camera’s shutter was, so now when I’m not thinking about it, I carefully point my camera and turn it off, instead of taking a photo! Getting better. Slowly.

I’ve also attached a few photos from when I was here in late January – I’d been exploring and thinking about camping, but when it got to be 17 F while it was still light, I realized I wasn’t quite prepared for that amount of cold – or at least wouldn’t get much sleep! Beautiful afternoon, though. Felt bad for the newborn calves, nearby. At least it wasn’t wet or horribly windy. As Dad would say, "Brown fat, Brown fat!" Well, okay, he'd make it sound a little more science-y than that.