Saturday, December 1, 2007

November

I can't believe November is behind us already (and how little snow we have on the mountain). You've probably noticed how fancy I am getting with the new "Wild Quotes" sidebar on the blog. I was going to put a bunch of my favorite wild oriented quotes on, but I think I will just put them on one at a time (I don't want to overwhelm my vast audience). The first quote is from one of my favorite writers and thinkers, Aldo Leopold, from his book "A Sand County Almanac" (one of the holiest in the canon of wilderness scripture). If you have not read it you need to. Aldo was one of the first to really outline the idea of including the Earth and it's communities into our idea of ethics. Aldo was a true visionary and I like that he did not always fit the mold of the tree-hugging environmentalist. He was an avid hunter and understood the connection between predator and prey, death and rebirth. I also like that he changed his thinking over the course of his life from killing wolves (just because that was the thing to do back then), to realizing their importance in the overall system. More on Aldo to come.


I had to make one last trip up to our Warner Lake Campground this month to close everything up and take some photos of some of the facilities needing repairs. I took this photo from the cabin looking out across the lake to the central part of the La Sal Range.



On Veterans Day I drove up the Sand Flats Road behind the house, and hiked up Mill Creek. I found Otho Natural Bridge (actually an Arch) up one of the side canyons. I only saw one other person in the canyon, it was nice to be alone.

When I spoke to Todd on the phone over Thanksgiving he made me promise to keep the "Turkey Freeze Out" tradition alive. So Tyler and I headed down to the desert to freeze in memory of our tropics bound brother. We went into Horseshoe Canyon and Blue John (see Ty's blog for more photos). I had never been into the Great Gallery in Horsehoe Canyon and was very impressed. The whole panel is maybe 100 yards long and most of the figures are 6 to 7 feet tall. I really like this particular figure because he was drawn alongside the existing crack/corner on the rock wall and he has two animals inside him that are obviously talking to each other. These particular pictographs are estimated to be 2 to 8 thousand years old. Amazing to think these figures were put on this rock face possibly 6 thousand years before Christ was born.

The whole family came down to the annual Moab Folk Fest at the first of the month and we got to experience some great music. The festival is in its fifth year and keeps getting bigger. We got to see one of my all time favorites, Peter Rowan, sing and yodel "Land of the Navajo". We also got out and did some hiking. I took my Dad and Tyler up to an old Indian/stock trail I found in an unnamed canyon that cuts across a cliff face and accesses some very old pictographs. This photo is of Tyler and Dad traversing the ledge/trail on the way back down. My Dad can still pretty much get anywhere as long as he has his ski pole and a shoulder.





The last day of November we drove up to Geyser Pass and cut down a Christmas tree.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

bri, you had never been to the panel before, sounded like a sweet trip, i hope that it was cold, it wouldnt be a turkey freeze out if it wasnt freezing, by the way, we got a new country director and he is coming from the forest service, i cant remember his name, but im sure he was some big shot

wild murdocks said...

you're hot.

McKell said...

I like this, we get an inside on Bri's thoughts, good book recommendations, I feel a little bit smarter after reading this blog.

Snap Dragon said...

I know I don't know you but.. When you were at Otho did you sign the diary on the Flintstones looking table.
Hopefully it was still there.

Thanks for sharing your picture of Otho That is how I found your blog in the first place.
Nice to see others have been there.
Amy