River and Ridge smelling the flowersSaturday, June 27, 2009
Hike off the Recession
Interesting story on NPR about people thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail after losing their jobs (might be hard with a family though). I love the idea of people turning to wild places to deal with the recession. Hopefully it makes us all appreciate simple, authentic, wild experiences.
River and Ridge smelling the flowers
River and Ridge smelling the flowers
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Owl Man with the Old Man
Today we went out to the Owl Man panel before the family left back north.
Hanging out in the shade with the Owl Man and the Old Man
I love this part of the panel because it looks like the artist put the hunter around the corner from the bighorn sheep, so he could sneak up on them.
Hanging out in the shade with the Owl Man and the Old Man
I love this part of the panel because it looks like the artist put the hunter around the corner from the bighorn sheep, so he could sneak up on them.Unnamed Canyon
The family came down for Ridges baptism this weekend. We got out to a few places and ate way too much food. The weather continues to be much cooler than normal which makes for great hiking temperatures, still a little cool for swimming.
Friday we went out to a new canyon that I had been to the bottom of a couple times but never all the way through. It turned out to be a really great techincal canyon with smimming, downclimbing and a couple of rappells, and River was excited because he got to save a bat from drowning in a pothole.
River heading down the last drop
Downclimbing into the cold water
River being a little dramatic
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Conan in Moab
In case you missed the opening of Conan hosting his first late night, here it is. It is a little cheesy but check out where he is at 1:48 and 1:25. That's right, it's the La Sals in the background, he's running just behind our house.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Horses, Hitches and Rocky Trails
Wilderness Volunteers came down this past week to volunteer for the Forest Service maintaining trails in Dark Canyon. We had originally set up the trip to work on eradicating tamarisk, but for a number of reasons we switched to a trail project. The volunteers hiked in with our trail crew last Sunday. Monday and Tuesday we packed thier food and group equipment in on horses. We came back out on Wednesday and Thursday for meetings and office work and back in on Friday and Saturday to pack the rest of thier food and gear out. They got a lot of much needed trail maintenence done down in the canyon. We packed watermelons in to them on the last trip in, it may have been the first time watermelon weas eaten in the bottom of Dark Canyon, unless the Ancient Ones were growing corn and watermelons.
We could not come down the Trail Canyon trail with stock so we ended up coming down the Horse Pasture trail which meant we had to go 12 miles one way in to get to their basecamp. We made the the trip twice last week for a total of 48 miles with the packhorses.
Two bull elk in Horse Pasture Canyon. They thought our horses were elk and ran right up to us before they realized we were'nt elk.
Scorup Cabin. The cabin was used as a line cabin by some of the big cattle operations that used to operate in the canyon.
Coming up one of the steep sections with unloaded packhorses.
We could not come down the Trail Canyon trail with stock so we ended up coming down the Horse Pasture trail which meant we had to go 12 miles one way in to get to their basecamp. We made the the trip twice last week for a total of 48 miles with the packhorses.
Two bull elk in Horse Pasture Canyon. They thought our horses were elk and ran right up to us before they realized we were'nt elk.
Scorup Cabin. The cabin was used as a line cabin by some of the big cattle operations that used to operate in the canyon.
Coming up one of the steep sections with unloaded packhorses.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Constantly Changing Priorities
I am fortunate to be employed doing something that I am passionate about and that I love doing, however the constant shifting from one problem to the next can get frustrating. Today was one of those days where every five minutes a different "crisis" erupted that I had to deal with. I started listing all of the things that occurred today and realized why it is so difficult to stay focused and concentrate on one thing in this job. So here is the list from today.
-I just got back from two days in the wilderness packing 200 lbs. of food into a volunteer group and trail crew doing trail work. I left Monday morning at 5 AM and got back Tuesday night at 8 PM. One of the horses started having problems with a leg so we were trying to get him into a vet to take a look at him. I also found a new illegal OHV trail in the wilderness that I need to go back to and deal with.
-Started this morning trying to download GPS data on new tamarisk trees we found in the wilderness and photos of OHV damage.
- First phone call of the day was from a local game warden who said that bears had broken into out weather station and had bitten into a line containing antifreeze (which causes kidney failure in animals) and that we needed to remedy the problem. Problem is that it is not our weather station it is run by a different agency but is located on the forest, So I started trying to track down the person responsible for maintenence.
-Found out several volunteer agreements for Campground Hosts were filled out incorrectly and need to be changed before we can pay them.
-The Health Dept. calls saying some of our water samples were bad for two of our campground water systems and that we needed to shut them down and retest.
- Campers called mad that they could not get the gas stove working in cabin at Warner Lake.
- Two letters requesting a permit to conduct a non-commercial "Mountain Man Rendevouz" and a Stake Girls Camp come in.
- Public calls wanting to know the best place to backpack in the La Sals
- Tried to work on an Environmental Assesment that I have to get done to designate roads and trails in seven different areas on the La Sals.
- Campground host comes in to the office to tell me he has turned off the gas to the cabin at Warner Lake, mystery solved.
- Call wanting to know if the road over Geyser Pass is open and where is the best place to take 12 high school kids.
- One of our permitted outfitters (who leads New Age backpack trips) called wanting to add several trips to thier permit and wanting to know where they can go to avoid cattle. Apparently cattle are not conducive to New Age Vision Quests or something.
- Tourism Board calls wanting a permit to film mountain bikers on the mountain for an ad campaign.
- 4 hour Staff Meeting to discuss numerous topics including next weeks orientation/BBQ for the seasonal employees, quarters, NEPA, planning, etc..
-After meeting, try and return phone calls and work on Environmental Assesment but get stuck approving Travel Vouchers and responding to other mundane emails.
-County calls to say that several large trees are down on a trail and needs to be cut out, add it to the list.
- Scout Camp emails wanting to know if they can gravel a road into their permitted camp.
-Supervisors Office in Price calls with questions on a design for a new campground that we may get stimulus money for in Colorado (a small portion of District is actually in Colorado)
- Give up working on Environmental Assesment and have still not downloaded GPS data
-Go home
If I could concentrate on one thing I might actually be able to get something done, but I am not complaining and I still love my job.
-I just got back from two days in the wilderness packing 200 lbs. of food into a volunteer group and trail crew doing trail work. I left Monday morning at 5 AM and got back Tuesday night at 8 PM. One of the horses started having problems with a leg so we were trying to get him into a vet to take a look at him. I also found a new illegal OHV trail in the wilderness that I need to go back to and deal with.
-Started this morning trying to download GPS data on new tamarisk trees we found in the wilderness and photos of OHV damage.
- First phone call of the day was from a local game warden who said that bears had broken into out weather station and had bitten into a line containing antifreeze (which causes kidney failure in animals) and that we needed to remedy the problem. Problem is that it is not our weather station it is run by a different agency but is located on the forest, So I started trying to track down the person responsible for maintenence.
-Found out several volunteer agreements for Campground Hosts were filled out incorrectly and need to be changed before we can pay them.
-The Health Dept. calls saying some of our water samples were bad for two of our campground water systems and that we needed to shut them down and retest.
- Campers called mad that they could not get the gas stove working in cabin at Warner Lake.
- Two letters requesting a permit to conduct a non-commercial "Mountain Man Rendevouz" and a Stake Girls Camp come in.
- Public calls wanting to know the best place to backpack in the La Sals
- Tried to work on an Environmental Assesment that I have to get done to designate roads and trails in seven different areas on the La Sals.
- Campground host comes in to the office to tell me he has turned off the gas to the cabin at Warner Lake, mystery solved.
- Call wanting to know if the road over Geyser Pass is open and where is the best place to take 12 high school kids.
- One of our permitted outfitters (who leads New Age backpack trips) called wanting to add several trips to thier permit and wanting to know where they can go to avoid cattle. Apparently cattle are not conducive to New Age Vision Quests or something.
- Tourism Board calls wanting a permit to film mountain bikers on the mountain for an ad campaign.
- 4 hour Staff Meeting to discuss numerous topics including next weeks orientation/BBQ for the seasonal employees, quarters, NEPA, planning, etc..
-After meeting, try and return phone calls and work on Environmental Assesment but get stuck approving Travel Vouchers and responding to other mundane emails.
-County calls to say that several large trees are down on a trail and needs to be cut out, add it to the list.
- Scout Camp emails wanting to know if they can gravel a road into their permitted camp.
-Supervisors Office in Price calls with questions on a design for a new campground that we may get stimulus money for in Colorado (a small portion of District is actually in Colorado)
- Give up working on Environmental Assesment and have still not downloaded GPS data
-Go home
If I could concentrate on one thing I might actually be able to get something done, but I am not complaining and I still love my job.
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