Bridges

Kachina Natural Bridge

White Canyon had been flowing from the rains the night before. I had forgotten that there is a relatively famous petroglyph panel at the base of this natural bridge. The panel has what appears to be a smiling brontosaurus, just like the kind Fred Flintstone rides at work. Young Earth Creationists (people who belive the Earth is 5,000 years old) site this petroglyph as proof that dinosouars and men lived together thus proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Earth cannot be older than 5,000 years old. Makes sense, there really is not other explanation. The cottonwoods and the bridge were sublime, if I were an Anasazi I would live right underneath it and raise my family and some of them did.

Getting down into White canyon on the ladders. Notice the little pocket of Douglas Firs tucked away into the nice shady north facing alcove.

I also did not know that the "Lightning House" ruin (my name) was in upper White Canyon. We unexpectedly ran into it near Kachina Bridge. I had seen lots of photos of it before but did not know of it's location. It is actually called "Conical Ruin" because of it's unusual construction, but the water marks in the back remind me of lightning striking the house.

Hangin with Teddy

Teddy and Me
Teddy and Muir

Whatever happened to Presidents like TR? I would probably vote Republican if they could muster up another candidate like Teddy. He was a true visionary. He was able to realize that uncontrolled use of our resources for cooperate gain was not good for the land or the country. He set aside vast tracts of the landscape to be managed for the people not for corporate gain. What a concept.

Fire update

The fire has pretty much run it's course and fortunatley only burnt the Pinhook Valley sign and not any campgrounds or cabins. Our campgrounds are up and running again.

Fire on the Mountain

We had a fire start in Castle Valley and burn up on to the mountain this afternoon (maybe last night with the lightning?). It has burned fast and as of about 6:00 it had burned up into the heavy timber of Miners Basin. We evacuated several of our campgrounds and have closed all the access roads into that portion of the Forest. I stole this photo off the blog of a Castle Valley resident.

We just drove up onto Sand Flats to see how much of the mountain had burned. It looks like most of Miners Basin had already burned. We are meeting in the morning to see what the damage is. Hopefully none of our campgrounds, historic cabins or other peoples cabins have burned.

Running from Lightning at Medicine Lake

Early out day at school so I took the boys to Medicine Lake (pond) a small little drop of water up at La Sal Pass that has an amazing amount of big fish for how small it is. South Mountain is in the background, the least visited part of the La Sals. We have spent a lot of time up there this summer trying to maintain our old trail system that has not seen maintainence for 15+ years. We did not get to fish long as a major monsoon thunderstorm moved in and started throwing lightning at the high peaks. Ridge is not real fond of lightning so we headed home.( I am afraid we scarred him for life in the San Juan thunderstorm a few years back).

Tuk reflected in Medicine Lake, pre storm

Big Meadows at La Sal Pass. Rowan made everybody line up according to age and height.

First Fish

Ridge finally caught his first fish tonight at Oowah Lake. He has been trying all summer and never gave up he was pretty excited. He let it go before we got photo documentation. If he looks a bit odd in the above photo it is because he got stung by a wasp just below his eye.

Left Fork

We made our semi annual pilgramage to the Left Fork last weekend. This section of river holds a lot of memories. It is the first place Dad took us backpacking. I still remember Creed wanting to carry all the heavy stuff, so we gave it to him and he ended up crying about a mile down the trail, and then we had to unload everything and redistribute the weight. Seems like I still have to do that every time we go out. Taking my boys out to places that I experienced at a young age with my Dad and brothers (and sisters) is one of my favorite things. Hopefully there will always be wild places for generations of Murdocks to go to.

Creed and I backpacking Old School on the Left Fork with the Springville All-Stars hat and signature Murdock bowl cut

Grandpa and the next generation, notice the frame pack and pink ski pole and I am pretty sure he is still wearing some form of Springville sports hat

Bagels for breakfast

Brothers on a Rock

More Left Fork

Left Fork Brown
Ty casting from a log

Ty giving a fish a ride down a waterfall

Ridge tempting fate on a log

Monsoons and Oowah

Monsoon season is in full swing on the Plateau. We had significant rains over the last week but none of them really hit town. All around lightning and rain were falling but Moab itself seemed to miss most of it. Arches got hit really hard on Monday so we went up after work and watched Courthouse Wash flood and hiked around the Windows with the Europeans. We did.nt know that Wall Arch had fallen until the next day.

Friday we went up tp Oowah Lake. I still am not sure how it got its name. River started catching fish before I even had my pole together.

Flipping canoes and climbing Tuk

Tyler, Bre, Todd, Ashley and Mckell came down to visit over the weekend. We took the canoes and kayak out on the River and ended up swimming in Whites Rapid. We ran through the biggest waves just to see what would happen.Everything I row or paddle now days is self bailing and I think that I forgot that canoes are not.We filled up with water pretty quick and with no floatation to displace the water we ended up slowly rolling over. You can see the whole sequence on the Moab Action Photos webpage.

We also climbed Tukinikivatz, the third highest peak in the La Sals (12, 482 ft.) and the most recognizeable.

Todd and Ashley climbing the last steep section of the summit ridge with Mount Peale in the background

Prayer flags on the summit with Ty (curly Mullet) and Todd (President Van Buren)

Brookies, Grayling, and Sideburns

Todd has been working as a wilderness ranger in the High Uintas Wilderness this summer so we decided to go up and give him some company the last few days. He has been enforcing the new camping and fire regulations and I think he decided to grow the scariest facial hair he could just to drive his point home with all of the maximum impact scout troops he talks to.

The Uintas always reminds me of my first long backpack trips and catching fish on flies and a bubble. It is where so many Utah kids get their first taste of big wilderness.

Farney Lake

A big Brookie that River caught at Rainbow Lake

Overlooking the Rock Creek drainage and Brinton Meadows with Ranger "Wolverine"

Rivers first fish, an Artic Grayling, we ended up eating it and we were quite surprised how good Grayling tastes

Lunch on Fish Creek

Tyler casting on Rainbow Lake with Mt. Agassiz in the background

Ranger Camp in Grandaddy Basin

Beauty

Sometimes the landscapes of the Colorado Plateau are so stunning that I literally have to turn away and then look back after I gather myself. Everett Ruess explained it best when he said that the Plateau county had "such utter and overpowering beauty as nearly kills a sensitive person by its piercing glory"

Yesterday I felt the piercing glory watching the sun set on Arch, Butts and Texas Canyon from Butts Point. Photo is from Butts Point looking down Arch Canyon. Comb Ridge is in the background fading into the Navajo Country.

Bears and Big Browns

Last weekend we headed north to visit family and scare the kids with a Mexican clown (see the family blog). Ty, Nate, Dad, and myself went to a new section of 6th Water to try it out. We ended up hiking quite a ways in which usually means better fishing. I think everything is better the farther you are away from a road. Tyler caught several very big browns and I accidentally deleted the photos so you will just have to believe me. Maybe Nate will post the photo of his big Rainbow he caught for verification. We ended up losing my Dad, we were pretty sure he had fallen somewhere and broken a leg. We searched for him for about three hours. He ended up being back at the truck sleeping in the shade. I'm putting a tracking device on him next time.

Yesterday I took the scouts and River up on the mountain to rebuild a barrier on the edge of the Mount Peale Roadless Area. This is the second time I have rebuilt it since I came here. It is a continuous frustration of mine that people think they literally need to drive everywhere--get out and walk. We have hundreds of miles of roads and trails open to motorized vehicles, and people still have to create new roads. I hope gas goes to $10 a gallon maybe people will walk more.

We saw three bears on the way up so the kids were worried all night that one was going to come into camp.

River in Laurel Meadows contemplating life or maybe just looking at a bug

Porcupines and Beavers

Porcupine Rim

Today we finally rerouted the Porcupine trail to avoid impacting the Golden Eagle nests on the cliff faces and the large Archaic habitation site on the rim. It has taken a long time finding a route that all the specialists were ok with. The sites on the rim are pretty amazing we found a lot of different projectile points and hundreds of other tools, several rock shelters, and a very old petroglyph panel.

Beaver Basin

Yesterday we drove up into Beaver Basin to check a trail head and trail. It is a beautiful alpine basin. Several large avalanches had come down across the road this past winter so there was a lot of downed timber. Four wheelers have pushed the road way beyond where it is supposed to be closed so we tried to block it off. The peak in the back of the photo is Manns Peak , last year I climbed it with Ty, Creed and Nate.

Thunderstorms

After work yesterday I took the boys up towards Mount Mellenthin and hiked into some meadows. Moab has been cooking all week and the mountains are always such a nice respite from the brutal heat. Thunderheads build almost everyday over the La Sals and yesterday we saw some good ones. The lighting did not look real as the sun was coming in underneath the clouds.

Mellthin is named for Rudolph Mellenthin the first Forest Ranger killed in the line of duty. He was shot by a WWI draft dodger and is buried in the Moab cemetery a block from our house.