Long Walk in the Big Mountains

Last week we took a long walk through the Weminuche Wilderness. 54 miles through and over and around the Grenadier and Needles Ranges in the San Juan Mountains. Todd, Ty and I had been planning the trip for quite some time. Like most hikers who do this loop we were planning on using the Durango/Silverton Train to get to the trailheads, but a week before leaving we decided to make the whole trip via human power the way God intended. This added 15 miles to the hike, but in the end we were glad we did it and we still beat the train out.

The Weminuche is an amazing and big place on the scale of the Central Idaho Wilderness areas. The hike included some of the the most rugged alpine terrain I have ever seen. The wild berries (raspberries, strawberries, thimbleberries and grouse whorttleberries) were at their peak so we stopped and ate a lot of them and scared a bear off of one berry patch. Saw more kinds of mushrooms than I have seen anywhere. Caught brookies, cutthroats and rainbows in Vallecito Creek and chased herds of overly friendly mountain goats out of camp in Chicago Basin.

It was so nice to be away from the news and politics of our world for more than a few days. I am realizing that I often times allow myself to get to wrapped up in the trivial and frivolous political squabbling (are we really still arguing over whether Muslims can build a place of worship near Ground Zero?). I have tried to refocus my energies into understanding the world, my motivations, my beliefs and what makes people think and believe the things they do.

I have been reading/studying more Buddhist/Eastern philosophical traditions lately and really drawn to the goal/process of becoming more mindful. One of the processes for becoming more mindful that really appeals to me is that of "walking meditation", learning to be aware of each and every step and breath and of the world around you. I used the long walk to practice walking meditation, not sure I became any more enlightened but I did learn many things like it is much easier to meditate when walking on flat ground, and that going up long uphill climbs with a heavy pack is not conducive to quiet introspection due to the sweating and cursing.

River also came along and did great, I was pretty proud of him for not complaining.

River walking out of Chicago Basin in the rain

On top of Columbine Pass (elev. 12,800) between Johnson and Needle Creeks

High camp at 12,000 feet looking out to Mount Oso and the Guardian

River before the long off trail descent to the gem colored Vallecito Lake

Me and the boy pondering existence (aka catching our breath) in Chicago Basin. The big peaks of Sunlight and Windom behind

Westwater B-Day Partay

We celebrated Toads 3oth on Westwater yesterday, which he celebrated by successfully taking an open canoe down the canyon, with no swims.

My mom watched the kids, so Alina could come, which was great she had not been down Westwater for a long time.

Rare photo of Alina and I on the river with no kids in the picture

Todd and the Rampage in Big Hummer?

Gneiss shist and Alina and River

3 Generations

Front flip off the bow, which ended in a backslap on sunburnt flesh

Headwaters of the San Juan

Last week we headed east to the San Juans and camped for a few days. It was cold enough that Alina and the boys were wearing their winter coats at night, which is just what we wanted this time of year.

We camped up South Mineral Fork near Silverton and hiked around the area on the Rico-Silverton Trail and into Lower Ice Lake Basin. The wildlfowers were unbelievable in variety and color.

The area is the very headwaters of the San Juan River that we floated in May. I like following rivers to their sources and seeing where all the water comes from that forms the rivers that cut the great canyons.

After hiking for a few days we stopped in Ouray for a soak in the hotsprings until lightning forced everybody out of the pool and we headed back to the desert.

Lower Ice Lake Basin Paradise

Waterfalls draining down into Lower Ice Lake Basin

More water falling down and joining other small streams and then bigger streams until finally they all come together and form the mighty San Juan

Where all the water from the mountains ends up (at least the part that does not get used to irrigate crops upstream)

Descending in the rain from Ice Lake Basin

Headwaters of the San Juan

River bouldering on the trail to Ice Lake Basin

Boys in the wildflowers

Boys at Camp

Rolling Mountain at the head of South Fork Mineral

Hiking the Rico-Silverton Trail at the very head of the South Fork Mineral

Escaping the heat

Once the temps head over 100 in the Moab valley everybody heads to the river or the mountains. We did the latter and headed to La Sal Pass with friends who have a kid that shares a birthday with Ryder.

Quite a few people ended up coming to the camp which kind of reminded me of the old neighborhood campouts we used to have back in the day.

Row and Tuk (the mountain not the dog)

River and Ridge with South Mountain

Boys, sticks, fire, no worries

Boats full of dogs and kids, make for good fishing. I think the people in the back are cursing us

The alpine meadows at La Sal Pass

Summer Mayhem

Summer seems to be the season of perpetual crisis at work and it is beginning to make it my least favorite season.

Summer at work starts with bringing all the seasonal employees on and training them. Hoping they have enough common sense to not get themselves injured or killed in the backcountry, or driving, or running a chainsaw or clearing a trail or any of the other tasks we require of them.

June flew by with seasonal employee orientation, chain saw school, fire school, packing the trail crew into Woodenshoe Canyon, fixing water systems destroyed by avalanches, clearing trails, finishing Environmental Analysis for projects, working with the County and local OHV groups to mark some new OHV trails, working with local environmental groups to close illegal OHV routes, heading north for the Nackos reunion, driving the kids north for the Murdock cousin camp, taking the scouts to Scout Camp and administering the permit for Scout Camp, dealing with angry people who think their favorite trails should be the first ones we clear, meeting with Senator Bennets staff on the potential wilderness bill for San Juan County (now dead thanks to Utah's crazy primary elections which seem to be simply about who can be further to the right), working with the contractor building the new Buckeye Campground, explaining to the locals why Buckeye Reservoir is closed for the summer, inventorying hazard trees at the campgrounds, working on our new Motor Vehicle Use map, going to the weekly Farmer Market for goat cheese and getting our for some kayaking, hiking and canyoneering on the weekends and after work.

Summer in Moab generally consists of going to where the water is or heading as high as possible to escape the heat. The Europeans seem to not realize that summers are hot here as the town is full of them which makes every trip to the grocery store a multi-cultural experience

Escaping the heat at the Cowboy Jacuzzi

Ridge heading down his first technical canyon

Columbine in the high country

Red Snow Cirque, the same place we were skiing a couple of months ago, now green and lush

Escaping the heat in the high country. The snow melt lake up Gold Basin

Canyoneering somwhere

Saturday, after stocking up on our weekly supply of goat cheese at the Farmers Market, we went out and explored a new canyon that I had been wanting to get to for awhile. Last spring the boys and myself hiked up from the bottom end to the last rappel, and I have been wanting to come down from the top since then. It was an amazing canyon with lots of cottonwoods and flowers.

Ty throwing gear across one of the potholes, before jumping in

River on the first rappel in the canyon

Chimneying out to the big drop off

River half way down the 130 foot rappel

River getting a little nervous as he approaches the overhanging part of the rappel

San Juan

We took the boys down the San Juan again last week, along with most of the Murdock Clan (except Mom and Kell and Creeds Family). We drove down to the Mexican Hat on Monday through a snowstorm in Monticello, but ended up having great weather.

The Navajo Dam is only letting out about 500 cfs this year so we were getting worried about not having enough water, but the little heat wave we got right before we went got the melt going on the Animas which gave us about 3000 cfs to float on.

The first night we got the kids favorite camp about 10 miles downstream from Mexican Hat, the second camp was at Ross Rapid which we have never camped at before, but with the large beach and shallow eddy it may be the kids new favorite.

Campfire at Ross Rapid right on the beach

Ridge and Rowan in the duckie

The boys and Ashli after surviving their trip into the hole at Ross Rapid

Mud lunch at Oljeto Wash

Floating the Paco Pads out on the last day

Cuttin it Old School

I spent the last few days at our Guard Station on Elk Ridge conducting what was probably the first official cross-cut saw training on the District, at least in the last 70 years.

One of the things I really enjoy about wilderness management is keeping the old traditional skills alive, like horse packing and cross-cut saws.

A ruin just off the forest that I have been meaning to visit for awhile

Old School woodsmen skills

View from the Notch towards the high Abajos and Chippean Ridge

I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok

"Ruess"ing it in the Elk Ridge Canyons

Our annual spring Wilderness Volunteers trip was this past week. We had originally planned on going back into Dark Canyon to work on a tamarisk removal project, but due to the heavy snows there is still snowdrifts blocking the trail we needed to access. So we switched to Plan B, which was to do trail work and some tamarisk work in another of the wild canyons that is cut into Elk Ridge.

I packed food and gear in with the horses on Monday and went back in Friday night and packed the group back out Saturday morning. Ty came down and helped me out Friday and Saturday.

It was a great group and despite the unseasonably cold weather much great trail work and tamarisk work was accomplished.

Early morning at camp down in the Canyon. It froze every night.

Side canyon, looking up towards Elk Ridge

Three fingered pinnacle in the sunset

Tyler "Ruess"ing it with P.D. the fat Forest Service horse

Middle Mountain Cirque

Friday I walked into Warner Lake Campground to see how much snow we still had up at the campground and I could see the glorious northeast face of Tuk baking in the spring sun so we headed out early Saturday to go and check it out.

The forecast had called for warm temps and some wind, but as we skinned into Middle Mountain Cirque the high clouds kept the long run off Tuk from corning up. So we turned around before going all the way up and skiied the breakable crust ( I mostly skidded and rolled down ) until we got to the lower elevation where things softened up and became turnable.

The little black dot is Ashli and Tuk (the dog) in Middle Mountain Cirque

Survival telemark turns up high

Back in the Cirque

We made it back up into the Central La Sals for more skiing on Monday. Walking out to the truck wearing ski pants and carrying skis in Moab in May tends to elicit strange looks from the neighbors, but the spring skiing is so good this year I have to take advantage of it while it lasts (which will probably be into July this year). The snow was not quite as good as the first trip but it was still great spring skiing.

Bootpacking the headwall

Spring in Moab

A video of Toad skiing off the shoulder of Tuk on our trip back into Red Snow Cirque on Monday.