Fall Break- A Visit from the Northern Clan

The Murdocks from the north came to visit us for a few days last weekend over the Fall Break. It was good to have almost everybody down to enjoy the glorious fall weather.

Saturday we woke up early and climbed into a part of Arches away from the masses and did some canyoneering in a new canyon. Photo above is Creed and Tyler on the last rappel.

Creed checking out an old aid route on a very large rock along the canyoneering route

Thursday myself, River, Ty and Bre hiked into a remote unnamed side canyon to Harts Draw that I hiked 17 years ago and have always wanted to get back to. This canyon is not far from Moab but gets almost no use. There is very little sign of other people traveling through the the canyon at all, which means a lot of bushwacking. The cottonwoods were amazing.

Me an Mom under one of the branches of the Moonflower Cottonwood, one of my favorite trees on the planet

River heading down the unnamed canyon

A Long Ride with the Old Guys

My Dad, Carl and Uncle Rick came down last month for what is becoming an annual Fallpack trip into Dark Canyon. I had to pack some equipment in for a tamarisk removal project we are starting, so it worked out perfect to have them come down and help out.

Dad and Carl at Trail Canyon. I have never seen this much water in this part of the canyon, but due to all the August rains it was still running.

Horse Pasture Canyon

Camp in Horse Pasture

Three old dudes (and Abbey) sleeping after a long day. They must be old because I am not that young anymore.

Short lived waterfalls and old houses, and the Fourth Annual Meat (Harvest?) Fest

Summer is slowly winding down into another glorious fall on the Plateau.

We got another Westwater trip in before the kids went back to school. It was the Fourth Annual Meat fest and many species were upon the grill. We are thinking that we may have to rename it the Annual Westwater Harvest fest to be more inclusive and less gluttonous, maybe not. We did have eggs from Todd/Ashlis chickens, salsa verde made by Mom, Pepper, Tomatoes and other produce from the garden, cheese from Erics goats (Castle Valley Creamery) and live music (Ashli on guitar,Colin on ukelele, and Jeff on flute). Good Trip.

A few photos of other recent excursions

I took the boys and some of the scouts down to some remote ruins on Elk Ridge. I was a little hesitant to take the scouts to such a pristine and remote site, but they did great and were very respectful. It may have been that I told them I would throw them off the cliff and that they would forever be haunted by the spirits if they broke anything, but it worked. Camped on Elk Ride the night before we hiked into the canyon and elk are in full swing. The bulls were bugling all night.

Ridge looking into the main room

Great front porch view

Row and Ridge in the land of Pines and Pinnacles

The last big monsoon storm that came through just happened to center right on Mill Creek where we were hiking. Lots of waterfalls.

On Labor Day we went an floated a stretch of river I had not been on before. We put in at Dewey Bridge and floated down to Hittle Bottom. We hiked up Bull Canyon and played in the potholes.

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