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.

Switching from Saddles to Full Suspension

Many of our trails in the La Sals are used primarliy as downhill mountain bike trails. Bikers get a ride to the top of the mountain and then bomb downhill all the way to town. The sport is becoming more and more like lift served skiing. Some of the bikes that people are using now days are almost too heavy to pedal uphill.

Max and myself rode the Moonlight Meadows trail on Thursday to cut logs out of the trail and see what kind of trail work was needed. The trailhead is high in the alpine near Geyser Pass above 10,000 feet. It is beautiful up there right now, fields of flowers and all the streams are running over their banks with snow melt.

I found out how unskilled I am as a downhill mountain biker by going over the handlebars twice. Once was a full out superman dive down hill. As I was hurdling head first down the mountain I was thinking to myself all of the different broken bone possibilities that could occur when gravity finally pulled me back to terra firma. Somehow I landed in soft dirt and flowers and ended up with nothing more that grass stains and a jammed finger.

Moonlight Meadows and Mount Mellenthin

Creek Crossing

South Elk Ridge/Dark Canyon

We have a new District Ranger (my boss), so I took him out the last couple of days to show him the Dark Canyon Wilderness that we manage. We spent a night at the Gooseberry Guard Station on Elk Ridge and took the ponies down into Horse Pasture Canyon and looped back up Dark Canyon. Our retired Range Manager came on the trip as well. His name is Jimmie Forrest, which I think is the greatest name ever if you are going to work for the Forest Service. He worked on the District for almost 40 years so it was great to have him along to point out features that I have walked past several times already like hidden springs, arches and ruins. I also got down in the head of Hammond Canyon. I was hoping to get to some of the larger ruins, but had to turn back when it started getting dark.

Me, Rags and Zipper, faithful government employees

Gooseberry Guard Station

Horse Pasture Trail, if you're smart you walk this section

The head of Hammond Canyon

Down in the canyon

San Rafael River

The San Rafael River finally got high enough to float last weekend so I drove up and met Dad, Tyler, and the Nielsons at the bridge across the river. We dropped off a truck and drove up to Fullers Bottom and launched the boats for a 18 mile relaxing float beneath the high walls of the "Little Grand Canyon". Last time I floated this section of river I think it was the year that Alina and I were married 14 years ago.

The convoluted landscape of the San Rafael holds so many memories for me almost every butte, mesa, and canyon reminds me of some past adventure. Climbing and sleeping on top of Mexican Mountain with my Dad, chasing wildhorses with friends and family every Thanksgiving (before I knew it was illegal), climbing Window Blind Butte in a snowstorm in February with Creed and Todd, swimming horses through the frozen river on a winter ride that turned out to be a little longer than planned, getting a first descent on Segers Hole Canyon, rappelling kayaks into the lower Black Box, and meeting Alina for the first time at Copper Globe. The San Rafael is where I fell in love with the Slickrock and my wife, it will always be home to me.

Floating beneath the Navajo Sandstone

Barrier Canyon Petroglyphs in Virgin Springs Canyon