What a Difference a Year Can Make

Last January (2013), we wrote about a bout of extremely cold weather. For the first three weeks of that month, our average temperatures were some of the coldest ever recorded in Utah. This January (2014) is just the opposite. Every day has been warmer than average. In fact, for the Cedar City Airport, twenty-five miles from The Homestead, the normal average temperature for the first three weeks of January is 28.7F, while the current average (2014) temperature for the first three weeks of January is 33.7F. We have been, on average, five degrees warmer every day this month than normal. That's a lot.

In some ways, this warm spell has been pretty good. The hiking has been phenomenal for one thing. But, importantly for me, the firewood consumption has been low, which means that I've been able to get caught up. I think I've got wood ready to burn until well into February, and have even been looking ahead to 2015. Amazing.

The bad news, though, is the lack of moisture. Along with the warm weather, we've had a bit of winter drought. The last time it snowed at The Homestead was December 21, 2013. By my count, we've now gone 36 days without precipitation. The mountains have no snow pack to speak of, and anything below about 9000 feet is essentially bare. If we don't get about nine feet of snow between now and the end of March, there may be no garden for us in the summer of 2014.

Hiking with the Cousins

On MLK Day, the cousins came out for a hike. VSO was a little under the weather, so EDO and I took them out to the Vermillion Castle. All you have to do is walk up three switch-backs and you'll have a good view and a few hoodoos to climb. So, we did. The weather was spectacular and all the kids seemed to enjoy the outing. The only hard part was a little snow and ice on the trail. It was slippery for the kids, but each of them had an adult for ballast.

Navajo Bridges

Because highway 89 collapsed 20 miles south of Page, the best way to get to Flagstaff right now is to go through Fredonia, over the Kaibab, and across the river at Marble Canyon. Whenever I go that way, I like to stop and look at the bridges. I think they are beautiful—intricate patterns of silver arching over a thousand feet of thin air. But, the other thing that I always think about is that they are brand new. The first bridge was not completed until almost 1930. Before that, the only way across the river was to go via Lee's Ferry. In fact, Lee's Ferry was the only crossing between, say, Needles and Hite for probably 70 years. As late as 1929, the US Mail between Flagstaff and Kanab was still being carried in a wagon, which crossed the river on the ferry every couple of weeks. It's amazing how much things have changed over the last 50 years. There still are not very many places to cross the river, but now you can do it on a highway, in a modern auto, at full speed. There are no longer wagons with mail, but thousands of yuppies, hippies, gangsters, euros, and bobos (urban consumers all) blazing through with the bucket list—checking 'em off without even rolling down the window. The only thing they notice is that I don't drive 80 MPH, and am, therefore, in their way.

Petrified Rushes

For the past week—and for this week, too—Rural Ways has been stuck indoors at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. (Everybody loves Flagstaff. I guess because it's a college town with nearby outdoor recreation. As might be expected, though, I can't stand it. Too crowded and noisy.) Finally, on Saturday, I got out of town and made it to the river by 9:30a. I crossed at Marble Canyon and went over the Kiabab. There, on a seldom used two track with a view that stretched from Fredonia to the Tushars, I stopped to walk in a wash. I could hear a couple of song-birds calling from a stunted pinyon as I threaded my way between the cacti. It was just a non-descript sort of place where no-one would ever go, but as I poked around along the rim of the wash through broken yellow sandstone, I discovered that it had once been the bed of a shallow lake. All through the stone's surface, and buried in its layers, were small grasses, snails, and clams, some now crystalized and others petrified. I ended up spending several hours there, looking at it all. The more I looked, the more I saw. What I found most interesting, though, were the rushes—some species of Equisetum?—petrified and laying on the surface.

Sheep Creek II

When we hiked down Sheep Creek last fall we went only as far as the confluence with Willis Creek. This time, the girls wanted to go all the way to Bull Valley Draw. I wasn't sure we could make it because the round trip would require at least 12 miles of walking, but it was worth a try. In the event, the girls turned around after about four and a quarter or four and a half miles (for a nine mile round trip), while I went down about a mile further on my own. The clock was really the only limiting factor: We had to be out of the canyon by 3:30pm. Otherwise, the walking was fairly easy—the girls did great—and we probably could have made it to Bull Valley (and back) if we'd had another couple of hours. The only difficulty was all the ice in the upper "narrows," and even that was pretty good going once we got the hang of it: It is strong enough to take your weight so just shuffle along as fast as you can.

Round Valley

I had intended to go to the head of Wahweap Creek, but, once again, had not anticipated the effect on the roads of last month's snow. I mean, it has been at least a fortnight since we've had any moisture, and it has been sunny that whole time, the roads can't still be wet can they? Well, they are surely better than they would have been last week, but the mud in Butler Valley was deep enough in the morning—while still partially frozen—that I didn't want to face it in the afternoon when it would be nothing but a wallow. So we turned around before Grosvenor and went back to Round Valley.

We dropped VSO at a little campsite atop Slickrock Bench, with a view into Wiggler Wash, and then EDO and I went out to where the road Ys just before the power lines. We parked there and walked on the bluffs to the west of Round Valley for about three miles. It was a muddy hike, but we finally found a 20 foot tall broken outcrop of buttery yellow sandstone with numerous visible layers of ancient deposition. That kept us busy for a while. By 3p we decided to go check on VSO, so we mudded our way to the campsite and found her there with a couple of fine plein air paintings.

Fifth Birthday

We started Rural Ways on the first day of 2009. Unlike many blogs that struggle to connect with readers, Rural Ways was truly a success from the start. Without much effort we quickly doubled our hits. And then went on to double them again. (We get at least four readers per month, not counting me.) As the publishing frenzy accelerates, however, we don't want to lose sight of important milestones. Happy Fifth Birthday.