In my opinion, the ridges are usually the most interesting places to be. But, after another spell of steady hot weather it can be difficult to find the motivation to climb them. Today, I worked slowly up a north-facing hill, partly shaded from the relentless sun and taking my time. At the top, I had my reward.
Yesterday, EDO took us to see the Jardine Juniper. We climbed the shorter, backside trail. It probably wasn't more than two miles, but it was 1,400 vertical feet from Logan Canyon to the ridge.
A slog going up and slippery going down. On the latter, I caught both girls skittering and grabbing for hand holds.
We don't leave south central Utah very often. (Or, at least, I don't: VSO was in California last week.) But, yesterday we decided to go to Idaho (from Logan). To the Bear River. To the Oneida Reservoir. The wind was strong on the lake.
VSO joined me in Nine Mile Canyon yesterday to look for dead wood. Unfortunately, we got rained out. So, instead, we wandered around in the rain looking for rock art. VSO found this panel of bighorn sheep. Or a panel of bighorn giraffes.
A couple of times my colleagues at the Prehistoric Museum have asked for help in identifying long dead wood (the wood is not long, but it has been dead for a long time). These are pieces of wood from archaeological sites that may have been laying there for a thousand years. I've been able to make some guesses, but I thought we all might do better if we had some known examples to which we could compare the museum pieces.
So, I set about creating a dead wood library. I don't know whether it will be very helpful? It is difficult to discern death date when I'm walking around in the woods, so my pieces may have been dead only briefly. Will they look the same as something that has been dead for centuries? One sort of goofy thing that I decided to try was the absolute cheapest battery powered chainsaw you can buy at Walmart. My library wood is only a few inches in diameter and takes just a few seconds to cut, so I don't need a big bar or a tank of gas. It has actually worked very well. I don't need to start it, I simply pull the trigger, and, zip, it cuts quickly. A nice innovation.
While doing some clean-up at the office, I came across a folder containing about 155 slides. The label said "Monticello Ranger District, Manti-La Sal National Forest, Range Overuse, Reseeding and Recovery, Julian Tkhomas, 1945 to 1957." The name is an obvious typo and should be Julian R. Thomas or just plain Julian Thomas. According to his obit, he was the District Ranger in Monticello during the years on the label.
I have started converting the slides to digital files using the camera. There are some interesting ones.
This week I went out with the botany crew for some vegetation monitoring in the La Sals. Our plots were at nearly 12,000 feet and there were thunderstorms in the vicinity.
Fortunately, they passed us by and we were able to complete the study in one day. The crew pointed out to me the last flowering La Sal Daisy on the mountain (below). Erigeron mancus is endemic to the alpine meadows of the La Sals.
Yesterday we walked upstream along the Left Fork of Huntington for about an hour. It would have been hot—it was hot—but an incoming storm blocked the sun. That made it tolerable. Then, on our way out, just as we reached the trailhead, the storm struck with some heavy rain. We were able to jump in the Chev with a minimum of dampness. On our way down the canyon, the truck thermometer said 63F. Pretty nice.
