We Can't All Be Winners

Some of us may need to settle for second place.  EDO raced in the Wasatch 10K yesterday at Soldier Hollow (above).  I know the picture makes it look like she won the race, but there was one male finisher ahead of her at the line.  Meanwhile, VSO was competing in the Escalante Canyons Art Festival (below).  Like last year, she pulled down a red ribbon for her studio piece.  (It is difficult to imagine a better entry than this one, but there must have been something.)  For those of us who are slow and talentless, it is nice to be able to share in the second place glory.

View From the Office

My third View since the beginning of August.  I guess it is that time of the year.  The equinox is tomorrow, so the good months are coming.  At any rate, with the help of a shuttle driver, I walked with several colleagues yesterday from the trailhead on Miller's Flat to the bottom of the Left Hand Fork of Huntington.  The weather was nice—though still hotter than it might be—and the colors were spectacular.

An Outing

VSO forgot her hiking boots, so she was unprepared for steep country.  I was very annoyed by the motorheads and loose dogs, so I would not get out of the truck except for steep country.  We didn't do very well.

We did, however, find a patch of fireweed that had gone to seed, some of which VSO collected (above).  And I did help her when the steep country required walking on downed wood (below).

View From the Office

There is an 11,000 foot feature in central Utah that is visible from I-70 near Salina.  It is, somewhat unfortunately, called Mary's Nipple.  We weren't sure whether the county had a structure on the summit, so I went out there yesterday to see.  Round trip from Price I may have driven 250 miles, much of it on the gravel.  From where I parked on the south end of the Skyline, it was 1,500 vertical feet to the top.  I made it there and back in three hours.

I also found the structure:  A survey sighting tower.  I'm not sure how it works or whether it remains relevant to surveyors, but there it is.  I was back at the office by 5p.  Mission accomplished:  In about nine hours you can drive from Price, walk to the top of the Nipple, and return.

Done with the DWL

The Dead Wood Library (DWL) is finished (for now).  In the end, I included 24 species, though I collected just 22 of them.  I don't have white fir or blue spruce specimens, but the project was beginning to feel like overkill.  For the 22, I included a cross section and stem or branch for each.  The full list is below:

Pinyon Pine	Pinus edulis Engelm.	PIED
Utah Juniper	Juniperus osteosperma (Torr.) Little	JUOS
Rocky Mountain Juniper	Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.	JUSC2
Douglas Fir	Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco	PSME
Limber Pine	Pinus flexilis James	PIFL2
Serviceberry	Amelanchier utahensis Koehne	AMUT
Alderleaf Mountain Mohagany	Cercocarpus montanus Raf.	CEMO2
Curl-leaf Mountain Mohagany	Cercocarpus ledifolius Nutt.	CELE3
Greasewood	Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr.	SAVE4
Sagebrush	Artemisia tridentata Nutt.	ARTR2
Box Elder	Acer negundo L.	ACNE2
Bigtooth Maple	Acer grandidentatum Nutt.	ACGR3
Rocky Mountain Maple	Acer glabrum Torr.	ACGL
Aspen	Populus tremuloides Michx.	POTR5
Narrowleaf Cottonwood	Populus angustifolia James	POAN3
Fremont Cottonwood	Populus fremontii S. Watson	POFR2
Narrowleaf Willow	Salix exigua Nutt.	SAEX
Gambel Oak	Quercus gambelii Nutt.	QUGA
Chokecherry	Prunus virginiana L.	PRVI
Black Hawthorn	Crataegus douglasii Lindl.	CRDO2
Bitterbrush	Purshia tridentata (Pursh) DC.	PUTR2
Skunkbush	Rhus trilobata Nutt.	RHTR
Blue Spruce	Picea pungens Engelm.	PIPU
White Fir	Abies concolor (Gord. & Glend.) Lindl. ex Hildebr.	ABCO