I may have mentioned in passing that it has been dry. Well. It has been very dry. The last wetting rain (.10 inches of moisture) in Castle Valley was at Thanksgiving: We haven't had rain or snow in nearly 70 days. Winter is normally the wet season so it is not a good start to the year.
When the dry, but cold, weather allows, I've been doing some work on ponderosa pine in Joes Valley. Today, I invited VSO to join me in the valley so that she could check out an alcove that may have been used in archaic times. Later, after I complained that she was interested only in anthropology, she also helped me with a tree.
The forecast was dire, but the reality has been reasonable: The north winds are steady at 25 MPH and the temperatures have been mid-teens (with corresponding wind chills of 3F to 6F), but if you pull up the hood and keep moving, it's not too bad. Beyond that, the sunsets are beautiful and the trails are quiet.
It hasn't necessarily been warm this winter, but we've generally avoided the bitter cold weather. Until now. The forecast is for single digits overnight and daytime wind chills below zero. When I am working in the woods, I often need bare fingers (to get the core in the straw for one), so I decided to stock up on some field data yesterday—the last warm day. I found this pine in Joes Valley. It is 120 feet tall and 44 inches in diameter. A monster for this part of the world. Unfortunately, it took 10 tries for the cutting screw on the increment borer to catch. I got just one core.
I've walked the Double Dog on a few occasions before when I've had a little extra time. I planned to do it on Thursday, too, but got to the road in the dark and decided not to complete the full north loop. Yesterday, I started a little earlier and finished in about 90 minutes. I thought it was at least five miles, but I tracked it and came back with 4.8. Actually, when you track it, Avenza gives you all the details: 471 feet of elevation gain (and loss); 1:32:28 total moving time; 3.14 MPH average moving speed; 19.16 minute/mile. Slow for a runner, but fast for a walker I guess.
Yesterday we went into Ernie's Canyon for a couple of miles. Nothing too spectacular: VSO found a couple of pictographs and EDO climbed the scree for a closer look at a small arch. We can give it more time later, though: You can get to the mouth of the canyon (from Price) in about 90 minutes.
Normally, I would not set foot on a National Park Service trail, but EDO thought that today would be a good day for Navajo Knobs. VSO and I agreed to go with her. It wasn't awful: We probably encountered four or five parties (which is six too many for me), but after we summited we had the return trip to ourselves.
The Park Service says that the entire trail is 4.7 miles from the parking lot to the Knob, with 1620 feet of elevation gain. VSO eventually dropped out, but we made the 9.4 mile round trip (3,240 vert) in exactly four and a half hours. EDO walks fast! And is good with punctuation.
We spent yesterday scrambling through the canyons at the head of Tantalus Creek looking for a couple more sites documented by Morss in his 1931 monograph. We were not completely successful, but did certainly find our way to "Site 16." According to Morss, the cave had originally been fronted by a wall of "cedar" woven with willow and daubed with mud. By the late 1920s, the construction of the Bowns Reservoir had raised the water table, filling the cave with seeps and springs, and causing the roof to collapse.
He noted that there were 20 feet of undamaged wall at the east end of the cave when he visited the site. As you can see, above, the eastern roof has fallen, too, and the only thing remaining are a few pieces of juniper that originally supported the "cedar" wall. The cave is now a swamp, filled with willow and river birch. For me, the highlight of the afternoon was checking out this beautiful old ponderosa that we found growing on the rim of the canyon.
