Sunday, June 28, 2009

High Country








Finally the weekend arrived free of rain on the heels of a week and a half of gleaming sun. We could finally try for the mountains that had long been under feet of snow. Our first attempt were the Norton Lakes in the seldom visited and little known Smoky Mountains of Idaho. At the trailhead were several cars - packed for Idaho. But as we made our way up the canyon and to the first of the lakes we found the end of the trail for most everyone else.










A coin toss was made at the second lake. Heads we skirt a low ridge to make a short loop of the hike - tails we climb another 15oo feet, reach a high scree bound ridge and climb south to Big Lost Lake which we should be able to see some distance below. Tails it was. Our reward consisted of 360 degree views of the mountains, lakes and sky.


On Sunday, Kyung and Dan, pictured above, headed north to the Sawtooth mountains to climb. I opted for a version (there are many) of the Pioneer Cabin loop, a "classic" says my guidebook. The first five miles were a grueling slog straight up Long gulch. But I faced the below image most of the way, easing the burden.
Just at the moment of releif I dropped into the above valley and had to climb another 1000+ feet to a low saddle where the Pioneer Mountains stood in awesome formation.


Hyndman Peak, the tallest in the Pioneers.The cabin is a relic from the days when nordic skiers would use it as a base camp. I cannot think of any better placement.









Friday, June 26, 2009

Church Farm Conservation Easement



Evening at Silver Creek








I did not take long for me to realize the folly of traveling to one of the biggest wetlands in the region after the wettest June in recent memory. As soon as I stepped out of the truck I heard the undulating, roaring buzz of untold millions of mosquitoes bouncing around in their swarms like clouds of ricocheting particles. It was hot but I threw on a sweater anyway and sank in between 8ft tall sagebrush. Silver Creek is a Nature Conservancy Preserve, chock full of trophy trout I could actually see hovering in the clear pools. Kathryn's husband is a world class fly fishing guide which is pretty standard for this part of the world, in that rather than just guide in the best waters of North America, he also dabbles in the outer Mongolian guide scene. Kind of like the uber-local food restaurant manager who holds some record for a 220 mile hang glide, or the kids on the ski hill some of which fly up from L.A. and are on the Olympic Development Ski Team. Anyway, Kathryn's husband refers to Silver Creek as the "Grad School of fly fishing." I'm thinking of applying.





Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Same old in the National Parks

The problems of American tourism became painfully clear in a three page article MSNBC ran, titled "National Parks (minus the crowds) - Avoid the taillights and tourists.” I thought perhaps the author would have some well worn advice told through sore feet at a coffee shop in Moab or Whitefish MN. Rather, the author simply reinstated the ironic dualism of cars and nature, apparently only flirting with the irony part. The article briefly circumnavigated the country’s National Park system, offering up the most stunning drives and at one point even daring the term “road trip heaven.” There were offhand mentions of a few hikes and at one point a suggestion of a whitewater motor boat tour.

Unfortunately, not much of the American way has changed since the days of Desert Solitaire. We need more than ever, the spirit of Edward Abbey to shock us out of the numbness of the road trip. Americans, and foreigners in growing number, still swarm our parks through the summer months with salivating cameras desperate to “do” Arches or Yosemite, to make the loop drive in a daze of window bound wonder, much like the author of MSNBC’s article suggests.

Of course to attempt a visit to a National Park for the sake of having “done it” is no different than a birder who chases a rare feather for the sake of crossing it off his list. Can anyone really appreciate a bird of paradise who has never contemplated the hardiness of the chickadee or perceive the ecosystem of the Grand Canyon without giving thought to the complexities of a backyard creek? We know by now that Americans, or anyone living in the age of information, craves constant stimuli, that there is little time to stray far from the car and get your shoes dirty. There will always be roads to help exhaust permeate our parks, that will never change. When Yosemite managers contemplated closing the famed valley to personal vehicles, using instead a fleet of buses, they met with a barrage of protest. People will always drive, as I have, to get to landscapes of interest. It seems only American to have the right.

So we have a demonstrated interest in nature - that’s a positive. Only we rush to see it as if quantity has once and for all trumped quality. The National Park system makes it easy for the masses to taste the experience much like the back cover of a novel offers a glimpse of the story. Perhaps we need a campaign of slow down pull over and park; pulling the “one less car” stickers off all the bikes, slapping them to our asses and forcing one another to go for walk. Maybe a scrape on the knee, or extending a hand to help a friend up a steep slope, or camping away from the car, or even seeing the track of a big cat can really help us wake up. Maybe we would go home and fill up the bird feeder or just take a long look at what our back yards once were.

Idaho

Sitting in the Coffee shop two blocks from home and upwards of two thousand sheep, flanked by collies and men on horseback just trained by for a full five minutes. Not even your suv can help you here.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Craters of The Moon National Monument


The Craters of The Moon National Monument. In the sixties NASA decided to use this huge expanse of lava as a test site for landing on the moon. Today 95% of the area is an undeveloped wilderness of hard lava that many would probably call a wasteland. But once you get out from the visitor center and leave the sinuous, perfect National Park style blacktop behind, a landscape of limber pine, sagebrush and some rare wild flowers reveals itself.
Here lava cooled so fast that the ripples hardened before flattening out. There are areas of seemingly slick rock lumpy, wavy, and flowing like a river in places. There are basins where lava seeped into and extensive caves given away sometimes by a small crack in the ground. The caves are old lava tubes where magma flushed under the ground like trains through a subway system, leaving behind cooled hollows that are now a maze of caverns.
We managed to find one set of caves that I'm sure is frequented by a lot of tourists. But nevertheless it required a semi belly crawl to enter, opening into a damp, spacious cavern we could walk into in some places. My room mate Kyung and another friend named Mike made the trip as well. This was far from spelunking but good fun anyhow.
Kyung atop some blue tinted magma flows. There were some tree molds in this area that looked like fence post holes in the lava that had never been filled. The lava surrounded the trees, burnt them to disintegration and cooled to leave hollows in their place.





This is what I love about Idaho. We came here on an afternoon after work and were in bed by eleven with an incredible set of images to remember.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Mill Lake

I have been itching to get into the high country. This hike to Mill Lake is only a half hour or so out of town but an absolutely beautiful ride under the Boulder the South face of the Boulder Range. The hike was a little sketchy due to the raging creek crossings, somehow managing eleven crossings on logs and one long jump without getting wet. Another AmeriCorps member named Mike went along for the ride.

Random Hailey Enviros


Rain here in Idaho has been the norm this year but we've managed to get out a bit. These pics are from Quigley Canyon and Church Farm not far from Hailey. Church Farm is a conservation easement the Land Trust holds.