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Beautiful, Steph.  I felt as if I were there with you.

Dyane
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steph Teeter" <steph@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Ridecamp (E-mail)" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 3:38 PM
Subject: [RC] Winter and Wanting


> The horse trailer has been packed for a week now, still parked in the  
> driveway as the snow shifts around it. The horses are shod, my boots  
> are thinking about stirrups, and Death Valley seems a long way away  
> right now.  I haven't entirely given up.... there looks to be a  
> window of decent driving weather right after Christmas. We could make  
> it to Fallon, Nevada Friday night, camp at the rodeo grounds. Get up  
> the next morning and head south to Hawthorn and across the pass into  
> California, down the Owens Valley through the town of Bishop with the  
> Sierra Nevada looming in the west. Continue south, and descend into  
> the desert, and probably make it to Ridgecrest and ridecamp in time  
> for registration and meeting!  It just might happen!
>
> But meanwhile, I decided I had to get out and take a long walk in the  
> snow, the sun shining and a very wintry desert landscape. Gorgeous  
> really. I grew up near the ocean, lived for years in the mountains,  
> but my heart is without-a-doubt in the desert. Powdery white snow  
> with low wintry sunshine is beautiful anywhere, but for me it is even  
> more beautiful in the desert - and with the Owyhee mountains in the  
> backdrop... well it's about as beautiful as it gets. (for winter).
>
> I hiked 2 miles up the trail to the Picket Creek narrows - one of the  
> hundreds of small canyons and notches carved out of the earth  
> thousands of years ago. Ancient Lake Idaho was formed during the  
> Miocene and Pliocene periods as rhyolite and basalt lava extrusions  
> surfaced, forming natural dams to hold the spring and melt water from  
> the mountains. Then over time and successions of floods, the water  
> broke through the stone dams, following gravity and natural contours  
> down to the Snake River. There are some stunning canyons in this  
> country (Owyhee River Canyon will soon have Wilderness status) with  
> the red rhyolite cliffs and steep walls. Our 'own' little Pickett  
> Creek canyon is a small one, the walls reach 100 feet high at  most,  
> but it is very narrow in places, and beautiful, with cottonwoods and  
> vines and raptor and owl nests. There's always water in the creek and  
> it is a very magical place to hike.
>
> I was just approaching the narrows, when a herd of 13 mule deer came  
> running out of the canyon and then up the trail to the upper ridges.  
> They stopped several times to watch us (me and the dogs), bounced a  
> little farther up, and then stopped again in a bunch. Their huge mule  
> size ears a silhouette against the snow covered ridges. We watched  
> them for a while, then went on into the canyon. The dogs had gone up  
> ahead and I was rounding a narrow corner, the creek on one side, the  
> canyon wall on the other  and I heard/felt a whoosh! and saw another  
> mule deer running right at me. I barely stepped out of the way as she  
> flew by, I could have touched her. And then another, and another -  
> six more deer went bounding right by me. And then the dogs came  
> running up, they must have chased them off of one of the water  
> pools.  wow... that was really amazing.
>
> When we came back out of the canyon all of the deer were together, 19  
> of them now, still close enough to count, but they were moving toward  
> one of the finger ridges on an improbable trail up out of the canyon.  
> I took the dogs across the creek and in the opposite direction hoping  
> not to chase them off, but they kept moving away. They all bunched  
> together at the very last knoll before the knife ridge, then went  
> single file up the steepest, narrowest part of the trail.  The last  
> one stopped for a moment on the ridge top with the blue sky behind  
> it, then bounded off to join the others.  It was really beautiful...  
> and made me glad (mostly) that our trip had been delayed.
>
> We (the dogs and I :) hiked the 2 miles back to the house, enjoying  
> the afternoon sun and powdery snow - not too deep for walking, but  
> deep enough to cover and soften all the desert harshness.  Quincy  
> found the fresh remains of a jack rabbit, some coyote's dinner - a  
> bone and sinew and a little foot. We flushed up several quail, and a  
> few more rabbits which the dogs forever try to catch, but forever fail!
>
> Back at the ranch the horses were happily munching their hay. Not too  
> bad. (for winter).
>
> steph
>
>
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