Mossy Cave and More

This past week, we led our first hike for the visitors at a place called Mossy Cave. It was not so much of a hike as it was a walk and learn session (interpretative hike). Fifteen people showed up, and they all stayed to the end, so that suggested we held their interest. Kathy talked about the plant life that could be found there as well as the main feature - running water, and I talked about the geology. We also may have spotted the smallest 'window' in Bryce Canyon - see if you can see it on the formation in the center of the picture. The week went fast, and this past Memorial Day weekend has had crummy weather, until today (Sunday). This part of Utah is not supposed to get prolonged "soaking rains", but that's what we had since Thursday night. I told visitors at the VC that the rain would be over pretty quickly as that's what it usually does. I hope they're not looking for me now to explain. We had a 3-day weekend and made the most of it. We made our first trip to the big city of Cedar City. I got a haircut, we did some shopping, and checked out the 'historic' part of the city where we picked ourselves up with some coffee. The ride over on State Route 14 was very interesting, we noted several National Forest spots and made a quick stop at Cedar Breaks. We hope to get back to the forest some more. We managed to fit in a hike on Kathy's favorite trail - Fairyland Loop yesterday. We also pulled off a side trip up Boat Mesa, had great views and called our friends HarunMuf from the top. We got to talk with Muffy but Harry was in the middle of a dog fight, more on that later I'm sure. Last night we had our neighbor and camp host Charlie over for dinner. Charlie winters in Baja and was working on getting us interested in going there, we shall see. Charlie is in the midst of getting his new ultralite plane ready for flight, Kathy hopes to be able to go up in it some day. Me, I'm not so sure as I'm a bit scared of heights but am fascinated with flying anyways. At this point, we have hiked all the trails in Bryce Canyon except for the Riggs Spring loop and a couple connector trails to the Under-the-Rim trail. If anyone needs any info on hiking here, we are establishing oursleves as the go-to people. Today we made another ride up the road on our bikes to Rainbow Point and checked out the Bristlecone Pine trail. We identified where some bristlecones were, they were mainly on the winward side of the point where no other trees want to grow. We also saw a 1500 year old Bristlecone that had died but is still standing. The poor Bristlecones, they have it rough. You all reading this need to start making your plans to come out of you haven't already. Hope to hear from you on that soon.

Down Under Weekend

Here is a report we provided to the Ranger in charge of the backcountry in Bryce:
Kathy and I hiked the UtRim trail Fri-Sun, from Rainbow Pt to Bryce Pt. We stayed at Natural Bridge and Sheep Creek campsites. As you had noted, the trail was passable, with some blowdown in areas, mostly to the south. One large tree had branches cut off beneath. There was also 3 areas where rain runoff threatened the trail. We can provide more detail or pictures if you want. We tore down 2 of 3 illegal fire rings, all in the 3 Yellow Creek sites. The guys we met at YC group site said they would tear their's down. A camper had alerted us to them and wondered why the park would be encouraging fires and trash by their presence. They had packed out the trash they found from one of the fire rings. Intermittent streams were running in many places, one most notable was just south of Iron Springs, this would be a better water source than the spring itself when it's running. Two more interesting notes: we met a thru-hiker of the Hayduke trail (900 miles) and 2 different reports of mountain lion tracks near Yellow Creek group site, one guy told us there were both adult and baby tracks. We couldn't spot them for ourselves as we hiked out. We encountered 16 other campers, including 3 of the group of 8 staying at YC group site, all had permits although we didn't inspect them, and all seemed to be knowledgable about handling things in backcountry. We enjoyed our trip, it was a great weekend and will be interested in doing it again.

Added note: The long distance hiker we met went by the trail name "Dogwood". He chuckled when we told him ours were Tenderfoot and Brownie D. (D for dropout). When we first encountered him on the trail, we asked him where he was headed, he replied "Zion". We thought he was joking, but then found out that he was doing the Hayduke Trail (name comes from Edward Abbey's character in "The Monkeywrench Gang"). Before he gets to Zion though he dips down into Arizona and goes to both the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. He started his hike on April 11, and encountered deep snow in the Henry Mtns. He also got sidetracked near Capitol Reef by going into the wrong canyon, he is only traveling with topo maps and compass, which can be tough in canyon country. He bemoaned the fact that his error cost him a full day. All he wore on his underside was hiking shorts, he admitted it was tough when he was postholing. He also wore light weight low cut trail shoes. He had a 7 ounce wool bivvy sack, he said it was very warm. He had a tarp but rarely used it. Sometimes he has to carry 25 pounds of water, he noted that Utah is very dry. So he can't always travel light. We talked with him at length about lightweight backpacking options. He has done all the other major long distance hikes, and said that not many more than ten have thru-hiked the Hayduke. We later met two other guys who had camped with Dogwood the night before. They spent the evening talking with him, said he was very interesting and since he had not talked with anyone in nine days he was very keen on talking. We wish we had been there, but hopefully we get a chance to spend time with another l.d. hiker, they are an interesting lot. We helped Dogwood with what to expect with water on the UtRim trail, and later I wish I had offered him the rest of our trail mix that never got eaten that day. We wish him well as he continues on his journey, finding water will be his biggest concern but he will complete it we have no doubt.

P.S. Today we were back at work, although our supervisor Jan counted our time on the trail this past weekend as 'time served'. The number of volunteer hours = $$ at the parks. But today I thought that some of the visitors at the VC seemed to be a little more annoying than usual. I guess those days happen. Jan felt the same and said yesterday was similar. I expect not all days will be so, just some. Tonight we heard 'Dox' talk about migrating birds at the Evening Program. Birds are amazing, wherever they are. Dox says that any day can be a good (and amazing) day, just go out and see what the birds are doing.

A Whirlwind

It's been a whirlwind and some time since we updated the blog. Larry B. reminded me of that. All I have time for right now are some random thoughts and incomplete sentences. Thanks for understanding. We are having a ball. Now working instead of training. Turns out we know more than the visitors. The Visitor Center (VC) is a very busy place, lots of excitement and unexpected events. Cars colliding in the parking lot, keys locked in car, woman weak and about to faint, French and German spoken in spades. We also get to 'rove' the trails half the day and talk to people, Kathy saw a person in a wheel chair down below the rim, that's ok but then she also saw a baby in a stroller who wasn't buckled in and was squirming. The good stuff: new Junior Rangers (not us, we swear them in), lots of smiles and appreciation, backcountry permits are picking up (we are going out ourselves today through Sunday) , the weather is always sunny and pleasant, my brother visited us for 2 days and I got him to go down a trail under the rim - wasn't sure he would get back up but he did, Wes Ernsberger, Gerri Wiley and her son Michael have been here the last two days and we have had a great time together. We have been doing a lot of hiking, a full moon hike, and once biked up to Rainbow Point. We have also managed to check out Grand Staircase Escalante (GSENM). We camped near some ancient dinosaur tracks last weekend, did a slot canyon (Zebra), hiked up to Calf Creek Falls and saw some 'rapellers' coming down on ropes - 120 feet, Kathy told them she hoped it was as good for them as it was for us. Also been to Kodachrome State Park, but need to get to Powell Point, Glen Canyon, other places in GSENM (but not slot canyons!), Boulder Mtn, Mt. Dutton, and so much more. Other random tidbits: Kathy got fingerprinted to be able to use the govt. computers, she doesn't have much of a print left (they may not be good enough - for govt. work), sunrise is popular at Bryce Point - Gerri got us out there, the wind blows a lot here but no bugs, 'Vive La France' gets a big cheer from the rowdy French group I ran into, we get asked to have our pictures taken a lot (even though we're just volunteers - must be the uniform), the night sky was great last night, a Utah Prairie Dog came right up to us and posed - oh oh, looking for handouts, that's not good, BUT THEY ARE SO DOGGONE CUTE AREN'T THEY? We rented our first NetFlix DVD over a week ago but haven't even had a chance to see it yet, season will be in 'full swing here' starting Memorial Day weekend, a tragedy involving one of our co-workers has sobered us all but also shown the best of our ranger staff, need to find a dentist soon - anyone know a good one within 80 miles? also anyone know a good free (or cheap) register cleaner for our laptop? We miss Bingo area, when friends visit, it especially reminds us of that, but so far everything we are involved in is exceeding our expectations. We have pics galore but our attach bug is back, sigh.

Junior Rangers

This week we have been participating with Bryce Canyon seasonal and volunteer staff training. They have been throwing a lot of stuff at us, but it's been invigorating, rewarding and fun. The ranger staff here is great, and everyone is making us feel like we are a real part of the park. Our supervisor, Jan Stock, is a very inclusive and people-oriented person, and we look forward to doing anything she tells us to do. We have been learning what it takes to be a park interpreter, which involves helping visitors to the park understand and assimilate universal themes that the park has to offer. Our instructor Kevin likes to say that after our interpreting, we leave off where are visitors 'will go onto the rest of their lives'. We have also been struggling over the Junior Ranger book, it isn't easy! We found out that anyone (including adults), can become Junior Rangers. Yeehaw! But the program is targeted to kids twelve and under, with the underhanded intention of getting their parents involved too, so that they can learn a thing or two. We have been issued a set of keys, given use of the staff laundry, and soon will get radios and uniforms.

Today we have the morning off, but will participate in the "Dark Skies" program tonight, which we are looking forward to. Astronomy is very big here, so is geology. Kathy and I are both trying to prepare some geology talks. Right now I am contemplating using a sandwich as a model of rock layers, then show what happens to it as it is cut (faults) and one side is uplifted from the other, as can be seen here between the fault separating the Aquarius Plateau (higher) and the Paunsaugunt Plateau where Bryce is. I will also take some bites out of it, representing the formation of ampitheaters, which is what is happening here at Bryce. Eventually, the sandwich will be gone (yum) as will the rocks forming all the spectacular scenery here (sob), but that will take another three million years.

The most amazing scenery here, and what makes Bryce so unique are the multicolored hoodoos. There are hoodoos in other areas (including the country of Turkey), but none to the extent that exist here. It's the freezing/thawing cycle here that is the predominant erosion activity forming the hoodoos. Bryce gets 200+ days per year where the temperature goes both above and below freezing. We have had four out of five days like that so far, last night was the first night it didn't drop below freezing. By contrast, the Aquarius Plateau, which is from the same rock formation, stays below freezing a lot more because it is 2000 feet higher. Therefore, it doesn't get the erosion factor that Bryce gets and has no hoodoos.

On Monday Ernie & Heide Mahlke showed up and greeted me "Hi Scott" at Rainbow Point. I was taken off guard and didn't recognize Heide at first, but then I saw Ernie and she said "I'm Heide" and my recognition returned. They are the first visitors from back home who looked us up. We went out to dinner with them that night and had a good time visiting. They had just been to Zion and are continuing their travels on the 'loop' in Utah which takes one to several other magnificent parks. So the rest of you reading this, make your plans now to get out here and either surprise us or not, but just get here.

We feel that we are acclimating to the 8000 foot elevation here. Last night we did a 20+ mile bike ride, and notice we didn't feel as winded. But now I have a flat tire to attend to. (another one!) Kathy hiked down into the canyon today (as I sit here on the computer) and already encountered a ranger assisting a woman with a broken ankle. Falls and injuries are very common here. Not too many people die here, fortunately, but lightning has taken 3 lives and injured many others, including taking off the scalp and pony tail of Kevin Poe's friend. It is already pretty busy here. Many of the visitors are from foreign countries, mostly European, so we can have a European experience as well as a spell-binding hoodoo one right here in Bryce.

We Made it to Bryce!

After leaving the Mittens and other monuments we moved on towards Jacob Lake (North Rim, Grand Canyon). Driving by Marble Canyon, we reminisced on our first trip through in 2005. Then, as now, the wind was raging. That trip, we spent the night at the Marble Canyon Lodgeto avoid setting up a tent at 11pm in the National Forest, worrying the whole while about 40 mph winds sending a towering Ponderosa Pine into our tent. This trip, we decided to make a stop at Lee's Ferry, having missed it the first time through. Plus, the beautiful blue "Rio Colorado" would be eye candy after so much dry dust While trying to figure out the payment procedure - you'd think by now we would have these things down pat - we met and chatted with a couple from Mesa, AZ. They had been bringing kayaks to Lee's Ferry for several years and sang the praises of the Lee's Ferry campground. Apparently, you can kayak upstream the 15 miles to Lake Powell in quiet water. The current is minimal, and camping is allowed enroute if you choose to make a multiday trip. Coming back down would seem a cinch - but if the wind is being wicked, watch out! The camground offered no hookups, but it was worth a night's stay, having a splendid view of the Paria Riffle and towering canyon walls. The Paria Riffle, by the way, sure looks like a RAPID to me. But, of course, I am viewing it through Eastern eyes. We biked up to Lee's Ferry proper and happily watched rafters scurrying about like ants on a food gathering mission. After an easy hike along a River trail, we returned to see what kind of progress had been made. Still at it, apparently it is quite a time consuming process. I caught conversations regarding proper placement of liquid refreshments - a most important part of the supply chain. A lab puppy happily bounded from boat to boat - we never figured out which of the several trips belonged to him. After checking permits, a Ranger stopped and explained the difference between commercial and private trips. Private trips must have a licensed boatman for each boat. Other than that - they are on their own. Commercial trips must meet other requirements, as well. In the morning, after plumping up on pancakes, we headed up a small side canyon just next to our Rocky. We were able to make it to the head of the canyon and were rewarded with a purposely placed pile of petrified wood. Oh, I was so tempted to pilfer a piece - but was able to hold the impulse at bay and walk away empty handed, but full of self rightousness. Hiking up the side of the canyon on a little "explore" we came upon the Lee's Ferry "dump". This is where old toilets, dumpsters and signs go to die. Not pretty. Since it was nearing time to vacate the premises, we walked down to the "beach" to photograph the Paria Riffle and put our feet in the 47 degree waters, freshly released from the bottom of Lake Powell. Scott called "Rafters coming!" and we were treated to a show. This is the first turbulance they encounter after casting off from Lee's Ferry. I can imagine the thrill of the newbies as they cascade down this first "riffle". So, again, we will head to Jacob Lake, only 50 miles up the road. As it turns out, no campgrounds are in operation yet, until the North Rim opens in mid-May. But national forest abounds, so we found a secluded spot on forest road 248. I was truly itching to get on my bike and ride up the access road to the North Rim, even though that danged, infernal, eternal wind was still with us. Since we are on the Kaibab plateau, the road is generally level, with gentle ups and downs. And the huge trees sheltered us for the most part. We road a couple miles on the dirt forest road, then 10 miles up the North Rim road, which is still closed to all but local traffic. About halfway up we encountered a huge pine down and blocking the whole road (I guess our fears of four years ago were well founded). Apparently the "local traffic" knows how to get around using the forest roads, as a few cars passed us, but there were no tire marks in the ground around the tree. We are now at Bryce Canyon, cozy in our campsite. Located in a small loop of Sunset Campground, reserved for employees,two sites are occupied by Charlie and Carol. They share the campground host duties. One other site will be occupied sometime in June. We have met Carol, and her two friendly dogs, but have not yet laid eyes on Charlie. Last night we took a short walk along the rim to Sunset Point and then over to the Bryce Lodge. Kevin Poe (who will be conducting our orientation/training) was presenting a program there, "Dark Skies", which we decided to stay and watch. He had amazing photographs of galaxies/stars/planets/nebulae from Hubble, next to photos of the same he had taken. This was, to me, the most extraordinary part of the program. Leaving the Lodge, we encountered a bit of precipitation (mixed?snow? - hard to tell). Today reminded me much of the Southern Tier in terms of spring weather, a cold front charged in along with us, I'm afraid. Two thingsare certain, we are happy to be settled and no longer towing Rocky, and the results of a frequently bad thing - erosion - are stunning here!

We are now in Monument Valley, our second night at Goulding's Campground. We just completed an exhilarating hike up the mesa near the campground. A friendly woman who raised five kids here had told us how to get up it this morning. She and her husband had come here 38 years ago intending to stay about three years and they are still here. We never would have figured out how to get up there without her instructions, but we went behind the Seventh Day Adventist school which she is active with and climbed up a rock fall. It was great up on top, we could see a long ways. Earlier we had biked up to the fee area of Monument Valley and hiked around the West Mitten, the one hike they allow you to take without a guide. We had trouble staying on the trail though, but with the Mitten and it's two cousin buttes in sight the whole time, we always knew where we were.

We will get to Bryce Canyon this weekend, which we are excited about. We can finally set up a real home, with 'porch', outdoor shoe rack and get things in proper order inside the trailer. Our supervisor touched base with us and said our 2 week training period starts this Monday.

While we were staying near Mesa Verde, we also went over to Durango and did some shopping and hiking. There is a neat set of trails starting in the city limits called the Animas Mountain Trail. We had views in every direction, it was in a wonderful mountainous setting. The San Juan Mountains were snow covered, and the Forest Service employee we talked with at their office said the access roads to the forest were still closed for the most part. The Colorado Trail starts (or ends) there also but we were told it was pretty muddy with the spring runoff. I expected to see signs of gas drilling around Durango, but never did find any, must not have been in the right place for that. We did see plenty of oil drills on our drives though.

Today is Earth Day, I note that we are seeing some of the best the Earth has to offer. Monument Valley is recognized as a World Heritage Site as an example. We hope places like this remain protected and revered for generations to come. If humankind ever decides that these places aren't worth saving, then the planet is doomed.

P.S. We got our computer problem fixed by getting the latest version of Spybot and running it. We were using our computer for a few weeks without enough spyware and antivirus protection, not a good idea. Anyways, now we can upload pictures again, yippee.

I did not realize until waiting for a room at the Holiday Inn during the blackout (immediately following the duststorm "brownout" which followed the flat tire on Rocky), that Tony Hillerman was such a prolific writer! They had all (?) of his books in the lobby. Cool. I have read a couple and enjoyed them. This is his country for sure. I was admiring a beautiful photograph of a Navajo girl in full ceremonial dress looking out over Canyon De Chelly, when I heard a little "that's me" from over my left shoulder. She was justifiably proud of both the picture and her beautiful robe. We joined another couple driven in by the dust for dinner that night - the Navajo Taco was quite tasty . A combination of pizza, taco and chili. We took a 3 1/2 hr hike down into Canyon De Chelly the next dustfree day, with a Navajo guide named Ben. He had grown up in the canyon and told us quite a bit about his family Navajo tradition and life in the canyon. He wandered far and wide - what a place to be a kid! About half the hike was back and forth through Chinle Wash, which was running with 35 degree (my feet told me) water. The tiny, tepid mud puddles felt like heaven. We sure could have used the San Francisco River hot springs right about then. We moved on to a waterless, powerless campground the next night, but, hey, it was free. In the morning, after another Navajo taco at the Thunderbird Inn - we were hooked by then - We drove out the North Rim in "rainflakes" as Susie, one of our dinner companions called them (actually, "rainballs" would be more appropriate, as it was more like tiny hail). Anyway, we have since taken in the Petrified Forest, The Painted Desert at sunset, The Four Corners Monument and Mesa Verde, as well as surrounding environs on our bikes today. And we have heat and lights and water and laundry and hot showers, not to mention a gorgeous view. We also have been watching a pair of Mountain Bluebirds enjoy their reflections in Silver's sideview mirror each morning.
Best to all,
Klean and Squeaky (no longer Dusty and Sandy)