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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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