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Re: [RC] Winter and Wanting - Dyane Smith

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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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

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Replies
[RC] Winter and Wanting, Steph Teeter