Perspective

Eight and a half miles can be covered in minutes with a car on the expressway, but what does a man see? What he gains in time he loses in benefit to his body and his mind. At my pace I can notice things.
Dick Proeneke – One Man’s Wilderness

Last summer, shortly after I became construction manager for Habitat I began to grind my teeth at night. I hadn’t done it since college, but the feeling of jaw fatigue in the morning was instantly familiar. I had around 20 people arriving, people who had travelled far to volunteer their hands and backs for a few weeks.

And I didn’t have foundations for them to work on.

It was important to keep them occupied, but sometimes I lost perspective. Sometimes the immediate needs felt so pressing that weeks would pass without a look up to see the beautiful view passing by.

I will hike in order to learn how to see the long vista ahead of me again.

I’m hoping to get the certificates of occupancy for the last two homes I’m managing before I leave. It’s been a long looked for marker of the worthiness of my work (by me). But sometimes in the inertia caused by my one mindedness, I’ve lost valuable moments.

I hike in order to learn how to see the importance of small effects.

I hike to remind myself of balanced life.

Freezing

Frozen creek near the house

-19 degrees F this morning!

A Little Winter

But not too much winter. It's just showing up around the edges of life.

And the shady edges of Tongue River Resevoir.

Prayer

At Devil's Tower

Ready for Winter?

Cause it's here!

And I've got the four wheel drive engaged!

Early Evenings

We've got less than 12 hours of daylight now. The sun rises after 7 AM and sets before 7 PM.

Between my first experiences less intense daylight and the freezing temperatures since I left for Nicaragua in early 2007, this is going to be a loooooong winter!

Transitions

I believe winter is really here. But I can't tell you about it until we finish with fall!

Ok! There went fall!

On to winter!

This was the view I had while waiting to get picked up by a friend from my broken down truck. Somehow it's still beautiful.

(Clutch went out. For some reason I got insurance that covered towing when I moved here! Thank goodness!)

Devil's Tower

Devil's Tower by full moon light, taken at 11 PM, 15 second exposure, ISO 400

So to celebrate being done?

I went camping at Devil's Tower! And froze!

The Rafter

The rafter of turkeys stopped by for breakfast the other day (yes, I had to google that word).

The often walk in a line like police investigators searching a field systematically, but they're looking for grasshoppers.

Just be careful whose grasshopper you grab!

Details

Fall Rain in the Bighorns

Otoño

Fall is coming! You can sense just the very beginning in the morning air.

It's been a long time since I've gone through this seasonal change. I'd forgotten how it makes me happy.

Words

I don't have many words for you... and I probably won't the rest of this month at least. I'm using them all up on grad school application essays.

Feel free to sent some extras this way if you have them!

Summer Storms

The warm breeze, even though it's a stormy night, the smell of sagebrush, the sky close overhead, the sporadic cool droplets of rain.

Only a few more weeks of summer!

The Yellowstone Experience

I took Sunday and Monday off to visit Carrie in Yellowstone. She had ridden her motorcycle from Whidbey Island. We had a great time, but didn't make it into the backcountry much since it was such a short amount of time.

That meant we saw plenty of buffalo.

Plenty of Old Faithful.

And plenty of traffic.

I know Yellowstone is fantastic... if you can make it there for more than two days!

Time Difference

It's amazing how the same thing can look so different depending on how much time you give it.

The Way We Used To

I love camping. I love getting up in the mountains, having everything I need on my back. Feeling part of something so beautiful, so permanent and still so temporary.

But, I also love my new double wall, 30 ounce Big Agnes tent, my 10 ounce Sierra Design rain jacket, my 3 ounce MSR Pocket Rocket stove, and my thermarest.

In other words, I like being spoiled while I'm in the middle of nowhere. Maybe not spoiled in the 'in-hotel spa' sort of way, but spoiled in the 'dry and warm or at least will dry out quickly' sort of way.

That may also help explain why I have 3 tents, 3 backpacks, 3 systems of water purification, 4 rain jackets (oh, no, I think that's because I lived in Seattle).

With a multitude of outdoors sports stores and even more brands of equipment to choose from we are truly spoiled in a way never before known.

Here in Wyoming, we're a little closer to those days before gortex, some of the most authoritative writing on the wilderness here hasn't changed in a very long time. So one of the most helpful books for unofficial trails is the Field Book: The Bighorn Range.

Originally copyrighted in 1960, the version I have is from 1977. Some things haven't changed, like their advice on how to get where you want in the Bighorns. But others, well, take a look at the camping list.

On the left side you'll see evidence of life before the internet (you have to write people to get information on actual paper!) and on the right side, surprisingly optional equipment includes maps (well, I suppose if you don't have GoogleEarth!).

It makes me want to hug my synthetic fabrics (comfortable, quick drying AND light).

Morning Entertainment

One morning in the Bighorns I got up early to take advantage of the good light for photos. I spotted some animals in a grove about 100 yards away.

I stood as still as I could thinking back to those articles in 'Bugle' (it's an elk hunting magazine Dave sometimes leaves on the table and I read at breakfast instead of the cereal box).

I felt a little uneasy because I'm certainly not accustomed to being in the wild with elk, but I didn't see any antlers, so I figured they wouldn't be too territorial.

Warning about the following video - it is six minutes of elk feeding, making faces at each other and eventually running away. While it was an incredible special moment, this footage is only for the easily entertained.

The Little Jaunt in the Mountains

The trip didn't go exactly to plan... really, what does these days.

Nine days turned into four when my hiking partner hurt his back. And four days turned into three when reality set in.

In the end, it was a wonderful trip. I'm so glad I got to spend some time up in the mountains after keeping my nose dutifully in study books for the last few months (and before it gets stuck back there again).

Matt and Mandy are first time backpackers (and friends) who had planned a trip for the same time as mine. So I just tagged along with them.

Their plan was to climb Blacktooth. Mandy laughs pretty hard at this idea now.

While it doesn't necessarily take technical climbing skills, there are plenty of mountain men in these parts who've never made it up there because of the necessary congruence of weather, season and time for a successful summit.

I never had the heart to tell them they definitely wouldn't make it, I love people who dream big. And besides, miracles do happen. Just not on this trip!

I went along for the ride. While I was sure we weren't going to summit, I wasn't sure how far we'd get. The Bighorns have a number of trails which are neither designated nor maintained, so it all depended on our luck (which didn't end up being very good in this respect).

Originally we had planned to spend Friday night at the trailhead, but Mandy and Matt weren't ready to go until Saturday morning (again, first time is always the toughest!). So we only made it to the pass before Highland Park before we needed to camp Saturday evening.

It was a tough trip up and up and up. And Matt must have been carrying close to 70 pounds! I like to keep my pack around 40, although it was really closer to 45.

One advantage to going with novices, however, is that they overestimate what they can comfortably carry. And so these lovelies carried up massive T-Bone steaks for all! Mmmm! I could hardly eat any of the instant mashed sweet potatoes that I had brought!

The night went a little rough. I moved my tent at midnight because the wind was too harsh and my tent was so low the side would hit me with a particularly stiff gust. Additionally, going from Sheridan at 3,743 ft above sea level to the pass at 10,350 ft was apparently a little too much.

A slight headache, a little nausea and a heartbeat that wouldn't go below 100 bpm all night kept me company (although I was super awake to move my tent because of it!). I let Matt and Mandy know how I was feeling, just in case the altitude sickness worsened.

We all had visions of packing up in complete darkness and moving to a lower elevation at 3 AM, but fortunately, I ended up feeling pretty good. So we decided the following morning to continue on, but only to go as far as Peggy Lake since that would drop us below 10,000 feet for the next night.

Trail markers that change direction with the wind and vague trails made the hike a little difficult (we actually didn't end up following the official trail at all beyond this point).

Monkshood is one flower I recognize from my childhood hiking the Wasatch in Utah. It was nice to be in a place so wild and yet so familiar.

The pikas chatted through the evening and started up again in the morning. They're one of many sub-alpine species most directly affected by climate change.

We followed trails to the lake where we were going to camp, but they weren't official trails. They didn't always go where we wanted and they didn't always continue.

We got to the campsite after going the long way around another lake and some serious boulder hopping (east, west, left, right, what's the difference!).

Indian Paintbrush, another childhood memory.

I occupied myself with photography while Matt kindly pumped water from Highland Lake. I think he felt it was his penance since I had carried water up the mountain that he and Mandy ended up needing (I don't think I estimated how much I needed very well the first time out either).

Other than hiking, I also filled my time with NOTHING! I literally sat on rocks and looked at the view (rocks plural because I had to move every few minutes because of the mosquitos). It was sooooo luxurious!

I knew I moved here for a good reason!

August Fields

It's amazing how the summer has flown by! It feels like it was just a month and half ago I was posting pictures of snow. Oh wait, that was a month and a half ago!

The fields are drying out to golden now as we begin August. Rain is more sparse even though it may come with more noise.

The year is passing in a familiar way.

Often in Nicaragua I would become seasonally disoriented. It would take a moment or two to remember what month I was in because the countryside lacked all familiar indications of time of year.

But here, I am intrinsically accustomed to the subtle changes.

The fawns are becoming more bold. I startled one on the road this morning. It's butt was towards me as it was playing and it wasn't until it's friend started running away that it turned, jumped (literally four hoofs off the pavement an inch) and scampered away. I was pretty much stopped a few feet away by that time.

The creek I cross every morning and afternoon shows more rocks above it's surface.

I don't worry about rain on construction days because even if there's a sprinkle, it won't last more than an hour or so.

They're lovely days while they last!