Big Horn Day Hike

No, I haven't been lost in the woods. Just busy - writing, believe it or not. The unfinished fantasy novel lives, as does a bunch of new poems. Editing my little heart out. But all work and no play made me cranky, so off to the Big Horns for a much needed break hiking around the wild. A few pics for your enjoyment.

Yes, the sky was an astonishing blue, gorgeous, and only broken by a wispy cloud or two.

Lots of pretty plants to look at, although I finally figured out my old camera is not doing so well with its focus, especially on close ups.

Out of the 30 flower pics I took, only a handful came out okay.

And it wasn't operator error, they showed as focused in the viewfinder. I've been looking for an excuse to return to a Nikon, and now I have one.

The colors in this old Canon never seemed as saturated as with my old Nikon digital. Mr. Photoshop helped add the darks back in a bit.

The greens were a bit brighter, the blacks had more depth.

But the grass greens always seem to come out too bright, almost comic book like in coloration.

Good color representation is important when you want to use the pics as reference for painting and printmaking.

Here the blue sky was not quite as blue as the sky really was. The waters of the lake reflected how bright and blue the sky really was. The first picture's sky is more like it was that day.

Missed the deer, he heard us laughing and bound away, offended. The red squirrels, however, were content to scold us, loudly. Loud enough to get answering chitters from the squirrels across the lake. It felt like the set up for one of those horror movies where weird noises foreshadow monsters.

In this case, we were the only monsters upsetting the squirrel's world. So we headed out, back to civilization, refreshed from the contact with nature and day under electric blue Wyoming skies.



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Last Hike of the Season

Thanks to some unusually nice November weather, including a few 60 degree days, the dogs and I managed to get in one last hike while it was still nice out.
Since it's dark when I get out of work now the awesome twosome have to wait until the weekend, or a day off to hit the park. We'll still go when it snows, but the picture taking opportunities will be a bit more limited, or at least the colors will be less exciting.

Signs of an abrupt end to Fall were all around us.From fat pine cones coveted by the resident park squirrelsto the last few berries left for birds to squabble over.
The trees did their best to go out in a blaze of glory,
but orange was the predominate theme. and what last leaves there wereclung tenaciously to the branches, despite the brisk Wyoming wind.
Merlin's color scheme fit right in, and he seemed to enjoy the blustery day,
although there's probably one or two dog-chased residents who will be glad to see less of us.
The skies by the end of our walk portended what we had to look forward to in the upcoming months. Max and Merlin made the best use of their time by inspecting all holes for the winter, and marking a trail around the park to follow the next time we go adventuring.

(Dedicated to Anonstrodamus, whose predictions are accurate, if a bit slow...)

Pre-Hike Cooking, non-Corgi Type

Yes, it's over 90 degrees out and I'm baking. But I wanted something to take with me on a hike this weekend and frankly, commercial granola bars are icky. Commercial power bars are worse - do they save the old chalk from elementary school to mix with the chocolate?

So I set out to make my own version of a power granola bar.

Oats, wheat flour, real butter, the last of my Montana raspberry honey, dried cranberries, chopped up nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds), some shredded coconut, chocolate chips, cinnamon, dried milk. . . and probably other things I can't remember off hand.


As you may recall I'm a wing-it type of cook. I kinda sorta have a piece of paper with scrawled notes, measurements, and grease stains all over it. Hope I can resurrect my basic steps. I'm going to need them. The Corgi-Slave Energy Bars came out great, very tasty and chock full of Stuff. Wonderful, except for one thing. They didn't stick together as well as I wanted them to. I'm going to have to make another pan and tinker with the ingredients some more. Hmm, I see there's a stray box of Rice Crispies on my shelf . . . I could throw those in too.

While I was concocting, I decided to make some hummus. Yes, I know hummus and power bars really do not go together. The beans were on the counter, begging to be used. As long as I had dishes to wash I might as well make it worth my while. The hummus is another wing it recipe, but really hard to screw up. This version was roast garlic, with some extra roast sesame seeds.


Now I'm off to do some Internet shopping to replenish ingredients. You know hard hard it is to get tahini in Wyoming? I just hope I don't end up on someone's watch list for ordering garam masala, tahini, Masa paper, dioxazine purple, and a new folding knife, all at the same time. The only thing all those ingredients adds up to is a very colorful mess. - Kids, don't try this at home. -

Boy, I'm so glad I'm not a kid anymore.

Once More, Into The Woods

I listened to Corgi complaints about their lack of 'fun' exercise, and took them for a hike. When we got out of the car, Merlin was so excited he galloped in circles around me, little stub tail going a hundred miles an hour, while Max gave him the 'Look'.

Bro, show some dignity. There might be girl dogs around.

Max's stern glare didn't phase Merlin, Mer is a pretty much Live In The Moment dog. So off we went, into the woods and down the path.

















It was just warm enough out to make walking under trees a relief. Birds followed and scolded us for a mile, squirrels let the dogs get close, then would bound up a tree, just out of reach. There was plenty of things for busy Corgis to do and sniff.























Of course Max thought he'd be sly and sit to wait for a squirrel. I didn't have the heart to tell him he didn't quite 'blend'.


















And here's a time when they blended too well. There are two Corgis in that picture, somewhere. Behind the tree, I hope.






















By the time we got to the big field after the woods, I didn't have to worry about Corgis blending as much as finding them! After lots of rain, the fields were Corgi-back high, or higher with green grass.

















Max, porpoising through the tall grass. The guys didn't seem inclined to get too far from me, once we were in the field. Then again, I was the tallest thing around, so maybe I was their navigational beacon.
















There were lots of pretty cloud formations to look at - at least for me. The Corgis were more interested in ground level oddities, like antelope droppings and ground squirrel holes.
















We stayed out so long, I watched my interesting cloud formations develop into a threat on the horizon. The good thing about Wyoming, you can watch a storm come in from miles away.























Between the heat and the long walk, Corgi tongues were down to their knees. After a refueling stop at the trunk of the car (water, one each, dog bowls, two each, treats all around) we headed home. Max was tired enough to plop down in the front seat and relax, Merlin, my perpetual motion machine, had to stick his head out the window and let the wind send slobber trailing behind us.


















Max, tired.



















Merlin, not so tired.

Of course, today, they were ready to do it all over again . . .
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What A Difference A Week Makes

In case anyone was wondering when winter started... it was yesterday. Wyoming got hammered over the weekend with some nice, heavy, wet snow. A foot or more in places, six inches or so in my neck of the woods. Heavy enough to break limbs off my poor trees. Compare this to last Sunday, when I went hiking at a friend's place near Devils Tower.

Blue skies, temp about in the mid-sixties, a nice breeze blowing...

Well, blowing is an understatement. The breeze came howling down the canyon with enough force to make my sitting-on-top-of-the-canyon-wall meditation a bit nerve-wracking. There were enough downed and precariously perched trees from a fire a few years back that the creaking grew rather ominous. I retreated to the relative safety of a spot further up the canyon, out of the direct line of the wind.



See that tree leaning to the left in the left half of the picture? That was my perch until the wind threatened to rip my ears off my head. Lots of little birds flitting about, bluebirds, a chickadee that serenaded me with a three note rendition of "Stupid Human Tricks". So I gave up on the meditation, and went exploring. I found live deer, a fawn skull and bones, and more evidence of things passed -


Apparently a coyote snacked on a turkey, and left only the bones, feet and feathers. I picked up a few feathers, but declined bringing home gnarly turkey feet for posterity.



I also passed on the snake skeleton. Not sure what it was, bullsnake or rattler, but no rattles I could find, and no head. Better a dead snake than a live one. (And there was a live rattlesnake sighting about an hour before I got there.) The wind picked up yet again, and this time, it was pushing a thunderstorm before it. Rain, a welcome change from the dry. So here we are, a week later, and I have all the anti-dry I could wish for.


Some of us don't seem to mind, however...

Nature Walk

Last week's walk in the park - Big Horn National Forest again, the Meadowlark Lake area. It's on the back side of the Big Horn Mountains, another 30 miles or so from my last hike.

Up the meadow...



Across the stream...

And into the woods...

My objective was an area of forest that suffered a burn a few years back. I could follow a cross country ski trail for a ways, or after a bit, strike off on my own through the woods with my trusty topo map and a general idea of where I was headed.


Of course I chose the 'wing it' method of navigation. After much tramping over hill and dale, including a rest under a tree where an irate squirrel chucked pine cones down on me, I sighted my objective in the distance.



Downed trees everywhere, interlaced with lots of deer and elk sign. I decided to make my way to the top of the ridge. Slow going, between the burnt, broken trees and scattering of rock.

View from partway up the ridge. That tan patch in the distance? The meadow I started out from. About 1200 foot difference in elevation, from 8000 to 9200 feet.

I did the by guess by golly method of returning, eyeballed from the top of the ridge, consulted my topo map, and plunged into the woods. The path turned out to be a tad more difficult. I ended up following a deer trail or two...

Damn deer led me to a boulder field... but I persevered, and soon found a tiny stream, and followed it down, until I reached the bigger stream...

With fish in it! Some nice sized trout, and lots of little ones. I thought of pulling a Man vs. Wild and try and scoop them out with my hands, but, the water was cold, and I didn't have my fishing license with me... that's my story, and it has nothing to do with the deceptive depth of the water compared to the height of my waterproof hiking boots...

A last glimpse as I reach where I stashed my car.

Oh yeah, and the lake in Meadowlark Lake?


Here you go...

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