A stroll in the High Desert

Connie really likes going out in the Desert to the little hidden spots, even if there aren't any real spots, just Sage, and the hard to see denizens of this area. I had been wanting to revisit the waterfall that I got Leezard from a few years ago. ( A Prairie Falcon ) The trip there can be termed as "tough sledding" (Alaska slang for Summer), but the weather and temps were about as good as they were ever going to get.

After arriving at the turn off on Hwy 78 we parked the truck and unloaded the quad. Our timing was good as the runoff from winter had solidified and we were back to dust rather than mud.

I had made a little pack out of one of the most uncomfortable cloth back packs that I own, and it consisted of three bottles of water, camera, pistol, sunblock and a pepsi. It felt like a bag of bricks on my back before we were through.

The dirt track is somewhere around 24 miles to our parking spot, and it varies from Playa to soft ball sized rocks. As we were bumping along I heard Connie exclaim as a rock bounced up into the running board of the quad. It had made her jump as it had startled her.

The feral Horses had gone back into the Sheepsheads range where there is more water and to catch the greening grass. All along the trail were the rock Cairns that the Basque had erected on the tops of the lava lumps during the times that they ran Sheep in this country. I have heard that they did so out of loneliness, wanting to think that they were not so alone, but I think it more likely to be able to get their bearings and out of boredom. Besides people stack rocks almost every where you go. Seems natural, if not currently irritating to some.

The road was littered with the remains of the Stud horse territorial markers. ( Piles of horse crap, generally right in the middle of the "road".) We only saw two Antelope, and a dead Cow, ( also in the middle of the road) The interesting part is that the Cow only had Ravens for dinner partners, and only the  stomach had been fed on, even though the carcass was quite old. No Coyotes in the area apparently, making the area a good spot for a Mother Antelope to raise their young. There are quite a few that live there.

Connie was quite enthralled with the various Lava tubes, some intact others collapsed leaving a trough in the desert. The further we traveled the more numerous were the Cairns, some of which were quite elaborate.

Eventually we arrived at some territory that was too rough for the quad, and we had to hoof it to our destination. I wasn't real sure how far it was across the desert, but some of it has enough rocks and other ankle turners that it is difficult to make your way across it. As we crested a small rise a covey of 5 Sage Grouse lifted out of the Sage and flew about 50 yards and then set down again. I was very pleased to see them. I had never seen any there before.

While the land all looks the same there is a subtle difference as we progressed to the "waterfall". Quotes because while it used to have a lot more water and perhaps ran all year if the stones are any indication, but there was only the green stagnant pool at the bottom now.

The closer we got to the ravine the more flowers we saw. ( the flowers are just beginning to come out now) and we started finding the little small Barrel Cactus, that I have only seen on that bench. They are about the size of a Base Ball, and whatever they are called this is the very Western part of their range.

When we eventually arrived I was pleased to see that the Prairie Falcon was there and sitting on about three eggs. Guessing because they were under a ledge almost out of sight. We had our look, and moved back so that the female could return to her eggs.

There is a pool at the bottom of the fall, and over the years it has dug out a spot deep enough to hold water at least through some of the summer. I have no idea as to how long or even if it ever dries up. There were lots of frogs and it must have been pretty noisy in the evening.

The little Cactus were actually quite plentiful in the area and it is of course littered with obsidian chippings, as it was a perfect ambush spot for the indigenous people that lived in the area. We found a few broken and discarded arrow heads in our travels and around the overlook.

The evening was quite warm, and Connie was overheated, as she, for whatever reason, is unable to sweat. So our return was a lot slower than our arrival. We did see a small rodent that I had never seen before, ( views of it were only fleeting at best) but I thought it might have been some sort of Gopher. Connie said that its tail, only about two inches long was flat and furred, I didn't get that good of a look. It wasn't very fast and not more than 6 inches long. Connie felt that it was a baby of some sort. I still think that it was some sort of a Gopher that had no idea that he wasn't alone in the universe.

The desert is deceiving in that while it looks flat, it isn't. I had taken my bearings on the distant hills and we hit the spot that I had left the quad dead on. I was very glad of that as the trip had been a bit more than was comfortable for Connie. My feet felt as though the bottoms of them had bee sanded, so I am sure that Connie was hurting as well.

I had taken my phone on this trip to record how much we had walked, and as I checked it, Connie discovered that she no longer had her phone. She had thought that it was in the quad, but that soon proved untrue. After a lot of consideration she decided that she had dropped it on the ride in. Only 24 miles of road to check, no biggie? At least we were back to the quad and we had a ride out of there, I told her that if it was on the road, I would find it. Sure, no problem!

On the way back I checked the cow to see if there was a number on the ear tag. Nope, just a yellow tag. We moved right along to get the stink out of our nostrils, with Connie "back seat" driving- "slow down, your going too fast"! Eventually I got off and made her drive, and then I couldn't see as well as I wanted. I was pretty sure of the general area that she had lost it, and that was where the rock had startled her. Only problem was remembering where that was in the 24 miles of dirt track.

Eventually I got tired of being a back seat driver as well and I made her stop so I could drive. I was pretty sure that it had fallen in the road and being black and most likely shiney, it should show up pretty well. Eventually a bit more than halfway across to my truck I could see it lying there in the road, and then all was well with the  world again. Then it was only dust and bumpy road.

I have been trying to lose my winter blubber, so I am on a pretty restrictive diet. I have found that more than 750 calories and I maintain weight, so I only eat one meal a day and had started the day weighing 216. When we got back I checked my phone for my steps and found that it showed that we had walked 5.3 miles and I had burned 700 calories. I got on the scales and found that I now weighed 212.5 lbs. I did it more than once so it wasn't an error. I have since gone back up to 213.5. Connie gained a pound! I guess I gave her too much of the water.

While doing my chores this morning, I took a Mouse that I had found in one of my traps, out to Hope for a appetiser, and found that she had been busy overnight. Crap! There was a time when I would have been happy to have a female that was willing to nest. Now I only want her to finish her molt so that we can hunt again, and here she is doing what nature intended her to do. Sigh!

Her first ever egg.

Frontier Homestead

One of the things that I enjoy so much in traveling in the S.E. part of Oregon is the obvious fact that things have been very different in the past. Of course there is the rugged beauty that is here today, but it is also apparent that it was not always what we see now. In this area the volcanic activity in the very early times formed the land to what we see today, but it is obvious that not too awfully long ago the climate was very different as well.  Perhaps that is the reason that I have a problem with the portion of the US that thinks that we are the main cause of "global warming, or climate change", which ever you want to call it. Sure we have a part in it, but me thinks that in the grand scheme of things we are pretty insignificant. So far!

Connie again came to relieve me of my solitude, and as a reward I took her to one of the old Homesteads here that is off the beaten path. The weather was quite nice yesterday, not much wind and the temp. was in the mid 70's, so we took a couple of drinks, closed the dogs and cats in the house and hopped on the quad for a ride out to Rattle Snake Creek. I tend to believe it was named that due to the winding course of the "creek", since we didn't see a single snake, and I never have. The flowers are just beginning to show, so there weren't that many of them either.

Again I am amazed at the persistence and hardy nature of the people that lived here, to find the little spots that had the basics to sustain life. With my little plane I can wander around till I blunder into these little spots of water in an otherwise empty landscape. How long did it take for this guy to find his little utopia, and make a home there? Only this one no longer had any water. It used to, but its dried up now, and I wonder at the type of woman that would have the strength to make a life there. Connie looks at the view and thinks it is beautiful, but how many women today would ever have that thought if that was where she was destined to live her life. Thankfully there are some, still. Its obvious that the weather was different then without the influence of our human intervention, other wise there is no way that anyone could have survived long enough to build a stone house there.

The house is located in a small declivity or if you tend towards grandeur in your speech, Canyon, that is not visible until you are right on top of it. The area is other wise flat and unremarkable from all the rest of the Sage covered land. The beginning and the access that I used to get there is a cut, merely 50 feet into the ground where a now dry creek bed once flowed through, with apparent vigor. The drainage is from the Hills to the S.E. towards what is now Nevada. While they sometimes achieve 4500 to 5500 feet of altitude they are not all that spectacular, merely "High Desert".

This rock and many around it are pretty good size and all are scored by what must

have been a lot of water over a long period of time. This stuff is very hard basalt, and not your

usual rhyolite that the wind and water can shape.

The area  now serves as drainage on rare occasions, that blends with Crooked Creek, that I now live on. Crooked Creek is an artesian flow that goes underground a short way below my house and eventually surfaces about 6 miles from the house, flowing on to the Owyhee River and thus to the sea via the Snake, and the Columbia.

The gables of the house are beginning to tilt a bit, but it is still in surprising condition

considering that only mud was used to hold the rocks in place.

There was obviously some modern comforts available at that time as there are "milled" 2X8's inset into the rocks to supply lintels for the windows and coat and hat racks on the walls. As well as nails to hang them from. The well consists of a pipe driven into the ground from which a pump was "obviously" screwed into for water. The house is built with mud and lava rock. The walls are straight and the corners are square. There was obviously a dirt floor and a old early metal box spring that could have been added at a later date of course. The roof was obviously wood, but there is no evidence of any of it now, although those in the walls are in good condition. There is also what I took to be a grave marked by an outline of lava Rocks. It is a small one, that probably contains the bones of a child. I will do some checking with a local "historian" and see what I can learn about this spot.

There are Ravens nests at the top of each gable. Perhaps one is a "summer home"

steel bed springs

Fire place, now a Pack Rat retirement home.

Tucked down under the wind, and out of sight.