Red Canyon of the Hart

Sunday June 6 2010

I used to hike a lot. Long hikes. Hard hikes. Peaks. Cross country. Forests and mountains. Now it's only on occasion. Last few hikes I did, I stumbled about gracelessly, the ground feeling foreign. My feet were out of practice, my body uncoordinated. I must get my hiking legs back underneath me.


Today I head cross country in the Owyhee desert to the Deep Red Canyon of the Hart. The skies are dark, blue-gray and heavy; the rain is moving down from the Owyhees. It begins to fall on the desert, on me, first a soft mist. Then I hear the sound of drumbeats all around me. Then I feel the drumbeats. The earth turns dark, glistening; the flowers emanate intense hues - the Indian paintbrush, purple sage, wild onion, buckwheat, penstemmon, globemallow, lupine. The earth gets wet. My skin gets wet. The flowers reach skyward and drip raindrops. I turn my head skyward and rain drips from my face.

Today my feet are feeling the earth, molding to the uneven ground, moving over it without tripping, without slipping on the wet rocks. I smell the wet desert, the sweet sage and flowers of the shadscale. I absorb the rain like the desert.

Today it's just me an a lone pronghorn on a ridge in the distance. We study each other. I have binoculars. He has the speed with which to disappear. It takes me half an hour to reach where he was.

Before I see the cliffs of the Deep Red Canyon, I hear the roaring waterfalls on Hart Creek far below. The cliffs are red and gray in the rain. Tall. I can't see the bottom of the canyon. Slippery. I don't get too close to the edge today. They rise abruptly from the wide valley floor to become a deep chasm.


Two empty eagle nests perch on the face of the cliffs. Pigeons fly about in confusion at this rare human intrusion. Canyon wrens sing their melodic downward spiraling tune.

I follow the rim of the canyon. It is magnificent, this hidden canyon in the Owyhee desert,
the rhyolite rock carved and sliced over eons by water running down from the Owyhee mountains. A lone juniper stands guard over the canyon walls. I stand beside it, dumbfounded by its perpetual view.


My feet find and follow a game trail down into the canyon. I startle a prairie falcon. It flies away, perturbed, screeching at me. A lush ecosystem crowds this narrow canyon. Fat cottonwood trees squeeze alongside the creek. They are thick with luxuriant leaves. Willows choke the ground. Bouquets of rice grass reach my waist.


I climb back up to the canyon rim and follow it until the high cliffs meld into the soft hills that cover the Owyhee desert, and hide these marvelous canyons.

The flamboyant wildflowers line my return path with a royal carpet. Three baby ravens screech and squawk until I climb a hill to see them. They sit silently and study me then discuss among themselves my place in their desert.


I have my hiking legs back under me today. I think the Ravens approve.

Owyhee Fandango Day 3: It's All About Your Perspective

Sunday May 30 2010

Ask a local rider if the Owyhee trails are rocky, and they might say yes. Ask a Nevada rider if our trails are rocky and they'll say no after chuckling. (I've done rides in Nevada: Owyhee trails are not rocky!)

Ask the riders who finished the 100 mile ride, after negotiating the technical trail through the Whiskey Traverse boulder field along the Snake River, and they'll probably say it was no big deal. Ask the riders whose horses got pulled at the Celebration Park vet check after negotiating the boulder field, and they'll probably say that's what got their horses.

It's all in your personal perspective.

It was an endurance juggling feat, trying to pull off a 30, 50, 80, and 100-mile ride, some of that over a new technical piece of trail (the Whiskey Traverse) with 3 out vet checks in two places, and with ride manager Steph riding the 80 miler, but all the riders adhered to head veterinarian Robert Washington's suggestion/instructions: "Don't go faster than 10 mph, and don't go slower than 6 mph, and we'll have you covered!"

Additionally, the Snake River Amateur Radio Club was out in force, at basecamp, at the vet checks and at strategic places along the trail, from 5 AM till after midnight, helping keep track of all the riders on the trails, and without them, the ride just wouldn't have run smoothly. Since 2004 they've been coming out to help on the Owyhee 100-mile ride day, for their community service, for the ride Tshirts and for the Fandango food (by Blue Canoe Catering), and for the fun.

The 16 100-milers and 8 80 milers started out at 6 AM just as the sun was rising. It was starting out as a sunny day - the first in a long time - though it was cool early. Jose had the day off, and I was going to be helping at one of the out vet checks. Originally the plan (well - after changing several times!) was for me to drive Dr Michael Peterson to the far out vet check at Celebration Park by 9:30 AM. But, as few things go exactly as planned at a 100 mile ride, we were instead suddenly leaving at 7:15, to first drop a car off at the first out vet check at Sierra del Rio Ranch (for John T who had set out at 5:30 AM to pre-ride the trail by ATV), then go on to Celebration Park (a 40 minute drive to the Ranch, and from there a 40 minute drive to Celebration Park). And we had to scramble to leave even sooner than that when we got a call from the radio guy at the first highway crossing that a horse had tied up and was waiting there for transport back to camp.

We got out there in good time - it was Naomi Preston and Karlady. The same thing had happened in this ride last year. Naomi had noticed it immediately about halfway between basecamp and the highway, so she nursed Karlady along till they got to the highway where they could stop and get transport back home. Dr Peterson was pleased with how good Karlady looked; he treated the mare with a muscle relaxant, and we went on to the Ranch while Naomi waited with Karlady for a trailer.

The first hundred and 80 milers were just coming into the Sierra del Rio ranch, at 15 miles, when we arrived. Dr Peterson stayed to help Dr Washington and Dr Balch for a while before heading out to the Celebration Park vet check, 25 miles down the trail for the 80's and 100's.

The park officials were happy to have an endurance ride vet check in their park. A couple of Canyon County sheriffs (we were on the north side of the Snake River) came by also, enjoying "something different." Some of the crews had time to take a little footpath through a boulder field where you could see some of the petroglyphs that helped make this Idaho's first (and only) archaeological park. If you had good binoculars, you could watch a golden eagle on the cliff directly across the river fetching food to its nest of young.

Lee Pearce on Fire Mt Malabar, and Christoph Shork on Double Dell, both on the 100 miler, were the first riders to be sighted across the Snake River, following the river path downstream, and approaching the Guffy bridge. They crossed the bridge and rode back to the vet check in the park. The rest trickled in over the next couple of hours.

Reactions to the boulder field were mixed - beautiful, no big deal, thumbs down. Five riders were pulled here. At least two of those horses had slipped going through the boulders. Steph had spent a good deal of time debating on whether or not to include that technical section as part of the trail (it got the riders to Celebration Park, which appeared to be a hit); after riding over it ourselves, she decided it was doable. After the ride, Steph decided she'll look for a safer route through or around it if this trail is used again next year.

The day started getting pretty warm and muggy (my perspective), but just as the last of the riders finished with their hold at the Celebration Park vet check, a cloud cover had cooled things down again, so that it was comfortable for the horses the rest of the day.

We returned back to basecamp, where Dr Burnett was taking care of the LD riders. James Robertsons and his mom Ada Stokes from Washington won the LD, as they had on Day 1. Junior Scarlet Kaplan and her horse Rushcreek Loyd ended up taking the 3-day Best Condition award for the LD.

Another happy finisher in the LD was Katrin Levermann from Canada. She'd planned to come to this ride for the first time with a group of friends, but they were unable to come. She had a not-fun 2-day drive here, getting two flats while crossing the border, then losing her lights and her brakes in the dark nearing Oreana. She wasn't sure how far down the bumpy dirt Bates Creek Road basecamp was (it's five miles! we'll put that in the directions next time), and twice she turned around (not an easy thing with a rig in the dark on a one-lane road with the lights not working right) and finally she stumbled onto neighbors Jan and Warren's property at 11 PM, almost in tears. They not only calmed her down and plied her with hot tea, they escorted her to basecamp at midnight and helped her unload her horses. Katrin ended up having a great weekend, finishing all three days on two of her horses.

Melanie Shirilla on Mika Nika, and her husband Doug Swingley on Iamsamm, won the 60. Dick Root and the steam engine Rocky were third, and Kara Yost and Musca Tiger Jack were 4th. Jack won overall Best Condition on the 50/50/60 3-day. Tom Noll and Frank finished the 3 days, giving 20-year-old Frank his 5000 miles. He still has a discussion every ride with Tom about how much faster they should be going.

Beth Buzis and TR Phantom of Wyoming, and Christina Long and LS Sole Talisman of South Dakota tied for first on the 80. It was Beth's longest ride so far. Jeff Stuart was third on JV Remington; it was Jeff's longest ride so far. "And I know why it's my only 80 mile ride!" he said, as he limped up to get his ride award. He was lured here partially by my photos of Owyhee. Amanda Washington finished her first 80. There are rumors a Tevis ride might be in her near future.

Ten of 16 riders finished the 100. Christoph Shork and Double Dell won it in 10:32. Lee Pearce and Fire Mt Malabar were second, and got Best Condition. Five Nevada riders finished. Karen Bumgarner's horse Z Summer Thunder gave Karen a great ride in finishing his first 100. "Not bad for a horse that tried to kill me!"

While some riders had bad luck, most of them still found things to smile about at the Owyhee Fandango. Having a good time here is pretty easy to do with this good crowd of endurance people.

Whatever your perspective, it was a good weekend for horsing around in
the desert.

Owyhee Fandango Day 2: It's All About The Trail!

Saturday May 29 2010

When you love the trails you ride - and i never get tired of this Owyhee country and it never ceases to catch my breath - and when your horse loves the trails you ride, it just doesn't get any better.

"50 milers: Loop 1 is green," said ride manager Steph. "Or maybe green and yellow, because it's so green in the desert right now, that the green ribbons are hard to see. Or there might be some orange... or pink... or blue... just follow the ribbons! If you are following ribbons, you are on the right trail!"

This year's Owyhee Fandango wasn't FEI, so the atmosphere was much more relaxed, (did I mention the Happy Hour every evening at 5:30?) although Steph did wake up once or twice before the ride, from nightmares that the cows ate all the ribbons off part of the trails. (Which is a good possibility.)

The Raven and I saddled up Jose again for another 50 mile ride with his pals Quinn (and Nance), Jack (and Kara) and Turbo (and Chris). It was another lovely partially overcast day (I LIKE cloudy days, so sue me! : ) with a chance of rain, but warmer. And after yesterday's dire chance of rain where we got not a drop, we weren't very worried about that today.

The 25 mile first loop to us to the southwest again over the familiar Hart Creek trails - out to Hart Creek, with an extra Brown's Creek loop thrown in for the 50 milers (that the LD's didn't do), and back to Hart Creek and the old Hart Creek Homestead. If you've been to an Owyhee ride before, you've probably done this loop, but I doubt anybody gets tired of this one. It's just beautiful. This is the trail we take visitors that we like on.

Richard White caught up with us not far out of camp and followed us down the trail on his daughter's pinto mare. After a couple of miles of trotting, we all stopped in Hart Creek for a drink, and Richard dismounted to do something with his mare's bridle. He told us not to wait for him, so we went on.

Jose was eager and forward beneath me again, moving as easily and strongly as he had on Day 1. Our four horses again moved along together well, all comfortable going at the same speed. The Raven was happily bouncing in his Raven bag on the saddle. The four of us riders sometimes told stories as we rode along (do the horses do this with each other?) and sometimes we rode in silence, listening to our horse's hoofbeats and soaking up the sagebrush desert and mountain scenery.

The Brown's Creek loop down a sand wash and on 2-track roads disappeared under Jose's feet, and soon we were back at Hart Creek at the Homestead, and climbing up onto the sharp ridge back onto the flats. The Hart Creek drainage opens up below and behind you while the Owyhee mountains suddenly emerge ahead of you and start to grow on the horizon. They aren't so tall (Hayden peak, aka Cinnabar mountain reaches 8403'), but they dwarfed the horses ahead of us.

A few easy miles and we were back in basecamp for our hour hold. There we heard some talk of a loose horse on the trail this morning - and a guy walking a long way back with his bridle - a pinto horse - and realized it was Richard White. When we left them at Hart Creek, Richard's horse must have left him! We felt a bit bad about that.

Turbo passed the vet check, but after waiting an hour, Chris detected a problem with one of his feet, so he opted not to go back out with us. So it was us three girls and three geldings on the last 25 mile loop that took us to the northeast toward the Snake River across the highway.

And oh, what a trail! I'd never been on this trail before, and neither had Jose. After going up a 2-track road into the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, and turning to follow a ridge briefly, we came to a point that overlooked another set of Badlands stretching down toward the Snake River in the distance, marked by the black canyon cliffs. The trail led right down into the maze of hills and miniature alluvial fans.

As he likes to do, Jose stopped a moment at the very top of the hill to Deep Think - observe and absorb the view - and then he plunged forward enthusiastically. I could just see the edge of his eyes, which were wide and bright. Down we trotted boldly for a couple of miles along the narrow trail, winding along the ridges and sidehills of these Badlands, and when we eventually made a left turn onto a road down on the flats, Jose never missed a beat.

This road dumped us into a sand wash - and, Oh what a trail!!!

Bordered by high walls, twisting and turning, snaking back and forth, we motored powerfully up this soft and smooth sand channel that had been carved by some serious water action over time. It wouldn't be a place to hang out in heavy rains. Jose had a ball, blasting up this wash, zooming around the blind corners, ears pricked forward, mane flying in the breeze he made, eager to see what was around the next bend, not hesitating for anything except when the wash squeezed together in a few places, tight enough for the sagebrush to graze my tights as we trotted through.

It was all uphill and I thought to slow Jose down a bit to give him a breather, but he wouldn't have any of it - a wash like this is meant to take fast and furious and fun!! He was so sure of himself. He made me laugh. A couple of times I video'd it with my camera (and therefore wasn't paying attention to the trail) and twice the trail split in the wash, and I leaned one way and Jose went the other and I had to grab on to stay in the saddle.

Once our trail left the wash and climbed a short steep hill, we let our horses take a breather, but soon they were off again. They made a great team again, trading the lead, keeping the same comfortable pace with each other.

As we climbed one more hill on the last few miles of trail back to the highway, from behind us we heard an equine freight train coming: Rocky, the huge half mustang half monster of Dick Root's. Dick has such endless patience with this big old guy. He'll spend hours in a ride finessing Rocky into behaving (because you can't outmuscle him). Dick spent Day One of the Fandango doing a lot of finessing. Today, halfway through the ride, Rocky was responding well to Dick's requests (mostly not to pull and chase down other horses... like our horses), and as a reward, Dick let him roll.

And when Rocky rolls, you can hear these big monster feet (size 6 shoe) in the distance - CLOP CLOP CLOP CLOP and his steam engine breath - WHOOOSSSH WHOOOSSSH WHOOOSSSH, and this huge daunting creature roars up behind you and is gone before you can say "Go Rocky!" We sang the Rocky theme song as they steamed past us. (On the last few miles in, Rocky was misbehaving again, so Dick took him back, and off the trail, and waited him out, and they ended up finishing behind us.)

We got back to the water tank at the highway crossing, where a radio guy took our numbers again. I got off Jose, hoping he'd drink a bit better. You always wish your horse would drink and eat more. Jose doesn't drink enough, and besides, he always has to look around and observe and absorb and Deep Think first. He's like me with a cup of coffee: he likes to take his time and sip and enjoy it. When he's done gazing, he'll drink a bit. Then he'll look around some more (holding the water in his mouth), and when he's done, he'll drink a bit more. Sometimes if I get off, he'll tend to drink sooner or better.

When Jose had his fill (not enough in my book), I stepped up onto the edge of the water trough to get on him easier and Jose started walking off before I was quite ready to put my foot in the stirrup and before I'd really gathered the reins. However, seeing I was starting to lose my balance (backwards) and I didn't want to land in the trough, I had no choice but to jump quickly and aim my butt at the saddle.

I landed kind of hard on Jose's back, and he leaped off into a trot, but luckily I'd landed square and I was able to scramble the reins together and get him stopped. That was my only attempt at ever becoming a Trick Rider.

Our horses zipped the 8 miles back home, as strong coming into basecamp at the end of a hundred miles in two days as they'd been at the first dozen miles. It's just like nothing else, riding a very cool horse on a very cool trail.

And with the completion at the finish, Jose hit 1000 miles!

Meanwhile, over an hour in front of us, Christoph Shork and his 3000-mile horse DWA Powerball won the ride again - they won Day 1 also. There were 3 Drinkers of the Wind Arabian horses in today's ride; besides Powerball, DWA El Paso and DWA Sampson finished the 50.

Elly Burnett and her horse Jasper O'Brien finished the 50. Tomorrow DOCTOR Burnett would be vetting Day 3 of the Fandango - her first endurance gig as a newly graduated veterinarian!

Bringing up the rear in next-to-last place was Rebecca Jankovich of Reno and Moose (Simply Irresistible). 20-year-old Moose, (now 5525 miles), and Rebecca have excelled at multi-day rides since Rebecca started riding him in 1999. Moose has always been a fireball and still has his own firm opinions of how fast they should be going. Rebecca was riding with her trainer Kathy on MS Donnas Star - until she just couldn't hold him back anymore the last few miles.

Just don't tell Moose he was almost the turtle today.

Owyhee Fandango Day 1: It's All About The Raven

Friday May 28 2010

Steph said It's All About the Trails, putting on these Owyhee endurance rides.

She's right, but she forgot one thing, besides the trails: It's All About Fun.

Which, in this case, it meant, It's All About The Raven.

If Jose and The Raven and I completed the 50 miles on Day 1 of the Owyhee Fandango, The Raven would have his 4000 miles! He's 150 miles behind me - I hit 4000 miles in April at the High Desert ride. The Raven started a year after me, hitching along on endurance rides in his own Raven bag, (among his many other adventures and accomplishments, which include sitting on the King's Royal Gold Carpet in Malaysia, and climbing Mt Whitney...) and once you start something, you just can't stop for no reason!

So, stuffed down in his Raven bag attached to Jose's saddle, we took off into the Owyhee morning at 7:30 AM, with a dire 70% chance of rain hanging over us in the heavily overcast skies. (And a slight chance of thunderstorms - eek!) It was hard to decide what to wear - it wasn't cold, but it was cool, and if we got wet, we'd get cold. It wasn't windy yet, but if it got windy, it could get cold. I settled on three layers and hoped for the best.

Jose and The Raven and I hooked up with Nance (Tevis finisher last year!) and Quinn (my Tevis mount last year!), Kara and Jack (Tevis finishers with us!), and Chris and Turbo.

We climbed out of Pickett Creek canyon, and motored along the southeast flats, headed for Brown's Creek across sagebrush country. We crossed dry Little Hart Creek drainage, and running Hart Creek at the location of the old Pilot Wheel homestead. Nothing left there now but a few remnants of the home's foundation and corrals. Rumor has it that the boys that grew up there rode their horses into Oreana every day for school - about 5 miles each way.

Somewhere behind me and Jose, as we led a string of horses through the sagebrush trails, we heard a Whoomp and an Uh Oh... I turned back to look and saw neighbor Carol on the ground, and her horse Suz, our training companion, trotting away. I stopped Jose and jumped off - and Suz ran right up to us, holding up her left foreleg. Her knees were skinned a bit, and she looked a bit bewildered. I just looked around for a second and the ground disappeared!

Carol got to her feet unhurt, and Suz put her foot down and didn't limp, so Carol got back on. Nothing else to do but continue on, because we were halfway between home and the first out vet check at 12.5 miles.

Many gates to close out on these trails; normally cows aren't out here this time of year, but there's such good grass right now that the cows are out everywhere, and the gates are closed. Which meant we had to get off for a lot of gates. I climbed off to open the first one... and that was the last one I did. I barely got it open, but it was so tight, I couldn't get the dang thing closed again. I cursed at it (sometimes that helps with barbed wire fence gates out in the Wild West), but I just couldn't quite get it. "This is a boy gate!" I yelled, and Chris jumped off to get it.

Chris, who recently retired and got his knees replaced, has better knees than the rest of us, so he took to leaping off at most all the gates and doing the honors. We offered to do some but we mostly let him insist. One time he opened a gate (4 strands of barbed wire, mind) without getting off Turbo, but once he got it open, Turbo kept backing up away from it (4 strands of barbed wire on a post chasing him), so Chris had to let it go, and dismount to close it.

We all made it through the first vet check with no problems - even Suz trotted out perfectly. Carol wasn't sure she wanted to continue though - next was a 25 mile loop, and what if Suz went lame in the middle of that? She decided to wait till the end of the 30 minute hold and have another look at her. They were just headed to the vet again when our group of 4 headed out onto loop 2.

It was still cool and overcast, with gray floaty clouds obscuring the Owyhees... but still it didn't rain on us. It really was the perfect day for riding. The trails and dirt roads were a bit slick in a few spots from all the rain we'd had over the last few days, but nothing scary.

Our trail led us down into Buckaroo Creek, past the rock corral, and back up onto the flats. I'd helped Steph flag this part of the trail on Mac; Jose had never been here before. He loved leading the way fast along the trail snaking through the tall sagebrush, ducking under the taller branches and bulling his way through some of them that obscured the trail, not knowing what was on the other side.

Our horses worked up a good sweat in the cool day as they gradually climbed several miles up a 2-track road to the foot of the Owyhee mountains. Some of this was new trail for me - just beautiful. The Owyhee desert looks so different in different light and different clouds - and today with the dark blue and gray clouds and wet earth, it looked like a completely different country. I never get tired of this country. I swear that Jose doesn't either, because he likes to pause and look at and study things. Nance called him a Deep Thinker, and that's what he must be doing when he absorbs the scenery.

As we turned off the common trail along the Alder Creek drainage, the front-runners on the 50 came cantering toward us, including Doug Swingley on his handsome gray Ali Banta, and his wife Melanie Shirilla on MikaNika. Those two Montana'ns slipped into the endurance world from the dog mushing world: Doug won the Iditarod 4 times in the 1990's and 2000's.

Our group of 4 followed Alder Creek canyon up, crossed over the flowing creek running out of a deep crevice in the mountains, then worked our way back down the other side We dropped back into Alder Creek at the Crazy Woman mine where, last August, the place was covered with sunflowers. Now sweet smelling lupine carpeted the hillsides in purple and white sheets. No word on who the Crazy Woman mine was named after.

After climbing back out of Alder Creek drainage, We rejoined our out-trail and returned via the rock corral, to the Brown's Creek vet check, at 37.5 miles, for our second hold. Our horses ate and waited out their 50 minutes, while the Raven helped Jose eat, and then sat in the saddle on his back, anxiously waiting to continue the last 12.5 miles back to basecamp.

By the time we left, some of the cloud cover had departed for Nevada - with the wind pushing it along. We had 12.5 miles of a very strong cool headwind to muscle through all the way back home. But it was literally a breeze for our horses, who had gotten fresher as the day went on and the miles disappeared under their feet. They all got along well, moved well at the same pace, traded the lead, drank together, ate together.

And suddenly there we were, descending the trail into Pickett Creek canyon for the last 1 1/2 mile skip home.

Jose and The Raven held their breaths during the final vet check: a completion for Jose, and 4000 miles for The Raven!! He got a round of applause at the awards, and he got a special little customized Pokey for his special accomplishment. I am quite sure that he is the only Raven in endurance history to ever reach 4000 miles.

Not too far behind us, Carol and Suz finished their first 50 miles (Suz's knees, which looked a bit puffy at that first vet check, now looked good and tight, and she trotted out soundly), and finishing not far behind them were Tom Noll and Frank. If they finished all three days, Frank would reach 5000 career miles.

Yes, endurance riding is all about trail and fun with good people and great horses. And today's Owyhee endurance ride was All About The Raven. Thank you Jose!

Desolate

Wednesday May 26 2010

A friend once asked me dubiously, when I rhapsodized about Owyhee, "Isn't it desolate?"

Desolate, yes. Big, open, spacious - empty and full. Beautiful.

You could ride for days, weeks, (if you knew where all the gates were) and not see a soul.

You'll see deer, snakes, Ravens, eagles, and maybe pronghorns like I did today. You might see, if you're lucky, bighorn sheep or badgers, or, if you're very lucky, cougars.

You might stumble across an old mine, a nugget of gold (there's still gold in the Owyhees), an arrowhead. You might discover an old rock corral or homestead or dam, a cave with thousands-year-old relics, an old irrigation channel from the gold rush days, an old wagon frame or wheel. You might ride over old wagon wheel grooves on the Oregon trail or you might discover a pioneer's grave. You might drink from a cool spring in a hidden canyon.

The Owyhee mountains are quite small - in height and length and breadth - in the scheme of western mountain ranges - but they preside splendidly over the Owyhee desert. They fill the sky and dance with the storm clouds.

Sometimes it's just you out there and nothing else - and everything else.

The Caves II

Tuesday May 25 2010

I just couldn't help myself - when I hiked back over the Rock Corral trail we'd already marked on horseback last week (I checked to make sure the cows didn't eat all the green ribbons, and I added pink ribbons to the hard-to-see green ones) - I had to climb up to and check out a few of the caves I'd seen.


What is it about holes in the earth that attract us? Caves, mine shafts, tunnels - why the magnetism that makes us want to go up to them and in them, even though they might be kind of... scary or creepy?

For the treasures that could be inside? For the thought of who might have used it before, and how long ago? For the mystery and awesomeness of the motivation that made somebody tunnel into the earth, often - here in the West - by hand? For trying to understand how Mother Nature created the cave?

For me, part of the draw is... cougars. If I were a cougar, I'd be hanging out during the day in a cool cave with a view of the land below me. Of course, I don't particularly want to wake a cougar up from a nap in a cave, nor have I given any thought as to what I'd do if I did find a cougar in a cave... but I haven't found one yet anyway. I just want to see the cave and what's in it. They do scare me a bit - what if one caves in while I'm inside? I won't go too far in a tunnel, and no WAY would I crawl on my belly to get any further into a cave.

This is the first cave I detoured up to.

It was nice and roomy, almost big enough to stand straight up in, and went about 10 feet back. I found no signs of cougars, but I did find some cool nests (rats?),

and lots of obsidian flakes,

though none of them seemed to be worked pieces. Obsidian occurs naturally in this area, though you can also find arrowheads (presumably made about a hundred years ago by Native Americans) if you're lucky.

A canyon wren flew in to check me out as I snooped around.


Another cave - smaller,

but with a nice view.



It was a very protected spot - it had a nice little 'porch' that I had to climb a bit to get to. More obsidian flakes, and a nest inside.

And yet another cave.


Same size as the second one, no obsidian, no nest, no cougars, and another nice view.


Besides caves there were flowers, flowers, and more flowers.





Even wild onion, that tastes like onion.

But don't try the death camas even if it looks a bit like the wild onion.

I almost made that mistake one time.

Steph was marking trail in the area, and said the wildflowers nearer to the Owyhee mountains

are outta control. The lupines are taking over the earth. She also saw the two wildish horses that I'd seen while hiking in March in this area. I didn't see them, but Steph said they were so close to where I was flagging, they were probably watching me.

You'll see the rock corral, the explosion of wildflowers, possibly two half wild horses... and those caves if you do Day 1 (Friday) of the Owyhee Fandango. I just explored the caves that will be on your left past the rock corral. If you decide to tie your horse to a sagebrush and run up and check out the caves on the right, let me know what you find.

More pictures from the day here.