First Bristlecone Hike of Season

Last year, when new pay period schedules were posted, everyone looked for the 9 shift next to their name.  This year, it is the 8 shift.  The alpine rove and bristlecone hike.  I love this park!

I had my first rove of the season today.  I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.  One of the new seasonals shadowed me and we started our rove by hiking the lakes loop, first Stella, then Teresa.

We got to the grove, I gave my talk to five people, and then we walked the short loop trail through the grove.  We had lunch up there, then walked partway up to the glacier.  Coming down, we saw this log.  Horrid thing to do, never, ever deface the resources in a national park!  (badge and uniform off, I thought it was kind of cool)

Hooray for bristlecones!  I changed the theme of my talk this year and describe the bristlecones by relating their life and living conditions to lesson that can apply to people.  It was a little rough today, first time, but I think I can make it work.  They truly are magnificent trees.  I know I promised a post on them last summer and it never happened; I'll try and remedy that this summer.



We were both feeling good after lunch and decided to head up to the glacier.  We got a good ways past the first interpretive sign, and then it got a bit snowy, we lost the trail, and decided scrambling over a lot of talus was probably not the best thing to be doing in uniform.  We headed down and got ice cream at the cafe.  Huckleberry for me, of course.  (As much as I love this place, there are days I really miss Montana.)

Looking up at Wheeler Peak from almost near the base of the glacier.  As we were scrambling over the big pieces of quartzite, we could hear water flowing underneath us.  Spring runoff.  A river/stream we knew was there only because we could hear it.  It was pretty awesome.

The view looking north-northeast toward Mt. Moriah.  That peaks on my list to summit this summer.  A day at the 'bristlies' is always a good day.

When Upon Life's Billows

I don't usually have posts with this theme or mood.  I don't like to share too much that is personal with friends, let alone a wider audience.  But at the moment I feel tempest tossed; I have been looking at others with their lands and gold and wonder why I have not been granted the righteous desires of my heart.  And so, I will count my blessings, naming them one by one.

"...the thought I heard many years ago that surely the thing God enjoys most about being God is the thrill of being merciful, especially to those who don't expect it and often feel they don't deserve it."
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

The family last summer at the Wheeler Peak bristlecone grove; there is a lot about life these ancient trees can teach us. 

"...And you will be singing as the days go by..."

Necessary Outing

Monday dawned bright and early.  My bedroom window faces east and I love waking up to the sun streaming through my window as it peaks its way over the Confusion Range into Snake Valley.  Nothing better than having your body in rhythm with the earth and the sun. 

In the past forty-eight hours there have been some significant occurrences that have caused a lot of stress for me.  The catalyst for this was thrown into the equation Sunday night and Monday, a day  hike (and I mean all day) was in order.  I was up at 6:30 with the sun, breakfast made, day-pack packed, and nothing was going to stop me.  I grabbed my new trekking poles for their first real voyage and was off. 

I walked from my house, down an old Forest Service access road, to Baker Creek Rd.  I then walked up the road to the Baker Creek Trailhead.  From there, I headed up the South Fork Baker Trail, connected with the Timber Creek, back to the trailhead, then back down Baker Creek Rd and the access road for a nice 13-ish mile loop.  The lighter red is from my house to the trailhead, the darker red are the trails I took.

 

The following are some pictures from the trail.  Hooray for getting out and exploring.  Heading up the road, looking down the Baker Creek drainage.  That's the Mt. Moriah wilderness area peaking up in the distance.

It was freezing.  Literally.  I ran into quite a few patches of snow.  When I started the sun was up and the wind was blowing off the cloud cover the lower you were in the valley.  The higher up I went the colder it got.  The wind at one point was absolutely raw.  My hands still haven't forgiven me.

This was at the first intersection.  I could either go north to the Baker Lake trail or continue towards Timber Creek.  There's still snow and it's cold so it's not that green at this elevation yet. Everything still has that smashed all winter by snow look.

This was the second intersection at South Fork and Timber Creek.  There is this long valley that swoops downward from east to west, only to have Pyramid Peak rise from it.  Spectacular!  My hands were so frozen at this point I was amazed my joints worked to remove my camera from my bag, let alone depress my finger to take the picture.

I had a big mug of hot chocolate when I got home and took a very satisfying nap.  While the catalyst is still working its magic and rapidly accelerating the stressful equation, brief reprieves such as this hike (and my May Ensign) help a lot.  It's good to be back in the basin!

Connected Once More

It has been a while since I posted; blogspot has completely changed their layout and it took me awhile to find out how to draft a new post.

Internet came to residence #11 a few days ago.  Resident #2 came to residence #11 a few days after.  Resident #3 arrives tomorrow.  It was a lovely month of having the house to myself.  I was definitely spoiled.  Resident #2, who has been on her computer non-stop since she arrived and I gave her the wifi password, is also spoiled, not having to wait a month.  I don't know if she'd have made it.  (Resident #2 is also ~8 yrs younger than Resident #1 and is fitting nicely into Resident #1's stereotype of the rising generation so deeply sunk in on-line social media they don't know how to be social without an electronic device...)

I have been at work two full pay periods, or four complete weeks.  Crazy how fast it has gone.  I also finally got my first paycheck last week which is always nice.  However, unless only $15 was withheld in taxes, my rent wasn't automatically deducted.  I'll need to get on that.  There is no statute of limitations when it comes to the government asking for money owed.

The NPS seasonal immigration has begun.  The chief of interp and our bookstore manager and I were joking about it on Friday as half our seasonals were arriving and moving in to housing.

"Turning our attention from the sharp-shinned hawk, we see another common species to the park around this time of year, the NPS seasonal.  Notice the distinctive characteristics of older model car, bald tires, interior stuffed with belongs and riding low, bicycle attached to the back..."

Just for fun, in the past month, I gave 15 cave tours.  It's been chilly outside so I haven't been out to explore and hike a whole lot yet, so no pictures, and really nothing to terribly exciting to post.  However, I will leave you with my last picture from Florida.  Continuing my tradition of doing a cartwheel on the steps of capital buildings.... (Tallahassee)

(I admit I poached this idea from a good friend, thanks RC!)

Back to the Basin

I left Florida two weeks ago, was in Houston for less than a week, had a very quick visit with my brother, then on to Great Basin National Park. This will be home for the next six months. I've been back in Snake Valley and in the Snake Range for a week and what a fast week. It's good to be back, can you blame me?
That's all you get for now... I'm going to disappear again until I get internet at my house.

Genealogical Humor

A number of years ago, I attended a class on humor. My brother was with me and the teacher told a story of an individual who found a 'character' in his family history and decided to make him seem a bit more 'upstanding'. I remember Adam and I laughing a lot and talking about it for days.

I ran across it and had to share.

The original story, written on the back of a photograph:
Remus Starr: horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison, 1885. Escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton Detectives, convicted, and hanged, 1889.

The Rewritten story:
Remus Starr was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1885, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renown Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Uncle Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.

And, because I think every post should have a picture, here is my neighbor's car, with a mustache.

Final Days in Florida

It doesn't seem possible that my Florida adventure is drawing to a close. Here is a brief synopsis of exploring I wanted to post about but simply don't have the time to do it justice and probably won't but I want to get it down.

I visited St. Augustine, the Nation's oldest city, about a month ago. It was spectacular. Again, another trip that I didn't have near enough time to do and see everything I wanted to.

I started my day at Fort Matanzas. I took the ferry across the intercoastal waterway and got to climb all over the fort. This fort guarded the backdoor of St. Augustine. It was here that I learned that the initial momentum of a fired cannon is faster than the speed of sound!

I had to see the St. Augustine lighthouse since it is the sister lighthouse to Cape Hatteras. I climbed, of course, and decided that I like Hatteras better. Hatteras' view is better and it's taller. I sweet talked my way into the Castillo de San Marcos for free and attended an absolutely fabulous ranger talk and got to see them fire the cannon. Awesome!
I took an afternoon and drove up to the Okefenokee Swamp in GA. I saw more alligators here than I did in the Everglades and Big Cypress combined! I took the boat tour and loved it. Next time though, I'm kayaking.
I was able to take a couple days and head to Florida's Space Coast. My first stop was the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, then up the beach to Cape Canaveral National Seashore. There are limited campsites here and all but two are accessible by canoe only.

I loaded up my canoe and started out. It didn't take long to discover my canoe had a leak. It wasn't bad, but by the time I paddled the bathtub up to my campsite, everything was soaked (yeah, waterproof bags aren't waterproof when immersed for two hours in a canoe) and it made for a somewhat soggy evening. I had an island in the intercoastal waterway almost all to myself. The only other campsite on the island was a half mile east of me. The next morning as I was paddling back to the ranger station, I found myself surrounded by a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. I'm in an environment that is as pristine and untrammeled as it gets, I can hear the waves from the Atlantic, not a soul in sight, shore birds hanging out, fish jumping out of the water, water as smooth as glass, me, my sinking canoe, and dolphins coming to investigate... does it get much better than that?!

It was off to NASA the next day. My only complaint was that it seemed like they were going for the Disney effect and I wasn't too impressed with that, especially growing up with Space Center Houston. Oh, and the bathroom was atrocious. However, my admission let me see a 3-D IMAX about the ISS, take a bus out to the launch pads, learn about some of the really cool stuff they're developing, take the simulated shuttle launch experience, and...

coolest thing ever, I got to meet a real astronaut!!! This is me with Mark Lee, who has been on four space shuttle missions! It was pretty awesome. He gave me a challenge and I have until the end of the summer to complete it. It's no small feat, but I'm up for it. How can I let a real, been up in space, floated around in 0-Gs, done unteathered spacewalks, astronaut down!?
Finally, I acquired a running buddy when I arrived in Florida and we set a goal to run to the Georgia border. This last Saturday, we did it. When we started, it was raining and thunder was booming all around us and I thought it was rather stupid to be running in this weather when we could get struck by lightning.

Here is a picture of me and Micah C., tired and sweaty, but at the border!

Next stop, Great Basin National Park, Baker, NV. (By way of Houston, TX for a few days.)