Looking for stock tanks can be exciting – especially in the mountains. A few adventures from this week… (my camera is at work – I will post some photos when I bring it home for the weekend)
Monday, October 16
Sideslopes
In an attempt to shave about 10 miles of slow driving off my route, I followed a two-track road along a fence. Soon the road disappeared over a hilltop, dropping steeply down on terrain that also tipped toward the fence at a severe angle. I’m not sure what angle would cause a truck to roll, but I don’t think I came too close to it. Even so, I would rather drive with my left and right tires at the same elevation.
Spinning
My route took me to two ridges separated by a deep valley. There are no roads through the valley, so the only way to get to the other ridge is to go around the top end of the valley at over 9000 feet. I reached a steep hill in forest that turned out to be muddy and had all four wheels spinning. After several attempts, I managed to get out of the tracks onto some grass along the road, where I gunned it up the hill, spinning in 4-low and bouncing over rocks to the top. Sitting on a knoll at the top is a man in orange with a gun, obviously looking for something with four legs rather than four tires.
Tuesday, October 17
Downslopes
My first site is the Black Canyon Trough, high on a mountain ridge. Again trying to shorten my route, I take a two-track shortcut to another road, but soon find myself angled steeply down. I had no trouble, but the end was a bit scary as the two-track ends on a 15-foot-wide road cut into the mountainside, which means that should one find oneself sliding down the hill they have exactly 15 feet to come to a stop. I never started sliding, so thankfully didn’t have to worry about that.
Trespassing, part 1
After looking for the Deadline Pipeline and finding that it had been removed, I head down the south side of the pass on the west side of the Hogsback mountain. The road has only ATV tracks, which I take as a sign that it is not easy for pickups. Aside from a few tricky washouts, the road isn’t too bad, but at the end I find that I must either turn around and bounce 3 miles back up the mountain or make a dash across private land. In this case, across private land equates to driving straight through a backyard in which 12 big dogs are chained and another 10 dogs are running free. I don’t think anyone was home, or at least no one came out waving a gun as I drove through.
Calpet Spring
After driving up a steep mountainside road and convincing several bulls to move out of the path of my truck, I reach a point where the road cuts into a near cliff, with the road surface sloping outward. Not wanting to die, I walk the rest of the way along a diversion channel from the spring, following it as it bridges over ravines curves around the slope. This is the kind of project I would have loved in my youth if I had had a high-output spring to play with. Calpet Spring is a well-kept secret, a high-pressure artesian spring that fountains out of the mountainside like a giant firehose and cascades down a waterfall. The water tastes good, and I eat my lunch there before continuing on.
Trespassing, part 2
Next stop: Sauli mine spring, a spring back in a deep valley near an old coal mine. Again, my route crosses private land, and I pass two men cutting wood as I drive through. Two minutes later, a guy with a beard braided to his waist pulls up behind me on an ATV, and I expect I am in trouble. Not true. When I tell him I am installing birdramps, he offers to help me, and we find a dead kestrel in the tank. He is an interesting fellow, trained in biology, who sells African and Native American artwork and owns the local bar. After a half hour of chatting about geology, archaeology, and other interesting things, I take my leave and find no more big adventures.
Wednesday, October 18
Snow
Wake up to a dusting of snow on my car, and I drive through snow on my way to my field sites. The snow ends a few miles south of Pinedale, and I encounter no major snow the rest of the day. It is cold though, barely rising above freezing all day with a stiff northwest wind. No real adventures, and I manage to work efficiently.
Kate is back tomorrow, and we have only five more tanks to find before we are finished with this project. Looks like the weather will hold.
I applied for the job in Florida tonight. Hopefully I will know if I have it in a couple of weeks.
