The arc

[Those are my feet, getting ready for a little more hiking…]

This is an old entry, but I'm trying to get back up-to-date so I have to upload these in order... these are the final entries!

We’re preparing to go out for one final push to wind up this year-long (has it really been a year already?) project. I’m going to keep it a secret when we are planning to leave, because it seems when ever we pick a day to leave, it always happens a day (or a few) later… but soon!
The hardest task at the moment is to dry out all the gear that Isaac has been using recently (he’s been going out and filming at nearby areas), because McCall seems to have become the location of the next arc. Noah must be just nailing the last few boards on his big boat, somewhere high in the mountains not too far away, and pretty soon we are going to be shocked by the influx of pairs of exotic animals migrating from far and wide, as well as the rising flood waters… Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but hardly. It has been raining for, I don’t know, a month? I don’t remember when it started, but it’s been pretty solid for weeks now. We’ve seen a few (as in minutes, or hours) glimpses of sun in all that time, but no more. Now it just rains all day, and occasionally we get a break and have a cloudy day with little wetness, but no sun. It’s just the weather, I know, and we can’t change that (thank goodness), but ok, ok, ok! Ready for some true springtime sun and warmth!
So anyway, drying out the gear has been pretty difficult. It consists of waiting for a moment when the downpours subside, staring at the sky for a while to try to decipher its language, then bolting out to the truck, ripping out all the damp and condensing gear, hanging it all over the cloths line, and then hopping around the deck doing all the sun dances we can think of to ward off the dark grey clouds which by then are looming heavy and close over the trees. Soon after, the drops start falling, and we pull it all down again and pile it back into the truck to wait for the next little break. Fun.
Maybe dry gear is over-rated, as its all going to get wet again the moment we get out there and set it up again. But beginning a trip with damp gear is always a little disheartening…

Update

[This is where Isaac has been basing out of for the past week or so... pretty nice stars, huh?]

I said I would keep updating the blog, even though I’m in town for now, so I guess I’d better do an update! I’m not really sure what to write, I’ve been spending my time going in for holistic allergy treatments almost daily, drawing architectural plans (ahem, that might be a stretch, the architectural part anyhow) for our new piece of land south of town where we have giant sized dreams to grow an abundance of food to feed ourselves and the rest of town (yes, a large greenhouse is involved), going for walks (and sometimes gentle runs!), and basically enjoying the heck out of the spring weather that has just begun to saturate the valley. Just begun, mind you. We still have large areas of snow at the yurt, in the shade and in drifted areas. But in town it is mostly green, and biking around yesterday I saw glimpses of tender purpley-blue poking up through peoples yards which, on closer inspection, turned out to be grape hyacinth and chinodoxa flowers (sp?).
I got an update from Isaac (yes, he has a borrowed satellite phone with him, which neither one of us believes in having while out experiencing the wilderness, but in this circumstance, when we didn’t know if I would go in or he would come out, or when for that matter… its complicated… and yes, those are all just excuses, can ya tell I’m embarrassed??). ANYway, so I got an update from him just this morning, and here is how he’s been spending his time: hiking all over the place in search of spring that has not fully sprung, even there at lower elevation, not finding much wolf activity until just yesterday when he ran into a single wolf up high on Horse Mountain, and then the whole pack hunting elk when he woke up this morning (!), seeing one rattlesnake which seemed very slow and still fairly cold and unactive, and deciding his pack was too heavy (110 lbs.) to hike the 17 miles to where he thinks the Monumental densite might be… smart decision!
He’ll probably head out here to the front country tomorrow (there’s a flight going in to Taylor Ranch, which he’ll jump on to get back out), and from there we’ll make a decision of where to go next. So much for two-legged wilderness travel. I am very disappointed that I am not able to do that right now (with weight anyhow), but in order to make it possible in the future, I need to take care of myself now.

April...showers?

I’d gotten used to seeing the signs of spring, even the tiniest ones. I liked the barely-there shoots of green grass poking up beside the clumps of winter worn vegetation, sprouting like new teeth before the old ones have come out yet. I was used to the miniscule buttercups blooming gold in any warmer pockets: a shallow dip in a meadow, or near the base of a dark colored rock. I was ready for the days when you could walk around without a jacket, or hat, or gloves, and not regret your choice.
We’re in McCall now, and it’s a reality check. There is still a good three feet of snow on the ground. Icicles have sprouted like glass roots under our porch. The other night the temperature dropped to five degrees. And more often than not, the precipitation that falls from the gathering clouds is white rather than clear.
But, it’s not all bad. Actually, none of it is bad, I had just forgotten quite what spring meant in McCall, and not realized it was so wildly different from where we just spent the winter. The snow is really trying to melt, and maybe we’ll be out from under it in another month or so. We’re getting to see friends, and wander around the produce section of the grocery store drooling, and catch up on life in the yurt. I am feeling better by the day, quite literally, and truly hope to get back out there before spring is over in the mountains.
It’s a funny feeling to sit back in a yurt, on the outskirts of a rather tiny town, and miss the solitude of the wilderness. I wouldn’t want to live there forever, and I do enjoy the feeling of community that a small town offers, but I must say, the wilderness has been a good host. I want to go back, and I’m pretty sure that’s a sign of a good visit.

Wandering Star

Isaac spent April Fools Day clopping down the trail, riding Star, followed by three long-eared girls carrying our gear (Bird, Bat, and Penny), all the while singing “Wandering Star”. Needless to say I was jealous, but he was the packer of the day, as right now its not that comfortable to ride long distances, and I can’t keep up with them for too long on foot (though I tried!).
They made the round trip to Cabin Creek and back, through a stormy day of minor snow squalls that wafted down the canyon. From what I heard, all went smoothly, just a few break-away’s broken, and one new candidate for slowed-down, backcountry living.
Thanks to the mules, we are basically moved, except for a few last things we can carry on our own backs. We plan to fly out on the next available plane with some room to carry us, thought the weather has been a bit unpredictable lately. It will be sad to go, but it has been a good winter, and hopefully we will be back soon enough.

And just because I’m in a contemplative mood, here’s a few thoughts for the day:

“This is our place. Let us tend it.”
-Woody Tasch

"There's no use trying," Alice said. "One can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
-Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“Forgiveness is understanding that a person did the very best they could in that moment; otherwise they would have done it differently. It is making that true for yourself as well.”
-Deena Spear

A fork in the Trail

We are nearing the end of March, spring is slowly being painted onto the hills, and we’re thinking about where to go next. Very soon, our digs here at Taylor Ranch will be needed for the University. That means becoming somewhat vagrant again, and the thought is bittersweet. We look forward to getting back to a more “in touch” existence, quite literally, without the conveniences of the cabin, internet, and running water (“running” being a loose term, mostly meaning running in the creek fifty feet away, but just recently, actually running through the thawed pipes and out of our faucets in the cabin-whoa!). We also look forward to being “out” all the time, and not struggling with the temptation to stay in the cozy cabin next to the woodstove on a snotty day. But on the other hand, basing out of Taylor Ranch has allowed us to be out here throughout the winter. For a couple reasons, mainly our electrical power needs, and my current health difficulties, we wouldn’t have been able to be out here all winter otherwise.
We are thinking that we will move our gear up river to Cabin Creek, a wide open bowl-type area with a look almost more like Yellowstone. It would be a great place to watch spring green-up, maybe see some wolf activity, and just have new scenery as spring sets in for real. However, the flip side of the coin is that I need to get out to the front country for a while and do some more work to try and sort out my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have long been off conventional medication for it (it didn’t feel right, and wasn’t helping enough anyhow), and while it has been a long and very bumpy road, I know I am going in the right direction. I truly think I am turning a corner and making (very slow, but) steady progress. There are a lot of amazing things you can learn about your body just by truly paying attention.
So it looks like we may move our base up to Cabin Creek, then take a little time off so I can work some kinks out. After that who knows. I really hope we will be able to get back to the wilderness before the spring is up. Maybe Isaac will come out on his own for a couple weeks. At this point we don’t know and it is just going to have to be taken day by day. I will keep the blog updated from the front country, in hopes that we can come back and finish out our last couple months strong. This is frustrating timing for me, but sometimes you just have to give up how you thought things were going to be, and accept how they are.
Thanks for being patient with this blog. It has definitely had its ups and downs…