Tallest Ridge

Our first day was behind us and a 1,800 foot elevation gain before us.  Lizard Head trail was where we where headed.  Knowing most of today would be up hill left me with mixed feelings.  I love ridge hiking, where you're walking on the tippy-top of the mountain.  I love being able to see glaciers, and myriads of mountain tops poking their heads up in the distances. I love feeling small in comparison.

Usually the first mile in a hike is a good warm up for the rest of your day. This however; was not the case for this hike. The first mile was very pleasant as we walked away from the Cirque. The terrain was green and lush making the surrounding mountains look very harsh and powerful in contrast. There was no gradually gain of  elevation. One moment it was like a morning stroll in the park and the next you got slapped in the face with the reminder that, no, this is not a walk in some quaint tame little city park, but this was a hike through a wild place. A place not made for the faint of heart.

The sign in the photo to the right was also a good reminder of this. You may or may not be able to see, but the sign is no longer informative. The words have been scrapped off either by wind and snow or animals. Though I'm sure both have worked together to leave the hiker questioning for a moment as to whether or not they should proceed with their intended route.  We of course decided to continue full speed ahead.  It would be hard and most likely we'd each take turns attending our own pity parties, but they would be very short lived in light of what we had the privilege to see.

I could continue to write about how extremely heavy my backpack was and how it really cramped my style during this extreme uphill climb, but I won't waste your time by going into so much detail about that. Instead I'd like to tell you about all the amazing flowers there where the  higher we got.  

It was truly incredible. Who would think at once you were above 11,000 feet that the ground around you would explode into so many colors.  We saw columbine, ox eye daisies, buttercups, Indian paint brush, queens crown, common fireweed,  mountain lupine,  monkshood, alpine for-get-me-nots, and marsh- marigolds. I'm sure there were many more, but this helps give you an idea.  Here we where in a harsh environment with thousands of delicate flowers blanketing the mountain sides.

Another thing we found as we continued to climb was water.  And this wasn't visible snow melt which is so common, but spring water.  Water so clear and cool bubbling right up out of the ground. Being on top of the ridge and seeing water flowing everywhere around us was amazing. I thought by August everything but the glacier produced streams and drainages would've been dry.

This is Lizard Head Peak and the lake closest to it is Bear Lake.

Oh, and let me just say, if you've never gotten to see a glacier, you need to. Now these glacier are not as big as they once used to be, but they where no less impressive in my mind. Just look at this! As you look at all the rocky ridges around you, you see that at one time they all house glaciers of their own. You could see where the glacier slid down out of the mountains carving a path for themselves and the water to follow.

All day my mind was being blown by the astonishing creation surrounding me. I still can't understand how most people can look at these incredible works and attribute them to chance. If you listen you can hear them screaming out that they were hand crafted. Chance could not ever make something so inspiring. The beauty of this place was hard to take in.  I wish these photograph did their reality better justice. I almost hate photographing these mountains and glaciers because the photographs are completely unable to capture their immense majesty. I am humble by such landscapes, it makes me ask the question, "Who am I?"

Cathedral Peak 12,000ft high

The river in the picture is the Wind River. 

First One Step Then Another

This past Monday night flew by in anticipation of our backpacking trip the following morning. It had only been the pervious week that we decided to make this trip work  in conjunction with our 3rd wedding anniversary.  I was feeling a bit overwhelm or maybe over packed and terribly excited. It had been four years since I'd gone backpacking.  All I could think of was being over 11,000 feet in the air and seeing oceans of mountain tops and ridge lines.  

Tuesday morning dawned, we grabbed our packs and jump in our truck. We were off!  Because the short planning time frame of this this trip I neglected to look up the distance to the trail head. All I knew was that is was down highway 28 going toward Farson, (wy) and that from the highway we'd be making a right turn. For the future I will be figure out the distance from the ranch to  the trailhead. We had no trouble finding the turn off for the Big Sandy Opening Camp ground, but what I wasn't counting on was the fact that from the highway it was another 36 miles back to the camp ground. 

For some reason I was figuring on the camp ground being only a few miles off the highway and if it had been it would've taken just over any hour to get there and we'd be hiking by 0900. As it turns out we didn't start our hike till 1100 . . . and we had 9 hard uphill miles to hike our first day, not that either James or I really cared. We were actually going on a trip we'd talked about for the last 3 years.   

The parking lot at the Big Sandy was packed to over flowing with vehicles from all over the country; there were people everywhere.  It was an easy enough hike to start off with. This part of the trail was wide and very well traveled, with ventrally no elevation gain. Big Sandy Lake was our first stop and that was about 4 miles into the hike. By the time we reached the lake I realized that I over pack our food,(by 20 pounds) and that my backpack was not made to comfortably support the weight I was carrying (my pack weighed in at 50lbs).  

My feet were already protesting with a few blisters; which is frustration when you're wearing a pair of very broken in boots, but no worries we had a couple of foot kits on hand. We stopped by the lake side where I pulled off my boots and James whipped out the map. Our first real elevation gain was just around the corner! I could feel my excitement growing, it's that feeling that sits low in your stomach, making you take deep intentional breaths. It was about to start really looking like the beautiful wild wilderness I loved.  This hike was about to get real, real hard that is. 

The funny thing is that the higher you climb the more your body protest the weight on your back and the lack of oxygen in your blood. You can feel it in your legs with each step upward, you can feel in the your heart as it beats in fast, short pulses and in your erratic breaths that fight to be controlled. It's worth all that uncomfortableness and more when you reach the top; you start to see the world around you falling away and beginning look more like painting than something tangible. 

Our goal for our first day out was to hike to the Cirque of the Tower. I'd been there before, but I'd not gotten there from crossing Jack-Ass Pass. The name of the pass should have been enough of a warning. I'm not sure that I need to say more on that, it's should be pretty obvious. Unlike most mountain passes, Jack-Ass pass was not a switchback but it went straight up and over. This was defiantly not the easiest way to the Cirque. The trail presented one challenge after another with no break in between. 

Before we actually made our final ascent into the Cirque of the Towers we crossed a tremendous boulder field and I mean it was tremendous. As I looked as the boulder field before us I couldn't help think of Mordor in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Each step you took had to be thoughtful. Falling could not be an option. The consequence for a fall had a high possibility of ending the hike before it's even really begun. There were a few times I found myself thinking about how I would hike out with a crack skull or a broken ankle. Thankfully though, we were able to toil through this almost half mile of rock with no accidents.  

Once that agony was completed it was time to hike straight up a mountain. Our pace had slowed considerably, but that just gave us more time to admire all the flowers that began to appear as we continued to gain elevation. By the time you reach the top your muscles are feeling every pound in your pack, but once you crest the pass all that weight feels like it slipped from your shoulders and all you could do at that point is gawk at the grandeur towering around you. 

 Now that we made it to the top it was time to come down. I've decided it is considerably worse than going up. It makes me feel three times my age. This trail also looked suspiciously like an old donkey path. It'd be fine if we had a donkey with us to carry the weight down the mountain, but with every step down my aching knees where  making me wonder why no one had thought to redesign it for human feet.  

  9 miles 7 hours, not to shabby when you consider that more than half our hike was up hill on some pretty brutal trails; which, quit honestly were probably originally made by donkeys for donkeys.  Dinner, of course, was amazing and please don't even get me started about my sleeping bag.

Side Note

 I just wanted to give a short note about food preparation and backpacking: A good rule of thumb is for food while your backpacking is one pound of food per person per day. I think I must have packed 3 pound of food per person per day(which is just ridiculous). I can't stress enough about the  important of having enough time to adequately plan your backpacking trip. It really makes a noticeable outcome in your trip.  I took time to make sure I had the right gear: i.e. sleeping bag, first aid kit, cooking stove, fuel, maps, compass, R.A.D plan exedra . . .  but to be honest I really slipped on the food preparation. The hike would been much easier will 20 less pounds of weight. Another important thing to take note of is the weight limit of you backpack.

All backpacks are not made equal. I have the Gregory Sage women's backpack which is only 45 liters.  It's max carrying weight is 30 pounds, anything much over 30 pounds will be uncomfortable. I'll talk more about my pack problems in the next few posts, so I'll just say that you'll save yourself a world of hurt it you take the time to know the in's and out's of the gear you're using. 

The Mountains are Calling . . . Part 2

I'd grown up with people telling me that I was leader, but I never really believed them or wanted to believe them, at any rate.  It was so much easier and less messy to just do what you were suppose to and not worry about what anyone else was doing. This course challenged me to step up and take responsibility for my piers as well as my own actions. NOLS strives to teach leadership skills through adventure. The definition of adventure being: an event or series of events that the out come is uncertain. Being in the backcountry with the highly unpredictable weather of the mountains as well as a number of high to low risk situations that are handed to you daily, such as: river crossings, sloppy navigation, dehydration or hypothermia set the stage for the perfect classroom, where the students were not given the luxury of falling asleep in class unless it would be to detriment of themselves, or of their fellow class mates.

All of these hazards if you will, helped to fine tune all number of leadership skills. As a part of the curriculum each of us had a turn being a Leader of the Day or a L.O.D. Here we were really front and center.  As the L.O.D. we were responsible for getting our hiking group from point A to point B. We had to write a R.A.D plan which stand for Route And Description. This would entail figuring out how many miles we'd have to walk to our next "home" and how long it would take us to get there. As well as how we would go about making our way to the next point. All this was to ensure that we would not become lost.

I loved reading the maps, it felt like the world was at your finger tips. All the topography lines looked like works of art. It might of helped that our R.A.D plans were suppose to sound like a letter or a story, it played to my romantic side I suppose.  So along with the writing of a R.A.D. plan it was your job as the leader of the day to give your team a hiking brief so everyone was on the same page.

While we hiked we could ask someone to navigate and lead, or if we felt competent enough we could do it ourselves.  We had the right if you will as leader of the day to make final decisions (unless of course one of our instructions felt the need to intervene). It was hard learning that there was a fine line between knowing when it was prudent to take advise and prudent to stick to your guns.  If you were open to learning from others and  were willing to trust what you were taught the learning was endless.  To end your day as the L.O.D. you have a debrief of the day, which would include asking your team how they thought you did as their leader and how you could improve in affirmation of your performance. As well as a general discussion of how everyone thought they did and how it effected the team in a positive or negative way.

This was the leadership skill I was most afraid of. For whatever reason I'd grown up alway doubting my decisions and choices. It was so easy for me to second guess myself. I didn't approach problem solving the same way most people did, so I was always comparing myself to everyone else to see how they did it and my conclusion was almost always that I was somehow doing it wrong.

 As the course continued I learned to be comfortable with making decisions and feeling sure of them. I even became comfortable with apologizing for my mistakes and whats more I began to really enjoy taking care of my fellow teammates.  Instead of not taking action because I was afraid what might happen or being worried about how someone else would handle the situation I was able to weigh the risks of what might happen to the likely hood that they would. For the first time in my life I was really start to feel comfortable with the person God made me to be. I was feeling confident and competent in my ability as a leader. I wasn't really afraid anymore.

The Mountains are Calling

In a week or so me and my husband will be heading up into the Wind River Mountains to celebrate our third wedding anniversary (my how time flies).  It's been so long since I've gotten to go back packing that it's getting hard to contain my growing excitement.  It was in my first post that I mentioned being a part of a National Outdoor Leadership School (or NOLS for short) expedition in the Wind River Mountains which are located in Central Wyoming. This expedition has had such a profound influence on my life that it deserves a second and maybe even a third post.

I was nineteen years old and like most nineteen year olds I didn't know what I wanted to do with myself. It was just about a year earlier that my family had moved from south Florida to Lander, Wyoming a town of roughly a 7,000 people (talk about a huge culture shift).  For the last six years I grew up in Homestead which is about an hour south Miami. The most I did outside was surf and play soccer. It was a fend for yourself kind of world, while Lander is the opposite.

We made the move in the month of January not an ideal time to move out west, but we did it. Once I was able to look past the mountains and blue sky that surround the town I noticed that everyone walked or rode their bikes everywhere. As the year warmed up it became even more apparent and I began to hear the word Nolsie tossed around.  I learned to associate it will hippie, yuppie types of people around town.

"Disheveled, yet put together",  as my dad would later call them, because of their paired patched thrift store pants and general sloppy unshowered appearance with expensive big-name outdoor brand


sweaters or jackets.  It's a look I've learned to embrace and even love in its own way, but enough of that for now. How did I get get mixed up with this group? Someone mentioned the school to my mom because they thought I might be interested, though I'm still not sure how they knew.

I was curious about a school that was completely conducted outdoors because I never got along with traditional education. My hopes where quickly crushed once I saw the tuition price for a month long course. There was just no way that I or my parents could afford a course like this.  My worrying was in vain thankfully. They had a specific scholarships for the people in my county since it was the headquarters of the school.

I quickly applied for the Paul Petzoldt Scholarship and waited to receive the letter that would tell me whether I was a recipient of the scholarship or not. It felt like such a long wait, though; I'm sure you've already guessed the outcome. I got the scholarship! and it wasn't just a partial scholarship put a full ride, everything was paid for.  Now it was time to start preparing for a month in the mountains.

A whole month! I really don't know what I was thinking since the longest hike I'd ever done had been three miles with only a water bottle to carry. I would just have to love it, because if I didn't it was going to be one long miserable month.  The day finally came and I was introduced to the "gang", which; consisted of three instructors and ten other students. There were only three other girls.

As an introvert I knew it was going to be a challenge to be around people all day and not really be able to get away for some good quality quite time. I was so nervous after our first meeting. I didn't really seem to fit in, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. I wanted to see mountains and wild places I could only imagine. It was a Monday morning at the NOLS Rocky Mountains branch that we bagged tons of food (literally) and were issued all our gear. Needless to say it was all a bit overwhelming and I was trusting that my instructors knew their stuff. Which could be a challenge when you're told you could only have a couple pair of underwear and no deodorant for the next month.

 By three'o clock we were bused out to Sinks Canyon and dropped off for the night. It was actually happing! We camped that night in the Canyon and were given three very vital lessons, how to purify water along with why it was important, how to properly pitch a tent and last but not least . . . . how to poop in the woods,(I'm sorry there is just no nice way to say it). With these three vital skills we laid down in our tents under the cool starry skies and fell fast asleep.

Day two was one of the hardest days for me, which as I look back makes me laugh since our second day out really wasn't as hard as many of our future days turned out to be. Day two for me was the measuring rod. If I wasn't able to hike up this ridge with 65 lbs now I just knew that I wouldn't have what it took to make it the rest of this trip. Every step was painful, my knees hurt, my back hurt, the backpack dug awkwardly into my shoulders. Oh my goodness! 65 pounds was so heavy!

Every step was hard, but it was also beautiful. Each step up the ridge was one more step away from everything I was familiar with. I was entering places which where completely unknown to me and it made the pain worth every step.  With every step I took the mountains unfolded before my feet urging me forward to see what was over the next ridge. I was hooked or perhaps more appropriately I was in love.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

     Seven long months ago we started building this tiny house. Now's is July and we're just about finished, I'm learning that ranching and trying to build a home at the same time may be conflicting interests; hence the reason I've not written anything this year, as of yet.  

In retro-spec this was not a good idea since now I have to catch up on seven months of building. . .  This house has presented us with many problems, but I can gladly say that they have all been overcome. 

     It was the trailer that ultimately dictated our floor plans, so with some creative thinking we redid out layout and made adjustments to compensate for a lower trailer bed.  You're probably wondering why on earth it's taken so long to build such a small house, (don't worry you are not alone I often find myself wondering the same thing).  There are so many factors that have slowed us down, so I'll just start from the beginning. 

   First off we did not have blueprints. This meant that every morning before we started building we'd have some problem solving to do and then James would draw up the plans for the part of the house we would be working on that day. This slowed down our framing process because we had to figure out our stud spacing for each wall. We ended up building a total of eight walls for the house.  All in all it took us about a week to  build the walls when it should've taken a few days.  

       That was out first mistake not having blueprints the second; which, is probably worse; is that we were picking out our materials as we were building. We got set back about a month with our windows and about an other month our interior siding, but those where just the big things that held us up.  While having five people around to bounce ideas off can be nice and tremendously helpful at times, there is point where all that comes of it is a stalemate.  The more work we get done on the house the more I'm convinced that being able to be objective is a true virtue, as well as perhaps a talent. 

       Then of course there was the distance. Since we're building in a rather remote part of the United States we made several trips to hardware stores as well as an Ikea store up to six hours aways; now, that would slow anybody up, right? The last thing that has been slowing us down is the ranch. It's funny how all of a sudden it's spring time and cows are having babies everywhere you look. The next think you know you're having to brand and cut the little doggies and turn everything out to their summer pastures and if that wasn't enough now we have to constantly move the cows from one well to the next.While the house just has to sit there a half forgot and probably feeling forlorn.

       

This is what I've come to take away from this experience: If you are planing on coming up with your own design the more detailed they are the better. I would recommend having blue prints drawn up, if not I would encourage you to take the time needed to draw up all the parts of the house; from the framing, electrical (if you're going to have any) to the plumbing, I mean everything.  This will making everything go smoother. Oh! and it's a great, great idea to have a material list written out.

       After your plans are pretty much settled I'd go ahead and start ordering all the major part of the home; such as, the lumber for framing your home, windows, siding, (whether for the exterior or interior), the stain you will be using. An easier way to say this is, order everything that taking weeks to arrive before you start building. This way even if something happens and your order is delayed, it won't set you back.  

       I don't know what I can say about deadlines other than if you set one try your hardest make it happen. Once you get held back it's so hard to make up time especially if you are only building part time. This has been such a serious post and kind of a downer, sometimes that's just how it is, but  don't let all the work involved scare you off. I know it doesn't sound like it, but I've had so much fun helping to build and design this house! You run the house not the other way around, make it yours!

                                    Here are a few photos to show you our progress. Enjoy!

 

         

Home on the Range

This is part of the Gap pastures we fixed fences in

I'm quickly learning that when you're living out on a ranch that the idea of a set schedule soon becomes a laughable idea.  So much depends on the weather and during the winter months, how the calves are doing.  Every day you watch and evaluate.  Sometime during the first or second week of November we rounded up the cows so we could ween the calves. 

So weening a calf goes something like this: First we'll gather all the pairs (cow and calf) from their current pasture into a corral. That's the easy part from there we attempt to sort the cows from calves as well as sorting our cows from strays that have some how or another found their way into our herd.  From the corral to the alley and then finally the cows get loaded on to a semi truck. The cows will be sent to their winter pastures while the calfs will be taken back to the ranch. 

Seems simple enough, but cows have a mind of their own; though I don't think any more needs to be said about that.  Days later it was time to vaccinate and tag the calves.  Yes, the calves are vaccinated! The Anderson try to raise their cows as naturally as possible, hopefully in the future  we'll be able to go organic, but I'll talk about that another time.  The vaccine is for a fast moving strain of pneumonia that unfortunately has left a few of the calves dead.

When you are vaccinating calves that are between 400lb and 600lbs you cannot mess around and seeing as you can't really sweet talk a cow into getting its shots this (the picture below) is what we use.

The green contraption in the middle of the picture is the shoot.

 You run or rather shove, push, or doing just about anything you can think of to get them to move through the alley into the shoot.  Once they get in the shoot there are back doors that close behind them and the front "doors" close around their neck, but that's not all to finish it up there is a leaver you pull that squeezes them so they can't move around.  Now, and only now can you can vaccinate and tag your cow without fighting a losing battle.  

While weening and vaccinating seems like a big job it is dwarfed by the task of fixing fences.  Miles and miles of barbed wire fences that have been cut, rusted out or that are just loose and sagging all crying out for help.  I'm not exaggerating at all. 6,000 acres of land that needs some attention. 

                                                                                       I can't really complain the job is simple

Here's the back of the fencing truck with  Red our trusty cow dog

enough. I like to call it a zen job. You're working, but your mind is left to think on the more weighty things of life. It gives you a chance to admire the handy work of God.  Granted after about three weeks of it you're ready for a change, but you'll not here me complaining about it's a job that has to get done, but it allows you to be a bit more thoughtful.  So you see I have a good reason for my prolonged absence from the blogging scene, and there is still more to tell!

Old cabin in Conchen field

So Long and Fair Well

   

 A month and half later I find that I finally have time to sit down and write. There is so much to update you all on! First of all if you haven't figured it out already we made our move from 29 Palms California to the greater Fremont County Wyoming area. Moving always tends to be stressful so all things considered the move went smoothly. Our good friends Luke and Jonathan Anderson made the roughly 900 mile drive down from Wyoming to help us load up our home and pack our few belongings on our trailer, (which will be our home!).

Here you see the back Luke's F350 full along with the trailer. 

I'm happy to say that we fit all our belongs on a quarter of our 28' trailer frame, in the back of Luke's truck and our Subaru Outback. For a while I was not sure if we be able to move without the help of a Uhaul trailer. Needless to say I was pretty thrilled that we'd been able to meet our goal.

After a few days of rushing around like a bunch of crazy people, we finally rolled out of town at 1200 on the 24th of October.

Moving is kind of a bitter sweet. Leaving one home for another. Saying goodbye to good friends, as well as; in this case a desert that you saw as beautiful and three pairs of humming birds that conversed with you almost daily;  all while looking forward to seeing old friends and a range of mountains that seems to call your name. I guess you can say the desert area in 29 does become beautiful after a while, but 115 degrees can never become appealing not even with time. So, enough sentimentalism now getting back to the facts. . .

This is the majority of our home goods on the front porch.

At a little after 1400(sorry that's military time for 2:00 p.m.) on the 25th of October we pulled into the quaint mountain town of Lander Wy. Here we unloaded our things into my parents garage; where they will sit till we finally decide what will be kept.

 Still wondering what's taken me so long to update you all?  Don't worry I have a good reason, but you'll have to read my next post to get caught up on all that.