Two Months Late

Heather (not daughter) came to visit back in November and did the Skinny People hike with Teresa and Lydia and a few more hikes with her dog. She sent me pictures and I finally found them. Skinny People.

On the way to town.

A Day

Jax and I are coming back from town, second time this year, and we run into Doug who use to own some of this property next door and still owns the one up on the hill above the lodge and the mud huts. A couple years ago he was willing to sell that hogan to me and we were going back and forth in the $600,000 and $800,000 when the property across the river sold for somewhere between six and eight million, I keep hearing a different story. I know he had showed the property to a couple guys a month or two ago. I ask him if he sold it. He said they offered him two million and he told them no.

The Hybrid fox showed up in the afternoon in bright sunlight and he waited for me to throw him a hot dog. I opened the door to throw him a couple and Jax blue right by me and chased him up the hill. The Hybrid was golden in color. Just beautiful. There he is jumping over Kobae's fence while running up the hill with a little dog one third of his size gaining on him.

A little while later, while I'm out in the parking lot jump starting three of the trucks, they haven't been started this year, I see three cows coming toward us on the Jackson Hole Road. Jax and I jump in the one truck (white) that's running and we head off to turn them around. We get within 100 feet of them and they're blocking the road. I open the door and Jax is gone. He's blowing up the hill right towards them. They take off running over the hill with Jax nipping at their ankles. I hike up to the top of the hill and right as I crest it Jax blast right by me with fear in his eyes and one of the cows is right behind him. I jump forward yelling and the cow turns around and retreats. Jax is down the hill sitting in the front seat of the truck.

We get back and there is an email reminding me just one month before it's time to pick up Kobae. As usual he's knocking things over while he's exploring. Jax and I better get some hiking in before we have to babysit.

Michael Kelsey and Wash Johnson

Michael Kelsey is amazing. He's written, and re-written a lot of books. Canyonlands National Park and Vicinity and River Guide to Canyonlands National Psrk. He has lots of other books but these two are my favorite. He picks an area and learns everything about it for as far back as he can find. He prints a certain amount of them and then over how ever many years when he starts to run out he goes back and double checks everything that has changed and adds the changes keeping the past. There are more pages in the Second Edition and the type gets a little smaller and then he prints a bunch of them and in some more years when he starts to run low the process repeats itself with updates, it's a moving history of the area as he documents the area. He's come by a couple times in the starting 17th year starting this February. You can't find his books in parks and the like because when he hikes a trail he says it takes an hour but the rest of the world it takes 90 minutes to two hours. Kelsey can hike. He showed up one day and I told him about some stuff I found that I didn't care if the word got out. I told him to get in the side by side and I'd show him. He said he'd rather do it himself. Later that day I found his vehicle a mile from Base Camp parked, he'd hiked the whole 12 miles. Another time he came by to ask me what had changed or what had I found. I told him he could have a room and we'd go out in the morning. He didn't want a ride or a room, he'd do it in the morning. Later that evening I had to go do a rescue at the Wind Caves and I drove right past his vehicle with him sleeping in the back.

The first time Kelsey came by he ask me if Wash Johnson's cabin was still down in the tamarisk. I said "where? He pointed out the window into my backyard. After he left I hike down into the tamarish and found a few boards here and there but I just hiked down there a couple days ago with Jax and the tamarish is finally dying and much of what use to be there is coming back. Prommel Oil Well is just to the entrance of Jackson Hole and when it went out of business Wash Johnson bought it and with horses pulled the cabin to it's current location. There Wash trapped foxes for a living.

Dripping Springs

Figured the cowboys would be out to round up the Jackson Hole cattle anyday now so thought Jax and I would hike Dripping Sprngs to save them some time and see if there's any cattle out there. We're going hiking somewhere so might as well be there.

How you make fence posts when the ground is too rocky for a post hole digger to do any good.

Over a week now and Jax and I have still seen just one vehicle before the storms hit.

Dripping Springs is a wonderful place to hike, about a mile past the Wind Caves into the canyon with all kinds of varying terrain.

Hike to Jackson Hole

Got up to aboutt 40 today and can't miss hiking on a day like this. Before the snow a Jeep came by to use the bathroom and said they were going to Jackson Hole. I ask them to let me know if they saw any cows out there so I could pass it on to the cowboys who have pushed the herd down Lockhart Basin. They came back and said they saw two brown cows. Since Jax and I were hiking today anyway might as well head down to the pipeline and see if there's anymore before I call them and they come out to get the two and then I find more later. Tje road has really deteriorated so we drove the truck as far as we could without possibly getting stuck. Jax and I are the only two here and if we get stranded way out there we've no one to walkie to come get us. Was too cold to take a side by side. Almost immediately we found three black calves.

Heading down into Jackson Hole the wind immediately picked up and was driving into our faces. I kept thinking how nice it would be on the way back.

Jax is such a good guy. He doesn't ask if he could. But today he knows we're looking for cattle and he's pick up the scent every half mile or so. I feel bad he has to wait for me all the time.

Sun was going behind the clouds and of course the wind changed direction to be in our faces again on the way back and I was drinking canteens qucker than I ex[pected. Time to go back. we never found anymore cattle but Jax kept telling me they were out there.

Hiking and Stuff

Jax and I have been out hiking everyday since the bulk of the snow melted. From the day before the storm hit we've seen exactly one vehicle out here and that's it. Most of the year the plastic bowls that we've put out in Kobae's pen for the foxed have disappeared a couple times a week. In the past it has always been cattle dogs when the cowboys were camping a few miles from here with the heard but they've hardly done that this year. A few weeks ago I looked out the office window and saw two ravens taking turns dragging it down to the bottom of the driveway. I had no idea.

In the nights a few foxes show up and an occasional ringtial and skunk. The hybrid fox shows up every night. He sits on Kobae's house and waits for me to throw the hot dogs. I throw the first ones out and the hybrid jumps down to get them and Jax chases him up the hill. The hybrid goes over the hill and Jax turns around and walks back down to the porch all triumphant with the hybrid walking right behind him and he never notices.

The days are low 30s with a wind so probably a little below 30 and 15 to 20 in the nights. I'm surprised there's no ice in the river. Nothing going on across the river.

Wednesday Morning Wake Up

Here's what it looked like from the top of Hurrah Pass.

By thursday most of it had melted except some north facing slopes but when Jax and I woke up Friday morning we had received some more to replace it.

Tuesday Jan 17