City of Rocks Adventure

Thursday June 14 2012

We're off to City of Rocks, to finalize the details for Steph's upcoming City of Rocks Pioneer Trails Endurance Ride coming up in July.

Camping out with the horses, riding Jose, exploring, taking photos, making some videos... stay tuned!

Rudecamp

Monday June 11 2012

What is it about internet discussion groups that occasionally bring out the worst in some people? Typing somewhat anonymously behind a computer screen sometimes gives license to certain people to lapse into the 'You Stupid Idiot' syndrome when they are typing their superior answers to someone's perceived stupid question, when they would never have the balls to say it to someone's face. It turns into a bickerfest, a virtual game of whackamole on the computer screen, the arguing and petty squabbling more important than the original subject, which has become long forgotten and unanswered.

That's one reason I've never joined one particular professional photography organization, whose chat group I found bursting with condescension by some experts to those wanting to learn. It is possible to be helpful without those extra hurtful words, but sometimes it seems one can get drunk on power when you peck the words out on a keyboard.

On some days, Ridecamp on Endurance.net, full of passionate endurance riders, has experienced this YSI syndrome. Most days, most years, it's filled with good questions and answers and information exchange about all subjects endurance, from beginning riders to veterans with tens of thousands of miles.

On one particularly, um, passionate day, I came up with another 'Camp some people might want to join:
Rudecamp.

But the more I thought about it, the more categories I realized we needed, to be politically correct and all, and not get mobbed by those who didn't quite fit in either 'Camp.

And so, I came up with a number of spinoffs for different folks:

Rudecamp for the Rude People

'Toodcamp for the Religiously Right (and I'm not talking religion, I'm talking I'M RIGHT and YOU'RE WRONG)

Snidecamp for the Disparaging

Dudecamp for the Stoners

Stewedcamp for those Far Beyond Help

Moodcamp for the Manics

Broodcamp for the Deep Thinkers

Nudecamp… well, better not, because of young riders

Prudecamp for the Prim and Proper

Pridecamp for the Holier Than Thou

Winecamp, either Red or White

Whinecamp for those who just want to whine, about their fellow riders, their horses, the weather, and fellow 'Campers

Rantcamp (thanks Keith Kibler, for this one!) so you can just let it all out

Runtcamp for the Little People

Spiedcamp for those who left Ridecamp but need to do a little espionage on other people in other 'Camps.

Friedcamp for those who just can't take the other 'Camps anymore

Bridecamp for those in, or about to be in, a select group

Shiedcamp for those who are too timid to try any other 'Camps

Criedcamp for those brought to tears

Diedcamp, for those who have passed on but still like to keep up with the other 'Campers


Please pick your proper groups and sign up. Some cross posting might be allowed for humorous purposes. If you post in the wrong group, John will design an algorithm program to sort your replies into the right category.

In all seriousness, Ridecamp is a great source for endurance information and advice, in the current discussions and the archives. It's just that once in a while, in a sport with such passionate people as endurance riders, Some People wake up on the wrong side of the bed and don't get their coffee for the morning, or for whatever reason need to feel better about themselves on a given day and pontificate in a special way that only finger punching on a keyboard can produce. It's not personal.

And if it is - and this works for any internet group - just have a laugh, take the best away from it and do 3 simple things: Delete, Delete, Delete.

We can all laugh about the online stuff, because you can see from the photos out on the trails what a completely serious sport this is.

Owyhee Secrets

Saturday June 9 2012

While out pulling ribbons from the Owyhee Fandango endurance ride, I came across this young gopher snake digging a hole. I didn't want to get too close because while they aren't poisonous, I hear they can give a painful bite, and I didn't want to bother him at the task at which he was very intent, so absorbed that he ignored this beetle who didn't seem to realize he was in mortal danger. (But then, maybe beetles taste bad to snakes.) I couldn't see anything through my camera screen so I was guessing at what I was shooting, and I was holding my arm out as far as possible, but in this video you can still see the excavating skills of this snake.

[video here]

In addition to the Raven cliff nest I stumbled across with 4 noisy fledged Ravens, I discovered a new hidden little canyon and cave as I cut back to my starting point across country. 

Sometimes when you're out in the boonies and you stumble across something really cool, you fantasize that maybe you're the only person to have found it (not counting the Native Americans who lived here before the whites took over, because in 'our discoveries' we never count the Native Americans - but of course they always knew these places first). I'm unlikely to have been the first white person to find this cave, since not far downstream is the Rock Corral and the sentinel caves surrounding it.

But it is likely few modern people have stumbled upon this place, where the cave overlooks an intermittent creek which, by the looks of the thick trees and vines in the middle of it, runs permanently in this little canyon.

I approached the cave somewhat warily (always looking out for cougars!), and while finding it empty of large mammals, found it large and roomy and accommodating - to rats and mice and perhaps bats. The ubiquitous packrat nest occupied the far end of the cave which dissolved up into a notch in the rock wall, and little nests were stuffed in little pockets in the ceiling. 

No old archeological signs, no obsidian, and no mammal footprints or recent bed impressions in the cave, in which I could have comfortably stretched out or sat tall in, but there was a trail (not used recently) which ran from the mouth of the cave down to the creek. Something larger than a rat has used this cave at some point.

The red cliff walls were a miniature rendering of the deep rhyolite canyons that run on this parallel across the base of the mountains - maybe a million years ago it was one of these deep canyons, or more likely, in a million years, it will be one of these deep canyons. And maybe in a million years, some New Age person will stumbled upon this 'Cave Canyon', and wonder who 'discovered' it, long ago.

Rambunctious Ravens

Friday June 8 2012

From a mile away, I hear them Raising Cain: rowdy raucous ravens rambunctiously renting the air with their Rawking and hollering.

I cross the sagebrush flats and head directly for the noise echoing off the red cliff wall. Bright whitewash dribbles down from a black hole indicating where the Raven nest was.

These 4 siblings have already fledged, bright black and brashly bold, commanding the red cliffs and lone juniper tree 

and in fact the whole Owyhee world. Perhaps it's not a wise strategy, attracting attention to their young, vulnerable, delectable selves from miles away - but then any predator might well be intimidated by the damage these 4 birds can inflict by sheer brashness and by volume alone.

Irreverently, they yell their emphatic opinions as I approach closer: Intruder! Predator! What the hell is that! Danger! Go away! Dare you to come closer! What the HELL is that!

And when I speak: "Hi Ravens!" - the Ravens shush. We stare at each other in a face-off. They study me, heads tilting and eyes blinking to size me up better, and they begin to whisper amongst themselves, What the hell IS that!, and then pretend to ignore me, picking up sticks and carrying them around, scratching their ears, turning their backs to me (while eyeing me over their shoulders), deliberating my intentions, muttering back and forth under their breaths.

As I climb the hill closer to the Raven Tree, one undaunted bird flies onto a boulder above me and yells Intruder!

"Hi Raven!" I say. He stares imperiously down on me from his safe perch. 

My boulder! 

"Hi pretty Ravens!" 

Our canyon! 

"You Ravens are noisy!" 

Very noisy! 

"And beautiful!" 

Yes! 

"And bold!" 

Yes!

The siblings get vocal again.

Bold!

Beautiful

Our canyon!

Rawk! Shriek! Yell!

Boldest Raven dares to leave his boulder and fly low in a circle over my head, staring down at me, before flying off to another perch.

"Bye Ravens!" I say, as I continue climbing up the hill, away from their Raven Tree, but already they are ignoring me, picking up their Raven conversations where they left off: 

My canyon! My tree! Look at my stick! Get that bug! I'm hungry! Where's mom and dad! My Kingdom! I'm beautiful! I'm bold!

They are rulers of their roost, these beautiful Ravens, ready to take on the world, but hanging around the home castle, just in case Mom and Dad might come back and feed them some more. 

Fat chance of that, with these brazen boisterous youths. Mom and Dad fled the coop to be rid of them!

Owyhee Fandango Recap

Nick and his beloved Don at a 100-mile vet check!

Tuesday June 5 2012

It didn't turn out quite as it was planned… but what ever does?

The "F" Team, the Tres Fabulosas, started as me, Connie, and Carol, riding Jose, Finneas and August in the 100 miler, ultimately ended with Connie and Finneas, Carol and August, and Nance and Jasbo successfully crossing the 100-mile finish line around 1 AM Monday morning.

But, as were all Fabulously Flexible Fabulosas, it all turned out good.

I ended up riding Jose on a 50 on Day 2. On Day 3, Steph started out as a Fabulosa with Connie and Carol; she entered Batman in the 80 miler (which started at the same time, 6 AM), and would decide after 80 miles if she wanted to elevate to the 100 miler and continue onward with Connie and Carol.

She decided Batman had done enough at 80 miles, so it was down to Dos Fabulosas Connie and Carol to finish the 100, until Nance and Jasbo joined the group leaving camp at 10 PM or so in the dark, following glowsticks that John had just put out by ATV.

Connie and Finneas at a 100-mile vet check

13 of 17 riders completed the 100, including Kathleen Edman, riding a beautiful Rocky Mountain horse Pierce the Veil, who elevated from the 80 to the 100. At the Awards Monday morning, Connie, still in her pajamas, gave a speech (kinda like the Oscars) about the completion of her and Finneas' first 100-mile ride. She promises to write a story about it for this blog, which should be as hugely entertaining as her speech, for which Steph threatened to have her dragged off stage for its length.

That was it for another year of the Owyhee Fandango - rather poorly attended this year, but great fun for all involved.

Here's the video I took and made of Day 2 on Jose:

You can watch all 6 videos I made of the ride, including Sunday's Fabulosa 100-mile ride (camera worn by Steph on Batman! - it's a bit wobbly because of the helmet cam harness Steph wore… hence a lot of still shots in the video!) on the Owyhee Fandango ride page on Endurance.net:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012Fandango/

Snake River Ferruginous Hawks

Saturday June 2 2012

It was more ridiculous cuteness - a hawk banding day with the BLM on the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area, just like the screech owls in May.

In addition to nest boxes, now-retired BLM biologist John Doremus also put up nesting platforms on the grass prairies above the Snake River, which the ferruginous hawks favor. Here a baby is standing up on the nest as Jessica climbs the ladder. 

BSU students and raptor banders Jessica and Patrick had the honors of retrieving the babies from the platform nests and banding them while regaling us with Ferruginous Facts.

Here Jessica is removing babies from the nest. She uses one hand to distract their attention, then puts her other hand on the back of their neck, in effect pinning them down so they can't open their wings. Once she reached underneath to grab the feet, they didn't struggle.  

The female usually lays 2-4 eggs, sometimes up to 6. The first nest we visited had 5 young and the second nest had 2 young. Both adults incubate the eggs for 28-33 days, and then tend to the young; the young will fledge at 44-48 days.

Adults are white and rust colored - hence the name ferruginous, which derives from the Latin ferrugo, meaning rust. The legs are feathered down to the toes, but not underneath, which makes sense, so that the feathers don't get soiled.

They're a little larger than a red-tailed hawk; females are larger than males. You can see the difference here - female is on the right, male on the left (Patrick said this male is a little older than the female).

Main prey is the jackrabbit and ground squirrels, both of which are abundant in this area. The hawks also eat gophers, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects. We found remains of ground squirrels in both nests.

The adults left the nest long before we got anywhere near it. The pair at the first nest were quite vocal and made some half-hearted dives at the first 3 people at the nest, though when the rest of us approached after the babies were down on the ground, the enraged pair flew high above screaming their contempt. At the second nest the adults were not so vocal nor aggressive.

These nestlings are panting because of the heat and stress, though once you get a hold of them out of the nest, they really relax and tend not to struggle, because they don't have those instincts yet - their instinct is to sit still and hunker down at this age. 

When we handled the birds we kept them shaded and handled them gently, just keeping hold of the feet. They aren't able to use their wings to flap or struggle yet, and they don't use their feet as weapons yet - and good thing, because look at the size of those claws and talons!

Here Patrick fits a silver band with a federal number on the baby's leg. All but one of the babies was banded, he was deemed a little too young (about 24 days), and his legs would probably grow a little larger. The other babies' (ranging from roughly 28-34 days) legs were already adult-size.

Notice this circular path in the cheat grass around this nest - it must be predators - coyotes? - circling the nest, eyeing the contents - it's a dog eat bird world out there, and chances of survival for the young are against them. With luck they will successfully fledge and learn to hunt and survive in the big world.

More ridiculously cute Ferruginous Hawk baby pictures.

I tried to slip one in my pocket to take home but those darn banders know how to count.

Ribbonmeister

Friday June 1 2012

Doing his part to help with the Owyhee Fandango, Stormy pulled ribbons from one of the trails after the ride.

He might not cover quite the mileage the endurance horses do, but he likes to put his two cents in, and he takes his job very seriously. (And he takes the dog for a walk at the same time.)


He may not be the easiest and most practical horse from which to pull ribbons, since he's the tallest one we have at 16.2 hands (so tall I have to climb off him to reach some of the low ribbons), but he's certainly the most beautiful ribbon puller!