Moments in Dirt and Ink

Bristlecone Field Office BLM (blue lines, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 My rib didn't feel any worse after a sleep. Bashing it on my camera the day before left it feeling bruised, but no bruise seemed to be forming. The chocolate pancakes were still very good. I'd neglected to pocket some fluff from the mountain mahogany, but the fluff off a rabbit bush got the stoves flaming nicely for a little warm water. I was in a grand position to watch the colors on the clouds as the day brightened. It was a little moment of perfection. Spots of color across the sky. My little patch of flat dirt under the interesting rocks. Then I got packed up and moving upward and the perfection ebbed away quickly. The north side seemed a nice enough side to go up at first, but then things got steeper and steeper until I couldn't find a footing. But I could go up. Eventually I couldn't go up far enough. I had to go down. I had to cross. Just short of the bottom, I sli...

Caliente Field Office BLM Bristlecone Field Office BLM (green lines, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 A new day and time to continue on with Plan B, up to the high point in the morning then as far along as possible to Schoolhouse Spring. Since I hadn't got over the last little ridge to a large flat for my camp, I had to pack up before going up. I felt like I had a lot of water still, so I cooked breakfast leaving my pancakes for the next day. A changing terrain to face later. An Uinta chipmunk still out gathering for winter. Are the little seeds of the white fir part of the gathering? The map marks pinnacles along the little ridge, and here is one. The flat does look like it would have been a great place to camp so long as it wasn't too windy. I dumped my gear among some logs and had a big ridge to go over. Some 600 feet up, 200 down, and another 400 up again to the top.

Bristlecone Field Office BLM Caliente Field Office BLM (redder lines, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 I took the weekend to write, then Monday to post and shop and find information. In Ely, you can get kerosene and denatured alcohol from the ranch store and white gas from the supermarket, so I could keep my stoves running. I didn't find anything of interest in the sports shop. The Forest Service district office is kind with water and has a spigot that doesn't go off in winter. Then I ran south to avoid weather. I was aiming at a spot behind (east of) Lund, but landed along an unmaintained, but well used, access road for the South Egan Range Wilderness. I walked the road to Sheep Pass Well and decided I could drive it. There was more thumping than expected, so that's as far as I got. I suppose I got just far enough south, because I watched it rain over Lund as I ate in the dry. Special bonus weather passing over Lund picture from the day before this...