Sweetwater Mountains

Up in Sweetwater Canyon

A couple of weeks ago I went down past Wellington Nevada for work. We went to both the sweetwater mountains and the Pine Nut Mountains to look at some possible projects.  I have not spent much time in this area, but it is beautiful.  The road there 338, is gorgeous, it goes right between the two mountain ranges, with the sweetwaters to the west and the pine nuts to the east.  You get a gorgeous view of Bald Mountain the 4th highest mountain in the Pine Nuts. 

Since neither Dan or I have spent much time in that area, we decided to head down and checkout the sweetwaters.  The sweetwaters run north-south with the northwest end in Nevada and the southeast end in California.  We decided to hike up sweetwater canyon, which actually has a road in it, but not a road that our Subaru could handle, although a high clearance 4x4 could easily drive on it.  We were lucky we didn't see anyone out on the road or in the area.

We hiked a ways up the canyon and came to a nice, little use cabin--Nugent Cabin, is its name.  I was very impressed, people really take care of the place.  It has been kept up very well with a lot of love, so if you head up there please, please, please be sure to leave nicer than you find it--it is a great resource that we would hate to see get thrashed and/or closed.

View during the hike

Nugent Cabin

Nugent Cabin

Critter, does anyone know who it is?

Dan and Coco on the hike

Another view during the hike

An Afternoon at Washoe Lake

Washoe Lake-and if you look closely there are two big helicopters flying overhead

We started the day very slowly on Saturday.  It was a nice relaxing start to the weekend.  Dan made us some bacon and eggs, tea and coffee.  We wanted to get out and explore, but we wanted an adventure that Dusty could join us on--meaning nothing too long or too rough.  We decided Washoe Lake, would be a good option as we could hike around, but also hang out by the lake if dusty was tired or we just wanted to sit and read or take pictures.

Washoe Lake is south of Reno, north of Carson City.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but it was brisk.  Brisker than it had been in Reno lately.  I was unprepared for how cold it was.  Luckily, Dan had an extra jacket in the car and I was smart enough to at least bring gloves and a hat--thank goodness.  My fingers turned to ice every time I took my gloves off to take i-phone photos-silly touch screens, I can't wait till they figure that one out.

The last couple of winters have been pretty bad, not a lot of precipitation and our area needs as much as it can get.  I must say though, that I am happy to see there is still water in Washoe.  When I was a kid Washoe dried up quite often, it's been several years since it has and hopefully it will be a long time before it does again.  We got some more precip yesterday and hopefully there is more to come, keep keeping your fingers crossed!

Dusty enjoying the lake

My sweet family

Light on Washoe Lake

Dan and Coco Enjoying the Lake

First Wildflower 2012

On Sunday we took the family out for a little day hike and much to my surprise I saw my first wildflower of the 2012 season!  I'm pretty sure this is the earliest I've seen a wildflower. I marked my calendar February 26, 2012. 

Here it is!!!

 Lomatium

It was a Nevada Biscuitroot (Lomatium nevadense), which is an early bloomer and is always among the first wildflowers I see each season. 

It was crazy though, finding this wildflower on Sunday, I woke up Monday morning to about a half foot of snow on the ground.  Hopefully this little guy was able to tough out the storm. 

Lions and Tigers and Birds, Oh My!

We had an excellent president's day weekend. 

We started off Saturday morning with a trip up to the Animal Ark for their Wild Winter Weekend.  The bears and tortoises were hibernating, but we were able to see everyone else, mountain lions, bobcats, tigers, coyotes, a gray wolf, foxes, cheetahs, raccoons, badgers, owls and falcons.   Most of the animals are lifetime residents of Animal Ark and can not be returned to the wild. However, they do have a bear rehabilitation program and release bears back into the wild once they are ready.  One of my favorite things about the Animal Ark is that all the animals have unique stories posted detailing the circumstances that brought them to the Animal Ark.  The stories are fascinating and really help visitors understand what the Animal Ark is all about. 

Rayna, the gray wolf

Meeting Whoopi the Peregrine Falcon

 

Cheetahs don't like the snow, this is either Moyo or Jamar, not sure which

After our trip to the Animal Ark, we headed to our usual game of afternoon pick-up frisbee.  The wind was really roaring and the game was somewhat ridiculous due to the high winds, so we ended up not staying terribly long.  

On both Sunday and Monday we went for hikes with the entire family, goats and all.  On Sunday, we hiked up behind our house, where we threw the disc around and hiked slow, letting the kids graze, sniff and pretty much do whatever they wanted.  On Monday, we all went for a 4 mile hike up past Verdi to Old Quilici Ranch road.  We hiked along the southeast bank of the Truckee along the water access road, which is a great place to hike with the family.  It has rolling terrain, with a nice, wide trail and is quite picturesque.

 View of the Truckee River

 Dan and the kids

 The Truckee

 Goats playing near the water

Throughout the weekend we participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC).  Some of the birds we counted were, brewer blackbirds, mourning doves, red tail hawks, mallards, coots, and a pied-billed grebe, just to name a few. 

What a great weekend spent outdoors with amazing animals and my awesome family!

Warm Hike into the Hills in January

The weather here in Northern Nevada is finally starting to get a bit chilly. It has been incredibly warm all through December and most of January, which is a bad thing of coarse, but has made it nice for hiking and playing outdoors. A week or so ago we took the kids out on family hike into the hills just behind our house. Check out how gorgeous the day was, unfortunately it appears I had a smudge or something on my lens :(

Twin Lakes Reunion

The upper lake with mountains

Last weekend I went to Twin Lakes, CA to visit some friends of the family. Several of the people I grew up with, but hadn't seen in something like 10 years. It was wonderful to spend time in such a gorgeous place, catching up with old friends.

Twin Lakes is an amazingly beautiful place and I feel lucky that I have had the opportunity to spend as much time here as I have. Our friends own a couple of cabins in the area and as a kid I would come up with their family on holidays and in summer to play. It was a lot of fun. In summer there's swimming, hot springs, hiking and backpacking. In winter there's skiing, sledding, snowshoeing and hot tubbing. So much fun for a kid...and adults as well!!!

Unfortunately I did not take many pictures on this trip--I was too busy catching up and playing with everyone's cute kids.

Les and Dick on a morning hike.

Getting ready for the ice cream hike with the kiddos.

Enjoying ice cream in the sun!

Two of my great friends, father and daughter.

A Walk In Pearl's Canyon

The kids on the road to Pearl's Spring

Dan and I went to Leonard Creek Ranch last weekend to meet up with a cyclist. He is doing a bike tour from Missoula, Montana to San Fransisco, California and found us on warmshowers.org, a site that connects bike tourists with people who are willing to let them use their showers and/or homes for the night. We've been on warmshowers.org for over three years now and finally got our first cyclist--yay, I guess the ranch is just that far off the beaten path. Unfortunately though, the cyclist caught Dan's mom's flu and wasn't up for doing much during his time at the ranch, so Dan and I decided to go on a short hike in Pearl's Canyon.

Pearl's Canyon is named after Josie Pearl, one of the few female prospectors in the area at her time--1873-1962. We hiked up to Pearl's Spring, a nice little oasis in the desert. It was a gorgeous day and we took all the kids, even baby casper, who had a great time.

The lupine were blooming like crazy!

The family, coco's behind Dan

The kids at the spring

Dan enjoying the view

More view

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

Man, it's been a really busy month or so. I'm finishing up my job with Friends of Nevada Wilderness, which is keeping me hard at work. My last day with Friends is Friday the 24th and I don't think I'm going to finish everything that I wanted to get done. There's still an area in Gray Creek I would like to get to and I'd also like to get further into the west side of Hunter Creek.

I'm very sad that this awesome job is coming to an end, I have enjoyed the experience immensely. I can tell, however, that my body is a bit tired and is in need of a break--my knee has been hurting and I've been feeling fairly tired overall. I don't want to take too big of a break though, I'd like to stay in as good as shape as I am in now or, if I'm lucky, get into even better shape--that will be hard if I'm not hiking 8-20 miles a day like I am now. I want to start swimming again,maybe start running too. I'd like to do a marathon...I think. I also would like to get back into climbing, it's been a few years and I miss it. As for work, I hope I can find another job that is as awesome as this job. I think I'd be happy if my next job is even half as fun as this job. I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity to explore the Mount Rose Wilderness and to get to know the people at Friends, they have been wonderful, I'll miss them.

I know this post is a bit rambly for me, but it has been preoccupying my mind. As far as what I've been doing as of late; a couple of backpacking trips for work, a bachelorette weekend, and some pro-mini golf. Here's the proof:

Dan and two of the kids at work

Dan and Dust hard at work with me

I love Mount Rose Wilderness

Bachellorette floaty

Bachelorette Groove Thang

I love Mount Rose Wilderness

Backpack trip for work, Thomas Creek to Brockway

Gray Lake and Rose Knob Peak at Sundown

2010 4th Annual Pabst Reno-Tahoe Mini Golf Open:
The Most Awesome Team!

A little ditty

So, with my new job, I haven't had a lot of time to write--although I've been seeing a lot of plants and have a ton of posts in mind. At work though, one of the bosses wanted me to write a brief narrative about my job, so I figured I would share it here with you all:

I really enjoy working as a wilderness monitor in the Mount Rose Wilderness area. While I knew I would be hiking all day, an unexpected bonus of being a wilderness monitor has been working with some really great people. All of the volunteers I have worked with have been wonderful, very helpful and motivated, especially since I make them pull weeds! I like getting to know the volunteers and learning what led them to Friends of Nevada Wilderness. It is also interesting to see and meet wilderness users. There are so many different ways to enjoy the wilderness; during the course of any day I might meet trail runners, bird watchers, day hikers, backpackers, and the list goes on.

During the course of almost every day “at work,” I get to explore parts of the wilderness I have never seen before! It is a gorgeous wilderness full of wildlife and great views. The other day, I wondered into the territory of an American Kestrel breeding pair. They were not happy with my presence: they hovered above me and then started dive-bombing me, coming within five feet. It was amazing—I got to see these beautiful little orange and white falcons up close and personal. I moved through their territory as quickly as possible to minimize any stress I may cause them, but it was exhilarating to see them in action.

In addition to the kestrels, I’ve seen quite a few animals such as: a golden eagle, western tanagers, flickers, a variety of woodpeckers, lizards, a few bull snakes (no rattlers yet!), deer and signs of bears. I’ve also seen a ton of wildflowers: desert peach, larkspur, wild rose, western peonies, dagger pods, hot-rock penstemon, mountain figwort, heart-leaf arnica, and snowy thistles—just to name a few.I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to wake up every morning, excited to explore a different part of the wilderness and see what surprises lay in store.

I took a couple of pictures of the kestrels, although they did not turn out all that great.

Kestrel tree

In flight

Trail Builder

I have always been interested in trail building, but I have never really had the opportunity to get involved with it. This past weekend the Tahoe Rim Trail Association (TRTA) put on a trail building class, so I decided to partake. It was a lot of fun. I didn't know anyone in the class, but the people were nice and I soon felt quite comfortable in the mix. A lot of the people in the course had been hired for the summer at various organizations through the Americorps program. They are either crew leaders or crew members who will be out working on the trails all summer. As for me, I think I'm just going to volunteer at some of the local trails--at least for now.

The class was interesting, I learned about the different tools that are used on the trail such as loppers, pruning and pole saws, Pulaskis, Pick Mattocks, McLouds, and rockbars. I really enjoyed getting dirty and the physical labor involved in building trails. We worked on a section of trail that had quite a bit of manzanita in it. The manzanita was difficult to work with, but made for an interesting experience. We had to deal with a lot of manzanita roots, but there was one huge manzanita root we had to remove, it was tough but we got it out.

There was an advanced class going on at the same time as our class. They were learning how to do really cool stuff. They learned how to set up a griphoist system to remove huge boulders. They also learned how to shape and split rocks to build stairs and shape unmovable rocks into safer forms. We got to watch them for a bit, i can't wait to take that class in the future it looks like a ton of fun.

For now I can't wait to get out onto the trails and help with some trail building and or maintenance. The TRTA is planning a Reno to Rim trail with building starting in July, that is definitely a trail project I would like get my hands dirty on.

See you on the trails!

Gone to the dogs

View from our hike

Last Monday (4/19/2010) the family and I went over to Dog Valley for a stroll. Dog Valley is a great place to go because it's close to Reno and you can choose how intense you want your hike to be--you can stay in the valley floor or hike up the surrounding hillsides. I always tend to forget about Dog Valley, but I shouldn't because it's a great place to hike, bike, camp or just hang out for a picnic. Since there was still some snow and mud on the road, we decided to park in the parking area at the top rather than drive down to the valley floor. Once we parked we hiked down the road to the valley and explored from there.

Dan and the kids hiking down the road to the valley floor
Dog Valley

We started out hiking around the west side of the big meadow. We saw a ton of wildflowers, some I knew and some I didn't know. We saw Lomatiums, yellow bells, violets, phlox, blue-eyed Marys, plantain buttercups, green-leaf manzanita and then three species I didn't know.

Lomatium spp.
Yellow Bells (Fritillaria pudica)
Violets (Viola beckwithii)
Phlox (Phlox spp.)

Blue-Eyed Mary (Cossinsia parviflora)
Plantain Buttercup (Ranunculus alismifolius)
Green-Leaf Manzanita flowers (Arctostaphlos patula)

So, I'm currently at the ranch and I don't have all my plant books with me--I like to leave some in Reno so I can identify plants there too. I tried to find the flowers that I didn't know in my books here, but I couldn't find them. They all look familiar, so I'm pretty sure they must be in one of my plant books somewhere, but for now I still don't know who they are. Here are their pictures, if you know who they are please let me know, if not I'll try to figure out who they are and update this post.

I feel fairly certain I can easily find out who this is

This plant looks really familiar, I just don't know who it is
This one looks the least familiar to me, I hope I can figure out who it is

We did a lot more than just identify plants on this adventure. The meadow was still quite wet, so we had a lot of fun figuring out trails that would keep our feet as dry as possible. We hiked up into the hills where we found some dead, felled trees to be silly on. The dogs got excited about some squirrels, but were never close enough to make an attempt at a real chase.

Dan taking pictures

Shadow fun on old, felled trees

The day was beautiful and sunny. We only saw one other person down in the valley floor. We saw a group up where we parked but only one while we were out hiking, sweet!!! Oh, and we heard mountain chickadees throughout our hike and on the way back to the car one came right up to me, which was extremely cool, but I couldn't get my camera ready until it was a bit further away, oh well.

Dan enjoying the valley floor
Mountain Chickadee from a distance (Poecile gambeli)