Friday, July 10, 2009

Friday, July 10, 2009
The day’s weather started out just like yesterday, except the winds were mild and there are fewer clouds. It looks like I may have enough rainless warm days to actually do my roadwork. Of course, that being said, I’ll probably be complaining about how hot and dry it is within a week or two.
I worked on the computer most of the morning and into the early afternoon, and then forced myself to stop and do some of the things outside that needed to be done. Unfortunately, I chose to do one of the items on my list of “want to do” instead of those “need to do,” and ended up spending almost three hours climbing a mountain. I have always wondered what might be up Greenhorn Mountain and today I discovered what. Nothing.
This was NOT Fred asking if we want to take a little walk, which is an inside joke for; let’s hike until we can’t stand up. Zack and I headed straight up the mountain and about 50 minutes later, found the apex and stacked some rocks to show we’d been there. Now, some of you may be asking why we did this, and I would have to say, “Because it was there.” In all the time I have lived here, I have never gone up that side of the property, and I wanted to see exactly what was up there. I had hoped to see signs of a spring, or any human activity, or just find the game trails, but none of those things existed.
It would have been great to find a long lost and forgotten old rifle leaning against a tree, or the shed antlers of an elk or deer, or signs of a long forgotten cabin, but we found nothing, not even a well worn game trail, which surprised me. I wish I had taken my GPS with me, so I would know how far we traveled and the difference in altitude.
From the apex, the mountain drops down a short distance to a ravine and then rises again to another mountaintop that isn’t as tall. Because of the forest, I couldn’t tell for sure what was beyond that, but I do know that somewhere in that direction is the ridge road I’ve taken before in my Argo.
We headed back down, taking a different route, as I hoped to come out in the creek bed that I believe my resident moose frequent. It is much steeper on that side and we descended quickly, finding patches of Bear Grass and thickets of willow brush, but still no game trails. I guess the animals are smart enough to follow the creek beds and not have to climb away from their food supply. The forest on the mountain is thick, so not much grows in their shade, and almost no grasses or berries were present on the northwest side. I did find a few trees that had been cut by a hand saw, but no signs of any cabins or other man-made structures.
Once back at the cabin, Zack and I both needed to rest and drink more water. After that, I went out, cut the heads of the thistles off, and sprayed the remainder to kill the roots. This took me until almost 7 PM, so I fixed Zack’s dinner and cooled down before taking my shower and having dinner. Zack and I both over did it and were limping around, me with sore feet and him with what I think is a sprained front leg. We both rested the remainder of the evening and then went to bed.