March 1, 2016 Baker Creek Snow Survey

 Last week, five of us set out to measure snow at the Baker Creek snow course sites. Three sites, from 8,200 to 9,500 feet elevation, have been measured since 1942 at the end of February and end of March to determine how much snow and water content is on the mountain. This long-term data set is one of the longest for the area. Some of the snow course sites have been replaced with Snotel sites, automated sites. A few years ago, a Snotel site was installed near the Wheeler Peak campground. The Wheeler Peak snotel shows hourly weather data, including temperature and precipitation. That site is a few miles away and at a different elevation than the Baker Creek sites, so the snow courses are continued.

We started at seven in the morning checking our gear and doing a safety briefing. Then we headed up the mountain and started skiing on just a few inches of snow on the upper Baker Creek road. We reached the first snow survey site, a bit above the Baker Lake trailhead, before nine in the morning. At each site, the snow depth is measured with a special snow tube. The snow tube is then weighed to determine the snow water content equivalent. This is repeated four more times and the average value used.

It's about a thousand foot elevation gain and a mile and a half to the second site. We found some places along the trail where the snow had melted.

Fortunately the snow looked plenty deep at the second site.

We were happy to find the snow almost three feet deep and with a water content double that of last year.

I used the calculator function on my phone to help do the calculations. We have to have density within five percent for all five measurements or we have to redo them. The whole program has been worked out to be quite field friendly.

I can't remember what got us all smiling at this moment, but overall it was a great day, with very nice weather. Plus it's hard to beat being outside!

We ate lunch a bit further on and then continued up to the third site.

The untracked snow ahead of us.

We crossed a small spring to reach the third site.

I'm going to have to go back in summer to see how this tree looks in comparison to the sign! The third snow course site is about half way to Baker Lake.

The snow was over three and a half feet deep here, with good water content. It turned out to be an almost average amount, which is a nice change from last year's much drier results.

Brooke is holding one part of the measuring tape. The measurements are taken at prescribed locations along a transect.

After we finished, it was time to head back down the trail. This can be a lot of fun, but also a bit scary, with trees, rocks, and steep sections to navigate. We all wore skins on our skis for both uphill and downhill to have a little more control.

I thought this aspen trunk was so interesting looking.

We all made it down safely, in about two hours from the top site. Despite a few falls, everyone was in good shape.

We sent the data we had collected to the Nevada NRCS office, and they used it to make the March 1 Water Supply Outlook. You can find it and more information on the NRCS website.

Around the Yard

At the end of January we had a huge storm, which gave us a big dose of winter, with over 15 inches of snow. Gradually it warmed up, and we saw the icicles getting smaller, one drip at a time.

The warm up meant we had lots of mud. One day, on the way to school, we spotted a creature we don't see often.

An earthworm! It was leaving quite a trail on the road.

A car was coming so Desert Girl rescued it.

We still have some great winter light, and one afternoon the kids told me about the Great Horned Owl in our apricot tree. It looked really impressive.

And then while I was watching it, the owl winked at me! I couldn't believe it. In fact, I was so stunned I didn't quite get a photo at the optimal wink moment, but you get the idea.

The owl is used to us being around (it's in the yard every night), so it just ignores us. I marveled at how far she could turn her head.

We've been getting out for more bike rides, and I've come across a great way to get the kids excited about being outside: I tell them they have free time outside. For some reason, that phrase "free time" puts a creative twist on things, and before I know it they're making forts, climbing trees, and swinging from ropes.

We attended the annual Wild Goose Chase in Delta, Utah. This year was probably the nicest weather we've ever had for it. Desert Boy and I did the 5k, and Desert Girl did the Kids' 1/4 mile race.

We all did well (although none of us caught any geese) and were happy to have participated. Afterwards we checked out the 39 booths (that's a lot!) at the Delta Community Center, went to the Topaz Museum and the Great Basin Museum, found some 90% off Valentine's candy and clothes at King's Variety store (there was a good math lesson in there), and then went swimming at the West Millard Aquatic Center, where Desert Boy dared me to go off the high dive. I did it once, but the water slide was more fun. :)

One day, Desert Girl came running to tell me she had found a flower in the yard. I grabbed my camera and we went to take a closer look at it. How beautiful!

It's fun to see a few hints of spring, but I don't want it to come too fast. I enjoy being outside more, but am not ready for the chaos that is our summer. In other words, I guess I'm not totally ready to wake up from winter hibernation.

Hope you're getting a few hints of spring, too!

Death Valley's 2016 SuperBloom

 Last weekend, while jogging with my husband, an idea came to me: Why not go to Death Valley today? I had been seeing multiple posts about the fantastic wildflowers, products of October flooding. One friend who works in Death Valley said it's the best she's seen since she's been there, which is about fifteen years. I didn't have anything too pressing at work, it was only about six hours away, and I had the energy and desire. So I asked my husband if he would mind if I went. He said fine, and thanks to friends Nomi and Jenny, the kids were taken care of after school.

I had packed quickly and meant to leave early afternoon Sunday, but was having so much fun with friends on a bike ride that I didn't leave until 4:30 p.m. That worked out fine, I saw a beautiful moonrise near Ely, listed to a great audiobook, Duplicity, and before I knew it was in Beatty, Nevada. I decided to go a little further so I could get to the flowers even faster the next morning.

That turned out to be a great decision. The upper elevations didn't have many flowers, but were beautiful (see photo above). But as I descended along the Beatty cut-off road, there was a cacophony of flowers.

Because I had a very loose itinerary, I just stopped where ever I wanted, climbed various hills, and snapped lots of photos. I bent low and smelled the flowers--delicious! Although the yellow Desert Gold (Gereae canescens) flowers dominated, there were many others, at least 12 species along this road.

I wasn't the only one stopping. It seemed when one vehicle pulled over, others would stop too. It reminded me of the "bear jams" we used to see in Yellowstone. I was now experiencing "flower jams." Fortunately, the shoulders of Death Valley roads are graded so it's very easy to pull all the way off the road. The mountains in the background are hazy because it was extremely windy, blowing the sand from the dunes near Stovepipe Wells down the valley.

I stopped at Furnace Creek for a while, including a $16.95 hamburger at the cafe that was totally worth it, one of the best I've ever eaten. Then I headed further south, where the report was that the flowers were excellent. When I got to Badwater, the lowest spot in Northern America at -292 feet elevation, I didn't expect to see any flowers. But on the edge of the road, overlooking the salt flat, flowers bloomed, creating an amazing juxtaposition.

I took some time to look at some of them in more detail, like this Gravel Ghost (Atrichoseris platyphylla), which seems to float in air above the gravel due to the camouflaged nature of its stem.

And these purple flowers made beautiful patterns.

The Desert Gold made fields of gold.

Some of these fields extended over entire alluvial fans. Which, when you think about it, is so remarkable. There is practically no soil on these alluvial fans. These flowers are growing out of the gravel. And in just a few weeks (or less, depending on weather conditions), the alluvial fans will be back to their normal grey and brown colors.

I tried to find a different way to get a photo. After all, how many fields of flowers did I need to take? (I did take over a thousand photos on this two-day trip!) The afternoon light was just stunning.

I kept heading south, in a race against the setting sun. The dark colored mountains contrasted with the yellow flowers. I started thinking of them as "hairy hillsides."

The road kept going and going. By now, most people had turned around, as the flash floods had closed the highway ahead. But I decided to go ahead and take the load less traveled. (Relatively speaking. There are some really less traveled roads in the Death Valley area!)

I arrived at Ashford Mill Site, where I tried to get some shots of the rising moon (not so successful) and of the moonlit ruins and flowers under Orion and Canis Major (a little better).


This looked like a great place to be in the morning, and when two SUVs full of photographers joined me the next morning, I knew I was right. A few clouds provided a very nice sunrise.

The full moon was setting as the first light hit the tops of Telescope Peak and the other mountains. It was dreamy.

And then there was a little reality check. A Stealth bomber flew overhead with an accompanying jet. They made a few laps up and down the valley.

Fortunately I found I could easily be distracted by the flowers. Here are a few (sorry, I don't know the names of them all! I wish I did):

pretty white flower in the Sunflower family

 Desert Five Spot (Erimalche rotundifolia)

Cute little composite

Cryptantha (Borage Family)

The afternoon and morning light are definitely the best for photography. After my second morning photographing flowers, I went for a bike ride, hike in a canyon, and a swim at Furnace Creek ($5 to get a pool pass for the day!). Then it was time to head home. The trip was quick, but totally refreshed me. Seeing the beautiful flowers growing in such a desolate place revealed more of the beauties of our planet and made me feel so alive.

If you'd like to know more, the DesertUSA has a Death Valley Wildflower Report has more info on what's blooming now.

2016 Ely Bristlecone Birkebeiner

The Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts resurrected the Bristlecone Birkebeiner, a cross country ski race. They have cool photos on their Facebook page from past Birkebeiners. Birkebeiner is a name for a cross country ski race, with its origins going back to the year 1206, when the 18-month old illegitimate son of the King of Norway was smuggled to safety in a backpack by soldiers on cross country skis. For some Birkebeiners, racers carry backpacks with a weight simulating the infant.

You would think that with how cold Ely is, it would be easy to hold a cross country ski race, but it seems that warming trends and lack of snow the past two years have made it really difficult. This year the organizers set the date and said the race would be held no matter the weather--if it was warm, it would just be a mud run. That made it much easier to plan and save the date. Fortunately the weather was great, and over 30 people turned up with their skis.

The long race (12.2 km) started at 9 am, and then the short race (6.1 km) lined up to start five minutes later.

The race was held at Ward Mountain Recreation Area near Ely. I had never done the loop, so it was fun to see what the course was like. Most of it was a narrow path through pinyon and juniper, siwht some open areas. When we started the race, there were some people who took off so fast I didn't even know it was possible to move that fast on skis! I shuffled along, hoping to finish in time to see the kids' race, which would start 55 minutes later. The race had lots of little ups and downs. I crashed on one turn at the bottom of a little hill since I didn't want to ski into the sagebrush. I wasn't exactly smooth, but I really enjoyed being outside and getting some exercise. My friend Brooke finished ahead of me and got this photo of me near the finish--in about 55 minutes! Woohoo!

I went up to the Kid's Ski route, a 1-km out and back.

They had started it just a few minutes earlier (I needed a few minutes to recover at the end of my race), so it took a while to catch up to the kids. But I eventually did, finding Desert Girl in her tutu and Desert Boy with a very determined look and not minding that one of his boots wasn't very secure in the ski binding.

They both wanted to win a ribbon for being in the top three, even though they had very little experience with cross-country skiing (like two practices and that's about it).

They fell a lot and complained some, but they kept moving.

Desert Girl got passed and at the end was very frustrated because she finished fourth. It was a hard lesson for her to learn, but a good one, that you can't always win (and as a six-year old in her very first cross-country ski race, she shouldn't expect to!). I tried to emphasize that just participating and finishing made her a winner.

They soon awarded ribbons, and Desert Boy got second for the kids.

It was great to see kids enjoying the outdoors so much!

We did a photo of all the ribbon winners.

I think this girl was the biggest winner of all. She was the last person to finish the course, but she was nine years old and did the 6.1 km race and finished with a smile! Way to go!

I asked the kids afterwards if they wanted to do the race again next year. 

They didn't hesitate to say yes. I think we'll be spending more time outside, so it's already a win for all of us. Thank you Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts for getting us outdoors!