Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces

Climate Change in Action–A Glacial Event at Dinwoody Creek

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Leslie

On August 1st, 2013 a large chunk of underlying ice on Grasshopper Glacier in the Wind River Mountains broke loose and slide into Downs Creek, flooding the entire valley and stranding a family on a pile of boulders. This is a main trail into the eastern side of Gannett peak, a favorite route for climbers. The bridge over Downs Creek on the Glacier Trail was overflowing with water and debris, so much so that hikers had to cross the creek waist high there. Luckily, this is a slow spot on the creek so crossing is safe.

Downstream at Dinwoody Creek, after the confluence of the two rivers, the flow was dangerous. Usually low and crossable at this time of year (there is an alternate trail to the Ink Wells Lakes at this creek crossing), Dinwoody Creek was a roaring cauldron of milky green waters.

The endless slog up the steep switchbacks

The Glacier Trail is not for the faint-hearted or under prepared physically. The first ten miles, the trail rises 3,000′ with little potable water. The old trail, taken out by an avalanche, is now a stock route; while the new trail uses a series of 29 switchbacks to ascend a seemingly vertical rise. That’s the first day although I broke it up with a stay at Bomber meadows 3 miles up from the trailhead.

At the pass looking down into Burro Flat. 11,000 feet

The trail ascends to an 11,000′ pass which has the illusion of constantly receding it’s so empty and vast. A short descent after the pass finally takes the hiker to Dinwoody Lakes, a group of pristine lakes held within ice-carved rock and pine walls. There was a large burn here not long ago and thousands of dead, mostly white-bark pines, stand stark amidst the new undergrowth.

Phillips Lake was heavily burned

But you aren’t there yet.

Continue on your journey up to another pass at Star Lake. I think this lake might be barren as I never saw any fish feeding here. A Forest Service crew was here for the summer doing trail blasting work. Although camping was prohibited because of their work, the crew had taken off for the week and I camped at this lovely lake at over 10,000′. The White Bark pines leading from Double Lake to Star are in good shape. The unfortunate fire that killed so many of these critical pines, whose seeds serve as bear food, probably slowed the beetle infestation on the west side of the fire.

Honeymoon lake on the descent into the valley

From Star Lake you begin your 1000′ descent on tight rocky switchbacks into the Dinwoody Valley and Downs Valley area. I never intended to go to Gannett–I’m not a peak bagger or climber–but I did want to go to the Ink Wells. I didn’t quite make it there. I’d already used up five days, and spent the next two days exploring Downs Creek valley and Dinwoody valley. Then a large storm system blew in. With little food reserves to hunker down with, I made the decision to hike out. Yet my short stay allowed me to witness the effects of the massive amounts of glacial silt that came pouring out of the icy peaks of the continental divide.

Look at the forest floor. That is all glacial silt.

The 3 mile hike up Downs Creek had glacial silt on the entire forest floor, in places up to two feet deep. Shrubs that were 3-4′ high had been covered completely with silt until the water had receded. I was there on August 6th, seven days after the event took place. By then the water had receded and was flowing furiously in the river channel. But the silt was still wet, and in the evenings, after the warm days, the river rose higher. In places I would step into ‘quicksand’, get stuck in the glacial mud above my knees. When wet, the silt was like a sticky green mud. Dry, like sand.

Dinwoody Creek. Koda finds a drink. The river ran so fast I had to keep him away.

8,200 years ago, a lake larger than any in our modern world filled the area around present day Great Lakes and Canada. Lake Agassiz was, at times, as large as the Black Sea. When the Hudson Bay ice finally retreated as the climate warmed, Lake Agassiz broke through the dam, quite suddenly, draining completely down through the Mackenzie river drainage into the ocean. It was a biblical event, probably killing everyone in its path, rising sea levels up to 9 feet, and changing the world’s climate.

On August 6th 2013 I stepped into the aftermath of a mini-melt, a micro-glacial event that demonstrated the power of melting water on an ecosystem and people. Worth noting is that the bridge at Downs Fork, built by the CCC in the 30’s, stood firm until 2003 when Grasshopper Glacial had its first melt event and took the bridge out. The bridge was rebuilt, but now only ten years later, a second event damaged that bridge again. The stranded family was rescued by the forest service crew. Amazingly, no one was injured or killed by the rushing waters. Yet somewhere between my awe and investigative curiosity lay my real question: As more of these events occur–bigger than this one–what will our world look like?

Beginning–or ending?–the trailhead. One way in and out

Filed under: Wind Rivers | Tagged: Dinwoody lakes, Gannett Peak, Glacial event, Glacier Trail, Grasshopper Glacier, Wind Rivers | 1 Comment »

Fall is a’coming

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Leslie

The Clark’s Nutcrackers are congregating, waiting for the Limber Pine cones to ripen. You can tell they’ve arrived as they are a noisy bunch. As Jays, they are super-intelligent birds. Every year they cache tens of thousands of seeds and are able to memorize the location of their stashes. Clark Nutcrackers have a distinctive ‘wing-whirl’, which is a loud noise they make when flying. Although the pine cones aren’t ready yet, they seem anxious, waiting for just the right moment to steal the seeds away from the waiting red squirrels who also cache the cones for winter food. I’ve been watching the birds eating insects while they while away their time.

This year is not only a bad cone year for White Bark pines, but the Limber Pine cone production is down as well. This bodes poorly for bears. But the good news is that with all the rain we’ve had, the berry crop is up. The chokecherry crop is one of the best in years and I’m waiting with my trail cam for some bears to spend time stripping the berries off the branches before the birds get to them. The bears seem to know the exact time when they’re ripe, and come around for that week only. And with all the beetle kill, the forests are opening up and changing. I’ve seen new understories packed with chokecherry bushes–all full of cherries.

Grizzly bears evolved in the plains. They can’t climb trees like their forest adapted cousins, the black bears, and their massive claws were meant to dig out roots. Pushed from their native habitat into the mountains, they prefer burn areas and meadows, places that emulate their native past. Our mountain forests are rapidly changing with all the downed timber, creating good habitat for the Great Bear.

Young bear yesterday coming to look for berries

The little forest next to my house is a perfect example and a fine study area of a rapidly evolving landscape. With seven springs emerging from the limestone base, there is sufficient water ground water. The old growth Englemann Spruce are dead and dying, falling to the ground and leaving large openings where new chokecherry bushes, dogwoods, raspberries, gooseberries, and aspens are rapidly emerging. This is an area we specifically asked the Forest Service NOT to put in their logging plans.

In contrast, the lands adjacent to the springs are private and were logged by the homeowners through the State Forestry Office (who were concerned about fire protective barriers) 5 years ago. Approximately 90% of the trees were cut or were blow downs. This land too has aspens, gooseberries, and grasses–but much of it has a very high ratio, maybe 10:1, of invasives, particularly Canada Thistle. The combination of moisture, sun, and rapid disturbance provided a perfect storm for the invasives. The invasives rob moisture and space for other natives that might get a stronghold. In the non-logged side, the lesson is clear: slower is better and the forest can naturally restore itself with little interference by man.

Filed under: Clark's Nutcracker, Grizzlies, Pines | Tagged: Clarks Nutcracker, grizzlies, Limber pine, Logging, Whitebark pines | 1 Comment »

Wind Rivers: Epicenter of Rocky Mountain Archaeology

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Leslie

Rich Adams, former Wyoming State Archaeologist, is rocking the premises of Rocky Mountain Archaeology with his discoveries in the Wind River Mountains of high-rise villages. In 2006, an ancient village was discovered at over 10,700 feet on the eastern slopes near Whiskey Mountain in Dubois. This is only one of two high rise villages in North America consisting of forty seven 10×14 dwelling pads, many artifacts including soapstone bowls.

Lake Louise near Whiskey Mountain and Ring Lake

Since then Adams has uncovered over nine high-rise sites in the Winds, with only one or two of them on the western side of the Divide. But with these sites being over 4000 years old, archaeologists are going to have to rethink their dates of when the Shoshones came here from the Great Basin region.

I spent a few weeks backpacking early August in the Winds (next blog will be on that when the photos arrive) and had the opportunity to hear Adams speak and see the amazing petroglyphs on Ring Lake Ranch. The villages and the glyphs are Sheep Eater Shoshone relics. On my second backpack on the west side up New Forks, I met a Bridger-Teton archaeologist who was looking for Indian remnants. Apparently there is an intensive effort now to document whatever can be found before being destroyed by fires or by humans.

Sheep Eater Shoshones lived in the summers at high elevations around 11,000′. There are plenty of fairly flat sites in the Wind Rivers at this elevation for making a camp. And although today this would be above timberline with no trees, thousands of years ago the weather was wetter and treeline was higher. So these villages would be in a nice sparse forest of White Bark Pine.

They were into flying spirits

Sheep Eaters were there to hunt the Bighorn Sheep that range high up in summer, and come down lower in winter. They followed the plant bloom and ate roots. They could gather berries in August and pine nuts in the fall. By late fall they’d venture down lower to a place like Ring Lake which has little snow throughout the winter and the sheep are nearby. Their petroglyphs might reflect sacred burial areas, or vision quest sites. They knew the Land and the landscape and let it dictate their wanderings.

Panel with a bighorn sheep

The lichen was removed to better reveal these drawings

Bird like feet

Filed under: Sheepeaters | Tagged: Dubois, high rise village, Sheepeater Indians, Shoshone Sheepeaters, Wind Rivers | 1 Comment »

Wolf Watching

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Leslie

Now that wolf hunting is a reality in Wyoming, I’m always loathe to write a post about wolves. Frankly, I don’t want to give out any information that will help hunters during the fall hunt season. Last year, the first wolf hunt season, the Wyoming Game and Fish had a quota of eight wolves in my hunt area. Eight! There barely were eight wolves here. The Hoodoo pack had, the year before, driven off most of the other competing packs and were dominating the valley. So what happened on that hunt last October-December? Eight wolves were taken, yes, but three of them were from the Lamar Pack in the Park, including the Alpha female of that pack. During the winter, the entire Lamar Pack, disrupted after loosing their strongest hunter, spent most of their time here, mostly consuming deer, an easy prey. But come spring and mating season, the Pack fragmented, with only three, sometimes four, returning to the Park full time.

A disrupted Lamar Canyon pack in the valley this winter

What used to be the best most reliable wolf watching area in the country, the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, is now quite lean. Its a rare day in the Lamar when tourists can view wolves there. Only three, sometimes, four, adult wolves are left in the valley, although they’ve produced a small litter of pups. The remainder of the pack has dispersed.

Here in the valley, some of those Lamar wolves remain this summer, and a few have pups in various locations. Its unclear at this point how many are here, and what will happen to them in terms of new pack formations, nor how many of these wolves will venture back into the Park come September.

Wyoming Game and Fish has a much lower quota this year and that’s because they are getting dangerously close to their relisting number of 100 wolves outside the park, and 50 wolves inside. As of this writing 23 wolves have been killed in the predator zone alone. Taken together with the 67 wolves killed last fall, that’s almost 100 wolves out of about 212 before the hunt outside the Park. Between wolves that are killed naturally, and wolves that are killed by WG&F as predator control, even with new pup counts the line is getting thin.

This years’ quota is set for four wolves in my area. So far, I’ve seen several lone wolves and a few reports of a wolf with a pup. Once again, this fall could easily decimate and disrupt the wolf population here.

Last week I had a wonderful thrill. Upon returning from a creek expedition I spied a lone wolf mousing in a field next to over 75 cows with calves. I watched her for over an hour, deftly reducing the ground squirrel population. She was incredibly focused on her task and I suspect she would be returning to feed some hungry pups with this small meal. When she got too close in her endeavor to the cows, a large mama would come over and push her further away. Otherwise, the cows paid her no mind and went about their business grazing undisturbed. The good news is that these cows are removed to lower pastures come October when wolves tend to hunt in packs and could easily take down a cow.

Hard to see, but the small dot in the foreground is the wolf mousing amongst the cattle

Hard to see, but the small figure in the foreground is the wolf mousing amongst the cattle

I like wolves; and I like seeing them in the landscape. They are finally re-inhabiting their old nation where they once roamed freely. Where there are few problems and livestock conflicts, where the habitat is good, where there is room for genetic exchange, it makes little sense to even hunt wolves in these areas. The wolves here have self-regulated for a long time. It’s a tough and short life being a wolf. They fight and kill for territory, and their territory is defined by how many wolves can actually be sustained. They also work as a family with a close-knit social order. Disrupting that order continuously exacerbates problems with livestock. Given the human social and political climate, I don’t see much change for wolves in the immediate future.

Filed under: Wolf | Tagged: Greater Yellowstone Wolves, Wolf, Wolves | 4 Comments »

Co-existing with Predators

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Leslie

In helping homeowners over the years deal in natural ways with small critters like moles and gophers, as well as larger animals like deer, I found that there is one necessary ingredient–the homeowner has to want to co-exist rather than resort to lethal controls.

That same principle applies to larger predators in the landscape such as cougars, wolves, bears, or coyotes. The wolf reintroduction has generated a lot of fear. But if we want wolves to remain in the landscape, then ranchers will need to learn new methods. I have always advocated that, just like the homeowners I helped and educated, ranchers need and deserve a helping hand. This should include public and private monies for education and training. Instead of ranchers just given a ‘kill tag’ or being reimbursed ad infinitum for predations, they need to be aided in new protection methods with the goal of incorporating those techniques into their regular routine.

There are several private organizations doing just that: working with ranchers to discover ways to protect their herds and flocks. Below is a fantastic informative video I hope you’ll watch. Well produced with the added benefit of wonderful scenery and wildlife footage, ‘A Season of Predators’ gives you a vision of where we must be headed if we are to have bears and wolves remain in the landscape.

One additional note I’d make: Although this video concentrates on wolf management, we, the public, are spending millions of dollars a year funding government killing of predators and ‘nuisance’ animals. This arm of the USF&W is called Wildlife Services and its main job, unlike its title, is killing predators. One local man who works for WS told me that he trapped and killed 400 raccoons last year for one farmer. He also had to kill dozens of feral cats as part of his job. Ironically, he was also killing the local coyotes that would have kept the raccoon and feral cat population in check. This is the kind of government subsidization that is ‘old school’. Instead of simply killing wildlife as well as throwing away all that money that not only doesn’t teach the farmer any practices, but doesn’t teach the local wildlife anything, Wildlife Services could have used those dollars exploring new methods and instructing this farmer in sustainable practices in co-existence.

Having worked with over-populations of deer in suburban areas, I know that deer damage can be controlled. For instance, deer actually are trainable. Does teach their fawns what to eat. Deer can be browsing on one type of flower in the landscape, but miles away won’t touch that plant but prefer another. Through a variety of means that don’t even include fencing, deer can be ‘taught’ not to eat a particular plant. As you’ll see in this video, wolves can be taught too, but it takes a bit more work than simply a trap, a gun, or a poison. This is the kind of ‘work’ where your psyche and body meld into the land. You’ll have some loss, but the goal is to minimize. You are working with the wild, not against it, and in doing so there is great pleasure and satisfaction, with the rewards being a feeling of oneness with the Land.

Filed under: Wolf | Tagged: Bears, grizzlies, People and Carnivores Project, Predator control, Wolves | 3 Comments »

Goshawks, Porcupines and Wildflowers

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Leslie

I’ve got a new microscope and am having fun bringing flower samples home to view them. Its a lot easier than using a hand lens. My method is simple: a small plastic baggie with a paper tower. If I find samples, I wet the towel and wrap the plants. They’ll stay viable for days until I remember to extract them from my daypack.

While looking for wildflowers, I had some unusual wildlife encounters. Last week I disturbed a grizzly in his day bed, but he was a good bear and just ran off. But today I was ‘mobbed’ by a Goshawk whose nest was nearby. She was quite aggressive, dive-bombing me over and over again on my way up the trail. But on the return, she was even more pissy and came quite close–I suppose thinking I hadn’t learned my lesson the first time.

Goshawk nest

Goshawk resting during dive-bombing me

I also saw my first porcupine. Koda was a little ways up the trail from me peering around the corner. He stopped and was wagging his tail. I knew something was up. Thankfully, he decided to just stay put instead of investigate. I think he learned his lesson when he saw the grizzly bear last week. I was able to capture the porc waddling away.

Porcupine waddling away

Here are the wildflowers for today’s post:

Sand Lily

Twisted stalk

Unidentified mountain flower

Pedicularis

Valerian

Woodland star

Unusual to see a white pasque flower

Round leaved Alumroot

Western meadowrue male flowers

Musineon tenufolium/ Wild Parsley

Meadow of Larkspur and Woodland star

Common twinpod

Nineleaf bisuitroot

Subalpine fir new cones

Sedum sp.

Filed under: Porcupines, wildflowers | 1 Comment »

Bighorn Sheep, Sheep Eaters and Soapstone

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Leslie

I’ve been thinking about sheep and the peoples whose diet centered around them.

For quite some time, I”ve wanted to make an authentic Sheep Eater soup with a steatite bowl . Since I knew I wouldn’t be able to buy one, the only solution was to make one myself. Steatite is another word for soapstone, and the Sheep Eater Indians would quarry the stone and make bowls from them. Few of these bowls have been uncovered , probably because they broke over time. It appears they were passed down through the women, and possibly made by women as well. The men might have quarried and shaped the starting blocks.

The bowls, being heavy, were left at campsites, stashed for use when the peoples came back to the area. Most of the sites seem to be very high up, above 3000 meters. That is because these quarries are located high in the mountains. The bowls were carved right close to the quarries, which makes sense considering how heavy the rock is.

Soapstone, or steatite, bowls were used for cooking Sheep Eater stews consisting of sheep, bulbs and forbs. The bowls could be placed right in the hot coals. Once removed from the fire, the bowls stayed hot for a long time. One of the most difficult items for native peoples in any culture to obtain were containers. Containers were prized possessions, whether they were constructed of fiber, pine needles, gourd or rock. I’m sure that is why these bowls were passed down generation to generation.

YNP Archives Sheep Eater bowl

Last year I set about trying to find a quarry. I knew there was one in Dillion MT. Since I was on my way to California for December, I thought I could find one there. California has several soapstone or Talc quarries but none of them were operating. I found a woman in Northern California who imported various stones for carving. She sold me a block of Brazilian soapstone, warning me that a lot of soapstone has asbestos in it and hers didn’t.

In geology language, rocks are graded on a scale of 1-10 for their hardness qualities, with soapstone being a 1 and diamond a 10. Since I thought all soapstone was equal, I began work on this block of brazilian stone. After several months, lots of drill bits, dremel bits, chisels, etc., I had made little progress. Apparently soapstone itself can have a variety of hardnesses. This brazilian stone was awfully hard, and didn’t have the ‘soapy’ consistency that is associated with soapstone. Complaining about my trials to a local friend, he immediately made a few calls and found me an original Wyoming piece of soapstone, quarried naturally from a secret spot out of Tensleep in the Big Horns. The block he gave me had a strange shape, difficult to cut a piece out of for a bowl, but I managed.

Odd shaped Wyoming soapstone block

I’d seen a video where Richard Adams said it took about 30 hours to make a finished bowl. With the Brazilian stone, there was no way I was going to make a bowl in that time. I’d already invested more than that and hadn’t come far. So I wasn’t sure what to expect when I began working on the Wyoming block. But the going was easy, and in about twenty hours I had a decent bowl that I could call finished enough to cook in.

My almost finished bowl

Requires lots of elbow grease. I learned a lot working both pieces of stone

Here is a photo from the Park achives outside of Gardiner (worth making an appointment to see the new building) of what Adams calls a pre-form, or an unfinished bowl.

YNP archives pre-form bowl

YNP archives unfinished bowl

Yesterday, after working on my bowl for several hours, I took a hike up nearby Margarite draw. Last year I found a cougar den up there and I wanted to see if there had been any occupation this year. As I hiked higher and higher through the trees, I spotted a low saddle and headed for it. At the ridgeline the view of the Absarokas was breathtaking. I saw a few elk grazing down below, but I had a hunch if I glassed these rocky hills I might see some sheep. Sure enough, a group of ewes was farther along the ridgeline. With the wind in my face, I figured I might be able to sneak up on them and get some good photos. What little I know about bighorn sheep is that when spooked they always go higher. So in approaching a group, if one approaches from higher up, they rarely look up to spot you. I tried the tactic and sure enough, it worked fairly well.

At the end of my several hour hike, I ran into the herd again, now grazing on the other side of the hills.

Pretty soon I’ll try out my new bowl. The green-up is beginning and I saw some Pasque flowers. Soon there will be Spring Beauties to add to my soap along with other greens. A friend who shot a Bighorn sheep a while back will give me a bit of mutton to add so I can make an authentic Sheep Eater stew in my homemade steatite bowl.

Filed under: Bighorn Sheep, Sheepeaters | Tagged: Bighorn Sheep, Sheepeater Indians, Shoshone Sheepeaters, Soapstone bowls, Steatite bowls | 7 Comments »

Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces

MY BOOKS ON WILDLIFE, GARDENING AND MORE

The Wild Excellence