Hawaii, Owyhee...uh, Böglands (The Final Chapter)

 

Photo Credit: Kip

The light from another morning begins gently assaulting my eyelids, so my comatose body instinctively begins to burrow like a worm, forcing my face into a loose amalgam of swaddled-up fleeces and t-shirts - the makeshift pillow I build every night (because I forgot my pillow). My liver has never really had to metabolize alcohol on a regular basis, so feeling ambushed, it grudgingly does its work to restore what passes as my typical chemical balance, asking only that I be still and unconscious.


A sort of peripheral consciousness jury-rigged by my ears informs me that Kip and Rico are rooting around in their vehicles for implements of destruction, lug nut wrenches, jack handles, hammers, and pry bars, anything that might steal a geode from the grasp of its mother.


My liver is not the only organ of mine that is being taxed. Evidently, a significant portion of my neurons were slaughtered near the end of yesterday and synaptic first responders are desperately trying to rewire decimated transmission lines and repurpose some of the few mental structures that are left standing in a bid to reestablish my baseline reality. It is becoming ever clearer to me that whales cannot float…well, they can’t float on air… especially not in a landlocked desert canyon.


The noise entities that are Kip and Rico begin to fade. Now the aural soundscape is mostly leaves whispering in the dawn breeze and an occasional rock tumbling down a scree slope. Now and then a distant shout of garbled vowels and consonants conveys directions or advice… or exclamations. Now and then heavy metal objects clang and vibrate as they smash into rocks.


The last time I partook in a harvest of geological booty, was with Kip and Rico back in 2018 when we visited Oregon’s sunstone capital (near Plush, OR).

 

While the hunt for sunstones contains all the joys of hunting for Easter Eggs (minus the dying of, hiding of, and eating of), not having any conception of what to do with them once you obtain them makes them something of a conundrum for me. In desperation, I used my sunstones to bedazzle, Elton John style, a pair of old reading glasses. The resulting fashion accessory works better as an exaggerated narrative than an actual art piece.

 

As the sounds of Kip and Rico began to recede and morph into the form of distant echos, the fear of ‘missing out’ finally motivates me to resurrect myself from the oblivion of sleep. I squirm out of my rain-fly and begin picking my way up the slope, relearning how to walk. As the angle of the slope becomes more severe, I alternate my route between slippery burnished dirt and teetering slabs of scree depending on which is most likely to give my steps more purchase.

 

 

I ran into Kip as he worked his way along the rocky columns that thrust out from the top of the scree skirts. He was already coming back from the high cave we had all seen last night, and his report did nothing to dissuade me from seeing it for myself.

 

It was kind of like, I imagine, seeing the pyramids after the tombs had been ransacked - or a jawbone after all the teeth had been pulled out. But then, that isn’t quite fair. There were geode-shaped cavities, of course, but there was also still a wealth of geode matrix lying in wait for anyone with a geologist’s hammer or shaped C-4 charges.

 

I looked carefully at the pockmarked surfaces and while I wasn’t sure what the mechanism was for the formation of concentric spheres, at least I could see hints of how minerals leeched into the structures and consolidated over time.

 

I absolutely would not return here without a rock pick.

 

Uncle Rico placed a modest collection of various geodes on the picnic table. He had found a distinctive black one and a distinctive white one and arranged it all to conjure an ad-hoc yin-yang symbol. I was beginning to feel pangs of envy regarding his metaphorical-capable artifacts but got distracted by the salsa and avocado leftovers that hinted that tacos, at one time, must have existed here. Synapses sputtered and fired, but clearly, there were holes in my memory.

At this point, Rico began trying to sell the idea that we should go off-road to investigate an anomaly he had observed during the approach to Succor Creek the day before. But all I could think about was the horrifying possibility that I had missed a taco dinner. I mean, you wouldn’t just slice up a plate of avocados and fork the bits into your mouth. You’d obviously use the avocado to dress a taco. Right?

 

But Rico, oblivious to my distress, kept describing an unnatural black line he’d seen in the hills across a broad valley. Rico felt certain that whatever the black line was, it was a man-made feature. “It’s probably a fence or wall.” He said, “But it’s definitely an ‘unknown’ that we should investigate as we explore these mysterious Böglands.”

Here we go again, I thought.

Whatever!

I was busy focusing on the half empty can of salsa while half listening to Rico. It seemed he somehow attributed this mystery-wall to local baguettes. That made about as much sense as calling the Owyhee Canyon Lands the Böglands (No bogs…and not all that many bugs).

When Kip turned out to be enthusiastic about exploring Rico’s mysterious Bögland’s anomaly, I wasn’t a bit surprised. Besides, I have to admit that I was curious about the supposed connection between long, thin, French bread and unidentified landscape features. GPS data was quickly consulted and we soon set out in our two vehicle convoy, leaving Kip’s tent as a marker to reserve our spot at the campground.

 

We resumed the familiar neck shimmying rhythm of high-suspension vehicles lurching left to right - consenting to swaths of time during which we resembled nothing so much as bobble-head toys.

 

The convoy came to a stop at the base of a long stone fence made of the fractured native stones that lay scattered across the hillside. The rocks appeared to be stacked on each other in a haphazard fashion. There was no evidence of any dressing of the stones, or even really any fitting. Nor was there any distinguishable mortar.

Rico popped out of his Jeep and walked around to the back. He raised the hatch, which, stuck wide open, served as a lone spot of shade for him as he rummaged through an ice-chest.

“What does this have to do with baguettes?” I asked.

“Not baguettes,” He replied as he handed out ice-cold beers, “Basques.”

 

In the late eighteen hundreds Basques, immigrants from Southwest Europe, were so numerous in Jordan Valley that it was called “The Home of the Basques” (In fact, the handball court I thought I saw when we drove into town was really a Pelota Court built by local Basques in 1917). A significant portion of them, the immigrants who arrived after an initial rush of gold prospectors, made their living farming and raising sheep.

Presumably, then, the fence we walked was an artifact of early immigrant farmers, who combined the task of clearing their fields with marking boundaries and limiting the movement of sheep and other livestock. The stone fences stretched for miles, and I suppose the barbed-wire sections we surveyed were later additions that offered a less labor-intensive solution to stacking stones.

Occasionally I’ll bid a small job, something like painting a bathroom, and when all is said and done, I’ll find that my original estimate was very accurate. But as I stand along the stone fence and watch it curve up out of sight beyond the distant hilltop, I find I can’t even hazard a guess on hours required, or even the size of the crew. I get the keen sense that the people who built these fences could never have imagined a future in which it would have been possible to spend a day on a comfy sofa binging a season of a favorite television series.

Rico and Kip, clambering ahead on legs decades younger than mine, reach yet another false summit and determine they’ve explored as far as they need to and rest. I’m lagging behind, intentionally laying out a path of exaggerated switchbacks as I weave between stubbly clumps of grass. I’m doing all I can to avoid planes that are anything but level. The exercise is what I need. The sun squeezes the alcohol out of me through my sweat holes.

The stone fence reminds me of the vast treeless plains of Kansas, where early settlers in need of fences figured out how to substitute limestone posts for wooden fence-posts. I planned to tell Kip and Rico about it when I got to the resting place, but by the time I get there, they are ready to head back down.

Back at camp, Kip takes on the role of chef and begins heating up a frying pan. My assumption is that more fish filets from the coolers will soon be bubbling in hot oil, but when I chance to Iook, I see a horrifying pink composition suitable for a constructivist painting.

Kip is smiling like a mystic in the throes of a beatific vision as he deftly sorts the pink cubes with tongs.

 

I choose a smiling expression for my face which I hope will temporarily act as a mask. Meanwhile I am in turmoil. Did I ruin my brain yesterday? Did I permanently alter my baseline reality? Everything seems normal, but instead of fish, for some reason, I think I see Spam!

I turn to Rico, hoping to see how he is reacting, but he is wearing a smile like an evil Stephen King clown. He is somehow able to see through my fake smile and he whispers, “What’s the matter? You’ve never seen Spam before?”

I play along and we make our elaborate tacos as usual. They become the best Spam tacos I have ever eaten. Do these qualify as three species tacos, we wonder? But really, there is no telling how many species might be in Spam.

 

The next morning, we pack up camp and leave the Succor Creek camp area behind us. I ride shotgun with Kip while an actual shotgun rides shotgun with Rico. It isn’t long before one rabbit or another, sitting frozen in perfect camouflage, loses its nerve and breaks into a panicked sprint as the convoy bounces by. This only serves to bring them to Rico’s attention. Rico, in these instances, slams on the brakes and springs out of the truck, shotgun blazing. He is like an Old West gunslinger, except his quick-draw routine has the added complexity of an off-road vehicle element.

 

I never see the rabbit until I see Rico’s barrel pointing the way. Then, as I focus, I briefly see a fluid streak airborne, with a rhythm diametrically opposed to the mechanical bumping of a Jeep. It’s all muscles and the lever principle honed by millennia of galloping predators and swooping raptors - a masterpiece drafted by generations of masters - giving it a one-step advantage in a race for life - a race it can’t win in a hail of steel pellets.

There’s an explosion and my eyes flinch shut (they always flinch shut) and I smell the gunpowder. And when I open my eyes, there’s a breeze ruffling the soft belly fur of a still, quiet rabbit.

Rico has claimed another treasure from the Earth, and to make full use of it, he immediately field dresses it. He scolds me for taking a picture of the rabbit in its awkward state and yet this is a mystery I seldom have ever seen and can’t look away from - life so immediately gone. The body yet warm and supple - as if it were sleeping.

Rico does his work on a stone altar, next to a nameless creek…

 

 

…witnessed by anonymous trees.

 

We climb another long gradient out of a valley, up toward the crowning plateau, stopping briefly to allow the cars to cool.

 

Then we begin sifting our way down into the Owyhee River Canyon again, this time toward the lower end of the reservoir.

 

Here is the last stronghold for water in a parched landscape.

 

Here, the boat ramp still tickles the edge of the water.

 

And visitors have learned to bring their own shade with them.

 

No store is open at this place, but we do find a vending machine that dispenses ice and take full advantage of it.

 

That dam glory hole.

 

 

Down there out-of-frame off to the right is the dam bridge, and beyond that our next campsite along the river.

 

Slowly, the natives come out to greet us.

 

There are more than we first thought, hiding in plain sight. Later, when we break our food out, the lizards make a deal with us, offering to take care of the flies that pester us in exchange for seats around our stove.

 

We don’t make any friends with the fly-fishermen in these parts when it becomes evident we will be keeping our fish.

 

 

Rabbit adds a novel flavor to the evening’s two species tacos.

 

Tomorrow’s journey will last the better part of the day, and during that time we will be forced to ease our way back into the apocalyptic milieu we left behind. We will see snapshots in time of Oregon East to West, all in one day.

 

We will once again rejoin daily commutes - retrace the same path day after day - exchange our freedoms for paychecks which we will use to wrest back bits of freedom.

 

Multi-lane roads happen because of the demands of traffic. Lots of traffic requires a bigger infrastructure. And if a lot of people are on that road…well, there’s wisdom in crowds. Right?

EVOLVING ROADS: Car Camping with Kip and Rico (Part Two)

In our last episode, after appreciating the subtle nuances of Kip’s latest margarita recipe, we were treated to the intermittent unveiling of the Milky Way as patchwork clouds streamed over us to the West.

Cows, emboldened by the cover of darkness, venture out to the dry lake’s terminal puddle where the last delicate grasses rise from drying mud. 

Minds, free from the constraints of day to day routines, become free to ponder the day’s events and images — to decipher messages preserved in stone for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

We are by no means the first to sit comforted by our campfire in this shallow basin. Doubtless, others sat before us, watching the universe display its bright jewels. Here, perhaps before a more convincing lake, those others noted the arrivals and departures of skittish deer and elusive big-horn sheep — not today’s tame cows that pulverize sensitive shorelines with great bovine hooves and trample into the mud a generous portion of their specialty pies.

Our campfire crackles and sparks and spits embers into the sky — earthborn messengers sent to consort with the stars. The constellations shuffle — the eternal multi-limbed project-deadline is banished before the promise of more ideal game.

During the early morning hours, aerosol rain periodically wets my face, waking me and forcing me to consider whether to string up the rain-fly. Stars visible between patchy clouds wink as if to reassure me that the clouds aren’t all that serious about releasing their load. Besides, the mist is cool and refreshing on my sunburnt cheeks. When the sun eventually peeks over the summit rim, it warms the gentle morning breeze, drying everything instantly.

After breaking camp, we resume fishing close to where we left off yesterday, but further downstream. 

Here the water is deeper. What appears to be a gently sloping mud bank drops sharply at the water’s edge — a steep rock face.

I lower a GoPro over the side and obtain these images of a world that until this moment, existed in my imagination as a kind of naive cartoon. In this domain, finely tuned, underwater, meat-seeking missiles effortlessly negotiate the currents in three dimensions.

Yet they can still be fooled.

Another river yields a catfish and a bass. Though small, these fish will technically allow the preparation of our traditional 3 species tacos.

We set up camp high on a long ridge of buttes that provide an expansive view of the basin below. In wetter months, the basin is likely a marsh, but even in its arid state, it appears beautiful in the growing shadows of the setting sun. Wikipedia informs me that this entire basin was once a vast Pleistocene lake. It was, however, a lake with no place to go — no exits to the sea — so as the ice age came to an end, it began a long process of evaporation, concentrating salts and alkalis until only Abert Lake (full of brine shrimp) and Summer Lake remain.

It doesn’t escape my notice that this campsite is bereft of trees which makes sleeping in a hammock somewhat problematical. Rico’s sleeping solution of preference is a cot. Kip relies on a tent. For tonight I’ll be sleeping with the scorpions on a lightweight, self-inflating sleeping pad. The threat of mosquitos is a constant on this trip, but I’ve brought lots of repellants. Also, since we have occupied a zone that sits well over 4000 feet in altitude, the night temperature will be cool enough to permit sleeping with a blanket over my head.

Rico expertly deep-fries the three species of fish. We savor the flavors that could not be any fresher.

It is a precious experience, to feel at home in the universe…however briefly.

Like a kid filled with wonder, Uncle Rico brought along 3 ultraviolet flashlights. The lights emit radiation in the ultraviolet range, and Rico encourages us to search for otherwise hidden biologicals in the darkness of night (like those scorpions). Unexpected things, like lichens, glow like neon under the ultraviolet beams. Conversely, if one is still hungry, it is best not to scrutinize one’s food preparation area too closely since leftovers scattered across used greasy plates appear grayish and moldy.

The next morning, Rico outfits us with shotguns to carry along in case we flush rabbits out of the sage while we search for arrowheads. We learn to walk into the sun to facilitate the reflections that betray the presence of flaked obsidian. Thankfully, I do not encounter any rabbits. But Rico does.

I am all at once horrified, awestricken and fascinated by Rico’s workmanlike reduction of the rabbit into meat for our evening meal. This is the cost all animals pay to fill our plates with steaks and stews. I recognize the homologous organs of my fellow mammal as Rico slips the pajama-like hide off the cottontail’s skeletal armature. There is a miracle here, in that these parts — bone, muscle, sinew, nerves, lungs, and heart —were, just seconds ago, a graceful, leaping, zig-zagging master of elusion. If I choose to eat meat, I must acknowledge this process of stealing life to sustain my own. 

We follow the road along Lake Abert. A squadron of geese set sail out into the salty waters, trailing wakes that replicate the ‘V’s that are so often a part of their aerial signature. 

Occasionally, we stop to seek out petroglyph locations, but our primary goal today is to find the public sunstone gem collection area. 

Sunstones are crystals that formed from minerals coming to rest in the scaffolding of a vast lava bed which lay underwater for thousands of years. Now, as the lava weathers in the arid high desert, these crystals can be found, loose in the topsoil. A superficial reading of the Bureau of Land Management’s kiosk might lead one to believe that sunstones are “Found only in the high desert of Eastern Oregon…” which sounds impressive. A more careful reading shows the claim is only being made for ‘Oregon sunstones’ which… seems totally reasonable. You wouldn’t expect to find Oregon sunstones amongst Norwegian or Swedish sunstones. Technically, the point they’re really trying to make is that these particular sunstones are uniquely infused with copper which gives them distinct colors.

20 acres or so of land is designated for public gem collection (with hand tools only), but the public land is surrounded by private claims where more methodical, mechanical methods of collection are employed.

Kip’s haul (with something we convinced ourselves was a significant fossil shark tooth).

Uncle Rico’s haul (with what he claims, straight-facedly, is a remarkably rare and valuable green sunstone)

Coming down from the high plateau, we stopped for ice and beer in Plush, then drove along the Warner Lakes until we came to Deep Creek. Traveling up the canyon, we found a suitable site a short distance above the Deep Creek Falls. 

At first, the mosquitos worked to drive us away from our chosen camp, but Kip had brought the giant portable house with mosquito netting, so setting up that emergency shelter provided psychological re-enforcement (perhaps in the same way that designated fallout shelters helped cushion the horror of nuclear war). Kip also deployed a surprising number of mosquito coils and Rico ignited another needlessly conspicuous fire to smoke them out. Eventually, these measures and the addition of a reliable breeze allowed our panic to subside. 

I was curious to see how Rico would prepare the rabbit. I imagined, perhaps, a nice hasenpfeffer or seared rabbit with rosemary potatoes. We ended up nibbling on deep-fried legs and incorporating the rest into rabbit tacos.

Our camp nestled in the trees and tucked into a canyon didn’t provide the expansive views of the previous evenings. But the falls we had passed on the road seemed a target rich photo opportunity, so I set out on foot to capture them in the long red rays of sunset. I was a little bit late.

Still, it was instructive to see how the crystal-like structure of basalt makes it so susceptible to time, water and temperature.

Back at camp, the ambient noises of the gently gurgling creek and the cooing of doves were shattered by Bluetooth speakers blaring Rico’s mariachi music. Both Kip and Rico began commenting on the sentiments expressed in the lyrics and how they so closely compared to Country-western music and the human condition in general. When they realized my shameful monolingualism precluded me from this conversation, they proceeded to speak solely in Spanish. It was in this way that I quickly became certain of the meaning of ‘cerveza’.

Several margaritas and an undetermined amount of sangria put me in a somewhat nostalgic state of mind and I timidly asked if perhaps we could, in addition to the mariachi music, maybe slip in a Jim Croce tune now and again. This proposal met with an unabashed denial. I countered with John Denver, but little progress was made until we finally reached an uneasy truce over the Avett brothers. 

Early in the morning, I found myself in the mosquito-proof house. Rico was outside under his cot. I believe Kip was still in his chair.

Continue to PART THREE?

see also Evolving Roads: Car camping with Kip and Rico (Part One)