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Show The Park Record A-10 Wed/Thurs/Fri, July 27-29, 2005 CORE SAMPLES By Jay Meehan Grandfathered-in # Choosing where to ski and ride is a game of high stakes © Make sure you're holding all the right cards © Renew or buy online at , www.thecanyons.com Or call up the dealer at 435-615-3410 and say "Hit Me." up on Hades Creek Road no longer impeded the pilgrim on his way to Grandview trailhead. There were downed trees to be sure and more than likely a snow patch or two but, hell, what's a hike without a bit of scramblin' and route-fmdin.' It was touch and go for a while there, wonderin' if the snow would ever leave the 11,000-foot Hades Pass breakover where you could stand and gaze in awe at the wide-open, lake-strewn wilderness that is Grandaddy Basin. This is where they got the name for the trailhead, although there are "grandviews" a-plenty all about these woods. sing-along with the band. And during their break, moseying about the ranch under the stillmostly-full "buck moon" has a bunch of end-of-the-roaders, with dancing quality all its own. a few hunting guides and horse This bunch is a nocturnal lot. wranglers thrown in to give it a You can hear them out rustling shelf-life. It's the kind of place through underbrush and mutterwhere the womenfolk are strucing that disjointed wordplay of turally sound and the cabins are theirs throughout most of the cute. night. Hey, the dysfunctional and The other stompin' ground is co-dependent need love too. the surrounding high country Where do you think all those leading into the High Uinta great country songs come from? wilderness afea next door. Back trailside, the plan is to Grandaddy Basin is where one trek into Mohawk Lake for a goes to get healed after a night of kickback lunch and possibly a nap overdoing it at the dude ranch under the boughs. There's a bit of saloon. This habitat is where touch and go in that area, howevfresh air hangs out and pine scent er, as extra caution is doesn't come in a bottle. afoot due to a rather nervous weather foreThere was never a cast. Prognosticators doubt that with the With this bunch, any excuse will have a 60-percent "Block and Tackle" boys from over Heber do - but when the honoree is once probability of thunway running the show again the late, great Ernie The derstorms moving in. that the hardwood On the trail it is Breadman' Scow, well, it's every bail- initially about cloud dance floor at the dude ranch's saloon would cover. Shadows, when .' bondsman for himself." be ground zero. With you can make them this bunch, any excuse ^ ^ ^ ^ out at all, are barely will do - but when the ^ ^ ^ ™ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ visible. Hiking weathhonoree is once again er doesn't get any betthe late, great Ernie "The It's pretty much the extreme ter. Then... a shift in the wind Breadman" Scow, well, it's every western edge of the south slope of from south to north and a sudden > bail-bondsman for himself. the Uinta Range and the trails drop in temperature. Hikers* And this brings us to the fact and lakes are fraught with forests. headed the other way are hot--* that you never want to drive away You want lodgepole pine? We footin' it. Something is up. Back at the saloon, tales of thefrom Defa's Dude Ranch after got 'em in spades! How "bout one of these interrelationship ses- some Engelmann spruce? They West play out on stage. A guitarsions. Too much huggin' and come in all sizes from scattered player/vocalist takes a bullet in, the shoulder. It's not a pretty mumblin' can give one the idea stands to hillsides worth. that he or she is perfectly capable And, somehow, wildflowers sight. Blood runs down his vest. of operating a motor vehicle upon along the trails and meadows are There's 20 in the posse and he. a dark two-lane populated chiefly more blatant than memory doesn't know when he'll see some • by beef cow and county cop. serves. And lichen! Bright green rest. Plots thicken in song.V The rowdiest horses at Defa's forests of the stuff cover boulders Revelers wheel and deal. One t on weekends like this aren't nec- along the switchbacks this year, hell of a way to run a dude ranch.. essarily bays or buckskins or when, in the past, the scene was Up higher, the rains of sumappaloosas or mustangs, but noc- much more muted. From the mer bring slickers out of packs • turnal breeds that go by names slope of the trail to the manner in and the hike continues tolike Fender and Gibson and which clouds and breeze join the Grandview Point. Without warn-, Ovation and Sabian. It's about a rendezvous, gentleness lays upon ing, Grandaddy Basin unfolds in bunch of night herders and slip- the land. a sea of timber, lake and meadow. . shod sidekicks gathering for a Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Heart Lake appears snuggled in shindig. The unwary can end up there's a hoot underway. Ernie at the base of East Grandaddy splayed-out in a horse trough. stories are sloshing about with Mountain and, just below it to the . It wasnH always a given that only subtle modifications from west, Grandaddy Lake itself. Under a canopy of spruce and the more organic of the two habi- when they were last told. That's tats would be accessible within the way it is when the usual sus- fir, gear is hung-up to dry. There the weekend timeframe, what pects hold court and use whatev- is time to reflect upon the doings with the d9eplffenow packifr t h e er, crowbar is handy to pry loose at the jiude ranch and the highUintas and all. But the fine folk at memories from their misspent country tjflth. Horses and hikers. and dancers and iockers pass the Duchesne Ranger District of youth. the Ashley National Forest were In between spinning yarns, both ways. A sense of welcome there for us. there always seems to be time hangs in the air. We don't need no The news couldnt have been enough for the assembled to stinking permit! We've been better. Word had it that the gate stumble through a two-step or grandfathered-in! * t's a tale of two habitats. The first being a salty old I dude ranch, peopled by a crusty S E A S O N PAS'SES AVAILABLE NOW! Pay only $100 now! Put down a $100 deposit before the early season deadline (September 5, 2005-Labor Day) to reserve your pass at the early price. Remainder must be paid by 10/31/05. 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Al rigrta rwvvad WRITERS O N THE RANGE By Becky Lorn ax • The last I looked, national parks weren't zoos I wanted to yell," Go to a zoo!" Columbian ground squirrels or Yet we can't totally blame boreal toads. It's as if visiting the wilds urban neophytes for not knowing announced one hiking client as I requires a checklist for "been the difference between a zoo and guided us through dense old- there, done that." Somehow, life a national park. Many parks brag growth cedars. I didn't know how takes on a certain completeness about their animals -- their bears, when one can check off a wild big birds, wolves, especially any to respond. Was I puzzled by the implica- boy: check, I saw a moose; check, species that is endangered or tion that our national parks I saw a mountain goat; check, I threatened. And rightly so, as should be rated on the same saw a big silver grizzly. Most increased public consciousness scale, even though each was set parks even provide fauna and about the status of these creaaside for unique features found avian checklists for visitors to tures serves to make people want nowhere else on earth? Was I dis- track their sightings. Few people to protect them. mayed that seeing wildlife seems care if their list fails to show a Even if it is a roadside bear to mark the parks "real" value? check for a pygmy shrew, the tini- viewed from the relative safety of Or had my client nailed some- est carnivore. our vehicle, it is still a wild creathing in all of us -- that desire to On an excursion I guided ture we've seen. It's as if once pursue the wild? we've spotted an animal in the wild, Viewing wildlife prewe've survived its sents us with the Somehow, life takes on a cer- fangs and claws. The remarkable. Fur, talons, blood of our ancescompleteness when one can tain keen vision and four tors still runs deep legs of other creatures check off a wild big boy: check, I saw through our veins, bring us face to face a moose; check, I saw a mountain from a time when with our humanity and what makes us unique goat; check, I saw a big silver grizzly. fear of predation ruled the country's as a species. I've had my close encounters with Most parks even provide checklists wild corners and Darwinian laws grizzlies and wolver- for visitors to track their sightings." ines, each producing a drove our actions. mixture of wonder and Now, a big-beast. panic. ^^^^ ^^^^^ photograph travels home as a trophy to But deep inside, I longed to see them even more through Glacier National Park, surviving an encounter with'wild-; closely, where I could safely we joined a bear-jam where a ness. I understand the impulse:examine the length of their claws ranger blared her siren to scare a When a golden eagle drops out of and gaze into their eyes to dis- black bear off into the brush. The the sky, I find myself instinctively; bruin simply ignored the ruckus grabbing my camera, and swear! cover what "wild" really was. But in our desire to compre- for a while before meandering under my breath as it stays just; hend "wild," we skew off in crazy away. Once it did, my disgruntled out of photographic range.directions. Modeling Wild clients vented their anger at the Something drives me to record] Kingdoms' Marlin Perkins, we disruption to their wildlife view- the moment, as if catching the; King of Birds on film will help* race through our parks grabbing ing. ! what sightings of wildlife we can. I explained the ranger's me define "wild." With checklists and photo-; Frequently at a trip's begin- actions: The bear's behavior indining, my clients announce what cated prior experience with the graphic electronic marvels at our wildlife they hope to see. Many siren, most likely because it had disposal, we've lost the moment long to spot a grizzly, whereas been frequenting the roadside, a of magical awe, that moment those who have read "Night of prelude to trouble. The ranger when wild is just wild, and we're; the Grizzlies" are petrified about aimed to protect the bear, trying there to breathe its mystery. Wait, where's my camera? spying a bear even as a brown dot to teach it that the road is not a in a high meadow. Bear-scared safe place. Too much involve- There goes a Canada lynx! folks prefer to see stately ment with humans can end in the Becky Lomax is a contributor Roosevelt elk, bighorn sheep or bear's destruction. to Writers on the Range, a service gray wolves. In most cases, the "I Disgusted, one of my clients <?/High Country News (hcn.org). want to see" wish lists usually responded, "Then how are peo- She writes from White/ish, Mont:, focus on charismatic megafauna; ple driving the road supposed to where she works as a guide in no one asks if we'll stumble upon see bears?" Glacier National Park. ' ellowstone is a better park Y than Glacier because you can see more animals," so |