Mellow spring ride

The morning rapidly evolved from dark to bright today. Within 15 minutes of the start of our ride, a flock of birds completely occupied a stark aspen tree with blue sky behind it.





















After a couple of days of less voltage than usual, K romped with high energy today. She forged ahead of me at every opportunity and picked up deer scent about a quarter mile before we spotted the deer. The doe traveled solo - so perhaps she's the one I noticed was missing from the small herd shortly after the lion traipsed through here. Resisting a deer chase used to be a huge challenge for K but today she achieved a first. She turned away from the deer when I simply said 'leave it' - no need for me to stop and do an 'official recall'. It was nice - because I could keep rolling while giving K a few treats on the move. My dog-training rule is that I stop and have a huge celebration after every successful recall - that keeps K's recall strong and thereby keeps her safe. But sometimes it gets tiresome to stop frequently for dog training - some days I just feel like rolling along with my pup so I was happy with her 'leave it' today.



It was a special day, a birthday, so I stopped and used the camera timer to take a photo of me and K with the snowy mountains in the background. We sat in that beautiful spot and I thought about how lucky I am to live my life with my pack in these mountains.

After I dropped off K, I got lost! I've decided to try to get lost at least once a week this spring/summer. Since none of our smaller trails are on maps, the only way to learn them is to explore. Today, I saw a trail that I'd never tried - and I zoomed down it. My fear of truly getting lost has stopped me from these adventures in the past but I'm finding that I'm getting better at figuring out the land features to use as guides. This is critical because I have *no* internal sense of direction. Today, I panicked briefly when I didn't recognize anything around me - but then I figured out that a particular gulch must run north-south and where it likely emerged from the forest. I was right! A small miracle.

As I emerged onto a ridge, I saw the Divide and our local ski area. My last time telemark skiing was almost exactly 3 years ago, prior to my most recent back surgery. I remember that on the ski hill - feeling certain that I'd be back someday. So far, that hasn't been true due to my docs' warnings and the discovery of just how badly degenerated my neck is. But, as I looked at the ski area today, I realized that I don't miss it anymore. When there's snow, I like ski touring in the woods with my pups or riding my snowbike. I truly loved the act of telemark skiing but always disliked the crowds - and that ambivalence is probably why I'm OK with not telemarking. I don't backcountry telemark ski because the snow conditions are so unpredictable that a face plant and neck injury are much more likely than in a ski area.
Although I passed through an area of high lion activity, I saw no signs today. Based on my reading, I'm pretty sure that this area of 'high lion activity' is a heavily used route from one hunting area to another. It's heavily wooded but has drainages running through it - and radio collar studies show that these drainages provide long distance paths for lions. Moreover, elk and deer don't graze in these densely treed areas because the choice food is found in meadows and on ridges. So, a lion might run across a herd of traveling ungulates but won't find them hanging out here.

Surprisingly, lions have cubs throughout the year - not just in the spring like most wild animals. Observations suggest that cubs born in the winter do as well as those born in warmer months. It may not matter much when they're born because their mom provides them with food for a year and continues teaching them about hunting for another 6 months beyond that. So, regardless of exactly when cubs are born, their mother has to provide food throughout a complete cycle of seasons - including the tough times and the easy times.

Another tough part of raising cubs for a mother lion is avoiding male lions who will kill and eat the cubs - even their own. Female lions bury their scat and urine to conceal their presence when they have cubs - people think that behavior helps prevent a male lion from following her trail back to the cubs.

The last time that I saw tracks, I believed that the lion was dragging his paws - but after closer perusal, I realized that there was only one dragging mark per stride. Moreover, after reading about lion tracks, I'm almost certain he was dragging his tail. The tail of a lion is massive - it's almost as long as his body and looks heavy. Every photo shows the tail either on the ground or skimming it.

I didn't feel worried about lions today - although it intrigued me to think about the landscape from a lion's viewpoint based on the reading I've been doing.

Mostly, I had a mellow ride out in our spring-like world.

Aspens bursting

K and I rolled out early enough to see the sun emerging from behind a cover of clouds.The clouds hovered all morning but the sun soon burned through right over top of us!

As we rolled through a pine forest, K and I again spotted hints that a bear may be drowsily wandering our woods. K exhaustively sniffed another digging, again the rotten wood in a fallen tree's root system, and then started salivating. According to dog behaviorists, salivating (or drooling) is a sign of stress - and bears undoubtedly stress out K more than any other animal. She turns into a lunatic when a bear forages or climbs trees just outside our house.

K once chased a bear in her adolescent wild phase. As we were hiking, K had roamed too far ahead. We called her, and she came streaking back toward us with a black bear just in front of her. The bear veered off, and K gave up the chase to come to us. That was not one of our better moments as dog guardians.

Since then, we've learned a lot - including that K always wears a bell in the forest to forewarn bears and other animals of her arrival. And, we've learned the early warning signs that a bear's in the area and recall K and the other dogs right away.

It's about a month earlier than we usually see our first bear so perhaps our bear is up for a short snort and will be snoring again soon.

As we rolled along, I saw and K sniffed several fresh bobcat scats. Now that I've learned to recognize it, bobcats almost always scratch out a shallow depression before depositing scat in it. I've had a hard time getting the scratchings to show up in a photo when they're in dirt - but they're very obvious in snow. Bobcats leave scratched out depressions and scat in prominent marking spots - like in the middle of a trail.

After I dropped off K, I did another 'summer-only' loop - where my only contact with roads was to cross them. I carefully plan my routes to maximize my time in the forest and minimize my time near civilization. It's amazing to be doing these trail-only rides in March but the dryness portends a scary summer fire season. A wildland fire broke out across the canyon last week - but fire crews doused it in short order. Usually at this time of year, a layer of snow covers the forest floor. In 2003, we had a snow deficit until the third week in March when we had the storm of the century - 6 feet of snow in 48 hours. I wish that we'd have the storm of the century again this March!

As I rode along a south-facing slope, I noticed a transformation in the aspen trees. The twigs no longer looked like bare skeletons.
When I found a low branch, a close-up investigation showed catkins bursting out of the buds. Unfortunately, I've never written down when the catkins burst out of the buds in the past so I don't know if it's early.
As I observed aspen trees for the rest of the ride, I noticed that only south facing ones with absolutely no shading had catkins emerging. The aspen trees in the foreground below have swollen buds but no catkins. These trees sit in a colder spot.And, these aspen trees don't even have swollen buds yet - although they do have small buds that I saw when I examined the twigs close-up. It's hard to even imagine how different this panorama will look in two months with green leaves on the aspens and less snow on the mountains.The USA National Phenology Network is soliciting information about blooming and leafing-out dates from nature observers. 'Phenology' refers to the timing of natural events. It's a new project so, for now, we can enter only this year's botony events. In the future, it will be possible to enter past data (e.g., I have many years of journals that note when various plants bloomed in our meadow) and to enter animal events like birds fledging or bears emerging from hibernation. The goal is to enlist people like us to provide data that can be used to analyze the effects of global warming. To enter observations, click 'participate' in the top bar on the website. Be sure to read all of the directions carefully, as they want you to observe representative locations for your area, rather than an extremely warm south-facing slope like the one where I saw the aspen catkins today. They also list preferred species for reporting - so check out whether you have any of those species in an accessible site. It seems like a great idea - although the website is still a bit clunky - but I'd encourage people to participate for the good of our planet.

On the brink between winter and spring

The dawning of spring is undeniable. A red-winged blackbird hungrily ate breakfast at our feeder. He was the first that we'd seen since last fall. As K and I rolled past a tall aspen grove, we heard a robin singing a summer song rather than the raucous warning calls we've heard since they arrived a month ago. A little further along the trail, a mountain chickadee sang his two note breeding season call. Then, the drumming of two woodpeckers echoed back and forth. No doubt about it - the birds are getting ready for spring.






As K and I rode a northwest facing ledge trail, I noticed that the sun was peeking over the ridge to our east - for the first time on a morning ride since last fall. In the photo, I'm looking up the ridge toward the east, and the sun is burning through the needles of a pine tree.

Along the same trail, K was the first to notice a large digging. An animal had dug a hole where a tree had formerly been rooted. Big clods of dirt and rotten wood were strewn around the hole. Bears excavate holes like this in the summer but I haven't seen any bears yet. I examined the hole closely looking for clues like claw marks or fur - but found nothing. The phantom digger. K followed the phantom's trail down the hill before I called her back. No drooling from K - that's her reaction to smelling fresh bear scent - so maybe it was some other animal or the bear was long gone.

I thought that K lacked her usual verve today so I cut our ride short. Nothing obvious was wrong but she wasn't frolicking like usual. But, when I decided to turn around, she refused. She ducked under a fence that we usually go beyond and stayed there. I rode toward home, and she stubbornly remained frozen in place. Then, I became nervous because she was standing on the spot where I found lion scat yesterday so I called her - which may have been what she was angling for the whole time. The bottom line is that I think that I was wrong - she had energy to burn and wanted to go further!
After I rode with K, it seemed like a warm sunny day so I dressed for spring rather than winter. Then, a cloud bank rolled in and the wind picked up, and I rapidly chilled. I have Raynaud's Syndrome pretty badly in my hands and feet so getting cold is even less fun than for most people. It's the reason why I almost always have chemical handwarmers in my mittens even in mildly chilly whether. I left them home today and had white fingers by the end of the ride.I decided to cut my ride short - but still managed to enjoy the beauty around me. Here, clouds loom over the Divide.
Then, the cloud bank descends onto part of the Divide.
For some reason, it's the tiny glimpses of the Divide from unexpected places that intrigue me the most. Here, big rocky outcroppings block most of the Divide but a snowy mountain peeks out from behind them.
When I arrived home, an Abert's squirrel was eating seeds below our feeder. Check out his ears - they have pointy wild tufts. Abert's squirrels need a very specific habitat - they absolutely require Ponderosa Pines. Many of their favorite huge pines surround our house, and consequently, lots of Aberts squirrels entertain us. We see them only sporadically in the winter - the books say that they hole up in their nests when it gets very cold. Then, in the spring, they gorge on the seeds under our feeder. The funniest thing is that the Red Squirrels, who are less than half the size of Abert's Squirrels, terrorize their bigger cousins. We've seen many chases where the Red Squirrels scare away the Abert's squirrels. Abert's Squirrels come in jet black, cinnamon, and grey - and we have all three colors in the forest around our house.

Look mom, no hands!

Hug your dog

Today is 'give your dog a hug' day in our pack. A visiting friend rushed back home because his dog had collapsed. The vet found a very large splenic tumor, and surgeons are removing his spleen today. We're hoping, against the odds, that it's not hemangiosarcoma. Our friend found his dog, Julius, almost 12 years ago tied up next to a freeway in California. Julius's life to that point obviously hadn't been easy but they've built an incredibly strong bond.

We've had a brush with this awful cancer but we evaded it. Our dog, S, had emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction. While he was on the operating table, we received a phone call telling us that he had tumors on his spleen and liver. The surgeon was 90% sure it was hemangiosarcoma. Regardless of whether he removed the cancer, the vet thought that S's survival odds were low. But, in a 2 AM surreal moment, we told the surgeon to remove S's spleen and the tumor on his liver. That morning, I started wearing a Livestrong wristband in S's honor while we awaited the biopsy results. After the longest 3 days ever, we found out that it wasn't hemangiosarcoma. For once, we beat the odds! The tumors were another rare, but not too aggressive, form of cancer but the surgeon believed that he'd excised all of it. Today, 20 months later, the 13.5 year old S is still happily with us, and I'm still wearing my wristband. We know how lucky we are to have S with us.

Today, my dog friend, K, and I loved our time together on the trails. She ran along side me acting relaxed and happy. She mock-chased a squirrel - she learned a long time ago that she won't actually catch a tree squirrel but seems to think it's her duty to give chase. Then, we stopped at a viewpoint, and I tossed her treats. I had fun trying to capture photos of her snarfing the treats out of the air. In the photos, she's initially intent on the treat that I'm holding, and then her jaws gape as the piece of cheese, visible in the photo, falls towards her mouth. I'm amazed by the eye-mouth coordination involved in this trick!















The weather was perfect today so I decided to try a 'summer-only' loop that involves almost no roads but goes through a variety of beautiful country. Amazingly, or scarily, depending on your viewpoint, almost the whole loop was rideable. Only the steep north-facing slopes reduced me to walking because I couldn't get traction to climb up them.
Early in the ride, I almost ran over some mountain lion scat. Like last time, it fit all the criteria for size and content (lots of fur and a few bone pieces). The visible edge of my energy gel package is 1.5" so this scat totaled more than 9" in length and more than 0.75" in diameter. Based on a book called Cougar by Keven Hansen, this trail navigates through classic Front Range cougar territory, with large boulders strewn between Ponderosa Pines and Rocky Mountain Junipers. Moreover, it bordered a vast meadow. Radio collar studies show cougars favor this terrain, probably because the boulders provide great hiding places and their prey, mule deer, like 'edge' habitats between meadows and forests.

In reviewing the literature, Hansen points out that mountain lions have two distinct travel modes: 1) straight-line travel from one hunting area to another, and 2) zig-zag searching movements through a hunting area. Lions traveling longer distances almost always use drainages (gulches) or ridges, which might fit with the fast-moving cougar who I saw streak along a gulch. The tracks that I've seen recently near my house definitely fit the zig-zag hunting mode - it makes sense because the lion was moving through an area where a small herd of deer almost constantly hang out.

Hansen uses the literature to bust the myth that mountain lions patrol their territories on a regular schedule. Apparently, this is a totally untrue story told by lion hunters - the radio collar data don't support it. Lions follow their prey throughout their territory with little pattern to their movements except that they stay near elk and deer.

Reading this book is part of my 'educate-myself-to-reduce-my-fear' approach. It usually works for me - and today, I didn't feel worried. However, I did jump out of my skin when a large tan dog sprinted to me from behind - so maybe I was subconsciously worrying.

As I rode this loop that's so familiar to me in the summer, I noticed a view that I've never really seen before. It's interesting how carrying a camera in my pocket has made me see the world differently. I don't zone out so often but constantly look around me with a keen eye.


First, the snow-white bordering this boulder pile caught my eye so I climbed off-trail toward the top.













Once, I arrived nearly atop the boulder pile, the mountain view opened up. It was worth leaving the beaten path.












When I shifted my view to southward, yet more resplendent mountains!










I climbed up a very steep trail through pine forest, and invisible ice lurked under the pine needles. I felt my wheels lose traction, and put my foot down. Bad idea. My foot slipped too, and bike and almost fell sideways down the steep slope that the trail was cut into. No injuries but a lesson learned. It happened just to the left of the amazingly curved tree in the photo.

At the top of the climb, I emerged onto a a meadowy ridge where I saw mountain bluebirds and a coyote. And, I almost forgot, another amazing view. I am so thankful to have such a beautiful world and loving human-dog pack around me.

Exploring

What a day - a glorious day to explore the mountains! K and I headed out into 14 degree weather this morning - but the intense sun and blue skies warmed the air quickly. We headed up toward the sky.
















Once we reached the roof of our trail system, I couldn't help myself - I had to take a photo of my beautiful K with the deep blue sky behind her.
As we descended through a deep forest, K became worried about something that I couldn't perceive. At one point, she sprinted a short distance into the dark forest barking. That's very rare for her - if she sees deer or coyotes, she doesn't bark as she runs at them. Then, she began to drool - gross, I know. But, whenever I've ever seen K drool in the forest, we meet a bear shortly thereafter. I used to leash her as soon as I saw drool, before I was confident in her recall around bears. It's early for a bear but I kept K close to me just in case an early riser is roaming. I never figured out what made her so jumpy.












If you look at K's face in the photo above, it shows stress - her brow was furrowed and she refused to stop scanning the woods. And, yes, the gorgeous drool is apparent. It's amazing how expressive a dog's face is.



After I left K at home to snooze, I left the house planning to do a completely different ride than what I ended up doing. As I rode along a connector trail, I noticed that no snow covered the hillside and cliffs above me. It's an area that's intrigued me for years because it has the potential to provide non-road connections to some other trails that I like to ride. So, I tossed my planned ride out the window and started pushing my bike up the at least 25 degree grade. In a lot of places, it would've been far easier to carry my bike, due to the rocks and trees strewn over the ground, but my back won't tolerate carrying a bike.

It's frustrating - there's a perfectly good forest road that accesses this area but two miniscule mining claims bisect the road, covering about 100 yards of it. Illegally, in my opinion, the claim owner has declared the whole road a no trespassing zone. It would be easy to use the road and build trails to go around the claims but this is a gun-toting guy who I want to avoid. So, I pushed my bike cross-country up the slope, staying away from trouble.

As I got close to the top of the rocky slope, I noticed a common sight around here - a mining pit. However, when I looked more closely, a tunnel or perhaps a cave led deep into the hillside from the bottom of the pit. The tunnel was pitch black and looked endlessly deep. Don't worry - I didn't climb down to investigate but my photo doesn't convey how deep this tunnel appeared to be. The author of "Beast in the Garden", a book about mountain lions in our area, actually went into some of these tunnels and found that lions used them as dens, leaving behind bones, pet collars, and all sorts of other signs. I didn't see any cat signs today, aside from bobcat scat on the trails.

After checking out the tunnel, a beautiful mountain panorama opened up behind me.












When I reached the plateau at the top, I knew generally which direction I wanted to explore and had a vague recollection of the topographical features from studying USGS maps. I found familiar 4wd roads and followed them to the end. Then, I discovered that someone else, a master at hiding trails, had the same route in mind as I did. By wandering through the woods briefly, I found his very faint trail. As I followed it deeper into the forest, it became clearer with cairns and logs lining its sides.

I reached a huge cairn, and that was it. Kaput - no more trail. And, I was out of energy to search extensively. I need to go explore again because I can't imagine anyone working that hard and abruptly ending the trail in the middle of the woods. I bet that the trail disappears for a short distance and then it restarts. A lot of our mountain trails do that and only the persistent searchers find the complete trail.

I love exploring the woods, especially when it feels like no other humans have trampled the ground in a long time. These deep woods felt that way to me. I occasionally glimpsed the eastern plains or the mountains, but aside from those instants, I was engulfed in the forest. I saw many animal trails, tracks, and scat. Elk, deer, coyotes, bobcats, pine martens, and other large unidentifiable animals had recently roamed this forest.

Today is the perfect example of why I love having my Spot Tracker. I had its tracking function turned on so I could map my route on a topo map when I arrived home. Also, I couldn't have used the safety rule of telling someone where I was going today - since I didn't know myself. I knew that I could hit the 'help' or '911' button if absolutely necessary.

All in all, I had a wonderful morning in the woods. I don't know if the trail that I found will ultimately lead anywhere but I loved being immersed in the mountain forest.

Beautiful skies, bobcats, and hummingbirds

The pups and I hit the trails early enough to see the end of the sunrise.
I love the gentle hue of the world when the sun is awakening.
And, we saw deer and elk who were also awakening. R's recall from ungulates (deer and elk) has become incredibly strong over the past week. We seem to be seeing them daily or even twice daily - and K has shown R how to whip back to me instead of chasing them. It seems like one of the deer is missing but I don't know how cohesive deer herds are. The size of small herd seemed to decrease by one around when I last saw lion tracks.













I mentioned yesterday that male bobcats kill and eat deer. My husband reacted with disbelief. The evidence is strong. It comes from examining the stomach contents of thousands of dead bobcats killed for fur from all over North America. The book that I'm reading Bobcat: Master of Survival by Kevin Hansen cites numerous primary research papers to support the idea that bobcats eat deer. The part that's harder to prove scientifically is that the bobcats actually kill the deer that they eat rather than feeding on carrion. That part of the story is based on numerous observations of bobcats in the act of killing deer in the wild.

As the dogs and I climbed upward after our animal encounters, we emerged above the trees and I involuntarily said "wow". The clouds and mountains were stunningly beautiful.As we stood and soaked up the beauty, I honestly believed that I heard a male hummingbird pass overhead. After the metallic buzzing passed, I wondered if I'd hallucinated because it's a month early for the first hummingbirds to arrive. Then, I remembered two years ago when we had a wayward Broad-billed Hummingbird hang around our house for 4 days about 6 weeks after our native hummingbirds (Broad-Tailed and Rufous) had migrated. Broad-billed Hummingbirds usually live far south of here and have been seen in Colorado only very rarely. This guy was definitely lost, and the fact that we'd left our feeder out provided him with food during a few days rest. I have video of him below - I couldn't get a still photo because he left everytime I went out on the deck but the video camera on a tripod worked.


So, based on that experience, and thinking that I heard a hummingbird today, I think that I'll put out my feeder to help any wayward hummers that are passing over our snowy mountains.