Sunday August 16, 2015 Bearpaw Mountain Nevada, near Jarbidge
Moving to Bearpaw camp
We woke at Scott’s Ranch and got ready to move on to the next camp today. While Steve was packing up his stuff, I walked around the barn yard and saw this little rabbit through the shop window.
And I could hear this woodpecker pecking on the tree overhead.
We got it going and headed out back to the main road down along the Bruneau river.
There was a little side road I wanted to check out for a possible future camp, so we stopped and went over to check it out, but there was this bee type nest by the road.
Quite a colorful looking thing with all the wild rose berries. We backed off and I didn’t see what kind of bees were making this nest. Usually yellow jackets or hornets make this type of nest.
Jones ranch
We were headed for the Jones ranch in the Diamond A Desert, not very far up the road from where we camped last night.
We made our turn off at the ranch and headed towards the Black Rock Crossing area, but we weren’t going there.
Gates
We had to open and close several gates and the grass was real dry out here on the Diamond A Desert. One always leaves a gate how it is found, either open or closed.
Dry water tank
We were driving out to a big water tank which usually has water in it for the cows and wild animals to drink, but today, the tank was dry. Was the spring dried up where we were going to camp that feeds this tank? There’s usually a lot of cows milling around this tank, but not today. The plus is not many flies either.
Where’d they put that road
I knew the road went up along the pipeline to the spring up on Bearpaw Mountain, but since the tank was dry, the cows hadn’t eaten the grass and I couldn’t find the road. After walking around in the grass looking for the road I finally found it, so off we went, five or more miles to the spring.
Grouse
I saw some movement off to my right which turned out to be a couple of grouse feeding in the grasses. Here’s one of them.
Antelope
This antelope took off just as we were approaching the spring area where we would camp.
Bearpaw camp
We made it up to the spring about half way up the north side of Bearpaw Mountain and set up camp. There’s still a lot of smoke around in the air today from fires somewhere else. Here’s our camp overlooking the desert.
Plugged up water spring
Right away, I checked the spring box and found it overflowing with water, but none going down the pipe because the willow roots had grown into the outlet pipe and plugged it all up.
I’m standing on the lid of the spring box and looking at all the roots plugging it up. The water was running over the top, instead of down the outlet pipe under the roots.
Water means life out here
There were a lot of roots in that box. I pulled and pulled and got that big wad out on the left side of the picture. I could see the water start to drain down and go down the pipe headed several miles to that empty tank we passed on the way in. I was picturing water starting to pour into the empty tank as I started the water on it’s way.
On the left is the wad of roots I pulled out of the spring box which is on the right. There are some rocks to stand on in the mud, but not enough of them, so the shoes get a bit wet and muddy, but for a good cause.
Life giving water
That was a good feeling knowing I just put life giving water way out there in the desert just by removing the roots. It appears the ranchers on the Diamond A Ranch haven’t been taking care of this spring and may not even know where it is. The ranchers here now are new college guys that took over from the older cowboy types several years ago. So they may not know where this spring is located. If I can catch up with one of the ranch hands on this trip, I’ll see what they know about this spring and I need to inform them that I have messed with their spring which I’m not sure is ok, but hope it was.
Nice and breezy
There was a nice breeze blowing up here on the hillside. We spent the day mostly just sitting around enjoying the day.
Red sky
At sunset, the sky was real red because of all the fire smoke in the air. Here’s what it looked like as we sat and watched the sun go down.
That was pretty much our day. We are planning to walk up to the top of Bearpaw Mountain tomorrow morning before it gets too warm. There’s been plenty of cool breezes blowing up here on the side of the mountain so it’s been just about right and real nice.
Nice day.