April 26, 2012

Spent the day in the south unit again with Ryan on his ATV. It had rained a few days ago, so things were still muddy, plus it rained more while we were out. I just cleaned up, but before that, I was covered in a layer of mud from head to foot. I now can understand the joy little boys feel when they stomp through puddles with a huge grin. Messy, but so fun if you can let go of the need to be clean and perfect. We spent a good 7 hours in the south unit, and really did manage to go all over. Several new places for me, which was a real treat. And I could successfully identify where we were and which buttes/tables were which. It is rewarding to feel oriented down there. The area is remote and seldom visited, and I did not imagine I would have much exposure to it during my residency. We found a couple more old cars that neither of us had seen before, one was flipped upside down. More pronghorn, horses, cattle, turkey vultures, rattlesnakes, a garter snake, meadow larks. The adventurous part of the day (there always is one with Ryan, I have learned) came when the ATV failed to make it through one of the mud pitted creek bottoms. The mud was deceptively deep, and the ATV was really really stuck. Ryan even said, “we're going to have to call Vinnie to winch us out.” He's the south unit LE guy. We pondered and looked around and Ryan found a large boulder to roll part way down the embankment. He tied the ATV's winch around it, stood on the rock, and had me pull in the winch while hitting the gas. This succeeded in pulling Ryan and the rock over to the ATV. More thinking and Ryan decided to see if the winch was long enough to get around the boulder after moving it up and over the embankment and down into a small ditch. It was, and Ryan again stood on the boulder, behind the embankment, while I winched in, hit the gas, and steered towards the rock. It worked, though barely! Turned out to be really helpful that Ryan taught me to drive the ATV earlier in the day and gave me some practice. Lucky thing, not to be stuck there for hours. In the process of trying to free the ATV, Ryan had been climbing around it in the mud, and trying to lift on it as I drove. He was covered in thick mud up to the knees, and when he took his shoes off back at the quad, mud and water came squishing out. The adventure aside, I am so grateful to have had the chance to really get to know the south unit. It is similar to the north in some areas, but you also see very different land forms and rock layers in other places. Fascinating. Many thanks, Ryan! My residency would not have been the same without your tours of the south unit.