Owyhee Canyon Wilderness Area Residency Day 5: North Fork

What a windy night.  The snag by our tents creaked and groaned through the night, and the wind whipped the rain fly mercilessly.  I dozed off and on, but no good sleep.   After being the last one up yesterday, I told everyone that if they're all up and moving around, they should wake me.  So this morning, while it was still pitch black, I saw headlamps moving around.  It felt like 3am.  I was not sleeping, but still hoping to drift off again.  Instead, the headlamps get closer and I hear "Jeeessssica...everyone's up."  Sigh.  Not only was everyone up, they had their tents all packed up.  Did I mention that it was still fully dark out?  I broke down quick and threw my gear into the truck.  The rangers made me a mug of that green tea I talked about yesterday, and we hung out around the trucks until it started to get light.  One of the trucks was running very low on fuel, so we'd decided to swing up to Jordan Valley to get gas, and as long as we were going to be there, we'd stop for breakfast at JV Diner.  They have a handwritten menu, it was awesome.  Food was good, though every item was drenched in butter.  After fueling up, we popped into the coffee shop, Rock House.  I had been feeling ill, possibly from the tea-induced jitters, but the fat-filled breakfast helped, and the mocha made everything right.

We drove back south to the North Fork Campground area.  The idea had been to put on dry pants and hike into the canyon a ways.  However, the guys needed to get back to the office before close today and it's a long haul back to Boise from here.  We were lamenting the shortness of this expedition, and started making plans for future possibilities to get deeper into the wilderness and waterways.  So instead of hiking down the river, we walked along the shore to the west, through an area of Wild and Scenic River designation.  The vegetation was very dense, much bushwacking to get to the river's edge.  It's great fun, makes you feel you've earned the photos you manage to capture: the harder it is to get to a spot, the better it must be.  I poked in and out along the river, hunting for the right composition of rocks, plants, water, and getting rather wet and muddy.  I could have happily spent all day here, but eventually we reassembled and hiked our way back to the trucks.

We drove back along Mud Flat Road to the duty station, unloaded the trucks, and discussed possibilities.  Shari and I were welcome to stay at the station for a couple days, though with the now heavy rain, hiking for photography wasn't really going to happen, at least not very successfully.  Since we're able to come back at some point in the future, we decided to follow the guys out.  I had tickets to a fundraiser at home for the next day, and this chance to make it back in time was a good thing.  I followed all the way back to Boise, then headed to the Boise Art Museum.  Next was a drive around town, the state capitol building, and a stop at Boise Fry Company for some purple french fries.  I eventually headed back to Ranger Worthington's house to spend the night again.  His family is great and I really enjoy them.  Their dog is pretty awesome, too.

Our campsite.

Driving toward Jordan Valley.

Driving south from Jordan Valley.

The Owyhee North Fork River.

A little further downstream.

Looking back upstream as the rain picks up again.

Following the cattle's trails to save some of the effort of getting in to the river.  Cattle are shorter than I am, so there was a lot of crouching and pushing branches from my face in the otherwise nicely cleared paths.

Thistle: invasive species.

Further down the Owyhee North Fork.

Some of the brush.  See the river?  Me neither.  Time to bushwhack.

Rain on the Owyhee North Fork.

There were a bunch of these water bugs in this area. They were completely still if I was, as soon as I'd move, they flitted all about.

Closer to finding the composition I'd want to paint.

Cattle path through the willows.

More Owyhee North Fork.  Too many photos, I know, but it's a very small fraction of what I took.

Looking back upstream.

I hike up and out of the thickest brush to walk back, enjoying the myriad grasses.  I love grasses.

One of my favorite grass species: crested wheatgrass (I think)

Still more vegetation.

Driving out from Mud Flat Springs.

Boise!

A very special drawing I was given by Ranger Worthington's 6 year old the first night I stayed with them.  This masterpiece was no speedy endeavor.  It was carefully labored over as we discussed color.  Love it!