Ken's Annual Lone Wolf Camping Trip

Ken is renewed by going to the mountains.  Being close to God's creations "restores his soul". He likes to camp.  I don't.  Each early fall, he likes to go camping up on Cedar Mountain.  He went September 14-19th this year and had a wonderful, relaxing time.  I enjoyed the time at home, working on projects and reading.  I will let him tell you about his adventure. 

(This is Ken writing): I have camped on Cedar Mountain many times over the years, from the time I was a young child with my family, and have come to love that part of God's creations. In fact, I have come to love it enough that we have purchased 3 properties on the south side of the mountain; a couple of adjacent half-acre lots on a hillside, and a 5.44 acre lot at the south end of a beautiful meadow.

Since retiring, I have tried to go camping there each year. I was surprised this year by the amount of people in the campground and everywhere on the mountain. I have never seen so many people this late in the camping season. Loop A, where I chose to camp was full almost every night. Knowing that there were about 8 "first-come, first-served" campsites in  this loop, I chose not to make a reservation for my campsite because of the extra cost. In past years, I have always had ample camp sites to select from. This year, however, was a different story! I not only did not get my desired campsite, but I felt fortunate to find an unreserved campsite at all. As it turned out, I got the last campsite available in Loop A. I took note of the license plates on each of the camper's vehicles that came and went throughout the week in our loop of campsites. It was interesting to me that approximately 40% of the campers were from California, 40% were from Nevada, 10% were from Utah, and the remaining 10% were from states all over the U.S.

I took my mountain bike this year and rode it on three different days. On Friday, I rode to the "ice cave", (above and below pictures), which was several miles on dirt roads from 
Duck Creek Campground, where I was camping. I have heard about this ice cave for many years and I was very happy to finally be able to visit it. After checking out the ice cave, I continued south on the dirt roads, exploring the mountain.

 

This was the interpretive sign near the entrance to the Duck Creek Ice Cave.

I enjoyed (usually) regular visits from a number of the resident fauna, who were amazingly tame. This little chipmunk and his associates were friendly, but not overly aggressive like the Chickory/Pine Squirrels as pictured below were.

There were at least 2 of these friendly little beasts living near my campsite and claiming it for themselves. They were beyond friendly, even to the point of being aggressive. As you can see from the pictures, they considered the table top to be part of their territory and I was clearly an interloper, especially when it was time to eat. I had to stay alert because they were always pushing the allowable  boundaries, jumping up on the table to check what I had brought for this meal and to join me for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I brought nashi (asian pears) and peaches so that I could eat one for most meals. I discovered that both the squirrels and the chipmunks LOVED the peels of both fruit varieties. I would peel the fruit off to the side of my campsite where I could watch them. By the time I had finished my meal, they had invariably eaten all the peelings.

I also brought a few tomatoes so that I could have some tomato sandwiches for lunch. I found that these cute little critters  also loved eating the top and bottom of the tomatoes that I discarded for them.

It took me a day or so to discover their liking of my food scraps. Thus, the first meal or so, I put my fruit peelings in my garbage bag that I had hung at the edge of my campsite in a tree. It did not take these little guys long to find a way to smell the tasty fruit peelings, access the garbage bag, and gnaw a hole in it so as to access the garbage they were interested in. I eventually had to abandon the garbage bag idea, and started putting my trash directly in the huge metal garbage bin that was conveniently located across the street from my campsite.

I even had some friendly avifauna (birds) that visited me several times during the week. I was surprised at how tame they were. This is a Dark-eyed Junco and is the grey-headed subspecies of that species.

This is a Hermit Thrush that checked out my campsite regularly.

   

Top view of an F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Jet

Anyone that knows me very well, knows that I enjoy both birdwatching and fishing. During my week on the mountain I did quite a bit of both. I tried fishing at Duck Creek Pond, Aspen-Mirror Lake, and Navajo Lake. I found Navajo Lake to be the best option, and so I fished most days from the dike on the east end of the lake. I always took my binoculars because, even though I was mostly focused on fishing, you never know when a cool bird sighting might come along. On every day, except Wednesday morning, there were always a number of other fishermen and women fishing from the dike with me. However, on Wednesday morning, I was fishing alone on the south half of the dike at about 11:30 A.M. when I had the most incredible "raptor sighting" of my entire life. I had just cast my fishing line into the lake when I happened to look due west, to the opposite end of the lake. At first I couldn't believe what I saw. There was a "raptor" coming straight toward me, at an elevation of only perhaps 200 or 300 feet above the water. It seemed to me that it was fairly skimming over the lake. What I saw is pictured above. That is just exactly what it looked like as it silently screamed toward me. I say "silently" because I didn't hear it first. I SAW it first. In fact, I don't remember hearing it at all until it was right above me, when it banked sharply to the left and climbed over the hill to the north of me, thus putting me directly behind the jet. At that point, the noise was DEAFENING. I just stood there with my jaw agape!! It all happened SOOOO FAST -- in maybe 3 seconds. That is all the time it took to appear at the far west end of the lake, about 2 miles away, skim the top of the lake to me, and then bank and  climb out of sight. I absolutely couldn't believe what I had just witnessed!!!! This F-22 Raptor was incredible!!! As I have thought about it since, I wish I had had enough time and presence of mind to get a video, or at least a picture of the event; but alas, it all happened WAY too fast. It appeared to me that the jet was on a training mission, simulating a bombing run to destroy the lake's dike that I was standing on. It appeared, made its bombing run and was gone before I, or anyone else-including any possible enemy, could do anything about its being there. Although I had several cool bird sightings that week, and although this wasn't really a bird, it was clearly the highlight of my week on the mountain. It left me stunned, astounded and thrilled!! Even though I have seen air shows in the past, I have never experienced such an event in my life and I don't expect that I ever will again.

On my first bike ride, I believe it was Tuesday evening, I rode several miles out to Cascade Falls and the lookout to the south of the mountain, toward where our 5+ acre parcel of land lies. As I was about to begin my return ride home, this Dusky Grouse moseyed across the road at the trailhead. I stalked it in hopes of getting a good picture. However, it was not as tame as the Dusky Grouse that I encountered in the Colorado Mountains this summer.

When I first saw the grouse, I thought it looked like a Bandy hen (small chicken).

Sign at the trailhead to Cascade Falls.

Trail along the hillside to Cascade Falls. I rode my mountain bike along most of the trail to the falls. However,  there were some parts of the trail that were too steep and dangerous for me to feel comfortable. On those parts of the trail, I dismounted and walked the bike (e.g. down steps that had been built into the trail because of how steep it was.)

View to the south or southwest from Cascade Falls.

Selfie at Cascade Falls. I have heard about this place for at least several decades. I was elated to finally get a chance to visit it. I was surprised at how small the water flow was.

Map of the part of Cedar Mountain that I explored during the week.

This is five days of facial hair growth. I have never in my life gone this long without shaving. I had brought my electric shaver with me, expecting to shave each morning. My shaver's rechargeable battery usually holds enough of a charge to allow me a week's worth of shaves. I figured it had enough battery life to allow me to shave each morning up until about my last day. I was surprised on Tuesday morning (the fist day) when I tried to  shave and found the charge on the battery had already run out. Although it was nice to not be bothered to shave each morning, I concluded that I prefer to live clean shaven.

Enjoying one of my favorite foods--watermelon. Kay doesn't like watermelon and so I don't get to eat it very often. I had purchased a melon to enjoy on the mountain; however, I ended up having too much food to eat, and so I brought the melon back home and happily consumed it at home.

Removing the longest beard of my life.