Yonder Journal

There is no beta or guide or information in regards to hiking and/or floating Baldface Creek, a tributary of the North Fork Smith River¹. Zach Collier, a River Outfitter with 20-plus years experience paddling and floating all of the many known and typical-but-still-remarkable rivers in the Mythical State of Jefferson (where residents, it’s said, are likely packing both a pistol & a crystal), as well as many of the not so known and not-so-typical-but-still-remarkable rivers, has, in the last ten years, attempted Baldface on three separate occasions, two different ways, and was turned back each time because of snow. The creek is only floatable in the winter when it rains heavily and where in the higher elevations it snows heavily. The unmarked trail down and into the creek branches off an unimproved forest road twelve miles in, the last four of which lie past a permanently closed POC (Port Orford Cedar) gate.². In the winter and into the spring the road is covered in snowpack two or three feet deep, with drifts on the north slope and in the shade as deep as four or five feet

For reasons related to American River’s naming of Baldface to the MER (Most Endangered Rivers) list, and for documentation in regards to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area Expansion Efforts, we needed to reconnoiter the creek. For tactical reasons we decided to hike, not float, Baldface. A date in early March was was chosen, weather was watched, flow was monitored, and three days before our departure, the date was moved to mid March. Again, weather was watched and flow was monitored, and again the date was pushed back due to unfavorable weather conditions and limited contingencies regarding possible high-flow and gorging-out. Once again, weather was watched, flow was monitored and but this time inflatable pack-rafts were organized, which rafts would prove invaluable if not absolutely and utterly necessary.

1. Despite running its course in California, the river depends on tributaries throughout the Oregon Siskiyou Mountains. The river contains not a single dam along its entire length. Wikipedia [↩]
2. The US Forest Service maintains a large number of gates—some temporary and some permanent—in order to limit access and slow the spread of Port Orford Cedar root disease, which can kill trees of any size and age. More information. [↩]

“I work with large ungulates¹: large game species like antelope, mule deer, elk and moose. Basically, I go out into the field and collect information via various means, like radio collars or visual observation. I take that information back to the office for data analysis and statistical work, and then I put reports together. Those reports help us make decisions about what’s best for the wildlife in terms of population management, and they help determine sustainble and repsonsiblie hunter harvests. The research also assists us with habitat protection and landscape scale issues².”

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ungulate [↩]
2. Landscape-scale conservation is a holistic approach to wilderness conservation that takes into account local economic and social considerations [↩]

At night next to the campfire, at various times during the day apropos of nothing except maybe a change in the wind, or when stopped for a moment on an ancient packhorse path for water and to watch eagles watch rabbits, Thaddeus talks about Everett Ruess¹: a writer, artist and explorer last seen at the age of 20 leading two burros into Davis Gulch² in 1934. Ruess, whose body has never officially been discovered³, and whose death has never been satisfactorily explained, has over the years become a Western myth and wildman legend. This in part because of his pre-Instagram handle, Nemo, which handle he carved into the walls of various caves in the middle of Utah’s otherworldly nowhere. In Latin “nemo” means no one or nobody. It’s believed by some that Everett was referencing Homer’s Odyssey⁴ when he chose it: fitting, as while Ruess was apparently seeking to lose himself and become nobody in a metaphoric sense, he literally disappeared in the Canyons of the Escalante—one of the least accessible and most un-mapped areas in the contiguous United States (especially at the time).

1. http://everettruess.net/ [↩]
2. See page 23 for access information (NPS PDF)  [↩]
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Ruess#Disappearance [↩]
4. After the Trojan War, Odysseus sets off for home, crossing the land of the Cyclops (the one-eyed giants). One of them, Polyphemus, takes Odysseus and his crew captive. Odysseus begs Polyphemus to let him and his crew go. When Polyphemus asks his name, Odysseus replies, “Nemo”. [↩]

“The concept and practice of low stress cattle management is an important component of the Black Dog Livestock Education¹ weaning method. The livestock learn to move from stress when the handler understands how to give them relief through the concepts of low stress cattle management. The work in this field is becoming more widely used thanks to the work and teaching of Bud Williams, Tom Nofsinger, Temple Grandin, Sean and Evonne Barrett, and David Hart. Low stress management is beneficial to the cattle, the cattleman, quality of meat, production cost and the pocket book. This type of management specifically, improves cattle response to vaccinations², reduces injuries and diseases during handling and transport, creates better temperament in cattle, better gains, higher pregnancy rates, all with fewer input requirements in shorter time. It is acknowledged that a cows temperament has huge implications on how she performs as a breeder, thus heifer calves who are weaned using the Black Dog method grow up to be more docile and manageable cows³.

The essence of Low Stress Cattle Management involves understanding cattle behavior and the impact the handlers physical position has on the efficiency and effective control of livestock movement. By understanding the connection between the handler’s movement and the animal’s behavior the stock handling becomes more predictable. The Black Dog method is built using this understanding.”

Marissa Taylor⁴ , Ranch Manager at Lonetree Ranch.

1. “Through the livestock industry’s range of demands in the 21^st century, a diversified, stress-free education has been developed to meet this variety of needs not only for the livestock but also the stock handlers.” http://www.theblackdog.com.au/ [↩]
2. By hand, one at a time. [↩]
3. Like so. [↩]
4. A portrait of. [↩]

Jason Hairston’s instructions for Dall Sheep kebabs are simple and straightforward:

1. Find a wild Dall Sheep and murder it.
2. Hike it off the mountain in orange trash bags.
3. Butcher it on flat rock in the shallows of a glacial river¹.
4. Stack several uneven, rough-cut slabs of meat onto a willow stick you whittled to a point with the knife you carry on your belt. No vegetables.
5. Season them with Montreal Salt² and/or Top Ramen flavor packets, or nothing at all.
6. Place them over a fire you made using gathered sticks and the trash in your pack.
7. Barely cook them.
8. Eat them off the stick.

Unfortunately, he fails to describe what you’ve had to accomplish before completing these steps.

1. Like so. [↩]
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_steak_seasoning [↩]

“The ideal woodsman knife¹ has a 4″ blade and 4″ handle for an overall 8″ length. The blade has a Scandinavian grind as this allows for easy sharpening in the field without the use of a jig to get the sharpening angle correct. Ideally the blade is also full tang with a riveted wood or plastic handle. A partial tang or rat tail tang can break when really using the knife hard. The handle should be smooth with no finger grips or other anatomical grooves and form fitting gimmick-shapes like you see in many modern knives. These sorts of handles are uncomfortable and will cause blisters when doing any real woodcarving or bushcraft².”

Shaun Deller, Wilderness Survival Instructor, Wild Edible Plants Specialist and Primitive Shelter³ Sportsman.⁴

1. For this purpose, we may recommend knives from Helle Norway [↩]
2. “Bushcraft is about surviving and thriving in the natural environment, and the acquisition of ancient skills and knowledge to do so. Bushcraft skills include; firecraft, tracking, hunting, fishing, shelter building, the use of tools such as knives and axes, foraging, hand-carving wood, container construction from natural materials, rope and twine-making, and many others.” Wikipedia [↩]
3. An example of primitive shelter. [↩]
4. In 2013, Yonder Journal will be publishing an investigation into the art of Primitive Shelter construction. [↩]

The 1964 Wilderness Act¹ set aside nine million acres of National Forest² land in the original National Wilderness Preservation System. As of 2012, 107.5 million acres of land have been protected as Wilderness—about 2.8% of the lower continental United States.

In the middle of the  Mythical State of Jefferson³, near the border of California and Oregon, in the Siskiyou Mountains near the town of Cave Junction, Oregon (pop. 1,883.), lies the Kalmiopsis.

There are almost 200,000 unprotected acres of wilderness contiguous with the 179,000 acre Congressionally-designated Kalmiopsis Wilderness⁴, and thousands more acres of nearby roadless area⁵. The De facto Wilderness is watershed to the Illinois, Chetco and North Fork Smith rivers, all designated as Wild and Scenic Rivers⁶, plus five streams that are eligible to become Wild and Scenic Rivers (Silver, Indigo, Josephine/Canyon, Rough and Ready, and Baldface Creeks).

All five streams in the DFKW (De facto Kalmiopsis Wilderness) are threatened by mining, two in particular—Rough and Ready, and Baldface—are also threatened by Port-Orford-Cedar Root Disease, a destructive & devastating fungus spread through earth movement in construction, road maintenance and use, e.g., mining, logging, and general overuse/misuse of any kind.

In partnership with Zach Collier & NWRC (Northwest Rafting Company) Yonder Journal will explore, interview and document the DFKW⁷; it’s streams, it’s rocky cut-banks, it’s surrounding hills and steep mountains, it’s thick and pungent forests, it’s indigenous and carnivorous plants, it’s sharp winters and quick summers, it’s porous soils, the environmentalists and otherwise ordinary citizens working to expand the Kalmiopsis, the hikers and backpackers and boaters who use and or frequent the area, the locals and local businesses, Forest Service employees, Rangers, trail & restoration work, and the miners; their interests, operations and opinions.

Our aim is to produce a report with which we endeavor to aid in the expansion of the Kalmiopsis.

1. http://wilderness.nps.gov/faqnew.cfm [↩]
2. http://www.fs.fed.us/recreation/map/state_list.shtml [↩]
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_(Pacific_state) [↩]
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmiopsis_Wilderness [↩]
5. Kalmiopsis Map [↩]
6. http://www.rivers.gov/rivers/wsr-act.php [↩]
7. We will document these explorations throughout 2013 with regular briefs, and conclude the year with a large study. [↩]

In a good year (mean annual flow is 1240 CFS) the rapids on the Dolores River between Cahone, Colorado and Moab, Utah can be successfully navigated by inflatable pack-raft—most of the rapids are class II, with a few notable class IV. In a bad year (50 CFS), and with a 29er, backpacks and panniers lashed to the bow, rafting, as in actually floating, can be a challenge. Over the course of four days, we paddled three different sections of the river, electing to mountain bike beside it for vast stretches because the river was either too shallow¹, too rocky, or simply not moving fast enough.

While this campaign was primarily a rock climbing trip in honor of Charlie Flower—Steve Doom Fastbinder and Thaddeus Chico Ferrell would climb ten towers in fourteen days²; Monster Woman, Washer Tower, South Six Shooter, Zuse, Moses, Predator, etc.—we spent a considerable amount of time mountain biking and rafting over the course of our circuit around the La Sal Mountains.

1. At times, especially as we made our way through Western Colorado, we dragged, pushed and pulled (more than paddled) our packed rafts through less than eighteen inches of water. An eight mile section might take us several hours and force us to repeatedly get into and out of our rafts to navigate around larger rocks and past the wider sections where the flow was diminished and the river more shallow. [↩]
2. The complete Charlie Flower Power Tour  Study will be published in 2013 [↩]

Mountain Hunting¹ is the only Sport which requires three days of travel, several hotels, two commercial flights, one semi-commercial twin otter flight, three 4-wheeler rides, the rushed near forced consumption of a chunky bowl of stew made with meat of indeterminate origin and a helicopter flight over the watersheds of the Arctic Red and Cranswick Rivers in the Northern MacKenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories operated by a pilot prone, rumor has it, to seizures, not to mention weeks if not months of preparation in regards to kit and fitness, as well as some serious cash and a large duffle bag should you be returning to America with a dead animal(s), just to show-up at the start line.

In the rain on a ridge more than eight miles from a gravel landing strip and after an athletic six hour stalk, Jason, two days after killing a fully-tipped classic looking Dall’s Sheep Ram², sights-in beforing whacking a Mountain Caribou³ with “trash everywhere and junk going out in all different directions.”

1. A collection of Mountain Hunting Studies will be published in 2013 [↩]
2. “Ovis dalli is a species of sheep native to northwestern North America, ranging from white to slate brown in color and having curved yellowish brown horns.” [↩]
3. e.g Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer [↩]

Lying on the western slopes of the Cascade Range the Bagby, Cougar, and Umpqua Hot Springs¹ caress and flirt with the Pacific Ring of Fire², a global chain of volcanic and geothermal activity zones. Life of course has been drawn to these portals of the past for centuries. Oceanic and terrestrial hot springs possess the chemical and environmental conditions to create life. And cultures across the world have used hot springs as Lazarus Pits. The Umpqua band of the Coquille people (who the hot springs are named after), drawn to its physical and meditative powers, practiced communing with both the past and the present here.

1. A guide to Oregon Hot Springs will be published in 2013 [↩]
2. “The Pacific Ring of Fire, or just Ring of Fire for short, is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has 452 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes. It is sometimes called the circum-Pacific belt or the circum-Pacific seismic belt.” [↩]