This entry was posted on 8/28/2009 2:55 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Thursday August 29 2009
Riding
in the desert invariably makes you think of water: either you crave it,
or you can imagine craving it; and you can always see the artistic
handiwork and the results of great forces behind water - scare as it
may be - after it has been there.
After reading Craig Childs'
The Secret Knowledge of Water, I've never looked at the desert the same way again.
It was another day of exploring the Owyhee desert,
another day of wandering about, and wondering about the secrets of water in the desert.
Three
weeks ago some heavy summer rains in the Owyhee desert brought some
flash floods through some drainages around here, and scoured some of
the washes and canyons, uprooting sagebush and even some trees, and
ironing out this particular wash that we rode up into a smooth, firm,
sand highway.
Side
washes left miniature alluvial fans that poured into the big wash. New
rocks and roots were exposed; patterns were still left in the now-dry
sand from swirling water, gouging water, pools of water. Channels of
water - forces of weight and gravity and whimsy - sculpted
extra-miniature carvings in the sand: shelves, bluffs, gorges, hills,
cliffs, grooves - mirroring the desert landscape all around. One deep,
winding wash
revealed a 4-foot high shelf over a mini-amphitheatre
- an awesome waterfall during the rains - now dry, waiting for the next gully washer.
Over
the eons, water and wind have carved some of the
rock/sandstone/rhyolite (I am coming back in one of my other lives as a
geologist!) into Wind Caves or Gnome Homes... use your imagination.
At another place, water has tunneled a route through the rhyolite rocks to make a high-walled canyon.
Right now it's overgrown with weeds - which naturally sprung up from
the heavy rains a few weeks ago. Jose was obsessed with the tall
clover-grasses (in another life, I'm coming back as a botanist!) -
eating his way along as we bulled our way through the mile or two of
narrow canyon.
We crossed running water in the creek in some places; the water
disappeared in other spots - and consequently, the weeds weren't so
obnoxious there.
If you drove by this desert on the highway, you'd think it was mostly flat with a few hills.
You wouldn't have a clue how much is out here.
Maybe it's a good thing to keep these treasures a secret,
keep these secret places hidden except for special occasions.
Come
ride the 5-day Owyhee Canyonlands in September-October, or the 2-day
Hallowed Weenies ride October 31-November 1, and maybe we'll show you
the Wind Caves trail and some of the secrets of the desert.
More photos from this ride at
www.endurance.net/merri
