The high crags are still snowed under, so Ann and I try a little cliff along the the east Carson river called Book of the Red. We find a warm and peaceful 40-foot corner to enjoy while listening to the river amble by. Until hordes of drunken partying teens show up. Their yells, especially “angry running!” while sucking air and stumbling up the canyon are just amusing, but the broken glass and trundling annoy us. Still, it’s a fine spot to ease into the season.
Ann and I scout out a bit more of the area near her office, and also possible linkages for our summer pack trip. We get bouts of sun, wind, rain, and snow for variety. A track that looks a lot like a mountain lion track catches my eye, we pass some recent wreckage of a vehicle rolled into Alum canyon, and the clear sound of a ricochet harmonizes with some nearby gunfire. Reno hiking!
Our first really warm hiking day of the year (over 70°F) tempts Ann and I to explore the northern reaches of the Mount Rose wilderness. We’re thinking of possible routes to reach the Tahoe Rim Trail from our house. This trailhead is about five miles up the Truckee river from us. We do some nice cross country hiking to a ridge with a nice vista, but reach no firm conclusions about the best route for backpacking.
Ann’s birthday, good Friday, and the full moon all coincide this year. After work we celebrate with a nice dinner at Soule Domain, then go for a moonlight snowshoe near Tamarack peak. It’s a great night for it. We make tea in the snow and get home after 1am, feeling young and rebellious.
Good pictures would require a little more effort than I invested, but these at least mark the occasion:
The sierras are finally looking more like I imagined them, buried in a good layer of snow. Ann was hesitant to try snow play today, but we returned to the now familiar Incline peak and the weather smiled on us once again.
I’ve hiked through hundreds of miles of sage grouse habitat (aka sagebrush) without seeing many of them, and I’d never seen the elaborate male strutting during mating season. I vaguely knew that sage grouse were considered by some to be a threatened species. So a Friends of Nevada Wilderness announcement about a Nevada Department of Wilderness volunteer sage grouse survey program caught my eye, and I figured I could learn what I’ve been missing and see some amazing birds.
My first lesson is that sage grouse are early birds (though not worm eaters). Their mating grounds are called “leks“, probably from a Swedish verb att leka, “to play”. And they like their play to be in full swing when the sun rises, so watchers have to arrive before sunrise to avoid spooking them. No wonder I’ve never witnessed it! Our group meets at 4 AM to reach the leks in time.
When we arrive at the first lek I scan the sagebrush with my binoculars fruitlessly, but eventually my eye picks up a white spot, then another. They are bobbing up and down, emitting strange musical popping sounds. We move to a better position, and I count five. It’s clear I could use some more powerful binoculars, but I keep trying and come up with a high count of 17 males. Our instructor counts 35 – this will take some practice.
Moving to another lek, the instructor lets us loose to take pictures where there are a number of birds along a road. I know I will not take a good picture, but the urge to try is undeniable. There are many good pictures to be found, but I enjoy taking some bad pictures and video.
The birds are less freaked out by vehicles than people on foot, so we observe from the car when possible. It’s less romantic than what I imagined, but it works.
Our last lek has a great view of the Sweetwater mountains.
We walk a ways into this lek to examine the signs left by the birds. I learn that adult sage grouse eat sagebrush exclusively, but have no gizzard and can’t digest all the oils and fiber in the plant, so they regurgitate those parts as “cecal matter” that can be found on the ground at leks.
The sexes also have distinctly shaped droppings, with a “J” shape indicating a male.
To finish we have a classroom session and some GPS training. I learn that the sage grouse status is “precluded” on the endangered species list, meaning they are not protected under the endangered species act yet. There are many estimates of the total population on the web as around 200,000, but the only source (NatureServe) I’ve found that cites a study gives an “order of magnitude” accuracy to a 2010 estimate of 536,000, which means it could be anywhere from 100,000 to 1,000,000. Even at the high end it would be possible for a surveyor to observe a percentage of all existing birds in a season.
The big question around the sage grouse is whether it will eventually be listed as endangered. The status is described on NatureServe:
Widely distributed and still relatively common in the core of the range in western and central North America; range has contracted significantly and now encompasses about 56% of the potential pre-settlement distribution; abundance has declined, primarily as a result of loss, fragmentation, and degradation of sagebrush habitat; rate of decline decreased significantly after 1985, but the number of males per lek and the number of active leks continue to decline, and the species is significantly threatened by loss, fragmentation, and degradation of sagebrush habitat now and for the foreseeable future.
If it is listed there will be big impacts on energy development, ranching, and recreation. It will make a lot of people angry and have a big economic impact. It might well be cheaper to implement enough conservation measures to prevent the listing, but measures so far have not been enough. The ultimate question may be whether it’s worth the cost to save this strange bird, but that question will probably go unanswered except through the pronouncements of our current legal system.
My colleague Jason at Vernal Creative made sure to wish me a happy vernal equinox. It took me a minute to realize how much this first day of spring symbolizes so many things that I enjoy and try to promote in life. Thanks to Jason for that, and happy vernal to you.
In another good turn of fortune, my friend Mike invites me for a dawn backcountry ski. It seems like a perfect celebration of the vernal. I meet him and Vanessa, Mark, and Owen at 6:30 for the party. The mountain smiles on us all with very nice conditions.
It’s been years since Ann enjoyed an outing in the snow. After the tropical weather I got last weekend, a similar forecast encouraged her to try a snowshoe in the same area. Our friend Susan joins us, and Ann gets her wish for really pleasant weather.
On top of Incline Peak Ann and Susan manage a dual headstand (after a few tries):
We’re not the only ones enjoying the nice day, and a small crowd gathers to watch me put my split board together.
I get a couple of nice runs in while Ann and Susan descend, making a great outing for all of us.
The day is so warm and the sky so blue, it kind of feels like virtual reality. I join Mike and his sisters Callie and Carrie for a pleasant trip up Incline Peak. The white ground enables us to travel on skis, but today there is no inconvenient cold or wind – we just soak up some rays.
There’s a nice view of the summit before we cross the lake.
I dig a quick snow pit on the way up as a learning exercise. There is a frozen, crusty weak layer about 45 cm down with less dense snow underneath. This is probably the layer that has caused some slides in prior days in other areas, but today none of my column compression tests will move it.
At the summit we bask in the sun some more. It’s so warm that Mike has stripped down to his bling.
There is still some nice soft snow for our run down, but anywhere the sun has been hitting is wet and sticky, causing some of us to taste the slushee on our way down. It doesn’t take long before we’re headed back across the lake.
Ann and I are joined by Grace to extend our last exploration of the hills east of Reno. These trails are great for getting right to the climbing. Once on the ridge we encounter a few wild horses.
A smaller trail leads us up the ridge to a small peak.
This may not be a coffee table view, but I’m interested to see the back side of Rattlesnake Mountain, where it looks like a quarry is tucked out of view from town.
