Canyon Winter

The Tree Will Lose its Frost Quickly
as the Sun Peeks Over the Cliffs.

The canyon is still white and frosty.  The sun brings around three hours of melt during the afternoon; that is, if it comes out.  I hear there is snow on the way again, maybe even tonight.  The guides are looking forward to snow as it makes lion hunting much easier.

Yesterday a guest from Latvia got a big Tom up in the mountains, and in the last blog I promised to post a picture of the Tom taken on the Ranch in Suzie Creek draw.  Idaho has a robust population of these magnificent cats.  In the past few years more cats have moved into the canyon.  Maybe competition with the increasing wolf population in the mountains has brought more of them down into the canyon.   

Big Tomcat in Suzie Creek Draw of Lawyer Canyon.

One of the guides gave me some lion meat, so I'll ask Chef Ryan for one of his amazing recipes before preparing it.  My diet here is much different than my darling wife's cooking.  She watches the food channel.  Most of the meat I cook is crock pot roasted or fried in butter, and most is wild game and fish given to me by Joseph or the guides.  Ryan offered me a duck, but I don't like duck very much.  I have some salmon and Joe offered me some perch.  I’m definitely about to experience an eclectic culinary time.  I miss Pinky's cooking, but the nostalgia of visiting my childhood diet is fun.  I grew up where "Get your deer yet?" was the accepted fall greeting, and a limit of walleye constituted a status symbol.

Bottom of Cliffs Trail Above Lower Flat.

I spent a sunny day out in the canyon collecting GPS tracks of some of the trails in the canyon.  The trails used by humans have never been mapped; only the one road into the canyon and the public roads and rails that cross it appear on any map.  Mapping the trails in the canyon requires landowner permission, as the trails are not open to the public like national forest trails or BLM trails.  But for me it gives purpose for spending time experiencing the canyon’s environ and listening to her spirit.  As long as I am visiting her as much as possible, the collected tracks have value.

I will offer the maps to individual landowners but will not publish them in the book or public forums without permission.  Even with authorization, the reason for publishing would have to be judicious.  The Flying B Ranch will use the map of their property to educate guides and guests.

Deer, Coyotes and Cats Use
the Trails Extensively.

 Some of the trails used to be wagon and farm roads some horse trails, but most are used by quads so much they look a lot like the trail in the photo above.  Animals use them as much as people as they are easy to walk on.  That is not to say that deer prefer them.  Deer trails often go straight up steep and rugged hillsides and animal tracks cross the trails as much as they follow them.

I went up Shununway Draw to the top of the canyon.  I have tried to get the guides to use this historic name for this ancient road.  They call it Fish and Game Road.  The cabin Redneck Joe lives in used to be owned by Idaho Fish and Game, and the road begins close to Joe’s cabin.  But is is a prehistoric trail.  It is the easiest and shortest way up to the southern portion of the Camas Prairie from the Kamiah Valley.  Indians and pioneers called it Shununway. I don’t want this historic name lost.  Lillian Pethal, the local Kamiah historian recorded the name in her papers collected in the Kamiah Public Library, and before she past on, she asked me if I would help preserve the name.  Any hardy vehicle can still easily navigate this road; it hasn’t waned into a quad, snowmobile or horse trail like some other lesser-used trails.

Two Muleys Getting Ready to Hop Down
Into the Cover of the Trees Below.

Two whitetail deer fled from me as I entered the lower forest and a few mule deer greeted me as I approached the top.  It feels like the sky expands and your vision can extend forever when you climb out onto the prairie.

The view below from the top of the Shununway Road across the Kamiah Valley might have been something like what Coyote saw when the Monster raised his head up out of the valley, and Coyote began taunting him.  If you haven’t heard how Coyote tricked the Monster and created the Nez Perce people, the story is a few blog posts back (Coyote Tricks the Kamiah Monster). 

Looking Out the Mouth of Lawyer Canyon Across the Kamiah Valley.

Thorn Got Me.

 Sunny winter days in the canyon are nice.  The trails I followed were not all easy to navigate.  Going back down, I took a trail that dropped far more steeply into the Upper Flat of the canyon than the Sununway Road I took coming up.  Not all the trails were nice to me.  I kept feeling something wet on my face after a small branch hit me, so I turned the camera on my face to see what was going on. Guess the branch had thorns.  

From some positions on the trail coming off the top, the views of the Lodge and other Ranch complexes gave me pause for reflection how truly magnificent this canyon is as a safe winter haven.  It is no wonder why Twisted Hair and Broken Arm chose this place for their winter lodges.

Broken Arm's 150 foot long lodge was Somewhere Down There.

Collecting GPS tracks of the trails in the canyon will give me time to enjoy her presence, and the subsequent map will be fun to make, even though I won't publish it. Here's a peek though of the product I collect and will be using to make the map.

My Route on This Trip Up Shununwy and Back Down to the Lower Flat.