Backcountry Falls - Not What You Might Think

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

A fictional tale about nature's order...

I remember that day vividly and horrifically. It was my saddest day ever in my 25 years as a park ranger.  

I was far into the rugged back country of the park (Anza-Borrego Desert State Park).  At Anza, I had packed and mounted my horse, Anzanita.  We then continued southward about 10 miles on Coyote Canyon Road to the area known as Turkey Track.  Turkey Track is ridiculously unstable (especially after rains), has sharp drop-offs, and ledges narrow and covered by loose slate or mud after storms.  Though the Track is open to true 4WD vehicles; I mean the type with high clearances, low gears, and wheel lock-outs, park guide books unanimously emphasize just how 'bad' this road is.  Practically, the Track is really only accessible by horseback riding, hiking, mountain biking, and burro trains.  Between Upper Willows and Middle Willows, where I was when it happened, is closed to all vehicle travel.  This three mile stretch is prime bighorn sheep watering areas.

The sounds of rocks sliding and falling does not take a park ranger with 25 years of experience to identify.  As I looked towards where I heard the rock slide, what I saw broke my heart.  I quickly grabbed my binoculars to double-check. I was right.  Rolling down the rocky and wooded hill was one of the park's bighorn rams.  Also rolling down the hill, following the ram, was a mountain lion.  Through my binoculars, I saw another mountain lion cautiously watching from the ledge as her mate and what I assumed to be their intended meal rolled down the hill.

All this was happening on the other side of Coyote Canyon and it would take me a while to get to a point where I could cross Coyote Creek at a shallow, slow flowing part and then backtrack to the point where the animals fell.  I recorded my coordinates on the GPS and started walking, leading 'Zita by her reins.  The animals on the other side of the canyon would surely be DOA by the time I reached them-  if not dead already.

***

Back at Majanga Spring, way up on Majanga Flat, we all looked up from drinking.  We heard the noise and the older among us knew what it meant.  I looked around.  Old Biggy and Smitty were not with the herd. They were known to randomly go out and butt heads, though Smitty conceded Old Biggy's dominance within our herd.

I sent out a call and Smitty's long yelp answered, but there was nothing returning from Old Biggy's drawling accent.  We all thought we knew exactly what happened.  Slippage is a risk we face every day as we move further and further uphill to protect ourselves against those predators with the guts to follow us.  We are typically the only ones that can make their way up so high on loose rocks and into protection.  But the higher we go, the greater the risk.  Indeed, when I was younger, I took a short slide down a steep canyon wall.  

It is a risk we all knowingly take because that is how we survive. 

***

I had finally reached the 'drop zone', for lack of better or more euphemistic term.  I released a couple of shots from my Browning rifle into the air to scare away any circling vultures, hiding coyotes, or surviving mountain lions to clear the area for my safety. 

The mountain lion's body was in much better shape than the ram's, though the mountain lion was just as dead as the ram.  The mountain lion just rolled down the hill, but the ram horns violently whipped the ram's head around, got caught on branches, and bounced the poor ram's head off rocks. What was left of the horns would not be going on display at any nearby museums and the ram's neck was obviously broke.  I guessed the ram died about 1/3 the way down and the mountain lion died on impact with the ground.

I opened a saddle bag and took out a small laser bar-code reader.  Luckily for me, this ram did not lose its collar on the way down.  I scanned the bar-code on the collar and a code showed up on the display.  The code meant little to me out here in the field.  The rangers at Park HQ in Borrego Springs kept track of the animal database.

I walked around trying to find a clear area out from under the tree canopy.  I found a spot and called park HQ on the sat phone.

"Hernandez, Animal Monitoring."

"Pico?  Flack here."

"Flack, you safe, mi hermano?"

"Yes.  I am at the spot."

"You made good time."

"I guess brother..."

"Does he have an ear tag?"

"No. He barely even has an ear.   Just a collar."

"OK.  Let me pull up the database.  Code?"

"C-O-0-1-7"

"An oldie.  Hmm.  'Old Biggy'...17 years old... born in-park...Parented three rams and two ewes.  Last vet check was about 6 months ago by Dr. Floyd."

"He looks pretty bad; the severe horn damage from the fall, some vulture feeding, and a broken neck.  I'm guessing the mountain lions chased him and these two took a nasty, unintended slide down a soft edge."

"OK.  I will prepare his file for closure when you get back.  Don't forget to take blood samples and of course the tracking collar.  Oh might as well take blood from both animals.  I will give you a break and not ask for a fecal sample."

"Muchas gracias on the fecal.  I will mark the coordinates of the site, post a marker, and take some pictures.  No reason to bury or extricate the carcasses.  I will leave them to the vultures; they have already been munching away."

"Remember its the natural order of things."

"I know"

"Be safe, hermano."

"Gracias."

I stood there looking at the two carcasses and I gave them what I thought was a proper blessing.

***

I slowly --carefully-- walked towards the edge of the cliff where my father slipped and fell to his death trying to escape from a mountain lion.  I laid down and looked across the valley.  My nose suddenly picked up the smell of a ewe.  I turned around and it was Santia, the alpha-ewe in our herd.  She walked over to me and hit my snout with hers.  That told me everything I needed to know. 

The New Alpha-male

 

Spotting our favorite desert creatures...

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

September 7, 2012: Near Yaqui Pass, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California 

I tend to go on-and-on about how Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a great spot to see bighorn sheep.  We hoped to see at least one on our way down Montezuma Grade, which as I have written before, is a prime bighorn observation point.  Indeed, in February 2009, while going up the Grade, we saw a huge bighorn ram watching over the valley.

February 2009 Ram Sighting - "King of the Desert"

This time, going down the Grade, however, we wound up seeing zilch and mainly only saw the fire damage from the late August 2012 wildfires. 

At the base of the Grade, we drove through deserted Borrego Springs.  This tourist spot was pretty dead and will have a totally different vibe come winter.  No, it won't be filled with ski-bunnies and snow-boarders.  But, with the winter temperature rarely exceeding the more tolerable 70F, the desert will be filled with hikers and off road vehicle drivers. Now, it is just still way too hot for anything.

At Christmas Circle, we swung south out of town on our way to Julian.  Yaqui Pass is another place to spot the bighorns.  However, as the pass is quite tight with almost no places to pull over, photography is difficult.  We did spot a ram and ewe in this general area back in November 2008.

November 2008 Ram and Ewe Sighting

Now, I was sitting in the back seat of the truck, with Joanie and her mom sitting upfront when Joanie let out an "I saw one" scream.  Of course, by that time, we went through an S-curve that totally blocked our view of the bighorn.  So, at the base of the hill, she stopped, I took out my camera and the biggie lens and got back in the truck.  It was hot and dusty out and the "closed for the season" campground had a sign warning that the closest open bathroom was in Borrego Springs.

We headed back up the hill, with no bighorns in sight.  At the first turn-around, that is what we did, and we crawled down the highway, much to the chagrin of aggressive motorcyclists. 

We finally spotted the ram way up on a ledge.  How Joanie sees these things is incredible.  We pulled over the best we could and I snapped away.  Even eyeballing the ram way up on the ledge, we could see it was with an ewe.  Between the idling truck, my unsteady hands, and the difficulty of hand-holding a 600 mm lens, I was kind of down on the whole sighting and not expecting much from the pics.  I raised the ISO of the camera to 1000, hoping for a sharper pic.

As with the earlier ram sighting described above, these bighorns were in a terrible position for photographing; back lit.  Post-processing the images to bring out the details made the colors somewhat unnatural, so I converted them to b&w.

September 2012 Ram and Ewe Sighting

September 2012 Ram and Ewe Sighting

September 2012 Ram and Ewe Sighting - View showing how close to the edge these guys can get!

September 2012 Ram and Ewe Sighting

***

Just as we pulled away to continue down the hill we were pulled over by a heavily armed, well armored cop of some type (there is a heavy Border Patrol at certain parts of the park).  He reminded us that pulling over in this area was very dangerous (yeah), but let us go without a ticket.

Next stop was Julian and some ice cream.

For those keeping track or out looking for the bighorns on their own, here is a summary of our sighting locations and good places to start your search.