Just an Average Bear on an Average Day

A scout camera shot from about 10 a.m. on June 21st, about ten minutes' walk from the house — just over the San Isabel National Forest boundary.

The Bigfoot Diet

Or "paleo" before Paleo was cool.

Australopithecus sediba, " an early relative of humans," ate leaves and bark, new research suggests.

"They were eating bark and woody substances, which is quite a unique dietary mechanism; it hasn't been reported for any other human relative before."

I reckon that the Bigfoot researchers will have an "Aha!" moment over this, because if they don't hibernate in climates like ours, what would a hypothetical giant primate be eating?

(h/t Reid Farmer at Querencia)

After the Fire, the Insurance Adjusters

Manitou Avenue — back in business

M. and I visited Manitou Springs, our former home, today. The sidewalks were full, and rain clouds hung over the Waldo Burn, as we might as well start calling it.

Later, driving south on Cresta Road, we saw these huge motor homes in the parking lot at Cheyenne Mountain High School, started to wonder what was going on, and then saw the signs: Travelers, USAA ... it was some kind of insurance claims center — an "insurance fair," M. labeled it, what with the tents set up and all the chairs.

Oh yes, they will be paying some claims.

“We do not yet have an estimate,” said Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

“The Waldo Canyon Fire is certainly the most destructive wildfire in the state’s history, in the sheer number of homes and the fact that most of them are in a suburban area.” 

Usually, it is hailstorms that bring out the RV's and tents.

When You Evacuate, the Predators Come Out

During the worst of the Waldo Canyon Fire a week ago, Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs evacuated neighborhoods that the fire never came anywhere near.

One part of Manitou had a limited access by a narrow, twisty road that would have been nightmarish if firefighters were going in while residents were coming out.

But I am sure that part of the big evacuation order was a risk-averse bureaucratic response of "better safe than sorry" and avoiding legal liability for failing to "do something."

Unfortunately, it sounds as though the Colorado Springs Police Department was spread too thin: "Waldo Canyon Fire Evacuees Return To Find Property Burglarized, Vandalized."

They can't guard every cul-de-sac and every access point, it seems.

Plus there were more than sixty reports of car break-ins at Colorado Springs hotels where evacuees were staying. The police response: "Take your valuables up to your room."  Probably everything in the family minivan counted as "valuable," and the predators knew it.

As the article mentioned, two fake firefighters have been arrested too, one on the High Park Fire near Fort Collins and one on the Waldo Canyon Fire.

I cannot tell if they were interested in stealing fire equipment (that has happened before) or in stealing from empty homes.

During our evacuations, the local sheriff's department has relied on members of the volunteer sheriff's posse to help with roadblocks, and I have heard of no burglaries here. I have, however, heard of "sketchy" individuals being spotted in the area, people who drove away in a hurry when approached by homeowners. Some homes are on the state highway, for example, and can't be blockaded.

I also know from experience that a hard hat, a yellow Nomex shirt, and a cheery wave will get you through some blockades, even when you are driving your own vehicle.

You Knew that Ravens Were Smart . . .

How smart? Enough to recognize their old raven friends after not meeting them for several years. Enemies too.

Why Supermarket Tomatoes Have No Taste

It's an unintended consequence of breeding for that nice red color.

This Is What a Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Looks Like

Watch this in full-screen mode. It is a time-lapse video of the Waldo Canyon Fire from its discovery on Saturday, June 23 through its run toward Rampart Reservoir on June 25, its big blow-up in the afternoon and evening of Tuesday, June 26, and on through Thursday, June 28.

Thanks to reader Darrell for the link.

Readers from Southern California will please refrain from invidious comparisons. Colorado Springs, unlike, say, San Diego, is not used to this sort of thing.

Noonday Heat

T-shirt and jeans? Is this the 1950s? No, he's a volunteer who was working nearby, heard the call on his radio, which is on his belt, and came straight away.

Foaming the smoldering stump, which is on the other side of that cottonwood tree.

It's so hot, and I woke up too early this morning, so I thought that I would grab a quick nap, only for the telephone to ring: "Fire at Mile Marker 22."

Up on the national forest, an illegal campfire, although extinguished, had still managed to set a stump and a cluster of saplings on fire.

A man passing by (as I understand) saw smoke, drove up the little dirt road, and attacked with a stick (!). Then three of our volunteers who live nearby got the alert and arrived with a fire extinguisher, hand tools, and buckets. A neighbor and I were the next wave, coming from about three miles away.

And then two brush trucks, ours and another department's—and a Forest Service brush truck somewhat after the fact, but they had to come 25 miles. And our sheriff and two deputies. Lots of response, but it shows how nervous we are.

An hour later I was home drinking a cold beer in front of the electric fan, thankful that I don't have to be working outdoors all day in this heat, which is about 98° F / 38° C. Extreme heat and I are not close friends.  

Route 66 Still Attracts Travelers

Your tax dollars at work: there is federal money available for restoring businesses along the "mother road."

And you can still trace U.S. 66 when no one steals the signs. There are tips for driving it.

And then there was that television show with the two guys in the Corvette. Wounded veterans ...

I plan to hit the part around Joplin and Springfield, Mo., later this fall.

Support for Brown's Canyon Wilderness

A brief video showing why Backcountry Hunters & Anglers support the proposed Brown's Canyon Wilderness (or national monument).

Distracted by the Waldo Fire

Webcam shot from downtown Manitou with smoke from the Waldo Fire.

Of all the fires burning in Colorado today, the out-of-control Waldo Fire west of Manitou Springs, Colo., has the most of M.'s and my attention.

Manitou Springs is where we met and where we lived for our first years together — a total of fourteen years for her, eight for me. It is a still a sort of home town for us — a Charles Rocky painting of the town hangs on the wall of the room where I am writing this.

The idea that the town is completely evacuated (not to mention Cascade, Chipeta Park, Green Mountain Falls, and the rest) is completely astounding. Nothing like this ever before, despite its location in a forested canyon.

Add to that the fact that well could be an arson fire, perhaps set by the same serial arsonist who has been setting fires in Teller County, immediately to the west.

What's Wrong with Young People Today?

 

. . . asks writer and bowhunter Dave Petersen of Durango in this magazine ad for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. 

Keep going, Dave.

The Old Mose Memorial Tour

Black Mountain. Old Mose was killed just over the horizon and outside the frame to the left.

The Jeep rocked and pitched as we rolled slowly down a two-track dirt road coming off Black Mountain.

I wondered if Wharton Pigg's ranch wagon lurched down this same drainage — or one parallel to it — laden with a thousand pounds of dead grizzly bear, headed for his ranch, the Stirrup, still the largest in Fremont County.

With it went several ranch hands and James Anthony of Cañon City, who had shot the bear they called Old Mose, and the dogs who tracked him on Anthony and Pigg's final hunt: Ray, Dummit, Penny, Ginger, Ring, Prince, Jet, Gale, Zepher, Dowey, and Bluff, no doubt with tails high, knowing that they were Important and Successful Dogs.

It was the afternoon of April 30, 1904.

Old Mose, the Denver Post reported a few days later, was the "King of the Grizzlies." He was 45 years old, had killed three men (or four, or five) and countless livestock. The Cañon City Clipper called him "the largest and oldest bear criminal of Fremont County." He was the "terror of stockmen."  He ranged clear to the San Juan Mountains, over eleven Colorado counties, said the Post.  Moving more slowly, as befits a magazine, Outdoor Life, then published in Colorado, hyped Old Mose's reputation more later that year.

None of it was true. Except that he was a grizzly bear, and he might have killed two Hereford bulls — but no people.

According to later lab analysis of his teeth, he was 10 or 12 years old, but he was blamed for deaths occurring as far back as 1883.

The Stirrup Ranch today, with a newer, grander residence.

His range covered only parts of two counties, Park and Fremont, and with his death the population of grizzlies in Colorado, perhaps 800 in 1880, continued to plunge until it flickered out (as far as is officially known) in 1979.

When I lived Cañon City, I read and heard about Old Mose, the terrible mankiller. Periodically the Canon City Daily Record trotted out the story, and it was in the little local-history books as well.

But one writer had gone back to the original sources, walked the ground, and even arranged for the Arizona Fish and Game Department to analyze a tooth taken from Old Mose's head, now at the University of California, Berkeley.

Stirrup Ranch cattle. Waugh Mountain in background.

That was James E. Perkins, author of Old Mose: The King of the Grizzlies (2002). It contains a couple of errors (black bears do not have retractable claws), but it still ranks far above many works of local history that I have seen, because Perkins' narrative is supported by actual research instead of merely copying.

He makes a convincing case that the lives of at least three bears were conflated to produce the legend of Old Mose — and his argument is worth reading.

It is from him, to give one small example, that I got the names of the dogs. As Abbey Quillen said in her review for Colorado Central, it is "easy to read in one sitting, but you’ll probably find yourself flipping back through it again and again."

I have indeed been flipping through it again and again, for last week M. and I decided to tour Old Mose's home ground, at least by Jeep. Call it a mini-staff ride.

He deserves a shrine. Instead, I left a geocache on the nearest county road. So far, no one has looked for it.

Foxy Blog Stew

Red fox checks to see if the dogs are behind the fence.

• Red foxes are native to North America, yet some were introduced from European stock to the Atlantic seaboard. What do genetics say about the result?

• Please press "1" if you can no longer keep your dog.

• Fiighting fire in the 21st century—an operations chief explains strategy on the Little Bear Fire in SE New Mexico (9 min. video). Everything and everyone is a "resource," of course, and "IA" (initial attack) is used as verb. Still a good look at current Forest Service thinking.

More New Mexico Barbies

Socorro Barbie: Now an occasional tour guide to the Trinity Site, she comes with a roadhouse music CD and a waitress uniform. Favorite pastime is to park out by the Very Large Array, drink, and get nostalgic or regretful depending on circumstances.  Optional Ford Ranger pickup and Barbie Dream Quonset available.

Los Alamos Barbie: This Barbie is a homemaker who makes Martha Stewart look lazy.  Head of the PTA and the carpool driver to all after school events. Comes with a maxed-out Hobby Lobby credit card, a Dodge Caravan, and your choice of either Workaholic Ken or Pussywhipped Ken. Used to be classified, but was mistakenly leaked a few years ago.

Española Barbie: This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, bowie knife, ‘78 El Camino with tinted windows, and a DIY meth-lab kit. El Camino may be traded at any time for a Chevy lowrider. This model is only available after dark and can only be bought with cash, preferably small bills.  Unless you are a cop. Then we don't know what you are talking about.  Hairspray and fake fingernails sold separately.

Read the rest.

Earlier models here.