November Dunes - A Sloppy Win — Silent Wanderer Images and creative wanderings of Mike Mikeal Dixon

If this was a football game, the writeup would include phrases like game delays, several starters on the injured list, saved by the defense and special teams, it’s like they were trying to lose but couldn’t and it’s a good thing they are coming into a bye week because they have some things to work on.

I have needed the type of recharge that can only achieved with ‘space’ for a long time. If you know what I’m talking about, you already understand. If that makes no sense it probably never will so I won’t explain. The back corner of, a nearly deserted, Bruneau Dunes State Park seemed like a decent place to escape. It has a couple of campgrounds with power so I can run a heater. It’s a dark place and the moon is new so I can get some good star shots. I’m familiar with the place and I enjoy it, so I’ll have the home-field advantage.

Game Day:

Week 1 attempt – I can’t recall what it was, and it doesn’t matter, but something more important came up … postponed until next week.

Week 2 attempt – Ditto

Week 3 attempt – Things are lining up, let’s make this happen.

It’s Thanksgiving Day, a Thursday, we are getting buried in a snowstorm, its warm, it won’t last but there is a lot of it … its awesome. I can’t sleep so I get up early and wander off in search of white cows in snow or possibly a cool tree. I don’t find either but there are a lot of other cool things to point my camera at. We have Thanksgiving dinner with family and eat the traditional ‘way too much’. It’s been a good day. It’s still snowing.

It's Friday. It’s Go Day. It’s also Black Friday and I’m doing my best to ignore the email barrage from companies that accurately know everything I want. Pattie (my amazing, wonderful wife who may not understand but mostly accepts my solitary needs) is leaving for Meridian to spend time with her cousin and practice grandkids. We have tickets to a concert in Boise on Saturday night. I can have the trailer packed in 30 minutes and hitched in another 15. It’s going to work … BUT …

The weather is bad (I also know it’s fine where I’m going) and there is so much I was going to get done over the holiday but haven’t (a very much normal and expected thing). I have several packages that have decided to arrive today and tomorrow (USPS, so they’ll be here by noon) It’s late morning and Pattie calls with a decent road report. What to do? I make the command decision. I’ll wait for the mail, hit a project at warp speed, and wander west after the mail arrives tomorrow. And, I actually do.

Pre-game

It's Saturday. It’s Go Day part two or maybe part 5. The packages are here and accounted for. Six big boxes of previous life are now sitting at the thrift store. My big blue trash can and half the dumpster at work are full of the same previous life. Everything but my back feels good about the accomplishments. It’s 1:00 and I just passed Wendell on the way to the desert ‘SPACE’.

I’m here. I’m set up and checked in. I’ve made a quick reconnoiter. I’m dressed in good clothes (I forgot my shoes) and on my way to pick up my date for the concert. I treat my date to some fancy Taco Time, attend a wonderful concert and drop my date off at a respectable time. I have survived a few hours in downtown Boise and have survived … but my internal batteries are now practically dead. It’s OK because the charging station is just 75 minutes and a gas stop away.

It's soooo quiet. The moon is full, and I watch it through the window to make sure it’s going to cooperate with a shot I want to get at 4:30 Monday morning. It will (it really won’t). It’s 5:30, I’m awake and it’s time to plug into the charger. I’m ready but (spoiler alert) it turns out my batteries are so low that it’s going to take some time to persuade them to accept a charge. Blue hour is in one hour and sunrise in two. I spend some time writing and bundle up. It’s time to start the charging process.

Injured players

It's soooo cold! It’s 18 degrees with a breeze. I’m prepared except … I left my gloves in the truck and the only thing more frozen are my fingers inside them. I’ve hiked about a half mile to a dune I know will give me a good view of first light hitting the larger dunes and lake. First light doesn’t disappoint. Some clouds in the sky to catch some color would have made it better but not bad at all. My fingers are throbbing and it’s hard to work anything with them. I’m pretty sure that the moon set in the wrong place. The lake is full of geese, which is cool but there will be no reflection. My new camera is broken but I knew that. It’s going back on Tuesday. Error 70 is making me mad. I’m cold, I hurt, the stupid geese are getting annoying and the error code ‘grumpy’ is flashing on my battery system. It’s not working. I’ll call it, hike back to camp, sweep up this morning’s breakfast that’s on the floor and reset.

Halftime adjustments

Warmed up, I decide to start following the process I know works. I drive to a spot (any spot), leave the camera in the bag, and wander off to the left. I’ve been here many times, but the visits have always been quick and always to the same two or three spots, so I wander between dunes I haven’t visited before. In only a few minutes, I sit down, breath deep and start tuning my senses to the energies of the place. My charging system is blinking one green light, and the process has started. There is a really big jackrabbit a ways off. He’s just one of the many critters whose tracks cover the sandy floor. The rabbit has run off, maybe I should too but no, the morning is good. I’ve noticed tracks from deer, a couple of small mammal types, several birds, casual rabbit tracks and sprinting rabbit tracks (the later probably is the result of the various dog tracks). The low sun is lighting things in fun ways and the twisty winter trees and rusty bushes are fascinating. It’s working, so I let myself get the camera out and start exploring.

This whole place shouldn’t be here. These lake-fronted dunes are only here because a very specific set of geologic conditions allow it. For such a small area it is huge with diversity and interest. The more time I spend wandering through what it offers the more I appreciate its existence. I was hoping recent weather would have cleaned off the human evidence from the main dunes, but it hasn’t, and they are well-trodden. That’s OK because it’s a sign of a lot of people having a lot of fun. Surrounding the main dunes, the twisty winter trees set small stages and tell stories of fantasy. Bushes, still holding onto their rusty autumn leaves present pastel shapes against the curving shapes of the smaller dunes. Wind-formed textures and lines in the sand lead your eyes where they will. Various unique small plants stand out and tell stories of persistence and survival. Critter tracks lead across clearings and into protective bushes, telling story after story after story. The day has improved and, more importantly, so has my attitude.

As alluded to earlier, the moon’s path isn’t going to cooperate, so I don’t need to get up so early. My heater isn’t working well so I’m going to have to toss another blanket on the pile, but we’ll write that one off. In the morning I’ll wander off and see what I can find. I’m tempted to extend my stay another day and do some wandering farther into the Owyhee, but I won’t. I’ll hitch up the trailer and wander home.
It's still a check in the win column

I’ll chalk this up as a sloppy win. I’ll work on a few things, so the next recharge session has a better chance of being more efficient.

Grateful.

Everything is harder with gloves on.

Geese rarely shut up and ducks talk in their sleep.

The heater seems to work .. problem is probably the incoming current

Finished Barry Lopes’s ‘Horizon and spent a cold night on the ice shelves and dry valleys of Antarctica

Perfected computer setup in the trailer

Using the last notch in the new belt

Wool blankets

Cranberry leftovers

Dark trailer rocking in the wind … afternoon nap

Juniper berries added to cinnamon tea