A Hot, Dry Summer

The lake level has been dropping dramatically since June 1, when the reservoir water began to be drained off for irrigation in the McKinnon, Wyoming area.  Because this past winter was so dry, the water has been needed much earlier than in past years.  Many of our campers have commented on how much lower the lake is than at this time last summer.  The dry winter and, so far, very dry summer has also contributed to a significant number of wildfires throughout the west.  This past week we’ve seen (and sometimes breathed) the smoke from some of the wildfires in Utah.  This has provided us some pretty spectacular sunsets, but I’d rather have ordinary sunsets and no wildfires.  MSNBC reported this being the worst wildfire season in recent history.

Effective June 14, the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, where we currently make our home, was put on Stage 1 fire restrictions, which means no campfires except in campground fire pits.  Since this restriction was put into effect, the “unofficial” campsites just outside the campground have remained vacant, where they had been full only the week prior. These unofficial sites had been quite popular – offering lots of space and no fees.  What’s not to like?  No campfires.  Somehow it’s just not camping if you can’t build a fire.

The Forest Service has put us on alert that the fire situation will be re-evaluated shortly after the 4^th of July.  If they move to Stage 2, no fires will be allowed – not even in the campground fire pits.  This could be bad for business, but a wildfire would be far worse. 

Today it is raining in the valley.  I hope that the national forest is also receiving this much-needed precipitation.

The Circle of Life

In 2003, the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest first experienced an outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetles (bark beetles), which in the nine years since the infestation began have killed thousands of trees.  According to the Forest Service, in some areas along the north slope of the Uinta Mountains, these beetles have killed up to 90% of the trees.

The Forest Service’s priority in treating this epidemic has been focused on the health and safety of people and the protection of critical infrastructure.  This means reducing falling tree hazards at high use recreation areas, trails, roads, and power lines; and reducing wildfire hazards.

I have not seen an actual Mountain Pine Beetle, but I’ve seen the damage they cause.  This current outbreak has resulted in extensive stands of red and dead trees that will be visible for a long duration.  When the outbreak first began, the Forest Service attempted to spray trees, to remove beetle-infected trees from the impacted campgrounds, and to salvage trees killed by the bark beetles through timber sales.  Since then they have decided no longer to intervene and to allow nature to take its course.

This is the circle of life in the forest.  Mature trees are dying, and the infestation is a natural part of this life span.  Seeds from these trees will produce the next forest.  Indeed, it has already begun.  The photo shows that beneath the red boughs of a dying tree, three new trees have sprung up.  And the forest will go on. 

Wildlife!

About three times, when I’ve taken Ty for his morning walk across the dam, I’ve seen fresh moose tracks.  Last Friday I finally saw the moose – at least, one of them – on the other side of the lake near the horse camp.  A group of campers there told me they had seen three moose, which makes sense with the patterns of the tracks.  I guessed that there were at least two.

The moose are by far the largest of our wildlife neighbors.  We’ve seen several antelope on the road leading to the campground, but so far none have ventured within our boundaries. The only other mammals we’ve seen in the campground were chipmunks, squirrels and potguts (the Utah nickname for the Uinta ground squirrel – they look like fat rats with short tails.) 

We have a robin and a couple of hummingbirds that hang out around our campsight.  There is also a pair of bald eagles – they look pretty young – that we’ve seen flying overhead.  They seem to be camera-shy; twice I’ve aimed the camera at one of them perched in a tree, and both times she or he flew away before I could get the shot. 

The Forest Service has re-introduced Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep to this area.  I know this because there are signs posted – but I have yet to see them.  We’ve seen them in the Flaming Gorge area and they are quite beautiful, but quite aloof. 

The Uinta Mountains are also home to black bears.  Again, I know this because there are not only signs posted – one on every bulletin board and one in each restroom at the proper eye level for normal usage of the facility – but we also give a bear brochure to each camper as they come in.  We’re told there has never been a bear in the Hoop Lake campground, but just this year one was spotted about two miles away and another about four miles away.  Like most wildlife, bears tend to leave humans alone.  But we’re encouraging our campers not to tempt them by leaving food out.

The Camp Host Routine

When people asked me what I would do all day in the mountains, I told them I would run every day, write every day, and scrapbook every day – and somewhere in there I would do the camp host job.  Our job as camp hosts includes ensuring that the campground is clean, the pit toilets are clean, and the campground fees are paid. 

In the three weeks since we arrived we’ve established our routine.  We are still early risers – even without the benefit of an alarm clock.  We watch the sun rise over the lake. We linger over coffee.  I walk our dog, Ty.  I get my run in before we start “work.”  Then we change into our uniforms (yes, we have uniforms), hop on the ATV, and make the rounds to the bathrooms.  We check campsites that we know were occupied and clean out any excess ash from the fire pits.  Sadly, we’ve also had to pick up trash from several sites.  The worst was the group that left beer bottles and three dirty diapers in the fire pit.  Seriously, who does this?

As new campers arrive, I put Ty on his leash, sling my backpack over my head, and go out to meet them. Ty is a great icebreaker – he loves kids and kids can always tell.  I reach into my backpack for the information packet (including the fee envelope).  Do you have a dog?  I have dog biscuits.  May the kids have some candy?  Meeting the people is the most fun part of the camp host job.  A few days ago I got a big hug from a little camper who told me she would miss me.

Once we’ve made our rounds our time is our own.  This is when I write.  This is when I work on the digital scrapbook.  The dog gets at least two more walks around the campground. We sit on our makeshift patio and watch the campground kids fishing from the dam. We listen to satellite radio.  We didn’t bring a television – nobody bothered to run cable into the Uinta Mountains – so we watch videos on my laptop.  It actually works pretty well.

I’m thinking I like this retirement gig J

The Incredible Shrinking Kitchen

The kitchen in the fifth wheel is 5’ x 10’.  My kitchen at home is, well, significantly larger.  So how do I make sure I get all the right stuff into the “coach kitchen” and not exceed the weight limit of the truck?  Here’s how we did it:

Dishes:  Two words – lightweight and unbreakable.  I brought acrylic glasses and plastic tumblers.  Service for four only – if there are more than four people we’ll be outside using paper.

Pots and Pans:  Paul didn’t think I needed anything that isn’t cast iron.  Hmm – can you cook a stir fry in a dutch oven?  I convinced him to let me bring a muffin pan and a teakettle.  I also brought my double boiler – which “doubles” as two saucepans.  I learned I should have brought a small cookie sheet when we tried to bake pizzas. The workaround was aluminum foil on top of the muffin pan. 

Utensils:  Once again, lightweight and unbreakable, with preference to those items that do double duty. I brought a can opener, a wine opener, a cheese grater, and a spatula.  I forgot a serrated knife and serving spoons.

Appliances:  We don’t have much counter space for appliances.  I can live without a toaster.  I can live without a blender.  I can even live without a crock pot and a rice cooker.  I can’t live without a coffee pot.  I bought a new percolator model because it could be put away after we use it, and because we thought the power from the solar panels and the inverter would be enough to run it.  So far we’ve been wrong – the batteries have been too drained from running the furnace to power the percolator.  Can you say “Coleman Stovetop Coffee Pot?”

Staples:  What about those big containers of sugar, flour, oatmeal, rice – you get the idea.  I downsized to ZipLoc containers.  Of course, rice is going to the Minute variety since the rice cooker isn’t invited.

Spices:  I know – they’re small.  But why bring something I’m not going to use?  We started with the basics – if I buy it at Costco, it came with me.  If I bought it for one recipe that I didn’t end up liking (think Hungarian Paprika), it stayed home.

Cookbooks:  I have 26 cookbooks – not counting the small Pampered Chef booklets and the purple folder where I throw recipes I’ve pulled from newspapers, magazines and the internet.  I also had two recipe card files, plus the Betty Crocker Recipe card file box that everybody had to have in the 70’s.  And with very few exceptions I use 2 – 3 recipes out of each book.  The exceptions are those books where I use 0 – 1.   Let’s face it – if I’m looking for a recipe, I’m looking online.  I brought the “Dutch Oven Cookbook” and the purple folder.  I’m working on typing up the 2 – 3 (or 1) recipe out of each cookbook that I regularly use.  As to the two card files – they’re down to one.  I was brutal.  If I’d never made the recipe, it went into the recycle bin – no matter how good the picture looked. 

The biggest challenge was organizing.  The good news – there’s plenty of storage space in the fifth wheel kitchen.  The bad news – most of it is WAAAYYYY over my head.  There’s only one shelf that I can reach without a stepstool – which I forgot to bring with me!  

Roughing It

Hoop Lake is beautiful but rustic.   It sits at about 9500 feet in the Uinta Mountains, and the fact that elevation and temperature are inversely proportional holds true – it’s still very cold up here.  We arrived on the Wednesday before Memorial Day, and woke up Thursday morning to snow on the ground.  The weather stayed wet and windy most of the weekend.

The Campground Manager’s site is the only one in the campground with water and sewer hookups.  Great!  But the water wasn’t turned on yet, and we didn’t have enough sewer hose to reach the connection.  We had brought plenty of water, and thankfully the pit toilets were open.  Where were those camp hosts who were supposed to clean them?  Oh, wait – that’s us.

Memorial Day Weekend is traditionally the start of camping season here in the west.  We had our site in good shape by the time our first guests arrived.   On Friday evening two campsites were occupied.  That was it.  Apparently only the die-hards come up to Hoop Lake over Memorial Day weekend.

Our management knows this.  They arrived with our signs, forms and fee envelopes – and our cleaning supplies – on Saturday.  They turned on the water, which comes from a mountain spring, and we watched the rust from the pipes flow out the two taps in the campground.  They’ll be back to test the water on Friday, we were told, but until then we needed to let our campers know to boil the water first. 

A short orientation on the fees and paperwork, and we were ready to go – except for the fact that it was snowing and blowing way too hard to post the signs.  I ran some toilet paper over to the campers on the other side of the dam and we called it good for the day.  I laughed to myself as I carried the toilet paper – my friend Stacy told me that her most vivid memory of camping was the cute little camp host with an armful of toilet paper.  We finally cleaned the bathrooms and carried the fee envelopes over to our campers on Sunday morning.

We were motivated to get water running into the trailer, so we hooked up the hoses and turned on the water heater.  Hot water without heating it on the stove – heaven!  Until the next morning when we woke to discover that the water in the hose had frozen.  Looks like we’ll be disconnecting the hose every night and hooking it up for the afternoons when the temperature is above freezing – until it stops freezing at night. 

And speaking of freezing – our well thought-out plans for powering the trailer with solar power didn’t take into consideration the amount of battery power it would take to keep the furnace running all night and most of the day.  That, and the fact that there is no solar power if the sun is not shining, forced us to use the generator a lot more than we had expected.  As the weather warms up, we expect to use more and more solar (and less and less generator).

Our adventure has truly begun.

All About Hoop Lake

Today is my last day at work – so of course my mind keeps drifting to my “new” workplace – Hoop Lake.  Here’s what I know so far – courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service!

Introduction

Hoop Lake is a natural lake on the north slope of the High Uintas. The lake level has been augmented by construction of a dam, and the watershed has been enlarged by a diversion from Thompson Creek. The lake receives heavy use by anglers. Hoop Lake is a result of glacial moraine impounding the natural drainage of the area. The original lake was 11 feet deep.

In 1939, an earth-fill dam was built at the outlet, and in 1948 it was enlarged, raising water level a total of 25 feet. The reservoir shoreline is owned by the Wasatch-Cache National Forest, and public access is unrestricted. Reservoir water is used for irrigation in the McKinnon area of Wyoming (northwest of Manila, UT). The impounded water is drained off before mid-summer for agricultural purposes, but the 11 foot deep original lake remains. Water use is not expected to change in the foreseeable future.

Recreation

Hoop Lake is accessible from Lonetree, Wyoming. Approximately 1.5 miles east of Lonetree, turn south on the Cedar Basin Road to the national forest. A point of interest along the way is "Hole in the Rock". Travel approximately 7 miles to the intersection of FS-058. Continue southward approximately 3-4 miles past "Hole in the Rock", to the reservoir.

Recreational facilities at Hoop Lake Campground, a USFS facility, include toilet facilities, picnic areas, a swimming area and 44 campsites. Fishing, boating, swimming, camping, picnicking, and hiking are all possible. While there are no launching facilities, it is generally possible to launch a small boat. Angler use is heavy. User fees are charged.

So if you’re ever thinking about a beautiful but rustic camping spot – consider Hoop Lake.  We’ll be there to welcome you.