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Sara,
Dave showed me on a map one time how he goes into the Jupiter Lakes. Yes, he showed me that he goes up the Dosewallips River Road to where the National Forest Roads 2620 and 012 take off. The Lat and Long is 47.72446, 123.00259. He said there was a house on this road and the owner would allow him to cross his private property to go up NF-012 to go X-country to the Jupiter Lakes. I hope this helps.
Rex
Part II: Dinner at Jack’s cabin.
We arrived back at Jack’s cabin about 5:30 PM, just in time for dinner. I do not know for sure who all helped prepare the dinner, but I sure Preston did most of it and he was the chef. There was a grand spread of food with lots of choices. I know that Ted provided the back country kitchen and Zoey and Ryan Dunne brought a pie to share. I hope other’s will jump in here and give credit for what I am ignorant of. Most certainly there was lots of good food to eat. Of course, Tyler showed off his nice RB trout from Thorp Lake. It was so large, many people thought he had purchased it at a store and just brought it to the event.
Jack gave a very nice speech about how much he has enjoyed being the host of the overnighter for many years followed by a loud round of applause. There is no doubt that Jack is a very gracious host and everyone enjoys this event at his delightful cabin.
We had to leave that evening to head home, so hopefully someone will fill in the blanks as to what happened the rest of the evening and the next day.
Many thanks to everyone who made this event an unforgetttable success and many many thanks to Jack.
2015 Stocking Summary – Part 2 of 2
Here is Part 2 of the PowerPoint presentation that I did at the December meeting, providing a summary of our Stocking work for the year. For those of you who could not make that meeting, here is a Jpeg version of that presentation. Since I have troubles getting more than 7 images in a single posting, I have broken this up into 2 postings. This is Part 2 of 2.
I think the images are mostly self explanatory, but I will reiterate the highlights.
To stock all our lakes this year, my calculations show that altogether we drove 28,320 miles at a cost of $16,426 (Based on the average cost estimate to drive a vehicle by AAA). This works out to be an average of 615.7 miles and $357.09 per Trail Blazer. This compares to 19,048 miles at a cost of $11,276 for last year (note all last year values are shown in parenthesis in yellow.)
We stocked a total of 32,559 WDFW fry in 2015, which based on the value of 3.35 cents/fry is $1090.43; the value of the fry donated to us by WDFW. We also stocked 7700 Trout Lodge fry for which we paid $2195. According to my conservative estimates, our combined time that we spent was 2456 hours (hatchery to lake and then directly back home) to do our stocking work. Based of the value of this time (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics), our donated time is worth $56,658.
If you add the total cost for driving our vehicles, the total value of our donated time, and the cost for the Trout Lodge fry, you get $75,820. This means for every dollar the state donated to us (the fry), the Trail Blazers donated $69. What a deal for WDFW and for the people of Washington State! But it also says a lot about the Trail Blazers; dedicated to Better Alpine Fishing for everyone in Washington State!
This wraps up the HLM Program for this year and with that I am wrapping up as your HLM Chair. I thank you for the privilege and honor of being your HLM Chair for the past 9 years and for everything that you do and have done to make the Trail Blazer club what it is today. Working together as a team, we have stocked a lot of lakes and I am sure that we all are very proud to be able to say, that we are Trail Blazers.
Many thanks,
RexI felt much better the next day as we took multiple trains to get down to a town called Tianshui. We arrived at dusk. The next day, we went to see Maiji Shan. It took us about 1 hour to get there on a bus. The name Maiji Shan means “wheat stack mountain” because the Chinese think it looks like a pile of wheat stalks. It is located about 28 miles southeast of Tianshui City. The mountain is very prominent and sticks up 466 feet higher than anything else around it. Two sides of the mountain are shear cliffs. On the southwest sheer cliff of Maiji Mountain, people have labored for centuries carving niches and caves, creating what is known today as the Maiji Caves. These caves were included on the World Heritage List on June 22, 2014.
Inside the caves are clay statues that vary from about 8 inches to over 49 feet. Besides 194 Buddhist caves and niches, containing more than 7,200 clay statues, there are also over 14,000 square feet of murals. These statues and murals are works of art that reflect ancient craftsmanship and dedication to the Buddhist religion. Being carved on the cliff, these caves are connected by platforms that hang precariously along the face of the cliff. Visitors can only reach each cave by using these platforms, which offer a breathtaking experience.
Work on the Maiji caves began in the late Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC), progressing through to the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911). The Northern Wei (386 – 534) period was also a time of great prosperity, and Buddhism began to prevail as a cultural force. Subsequent dynasties added to and sometimes rebuilt the caves according to the styles of the era. Interestingly, although the statues were built at the same location, none of them maintained a similar style with those preceding it. Statues from each dynasty are clearly different.
Because of its exquisite clay statues and superb sculptural skills, Maiji Caves has acquired special recognition. They are considered to be one of the four most important caves in China. The other threes are Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Yungang Caves in Datong, and Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan. Yanling and I have now been to all of these caves or grottoes.
The first view of the mountain is impressive. The sides are not only shear, they appear to overhang a little. The caves and carving are obvious from the ground as are the platforms and stairways to access them. By the time we started up, it was crowded with people. You could not just walk up, you had to wait in line on the stairways. There were multiple levels with lots of interesting grottoes and statues to see. Most were behind screening to protect them from people, but not all. It was very interesting to look at the detail and the realize they were made back in the days when all they had were wooden ladders to climb up and wooden platforms to stand on. I forget how many layers we climbed up but you can look at the photos and count the layers. The views from the platforms were very airy.
We took our time and explored all the different levels and grottoes. By just after noon, we had explored everything and were well satisfied so we climbed down to take a few last photos before heading back to town.
With lots of extra time, we walked around Tianshui. It has a population of about 3.5 million. Its name means Heavenly water and the name probably comes from the river that flows through the center of town.
The next day we took another train 5 hours to Xian then got a flight back to Qingdao. In 6 days we did everything we wanted to do plus a little too much adventure in the Badain Jarah desert.
Rex and Yanling
From there it was back into Zhangye to see the Dafo Si (Giant Buddha Temple). It was originally built in 1098 AD during the Western-Xia dynasty. It’s the only surviving Western-Xia royal temple in China. This temple houses the biggest giant sleeping Buddha of China, which is 116 feet long, with a shoulder width of 24.6 feet. The ears are an impressive 6.5 feet long. The Buddha has a wooden frame and then sculpted by clay. At the time it was built, this temple for just for the royal family. They do not allow photography inside this temple so I searched the web and found one photo which I have included here.
By now it was afternoon and a good time to go see the Danxia Landform. This area is very similar to the Painted Desert in the US, but much more colorful. We are very fond of these types of geological areas. The Chinese believe this area was a large lake many thousands of years ago and the sediment deposits formed the layers. It looks more like ocean bottom to me that got pushed up and then eroded. In any case, it was very pretty and interesting. It is located about ½ hour west of Zhangye. We spent the rest of the day here. It is a very formal park, so no one is allowed to drive in. They have their own buses that take people around to 4 trails to viewpoints. We did each and every one. There were lots of people. The trails are all stone steps and boardwalks to protect the area. There were guards everywhere. We saw a couple of people step off the boardwalks and the guards wasted no time reminding the people that this was not allowed.
The next day we took an all day trip into Inner Mongolia to see the Badain Jarah Desert. This part of Inner Mongolia is not developed. There is only one small town (Alashan Youqi) otherwise it is pretty much a desert. The name of this desert is Mongolian for “Mysterious Lakes”. The name is very appropriate because this desert has over 140 spring fed lakes, some of which are fresh water, but most are extremely saline. It is the third largest desert in China, about 19,000 square miles in size which is about twice the area of the state of Vermont. This desert is home to some of the tallest stationary dunes on Earth, with some reaching a height from their base of more than 1,600 ft, although most average about 600 ft. The tallest dune in this area is the world’s third tallest and the highest stationary dune in the world. The average elevation of this desert is about 4000 feet. Typical of most deserts, it can be very cold at night and very hot during the day; from minus 22F to +106F. High winds are common here, which of course generates the dunes. There are no roads in this desert park. People are allowed to walk in (with permission), ride camels in, or go with the only tour company that is allowed to drive in with 4 wheel drive vehicles. With our limited time, we picked the 4 wheel drive vehicles. What I did not appreciate was that the drivers might not be careful. They charge by the vehicle and allow up to 4 people per vehicle plus the driver.
We joined up with 2 young Chinese people to share the cost of the 4 wheel drive vehicle. As far as we could see was just sand and dunes. There were tracks in the sand from other 4 wheel drive vehicles, but nothing else. It was very pretty. The driver introduced himself as being Mongolian, then he floored the accelerator and took off like his tail was on fire. I thought the sand would be soft and smooth, but not at this speed. I will guess he was doing 30 to 35 mph, which may not sound fast and it would not have been a problem except we were not on a nice smooth road; we were on these rollie pollie sand dunes. The small ones were only 10 to 15 feet high, but the bigger ones were hundreds of feet high. He would drive up them as fast as he could make the little vehicle go. At the top, which was some times very abrupt, the vehicle would plummet down the other side. I can only compare it to riding a roller coaster. It was extremely violent and the driver loved every second. And just like on a roller coaster, when the vehicle would break over the crest of the dune and fall down the other side, everyone screamed, including the driver. We were all holding on for dear life as we were being thrown around. Almost every time we would crest out at the top of the dune, the suddenly plunging of the vehicle down the other side would throw all of us up against the roof of vehicle, banging our heads. So it was everyone going “OHHHHHHHHH” on the way up, “Ouch” as we banged our heads at the top of the dune, and then just screaming all the way down the other side. Each dune was only a few hundred feet apart, so at the speed the driver was going, we repeated this process every few seconds. At first I tried to take a few pictures, but it was too violent, and I was starting to get motion sick. We reached the first lake in about 20 to 25 minutes. It was interesting to see that there were fish in this lake since it was fresh water. It would have been fun to survey this lake and checkout the fish but unfortunately, I was not feeling well. The young Chinese people in the back of our vehicle did not seem to have a problem but Yanling was starting to feel queasy too. I asked her to talk to the driver; to explain to him that I was getting sick and could he drive a little slower. He said he would, but I could observe no difference.
By the time we got to the second lake, I was worse and by the third lake, I had to tell Yanling and the driver that I could not go any further. By now we were about 30 to 35 miles from the entrance. The driver said we were about 1/3 the way from completing the trip and that it was going to get more rough from here on. In addition, he warned that he needed to drive faster to get back in the allotted time. Yanling asked the other people how they were doing to see if they wanted to turn back too. They appeared to be having no problems and wanted to continue on.
We were definitely in a fix. Here we were a long ways from the entrance in the middle of a very harsh and unforgiving desert. There was no way we could possibly walk back to the entrance. The other two people had paid for a full loop and wanted to go on, but I could not. The driver was also anxious to get going. Yanling tried to negotiate a solution. Finally we all agreed that Yanling and I would stay here and after they had completed the loop, the driver would come back and get us. What else could we do? The good news was we had plenty of food and water with us and we were surrounded by beautiful scenery with a saline lake. However as the vehicle drove away, we suddenly felt very alone and fragile. What if the driver did not come back to pick us up?
After about 30 minutes of sitting still on the sand, I felt a lot better. I ate some bakery that we had brought and drink some orange juice. I was so glad to not be in that vehicle anymore. It was warm; I would guess it was about 80 degrees and of course the air was very dry. We were comfortable but there was no shade. I thought about starting to walk back to the entrance but that was silly; it would take days. Our only chance was to stay put and wait for the driver to come back. He estimated that he should be able to get back to get us by 2:30 PM. It was about noon when they left us so we had time to kill. As I felt better, I wanted to take a walk to the top of a nearby dune, but Yanling was afraid that if we moved we might miss getting picked up by the driver, especially if he came back early. Finally we agreed that she would stay put and I would walk up to a sand ridge nearby where we could still see each other all the time.
Walking in the sand is not easy especially going up. For each step up, you seem to slide back down 2 steps. Finally I noted that some of the sand had a different appearance and it was not loose. It appeared to be wind packed and hard. I could walk on it easily as long as I did not break through the hard surface. Quickly I learned to recognize which areas were wind packed and I made good time up to the ridge. As I came up to the exposed ridge, the wind hit me. Down where I had left Yanling, there was almost no wind, but up here it was blowing pretty good and it was moving the sand. If it were not for our predicament, it would have been perfect. Everywhere I could see was sand and dunes except for the saline lake below; it was very pretty. I was perhaps enjoying the scenery too much and not paying attention, because when I turned around to wave to Yanling, I could not see her. I had walked to a point where we were no longer in sight of each other. Ahead of me was the top of a little sand dune, which was drawing me in; I thought it might have a good view from the top. It looked very close so I headed that direction. I thought I should be able to see Yanling if I got a little higher. The wind was blowing pretty good up here so all I could hear was the wind and singing of the sand as it moved. It was magical. As I listened to the singing sound, I thought I heard a very faint voice. Was I imagining it? Was I still affected by my motion sickness or was I getting too much sun? The voice sounded very distressed? Wait a minute, could that be Yanling yelling? The top of the dune was not far away, but I could not be sure that I would be able to see her from the top especially if she had moved. I was torn as to what to do; continue up for the view of go all the way back down to see if I was actually hearing her yelling. Perhaps she was in trouble? The only way to know for sure was to go back down and look for her, so I headed back down. It took longer to get down than I thought. By the time, I could finally see her, it was clear that it was her yelling. When I had moved out of sight, she had become panicked. She was afraid I had lost my way or had fallen into a sand trap, so she had gone looking for me.
We agreed to move together to a high point where we would be able to see everything in this area with the saline lake. We sat there and ate some more, took photos, and passed the time. The wind was picking up, so that we got covered with sand if we sat down. We did not want to wear our day pack, so it was soon covered in sand on the ground. My camera was also getting sand all over it. Once in a great while, we would see another vehicle driving by. One even stopped to see how we were doing. Of course the vehicle was full and was going farther into the desert. We never saw a vehicle going back towards the entrance. 2:30 PM came and went. Yanling was getting antsy. 3 PM came and went. Now I was getting antsy too. It had now been a long time since we had seen anyone. What if the driver did not come back? There was no way we could walk back and with all the dunes looking similar. Which way would we go? There were vehicle tracks all over the place and we did not know which tracks went to the entrance. We had to trust that the driver would come back.
It was about 3:30 PM when we finally saw a vehicle coming over a ridge that was a long way away. We were greatly relieved when it got close enough that we recognized the driver. Back in the vehicle, they let me sit in the front seat again. But it was academic. The driver now drove like a mad man. It was getting late and he obviously wanted to get back before dark. The young woman explained that they were late getting back because they had a flat tire and it took a long time to replace it with a spare. Yanling asked about the rest of the loop that we had missed seeing. Both the young woman and the young man said it was not worth it. In fact the young woman went on and on that she thought the whole thing was a rip off and not worth the money. At this point the driver commented that it is common for people who have never been to Badain Jarah to want to go to see it and for people who have been there to say it is not worth it. Most certainly, I could not agree. Except for being sick as a dog, I thought it was very beautiful and exciting. If we would have had a driver who took it easy, it would have been a wonderful trip. But of course, we did not have an easy going driver and I was sure that he was now intent on killing me. Coming in he had stopped several times which gave me a break. Now he was going all the way back to the entrance with no stops, he was driving much faster, and he was not taking the standard route which is well traveled; he was taking a short cut which was much rougher.
The sun was getting low in the sky now and there were long shadows forming on the dunes. The wind had picked up so it was blowing fairly hard, hard enough that there was blowing sand coming off the tops of the dunes and from all around us as the vehicle kicked it up. Even in my misery, I could not help but admire the beauty. If we could only stop or drive a little slower. But the torturous violent motion continued. I lost count of how many times someone would yell “Ouch” as they banged their head against the vehicle roof. Since I was jammed into the tiny little vehicle with my knees pressed tight against the dash, my knees were taking a beating. I had one hand holding a handle above the door and the other hand against the roof. There were several times that I thought the vehicle was going to flip end for end as we plummeted down the face of a steep sand dune. I kept looking for any familiar scenery from the way we came in; but no luck. I had no idea where we were. I was so sick now that I was starting to shake all over. It had taken us about 1 hour of driving time to get to where we got dropped off and the driver claimed he was taking a short cut to go back, so where was the entrance?
After what seemed to be an eternity, I could finally see the entrance building ahead. It was still a long ways off, but I now had hope. Plus as we got closer, the fact that lots of vehicles had driven this section, made it smoother. When we finally arrived and stopped, our driver from Zhangye was there waiting and concerned. We were supposed to have been back before 3 PM and it was now after 4 PM. It was a long drive back to Zhangye and my poor tummy did not appreciate yet another long vehicle ride on poor roads.
Here are the latest fry sizes and availability as of Oct 1st.
Tokul Creek:
Trout Lodge RB – 325/Lb
Goldens – 675/Lb
MWRB – 525/Lb
TCCT – 350/Lb
All the TLCT are gone for this year unless you go to Mossy Rock or ChelanArlington:
Ross Lake RB – 454/LB
MWRB – 245/LB
TCCT – 200/Lb
Due to low water supply, David will need to dump all the trout by Oct 12th.
If you need fry after that date, call David now and ask for an arrangement.
The new Assistant Manager at Arlington is Daniel GoodnessKermit,
Great report with excellent photos and fantastic news that you got 3 more browns samples!!!!
Thanks,
RexHere are the latest fry sizes and availability as on Sept. 2nd:
Tokul Creek Hatchery: (Per Duane and Darin)
TCCT: 2 sizes, 250/lb and 400/lb
TLCT: 780/lb
MWRB: Running between 525 and 650/lb
Trout Lodge RB: 370/lb
Goldens: Darin said they will be picked up from Chelan on Sept. 9th and should be available a day or two later
They should be about 900 to 1000/lbArlington Hatchery: (Per David)
TCCT: 230/lb
MWRB: 275/lb
Ross Lake RB: 1100/lb and they are available now!It should be noted that it is not the entire Wenatchee National Forest that is closed as of this date; it is only that portion North of Highway 2.
I have just checked with Darin at Tokul Creek. He said he is planning to pickup the Goldens on Sept 8th and they should be available for us to stock starting on Sept 9th at 900 to 1000 to the pound.
I also just got word from David at Arlington that the Ross Lake RBs will be available around the first or second week of Sept. He said they are ahead of schedule (I think he put them on a heater), that they are 1300/LB now and should be bigger than 1000/LB by the first or second week of Sept.
I will be providing the other fry sizes next week and at the meeting.
Rex
Here is the latest word on fry sizes from Tokul Creek and Arlington (Aug 10th, 2015):
Tokul Creek:
TCCT – 350 & 450/Lb (2 sizes)
TLCT – 800/Lb
MWRB – 783/Lb
Trout Lodge RBs – 480/LbNO word on Goldens yet
Arlington:
TCCT – 290/Lb
MWRB – 350/Lb
Ross Lake RBs – Just started on feed so 4000/Lb now. Maybe available by mid Sept.
