Training and a walk with a Naturalist

After the first day of training, local naturalist Jack Greene took whoever wished to accompany him on a short hike in Green Canyon in the Bear River Range.  Ten or so of us carpooled out to the trailhead and got there a few minutes before he did.  He rolls up in his Prius (silently because it was in electric mode) which was odd already because we were about 3 miles up a pretty rough and rocky dirt road and its Utah, not LA.  He gets out with his Chacos and his binoculars, says "hello" and then immediately points up to the sky to show us a pair of golden eagles circling a thousand feet above us.  He then told us about how in Alaska golden eagles will dive bomb mountain sheep to knock them off precarious ledges so they will fall thousands of feet to their death.  He knows because he has been to Alaska.

We did a more lengthy introduction and then started walking.  About ten steps in he veers off the trail through the trees next to us and starts walking through a meadow.  Muttering "leave no trace??" we follow, and he replies with assurances that this is a durable "hard" meadow with rocky soil as opposed to an easily trampled "soft" meadow.  Over the next hour he shared all kinds of knowledge about the plants around us: "This is edible, it takes like strong parsley (it's terrible).. this is rocky mountain juniper.  It's berries taste like gin becasue gin is made from juniper berries.. this is curly-leaf mahogany (which he could tell apart from the identical straight-leaf mahogany).. notice how that north facing slope is a douglas fir monoculture and this side is a mix of mahogany and bigtooth maple.. I found an Anasazi arrowhead that I could keep because.. when i was in Tanzania last weekend the black mamba snake.. oh my! this morrel mushroom is very uncommon here.  I have never seen it in this area before.  This is a wonderful surprise."

This was my first full day in Utah.  I was very impressed with how Mr. Greene could know so much about the place he lives.  I was also impressed with how much bland greenery he nibbled on over the course of the hour.