Night Rain in Leslie Gulch

About a month ago, I joined an area hiking group^¹ to camp a couple nights at Bruneau Dunes State Park. It was a nice time so I was happy to sign up for a second such trip to another of my favorite nearby spots, Leslie Gulch.

Typical spring weather patterns mean forecasts are only little to be trusted. Still, dark clouds gathered above Jump Creek Falls are more foreboding than I expected. This ride may be exciting.

1. Meetup.com, “Boise Trail Heads”: https://meetup.com/Boise-Trail-Heads/

I enter a veil of rain turning to sleet as I follow Highway 95 up and out of the Treasure Valley toward Oregon. I speed up expecting a stronger wind stream will send most of the wet globs around me. It’s kind of thrilling.

I am still over the speed limit when my eyes are drawn to equipment perched atop a hill ahead. It looks like there are cameras mounted on a temporary tower which makes me think for a moment it’s a TV crew before seeing several police cars parked below. Oops.

In 1937, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created as part of the New Deal to lift people out of rural poverty wrought by drought and the Great Depression. It is widely known today for its photography program that, from 1935 to 44, produced some eighty-thousand incomparable images of participants.^¹

Malheur County in Oregon, where I’ll be the next couple days, received many FSA settlers. No doubt many of their descendants remain.

Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee came to photograph the area for the FSA in 1939 and 1941. I have always been enamored of how unchanged these lands seem from their molten beginning a million years ago. Lee’s and Lange’s pictures substantiate that impression.

Original caption: “The cream truck coming down the road represents one steady element in the new settlers’ income.”

0. Photo LC-USF34-021440-E by Dorothea Lange (October 1939): https://loc.gov/…/2017773853/
1. Wikipedia, “Farm Security Administration”: https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Farm_Security_Administration

I consider my fate sealed when I see one of the hilltop police cars move toward the highway as I pass but it never appears in my mirror.

The sky is offering no assurance of a dry afternoon so I maintain a sporty pace, hoping to arrive at Slocum Creek Campground with one of the covered picnic shelters still available.

Desert bus (1939)*

I am always surprised that it appears to be in use when I pass tiny Rockville School on the gravel road to Leslie Gulch. Other than paint, it looks no different than the quaint schoolhouses erected by settlers a century ago.

Original caption: “School bus starts up the flat 7:30 a.m. to collect children of new settlers. Malheur County, Oregon.”

0. Photo LC-USF34-021440-E by Dorothea Lange (October 1939): https://loc.gov/…/2017773661/

I seem to have emerged from the squall as I near the last turn-off to Leslie Gulch. What that means for my arrival in fifteen minutes is still entirely uncertain.

I don’t want to squander these rainless minutes so where the road gains some elevation before descending to the gulch, I pause but a moment, engine idling, to look across prehistoric hills within Three Fingers caldera, cataclysmic contributor to the fantastic forms within Leslie Gulch.

Settlers not only had to eek a living out of dust but suffered the stereotype of being worthless socialists for accepting government aid.^¹ For me, their images seem just the opposite, evoking quintessential America. That too is the feeling I have riding across these wide open spaces that offer clear views across time.

Original caption: “The farthest house up Cow Hollow. Family came from Oklahoma. Malheur County, Oregon.”

0. Photo LC-USF34-021301-E by Dorothea Lange (October 1939): https://loc.gov/…/2017773703/
1. See Sidney Baldwin, “Poverty and Politics: The Rise and Decline of the Farm Security Administration”

You are never far in the Owyhees from deserted homesites, abandoned hopes. If you stop at one and look closely you may find old stepping stones and the outline of a garden. But this is a land that wears hard against legacy, hastening the fate that awaits every human endeavor.

Original caption: “New farm in Cow Hollow, Malheur County, Oregon. Note basement dugout house and excavation for new house in foreground.”

0. Photo LC-DIG-fsa-8b35171 by Dorothea Lange (October 1939):
1. https://loc.gov/…/2017773756/

Original caption: “The Fairbanks family has moved to three different places on the project in one year. Willow Creek area, Malheur County, Oregon.”

0. Photo LC-DIG-fsa-8b35107 by Dorothea Lange (October 1939):
1. https://loc.gov/…/2017773665/

Original caption: “The Fairbanks home. Willow Creek area, Malheur County, Oregon.”

0. Photo LC-USF34-021260-E by Dorothea Lange (October 1939):
1. https://loc.gov/…/2017773665/

I clearly wasn’t the only one with the idea to take the day off and arrive early. I’m lucky to get a covered picnic table spot. Most are occupied. It has no room for my tent but gear can stay dry here and it even covers the motorcycle if I park it up against the table.

As at Bruneau Dunes, tomorrow, Saturday, will be the main hiking day but when the weather takes a turn for the beautiful, the brilliant colors and contours beckon and a mini-hike is hatched.

Some group hikes can be a march to reach objectives. I’m glad this pre-hike is more of a stroll. I enjoy time to look.

I am fascinated to see tapestries of moss and stone, to think of the unimaginable violence that beget one and enduring stillness that allowed the other.

When I first saw rock formations like those adorning Leslie Gulch, I assumed they had something to do with gasses bubbling out of molten rock. But it’s the opposite, really. The pockets, called tafoni, are weathered out of the ash-deposit stone (called tuff) over eons.

What begins as a small indentation is on average more shaded and moisture within more often frozen than surrounding areas. Seasonal freezing and thawing thus causes slightly more flaking and erosion within the indentation, which adds more shade to reinforce and deepen the process.^¹

1. Adrienne Hacker, “Controls of Tafoni Development in Castle Rocks, Idaho”: http://keckgeology.org/…/hackernew.pdf

Having reached “The Cathedral” at the top of a nearby ravine, we’re all wandering our own way as we turn to head back.