HomeCompleted Trips

Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego

Sheep Count 2015 Messages in this topic - RSS

Buford
Buford
Posts: 453


7/6/2015
Buford
Buford
Posts: 453
I am comfortable in the Anza-Borrego Desert, having been camping there since I was a child. After hearing about the sheep count for the first time on a family trip as a kid, I have always wanted to participate. As a hiker/backpacker/peak bagger I filled out the sheep count orientation and volunteered for a backpacking assignment.

The sheep count orientation was worth attending for anyone that has any interest in sheep. At the orientation I got assigned to Palm Canyon, 2nd grove. I have been up past 2nd grove many times, and knew from previous count data that sheep were almost always spotted there. I also met the other members assigned to the count site, another experienced desert hiker/SAR member, and a married trail running couple who had never camped before but were very into sheep made up our team of four. All of us first timers for the count.

I arrived at checkin right before 3pm the day before the count, and the rest of our team was there and ready to go. I briefly talked to someone that had counted from 2nd grove before to get info on the count site. The info and the topo map in our packet made it really easy to find our count spot. We hiked up Palm Canyon and spotted quite a few sheep before 1st grove on the way up.






There was plenty of water at first grove trickling down into a pool created by a man made stick and sand wall. After 1st grove, there was no water all the way up past our count site. Just past our site, there was a good pool of clear frog filled water being fed by a trickle from the rocks. We were happy we had filterable water close by, and didn't have to hike far each day to refill.

Our count site was a little hill on the side of the canyon with a good view up and down canyon, including a vantage point for the water source up stream. We setup our shade tarp the first day and looked for sheep near the water, only to hear rockfall on the Indianhead ridge line behind us. One of our team members quickly spotted our first sheep due to the rockfall, and I saw the little one with it minutes later. Spotting them without binoculars would have been impossible. Later in the day we saw a different sheep up on the ridge line. That was it for day 1. One member of our team had a camera with a good telephoto lens, hopefully his pictures came out well.

Sheep were on the ridge line behind our site:




Day 2 was a big blank. One member of our team finally saw a sheep at 7pm, when it didn't count, on a very distant ridgeline up canyon. It was perfectly outlined against the sky and again only visible with binoculars.

There is a sheep on the little saddle of the left distant ridge line:


Day 3 was almost a blank. I spotted a single sheep glassing down canyon. Turns out that sheep was soon spotted by 1st grove right after it left our line of sight. We finished with only 4 official sheep over 3 days of counting, plus some bonus sheep on the hike up and back.

There is a sheep somewhere on the 3rd hill back. Only visible with binoculars or a long lens.


We started the hike out a couple minutes before noon. We saw plenty of sheep below 1st grove of course.








I was prepared for the heat, and it was not a problem. Hiking and counting in the heat were not an issue. The heat would get uncomfortable, but the shade made it doable. I knew our site almost always saw sheep in years past. I was glad we didn't go 3 days and see no sheep like some teams. That would be difficult. The hardest part for me was sitting there for hours looking and seeing nothing without being able to go out and explore the area. It would be much easier to sit and look if there were more sheep in front of us. Our team was excellent. At least we had great people to hang with and talk to for hours of not seeing sheep.



Despite having gallons of good clear water, not one sheep went down to it during the count. This was surprising to me. Overall a good experience. I just wish we counted more sheep.

Sorry about the cell phone snapshots, I am not a photographer.
edited by Buford on 7/6/2015

--
Links to my photos: ABDSP photos, Bighorn sheep photos, ABDSP time lapse video, Wildlife photos (mainly birds)
link






Powered by Jitbit Forum 8.3.8.0 © 2006-2013 Jitbit Software