They agree to attempt finding Himalayan Snowcocks living in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada. Given they are short on time, the two new friends hire a helicopter to take them into the mountains, at which time Brad utters the memorable line, "The Snowcocks are on me!". Cut to scenes of them coptering around snow-covered peaks, laughing and having fun the entire time.
In real life, this episode plays out much differently. Much, much, differently. Enoughly different to make the birder who has experienced this pursuit grumpy, and to declare grumpily, F-U Brad and Stu!
First, there is no helicopter. There is never a helicopter. Nobody does that. Did I say "F-U Brad and Stu" yet?
Instead, you hike 2 miles up a narrow, rocky trail in the with 1,000' elevation gain, ending at 9,700' above sea level. In fact, not only must you do this without oxygen, you must do this without daylight and starting at 3am, because the damn birds start calling at dawn and then only for a short while after. (Key learning: Snowcocks are a pain in the ass.)
So, second, you need the proper gear. This could include many items depending on your predilections (for instance, you may or may not have a Thermos of coffee, and it may or may not have whiskey added). At a minimum, I recommend a flashlight; see above regarding daylight. Oh, and test your flashlight before you leave home.
In our case, we brought 3 flashlights. We didn't test them until arriving at the campsite. When we tested them, the batteries of two had leaked and corroded the flashlight to the point of non-operation, and the third had a burned out bulb (oh, and the spare was missing). While I'm at it, F-U batteries.
Fortunately, we had a small lantern that was actually functional, so weren't completely dead in the water.
Third, you need to know where you're going. The specific trail is the Island Lakes trail in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, about 45 minutes south of Elko.
When you arrive at the parking lot, you will see a sign that says, "Trailhead", and then a smaller sign that says "Trail":
In our case, we arrived at our nearby campsite (Thomas Canyon, a fantastic campground) at dusk the prior day, we hadn't investigated this yet. So, we saw the first sign by our headlights and then walked up to the distant sign with our lantern.
It reads:
Where you stand, there is a trail that goes left, and another one that goes right. But, the sign is oriented vertically, so it doesn't match where you're standing. What to do? We went right.
So, we started hiking with our "Little Lantern That Could", stumbling and bumbling over rocks and stream crossings. We reached one small lake (hmm...), then another (hmm...), then finally arrived at a large lake at the base of a cirque. The sun was just rising, but we didn't hear anything. We waited and waited, with the waiting being punctuated with a gust of wind that blew my hat into the lake (big props to the wife for wading in to get it!).
Finally, around 8am, we decided that we'd missed the birds, and trudged back down the hill, dejected at having rising at 3-effing-am-in-the-effing-morning and gotten no results.
Arriving at the truck at 10am, we drove around the parking lot and were about to rejoin the main road when we saw this, about 200 yards away from the "Trailhead" sign and the trail we walked, and parallel to the entrance road:
Wait.... wha-wha-wha-what's that say?
First, there was dead silence in the truck as we contemplated this sign. Then, as you may imagine from the tone of this post, a few choice profanities were uttered. To be honest, more than a few. And it felt good.
So, we had gotten up early to hike the LAMOILLE LAKE TRAIL in the dark, a trail where Snowcocks have been reported only twice in the past two years, and NOT the ISLAND LAKE trail, where they are reported PRACTICALLY DAILY. The obvious Trail signs showed both paths starting from exactly the same point, so we didn't even think to wander around the parking lot looking for another trailhead!
@USForestService Your sign-making skills suck. I hate you.
Hopeful that maybe, just maybe, the birds might still be findable, we parked and hiked another 2 miles and 1,000' up, and waited another hour. But, no dice. Did I say "F-U Forest Service" yet? Sort of, but not really. So: F-U Forest Service.
So, 8 miles and 2,000' of elevation later, all we had was tired legs. And, the opportunity to do the hikes all over again the next morning.
Day 2 was without drama, however. Our lantern battery didn't die, and the trail was easier to hike having done it once. Around 5:15am, the birds did start calling, and we listened to them for over an hour. We never could see them on the distant hillsides, but the calls were very cool to hear.
And, shortly after daylight, a large bird flew into a nearby tree. Redirecting our attention to it, we waited a few seconds for her to peek out from the tree, and then were delighted to discover it was a Dusky Grouse! Another bird we needed for the year!
And, the scenery was gorgeous:
In the end, we got two birds for the year and plenty of exercise, and two days hiking at nearly 10,000' was good training for our upcoming weekend in Colorado to find Ptarmigans.
All's well that ends well, I grumpily admit.
But still, F-U Brad and Stu.
Off to the Rocky Mountains,
Me.
p.s. The Gentle Reader might think quietly that the problems were actually all our fault, since we didn't test our essential gear before leaving home, didn't explore the trail in the daylight, and didn't put any GPS markers on any of our devices to suggest to us that we were on the wrong trail.
To this I would say, I am an American, and like any good American, I choose to blame all my problems on the failings of others around me. So, keep those, "You make your own bed" thoughts to yourself and back off, buddy!
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