Caught Between the Fog and the Mud

There’s an old saying that states “The third time’s the charm.” But we’re not so sure. 

The first time this month we attempted to survey the Waterville route, we ran into a wall of fog at the top of Pine Canyon. We were hoping we could drive out of it, but no such luck. So we turned around and headed home.  It’s kind of hard to count raptors when you’re in the middle of a white out.

The next day looked better, so we headed out again. This time we got as far as the actual starting point of the route, but again the fog rolled in. We drove on for 13 more miles, but it got thicker and thicker. Once again, we turned around and headed home.

With only four more days in the month, we were running out of time. The weather forecast for that time span was dismal. But, Monday’s prediction was 40% rain. We thought that was our best shot. 

So, IS the third time the charm? We doubted it. We were fine until we reached the top of Pine Canyon where we once again encountered the big white monster. Since there was nothing else to do and we were running out of time, we kept driving. We drove 17 miles through thick, oppressive, blinding, whiteness.

Finally, as we headed toward Lamoine, we left the fog and spotted the first raptor of the day, a Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA)!

“We’re on the board!”

As we headed north toward the McNeil Canyon Road and turned east on the paved road, we thought we were home free! Well… not exactly. We leave the paved road and embark on what is locally known as Mud Springs Road. Now we are in the middle of a mucky, wet, fishtailing, gravel road. I do believe there’s a reason they call it Mud Springs Road! As we approach Division we are supposed to turn left and head up toward Dyer Hill. One look at that road and we knew we’d have to make a detour.

We consult the map and decide we will drive one mile south and then backtrack up to the other end of the road we can’t get through. We’ll see how far we can go. So we drive an extra 11 miles and eliminate 4 miles of mud. 

In all that backtracking and circumventing, we pick up one more (RLHA).

Once we get back to Highway 172 and head west and south again, we pick up three more RLHAs, a couple Northern Kestrels, a Red-tailed Hawk, and even one Golden Eagle!

From Withrow we head west on Rd 8 NW and pick up four more RLHAs! Yippee! 

The route turns south on Rd F NW and once again we encounter mud.  This mud doesn’t look as deep or as treacherous as the last road, so I decide to give it a try. We drive a couple hundred feet and the road is squishy, mucky and we are fishtailing. I stop and look at the map and see how many miles we have to go on this road.  Five, and then we turn into another unpaved, gravel road for five more! I decide THAT’S not going to work!

So it’s time to turn around.  In the muck, and the squish, with soft shoulders! No three-point turns here! It was more like a 10 point turn with a little fishtailing and a lot of four-wheel-drive maneuvering. But we escaped!

So that little maneuver involved a 13 mile detour and an elimination of 10 miles of mud. We made it to the end of the route without getting stuck in the mud or getting blinded by the bright white fog. 

However, I don’t know that I would go as far as to say that, “The third time’s the charm.“

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 1
American Kestrel (AMKE) 2
Golden Eagle (GOEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 11
Unidentified Buteo 1 (Too far away to determine)