It was about 9 am in the morning. We had packed up our tents, sat on a log and ate our camp breakfast. The sun was coming over the mountains and slowly solar powering our cold and tired bodies for another long day of hiking. We had hiked 7 miles over 5 stream crossings, and 50+ down trees over the trail the day before. We throw our bags on our back, and start day 2 of hiking on the trail until we come to a fork in the trail. We took our bags off, put them off to the side, grabbed what we needed for this short detour and kept walking.
The elevation was higher than I was used to so I was going one step at a time, but we crossed these alpine streams that were so clear. As I stepped across the stream, all I could think was how this small ecosystem could dry up if we didn’t get enough precipitation. The winter was one of the worst winters here in Durango, Colorado and in the region. We walked to the small pond where my friend who is a Fish biologist, needed to grab some water samples for work. She showed us the water lines. They were about 4-5 fingers higher on the rocks than where the water was. This was late May, which is still early season and should be higher than it was.
Water is a complex topic. It is essentially a currency that states fight over. Who owns what, and if there isn’t enough runoff, all of the states neighboring mountain states will be struggling months into the summer. Water is a hot topic right now. I don’t think many of us know what to do about it. Are we too far to fix what was started? I like to think there is hope.
Which is why I am starting this series that will be a lifelong pursuit with mini series of exploration. Currently, I am taking my underwater camera housing, Paddle-board
and exploring local lakes, alpine lakes, rivers and streams and studying the ecosystems below the water while also showing aerial imagery of water systems in hopes to show that no ecosystem is better than another and they all work for each other. The goal is to show that from above, this huge wide open space, also supports tiny micro organisms and to communicate that not one ecosystem is more important than another and that they all support us as a human race.
Stay tuned, as this is only the beginning.
