Snow? Bring It On.

Red Chief and I taking a break during a snowshoeing adventure.

Red Chief on my front lawn as we prepare to take on the wilds of the streets and parks of Champaign.

Roary, my patio lion, resembles a sheep after our recent snowfall.

At long last we had a decent fall of snow, seven inches, last Friday. Ergo, Red Chief and I put on or new snowshoes and hit the snow. It was tough going and the little guy wasn't real happy at one point (see chilled expression in top photo) but we got through it. Buffaloes are tough.

The buffaloes at Yellowstone are really having a tough go of it these days, and thanks to my friends Jim Macdonald and the Buffalo Field Campaign I am able to keep up with the happenings of the herd out there. More on this to come.

Hey, Doesn't Anybody Wanna Play?

Love this video of a young buffalo romping in the snow. The last couple of seconds is hilarious. And speaking of a young buffalo, Red Chief and I will be out in what could be as much as a foot of snow that has begun to fall this afternoon. Will post some photos of our outing.

Riddle Run: Smokey Clothes, Cold Nose

Me (left) and fellow buffaloes Goose Buster and Mr. Bill.

Buffalo, run director and self-appointed race committee and dictator Jeff Riddle and his wife Debbie. Deb has made cupcakes for all nine Riddle Runs.

Who says chocolate is not good for dogs? My buffalo buddy Devil Dawg, who is the herd's Chief of Communications, contemplates a cupcake.

This is Otis Riddle, completely fierce buffalo companion and guardian of the Buffalo Trace Trail.

One of last year's runners hung around a little too long in the cold.

Runners await the start of Riddle Run IX. They had to forego the usual rantings of the race director, who promised no aid and stated that the race committee, which is comprised of himself, did not care what happened to the runners.

My fire and my lunch during the Riddle Run.

Last Saturday's Riddle Run on the Buffalo Trace Trail was a grand affair in keeping with its usual complete disregard of normal human behavior. Temperatures were quite tolerable (25 degrees at run start at 8 a.m.), warmer than I had anticipated and balmy compared to the -11 temp of a few years back. I ran only four miles because I brought my fire pit and a big load of firewood and fed the fire all day to warm the runners. A record 93 runners participated and a record 105 cupcakes were made by Debbie Riddle. I stayed until late afternoon because I knew from past experience that those who stay later might get an extra cupcake. They did. The "winner" of the race managed to cover more than 28 miles in a record 3 hours, 39 minutes. For his efforts he got a cupcake and the traveling trophy, a roll of toilet paper.

The Run for the Cupcake: On the Frozen Tundra of Buffalo Trace

I'm pumped for one of my favorite running events, the annual Riddle Run, which will be held tomorrow morning at the Buffalo Trace Trail at Mahomet. This is always big fun, running on a trail no matter what the weather on the last Saturday of January. This is the ninth Riddle Run, and I am one of only a few who have run all nine, having endured sub-zero temperatures, freezing rain, ice, and three-foot snow drifts, but also basking one year in 60-degree temps. It will be in the single digits at race start tomorrow. My fellow buffaloes and members of my running club, Second Wind, will come out and run as little as 4 miles or as much as 28 miles, whatever a runner feels like doing. Food and drink abound and I plan to bring a fire pit and wood for cooking hot dogs and marshmallows. I'll post photos and an account of the run soon.

If for no other reason I must show up at the Riddle Run for a cupcake. For the first Riddle Run, race director Jeff Riddle brought out some cupcakes his wife had baked for him. Now it has become tradition to have a cupcake for every runner who completes at least four miles. This year Debbie Riddle will be baking a record number of cupcakes because a little over 100 runners have said they will participate.

Little Bull: Tiny Buffalo is Ready for the World

The latest photo of my grandson Devin, also known as Little Bull (Tatanka Chikala). Little Bull, now just over a week old, is cousin to Red Chief (Wichashita Luta). I'll have to revise the side panel of this blog to include my little herd's "cast of characters." Perry the kitchen pig and Roary the patio lion will be leaving "Adventures," but will still be solid fixtures of my household.

The Big Bad Wolf: Grandma had Security Guards and an Astronaut

In response to THIS, watch and listen carefully to the above video. To avoid being eaten by wolves, pack some Milk Bones the next time you head to the woods.

Buffalaw: "May I see your license and registration, please?"

Slumbering Bull

Newborn grandson Devin, now known in these pages as Little Bull, is sleeping a lot these days, like this buffalo calf. I've seen Devin's eyes open for only a split second.

New Addition to the Herd

Tiny buffalo: Devin Timothy Rice

Lanata, Tim and their little boy.

My son Tim and his lady Lanata added a little guy to the herd yesterday. Little Devin took his sweet time entering the world but he's here and will now have to endure a proud grandpa, who will no doubt give him a nickname and teach him the ways of the buffalo. His cousin Red Chief knows all about that.

The Death Knell, Loud and Often

THIS article sums up a bad situation. When I picked up a Casper, Wyoming newspaper upon leaving the Yellowstone Park area this last October, the front page had an article about the near-record number of buffaloes in the park. That was the first I had heard of such a rebound in numbers. My first thought: "Uh oh." I couldn't be happy about the news because I feared increased hunting and harassment of the herd. The death knell won't be the sound of bells, but of rifle shots and helicopters.

What Would Sitting Bull Think?

Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake), leader of the Lakota Sioux in the late 1800s, resisted the takeover of Sioux lands and played a major role in the defeat of General Custer at the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. "If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made me so in the first place," Sitting Bull said. "He put in your heart certain wishes and plans, and in my heart he put other and different desires. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows."

Buried among media accounts of the presidential race, football playoffs, Christmas shopping, and Britney Spears was news of the declaration by Lakota Sioux leaders on December 17 that their tribe had seceded from the United States. THIS article gives the basics, and HERE is the website of the new republic. The comments HERE are a lively discussion of the issue. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

In the Lens of a Buffalo

Red Chief and the Princess in an arm wrestling death grip.

The Chief and his Princess Mother at school Christmas party.

The Dairy Queen Wolf Woman gave me snowshoes for Christmas. I have wanted snowshoes for a long time, and can't wait to use them, so naturally there has been no snow and the next several days will have temps in the 40s and 50s. Sheesh.

Here's a few holiday photos. Christmas and New Years went by remarkably fast, which is fine. Meanwhile, disturbing news about Yellowstone buffalo and other endangered wildlife of that area has darkened these winter days. More on that to come.

I Survived Christmas . . .

. . . and now it's into the deep freeze and a winter of content with the herd. More adventures coming.

Red Chief on Wheels: Bikin' with Little Santa

Watched Red Chief all day Thursday and Friday, and although it was a slushy mess outside we took to the streets and went to the park, which we had all to ourselves. He insisted on wearing the Santa hat. His bike has a name: Buffalo. I wonder who suggested that.

Birthday Boy

Happy birthday to my little boy, who is now 24. Yikes. Here he is with his crazy canine Ali Baba. The last time the Illini went to the Rose Bowl, Tim was two weeks old. The Illini are finally in the Rose Bowl again, and Tim will be a daddy to a little boy due January 10.

Thunder in the Streets

Time to migrate back to the herd and do some real running. Hibernation and occasional running just don't make it. So, it's brush off the snow, put on the running shoes, and romp in the streets Thursday night.

Wild Innocence Attacked

If you have seven minutes to spare, please watch this. It takes a while for the narration to start, but listen to it closely. A well-done video, but it makes my blood boil. This cruelty against the Yellowstone buffalo must stop.

"Stamping flint feet, flashing moon eyes"

I'm not a big poetry nut, but I just had to share a poem I recently came across. Hey, it's about buffaloes. From "The Ghosts of the Buffaloes" by Vachel Lindsay, a Springfield, Illinois native who penned this in 1914:

"And the wind crept by
Alone, unkempt, unsatisfied,
The wind cried and cried-
Muttered of massacres long past,
Buffaloes in shambles vast...
Snuffing the lightning that crashed from on high
Rose loyal old buffaloes, row upon row.
The lords of the prairie came galloping by.
Buffaloes, buffaloes, thousands abreast,
A scourge and amazement, they swept to the west.

With black bobbing noses, with red rolling tongues,
Coughing forth steam from their leather-wrapped lungs,
Cows with their calves, bulls big and vain,
Goring the laggards, shaking the main,
Stamping flint feet, flashing moon eyes.
Pompous and owlish, shaggy and wise.
Like sea-cliffs and caves resounded their ranks
With shoulders like waves, and undulant flanks.
Tide upon tide of strange fury and foam . . . "

Beasts at the Castle of the Princess

Red Chief and Flower

Flower, who as a youngster lived in a flower shop (she also resembles the skunk named Flower in the movie Bambi), is always quite vociferous. Here her mouth is open while giving me a squeal.

Buster. Because he just looks like a Buster. This is one of his favorite perches, on a warm computer.

The Princess and Red Chief decorate the castle exterior.

"Adventures" presents the debut of Flower and Buster, brother and sister felines at the home of Princess and Red Chief. I was enlisted to help with Christmas lights.

An Evening with Mr. Baba

It's always an adventure when son Tim brings over his "crackhead" hound, Ali Baba, who shares a rare still moment with me in a chair. Ali's unclipped ears remind me of someone.

"This Noble Race of Animals"

A Rocky Mountain trapper - What Osborne Russell probably looked like, based on his descriptions of a typical trapper and mountain man.

I've been reading the journals of a trapper of the 1830s and 40s, Osborne Russell, who spent much time in what is now Yellowstone National Park. He laments the decline of the buffalo, even during that long-ago period: "The vast numbers of these animals which once traversed such an extensive region in North America are fast diminishing. The continual increasing demand for robes in the civilized world has already and is still contributing in no small degree to their destruction, whilst on the other hand the continual increase of wolves and other 4 footed enemies far exceeds that of the buffalo. When these combined efforts for its destruction are taken into consideration, it will not be doubted for a moment that this noble race of animals, so useful in supplying the wants of man, will at no far distant period become extinct in North America."

Today's Yellowstone herd, which exceeds 4000, is descended from a tiny group of surviving buffaloes.

In an 1835 journal entry, the trapper writes about an area in Yellowstone, the magnificent Lamar Valley, where this fall I saw many buffalo and elk, a couple of coyotes, a wolf, and a grizzly: "There is something in the wild romantic scenery of this valley which I cannot nor will I attempt to describe, but the impressions made upon my mind while gazing from a high eminence on the surrounding landscape one evening as the sun was gently gliding behind the western mountain and casting its gigantic shadows across the valley were such as time can never efface from my memory but as I am neither Poet Painter or Romance writer I must content myself to be what I am, a humble journalist, and leave this beautiful valley in obscurity until visited by some more skillful admirer of the beauties of nature who may chance to stroll this way at some future period."

Russell's written record of his experiences with the land, weather, wildlife, and Native Americans is a treasure.

A Native American Viewpoint at Yellowstone - Listen Carefully

A hunter from the Salish-Kootenai tribe speaks to Buffalo Field Campaign volunteers about the current bison hunt on the Montana borders of Yellowstone. Tribal members are allowed to hunt the Yellowstone bison for a limited time in accordance with a treaty. There are no other wild bison in Montana.

An Evening with Red Chief

Spent four hours last evening with the ornery little guy. Much fun. Cooked dinner for him, watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas," and hung Christmas decorations. And I whipped him two out of three matches in arm wrestling. Grandpa rules!

How Many More?

Another season of hunting down the last of America's continuously wild buffalo, the Yellowstone herd, began November 15. I don't care what anyone says, this is not right. The hunt is justified, say its supporters, because the herd could transmit the disease brucellosis to cattle. Yet, there has not been a single documented case of this. If a buffalo roams outside the park boundaries, into the killing fields of Montana, chances are good he will get in the cross-hairs of a telescopic sight of some trigger-happy fool who would boast of a wild buffalo kill. if the hunters of Yellowstone buffalo must satisfy some macho ego or get a thrill of shooting something, hunting bin Laden is recommended. I'll help buy the ammo. There is buffalo meat at the grocery store. Mowing down a wildlife heritage, animals that Yellowstone visitors appreciate and delight in seeing, is just pathetic. I wonder what those same visitors would say if they saw some clown pumping lead into these magnificent animals. There has been a flood of outrage, yet the hunt continues. I tremble these days when I get an e-mail from the BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN. They tell it like it is, and I can always count on them. Regarding the buffalo hunt, a resident near the park said it all: "We have seen enough blood in the snow." The Yellowstone herd is special. Just let them roam.

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Your Herd

Buffalo Tamer

My companion Kathy, aka the Dairy Queen, aka Wolf Woman. We have dreams of doing fieldwork for the BUFFALO FIELD CAMPAIGN at Yellowstone and for the YELLOWSTONE WOLF PROJECT.

Tom in the Tetons: A Lasting Impression

Borrowed photo because this critter was MIA.

Atherton Creek in Grand Teton National Park. This was moose country, but Bullwinkle was nowhere to be found. I stayed here for quite a while, though, admiring the awesome beauty of the area.

With the Grand Teton mountains as a backdrop, buffalo are ready to surround me.

The log chapel.

I was determined to see at least one moose in the Yellowstone area, and by all accounts the best place to see one was at Grand Teton National Park, which is just south of Yellowstone. The last full day of my trip was spent at Grand Teton, but I could have easily spent an entire week there. Just unbelievable beauty. I stopped at a visitors center and asked where I could best see moose. I was given five prime locations, these by men who knew the area well. While driving to and from the areas, I had to stop while a large batch of buffalo crossed the road in front of me. I looked behind me and more buffalo had entered the road and stopped. Wonderful. I was surrounded by buffalo who had no intention of quickly leaving the road because there was no other traffic. I was isolated. No other car was in sight. Finally, most of the herd left the road. The gig was up: the buffalo were in collusion with area moose, delaying my moose "hunt". The moose were there all right, but my seeing them was just not to be as I drove all over the area and stopped at several locations and waited in vain.

The next day as I was leaving the Tetons for home, I noticed a log building off to the side of the road. A sign said it was the Chapel of the Sacred Heart. A quaint building set by a beautiful lake and the Teton mountains, I decided to take a break and walk around the chapel grounds. Now, I'm not a religious person, but I decided to see if the chapel was open. A sign told me that the season for services in the chapel was June 1-Sept. 30, but the door was open this second week in October. I walked in and by the entranceway was a sign: "Dedicated to the victims of 9/11." Choked me up. It was eerie in the chapel as sunlight poured in, yet it was quite cool in the unheated building. As did all the magnificent wildlife and scenery in the area, the silent chapel left a lasting impression with me.

The Buffalo Roamed, but Where Were the Antelope?

A pronghorn antelope at Yellowstone: I didn't take this photo because these clowns were hiding from me.

Bighorn sheep frolicking on a steep, rocky slope. Mentally unstable creatures, no doubt.

The battle of the Little Bighorn: Mama bighorn sheep and kids had stopped traffic on a Yellowstone road when I snapped this photo. A fun sight.

This might have been the largest buffalo I saw at Yellowstone, and I saw hundreds. This big guy was in a roadside ditch in the Lamar Valley voraciously downing watery roadside "salad." Judging by the size of his gut, the dude might have mowed the entire valley.

I don't know if anyone heard, but I had discouraging words to say about the antelope at Yellowstone. Geez, I see all kinds of wildlife, but one of the star attractions avoided me - the pronghorn antelopes. I asked a park ranger, "Where are they? I've been looking everywhere." Ranger says, "At this time of year they're at the northern boundary of the park, and some may be in the hills beyond the park." So, I drive to the northern area of the park, see no antelope, then drive out of the park and into no-man's land, but the little pronghorn piss ants are nowhere to be seen. I give up the search and head back down south when I see people stopped on the side of the road, a sure sign that some good wildlife is around. They are looking up at steep rocky slopes at those crazed mountain climbers, the bighorn sheep. These critters are climbing all over rocky ledges, defying death, at least to me, and staring down at us, daring us to come up and try it too. They were much fun to watch.

STILL TO COME: Frustration in The Grand Tetons: Taken hostage by wild buffalo while hunting all over creation for Bullwinkle

Hail to the Chief

Red Chief Subdued: The Serious Ethan

Red Chief Released: The Not-So-Serious Ethan

We interrupt our Yellowstone coverage to bring you heroics of Red Chief. Last week the Princess told me about a call she received from Red Chief's school principal. Immediately I thought, "Uh oh." No, she said, it's good. Seems the Chief's kindergarten art teacher fell and hurt her head in the classroom. While other students sat motionless, the quick-thinking Chief hurried out of the room to the principal's office to tell of the incident. The principal was very grateful and thanked the Princess. The chief obviously wasn't too big headed about the incident when he casually told the Princess only late last night that he was singled out in a school-wide assembly and recognized on stage for his quick actions. Just another day in the life of Ethan Oliver Rice. I'm extremely proud of the little dude.

Mystic Buffalo

I had what I would call some just plain weird experiences at Yellowstone, and this is one of them. I hiked a trail to beautiful Mystic Falls (upper photo), and while hiking back on the same trail I came upon a lone buffalo completely blocking my path. There were no other buffalo or humans in the area, just me and this big guy. It was as if he had been placed there because he wasn't visible on my hike to the falls and I wasn't gone long from the spot where he stood. Now, why did he choose to stand on a narrow trail when he could have stood anywhere else on the hillside? Because he wanted to annoy me, I guess. Or send a message. Whatever, he stood on the trail for a while, not moving an inch, and was turned sideways just like the photo above, which I took a little later after he had taken his sweet time moving off the trail. I had to go way around him through some thickets. I guess this photo proves that he was not an apparition, but at first sight it sure seemed like he was. More Yellowstone adventures coming.

Ethanosaurus: Red Chief Goes Prehistoric on Halloween