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Letters to the Editor

Plenty of "Pay" in Volunteering
I agree with Michael Wolcott, that volunteering can change your life ["No Pay? No Problem!," Nov/Dec 2008]. In fact, taking money out of anything we do changes the perspective of the job that needs to be done. Money often distracts our view from the importance of the task to be done. I did four seasons in the Superstition Wilderness as a "W.I.S.", a wilderness information specialist. My main duty was to diffuse the ill feelings folks had with paying the new "fee demo" that was initiated by the Forest Service. I did backcountry patrols also. There was no monetary pay, but plenty of interesting folks to meet. For more than 12 years, I've been volunteering with the BLM's Wild Horse & Burro Program. I adopted a wild burro and tamed and trained her into a top-notch pack animal to hike with, hunt with. We go to events (such as National Public Lands Day, which Wolcott also mentioned) and encourage others to consider a wild burro or wild horse for their equine needs. Again, no monetary pay, but plenty of "pay" in many different ways! - Tom Taylor, Mesa, Ariz.

The Guts of the Matter
As a frequent hiker in McElmo Canyon and elsewhere in the Four Corners area and a scavenger of gastroliths, I have a few questions [re: "Eons in the Palm of My Hand," Nov/Dec 2008].
I am not a paleontologist nor a geologist and would welcome the comments of any of your readers who are. Is the Morrison Formation up by Denver? Perhaps part of it is. I thought it to be commonly exposed throughout the Four Corners, in McElmo and numerous other locations in Colorado, Utah and probably elsewhere. I don't think that Dinosaur National Monument is near the Four Corners, either. Last I heard it was a couple of hundred miles to the north.
What are the specifics of the two large dinosaurs found a "few miles from the mouth of McElmo Canyon"? I would love to visit the site of this excavation.
What manner of knowledge, magic or clairvoyance enables the author to "reckon" the specimen came from a Stegosaurus? I would like to be able to label my stones with the proper "breed." I have trouble enough with determining whether they're basalt or quartzite, etc., let alone what kind of dino they were once inside of.
I was under the impression that stones were ingested by most, if not all, veggiesauruses, (blame "Jurassic Park" for that one) not only Stegosaurus. Is that correct?
Come on, all you scientific brains out there, set us straight! We rely on Inside/Outside to provide us with accurate knowledge. - Doug Karhan, Pleasant View, Colo.

THE WRITER RESPONDS: You didn't find the scientific confirmations that you desired in my short essay (although it doesn't take a lot of research or imagination to ascertain that a steg-like dino likely wandered these parts). I woud hope that you would seek high levels of research in a scientific journal. Even so, you know how archeological "truths" turn on a dime with the scrape of the earth; a charred and chewed human bone. Instead, wilderness, gastrolith and I offer you slippage from the left brain to the right. What Kierkegaard would call "the fullness of time" - that moment when past, present and future merge; when geographical points converge and metaphor defines each step. Grasp one of your precious gastroliths and return to the spot where you found it. Sit silent in the winds of time. The gastrolith will take you where you need to go. The soul heeds not to the chatter of the mind.
- Christina Nealson, Mancos, Colo.

Maps, Need Maps
Many kudos on your upgraded magazine on coated paper - the color quality of the photos is ever so much better. And so is the coverage of so many fascinating areas to visit in the Four Corners area. But, I do have a request. As a long-term resident of the Southwest for over 50 years, I have a pretty good familiarity with most of the Four Corners country, but even with that familiarity, I'm still stumped sometimes trying to visualize roughly where some of the destinations are, even though there is a short verbal description giving highway numbers and names of towns or villages - some of which tend to be fairly obscure locations. I can well imagine that a younger or more recent resident without a stash of state road maps readily at hand may be totally baffled as to where some places are.
How about devoting half a page near the front of each issue to a map that shows at least the major roads/villages that are close to the destinations discussed in that issue? I think it would be a big help to many of your readers, and would make Inside/Outside ever so much reader-friendly. - Gil Mull, Santa Fe, N.M.

THE EDITOR RESPONDS: Thanks Gil! We do publish maps occasionally with the Corner Pocket articles, most often a small location map, although we do not strive to offer trail-guide details to the destinations we cover. We believe there's merit in showing readers the wealth of outdoor adventures available in our area but, for now anyway, we will hold to offering nudges toward them, which is all the spark an explorer really needs to get going.
- Editor

What's on your mind? We want to hear your thoughts, gripes, concerns, rants, rages and nearly anything else you can put into legible sentences. Note: marriage proposals will be sent overseas and insults will be composted. Write: Inside/Outside SW Magazine, Att: Editor, P.O. Drawer A, Durango, CO 81302;
or e-mail to letters@insideoutsidemag.com.