Best Friends

Courtesy of Dario, Linny and Tom.

No Shortage of Heart

Shelly and Kobae left Base Camp at 10am. After leaving walkie talkie range Tom drove out and checked on them every couple hours. Tom pulled up at 6pm, not far from the Lockhart Basin/Chicken Corner intersection. Kobae came over and sat in the shade of the jeep, signaling Saturday's eight hour marathon ended. Not many people on the trail today, but no shortage of heart.

Friday Night From the Canyon Lands

Coming Home

Four Wheel Drive Kobae Pt 2

Four Wheel Drive Kobae Pt 1

Adjustments

With the sheep pen devastated and mostly washed away in the Bad One, time to make adjustments.

Bucket List

Linny has returned to Salt Lake to begin 2nd grade. However on her bucket list (seven years old) she knocked off Stairway to Heaven last week. She was helped up a couple places but no more than the average guest. Catacomb Rock, Jacob's Ladder, Hurrah Pass, and now Stairway. Falling like dominoes. Going to have to get a bigger bucket.

The Day After the Bad One

A ledge Tom used to lift Kobae up on to when hiking, no longer possible. A disc golf basket normally sticking three feet above ground has two feet of mud under it. The can with 100 plus pounds of corn in it for the sheep is washed a hundred feed away. The drive way from the sign down towards the lodge has a two foot deep ditch in the middle of it.

Going To Be a Bad One

Neck Hula Hooping by Linster

The Bats

Kobae, Linny's Shadow, and the Sunset

Kobae has been trying to get up the same rock gulley for hours and multiple toenail scars show the depth of his commitment. Linny, keeps pushing herself to climb steeper and harder rock faces as her balancing shadow shows. Tom enjoys soaking it all in as the sunset displays it's departure.

Linster (Photo by Kelli)

Every Day Life

Trying to Start Trouble

Destination Catacomb Rock

Three times last week Kobae was turned back prior to reaching the Wind Caves. Not tonight. This evening the canyon lands cathedral is spectacular. It is only quiet. A whip tail lizard spooked by Kobae, makes a frenzied run past Tom. To the left of the wind caves and beyond, a white tail deer watches. Tom can smell a campfire miles to the south in a soft north wind. It's perfect as most days are in this earth laboratory. Four miles. Four hours. Darkness comes. Kobae finds shelter under an overhang. Venus spots them, the Milky Way blankets them. The only sound, Kobae's slow breathing. He is asleep. The starlight of the night sky, the slight white shadow of both sides of the jeep trail, and the feel of hardened soil under Tom's feet, with occasional flashes of the Perseid meteors hitting the earth's atmosphere at 140,000 mph, Tom feels and senses his way to the lodge. Arriving safely, the soft throttle of the jeep whispers so Tom may return to the Wind Caves for his friend.

Sunday Evening (Talking to Kobae)

Tom tries to convince Kobae dark approachs. Kobae sleeps through it, wakes, listens briefly, then sleeps. As Kobae and Tom approach the lodge, Venus can be seen in the background, with Mars and Saturn moments behind. With Kobae, it's never easy.

Saturday Evening

Friday Evening

What Issues? Who Me?

Today Kobae is tracking Big Horn through slot canyons. Occasional footprints in the mud, smell, and Big Horn pellets, Kobae follows them to the usual sort of ending for these chases. The Big Horn climb something that has a an eight foot (or more) vertical leap and the chase for Kobae is over. Today, coming to where the Big Horn jumped out, Kobae shows his disgust by taking a monster pee in their water hole.

Do You Believe in Magic?

The Rain

Truck Shopping, Again

Catman has been working on the lodge porches. Needing more wood, Tom gives him the truck to drive to town and retrieve some. On the return, a fellow too fast rounds the corner and two days ago Tom got word from the insurance company, it's a write off.

With Bill's going off the Hurrah in the Ford 350 a couple years ago, Base Camp is averaging a truck every 20 months. On Monday, Linny and Tom will go shopping for the third Base Camp truck in a little over 3 years.

Kobae and Athena

As Kobae and Tom return from their hike up Hurrah, Tory (Catman) and Athena (actual cat) join them. Athena stalks Kobae, though won't go near him. Suddenly, within seconds, the sun partly emerges and engulfs them. Everything around and behind them turns an eerie red, a partial rainbow develops, the sky near sunset turns bright blue and white. Then, as quick as it came, it is gone.

All Better Now

Tom hears construction equipment on this side of Hurrah Saturday, so early Sunday afternoon Kobae and Tom hike up Hurrah to check out the road and it's all better now.