Monday and Guess What.....

I checked the driveway this Monday morning and it was damaged but survivable. I went back and forth in the truck over and over making a path for arriving guests to follow. Around 1pm guests called to say they were leaving Moab. Twenty minutes later all "hail" broke loose. Not very big hail, but hail. I quickly called them back to tell them not to come but it went straight to voice mail which means they don't have service and are on their way. I was hoping they would get through Kane Creek before the flood got there. It can be raining while you are going through the creek bed and you can be all right. The waters take awhile to get to the road crossing. Most people spend a little over an hour to get here but at 2pm they hadn't arrived and at 2:30pm I hadn't seen them come over Hurrah Pass. Time to go look for them. At 2:40 I start down the driveway. It hasn't rained in an hour. The drive way is still flooded. While that is probably navigable I'm still a little weary from getting Last Hurrah's side by side stuck in there a couple weeks before so decide to wait half an hour. At 3pm I'm just gathering up my stuff, couple pair of water shoes, Go Pro camera, two walking sticks, tow straps, bunji cords, two pair of dry clothes, five towels, lots of mosquito repellent, energy bars, and three canteens of water in case I wind up getting trapped somewhere and spend the night. As I start to take everything out to the truck the guests pull up in a pretty muddy SUV. They got stuck half way down Hurrah but were ok everywhere else.

Sunday Night Still Raining

Around 6pm I took the truck and drove out to where the sign use to be and the driveway was still passable. Beat up some more but still alive. I let Kobae out around noon and he walked part way down the driveway and then just stood there for a couple minutes, then turned around, came back and hung out in the lodge and then went to sleep in the laundry room for only the second time since March. By 6:30pm the sky had darkened and just a few minutes later it was on us again.

Cometh the Rain, Again (We're Screwed, Again)

I saw the forecast. It's coming. Guests checking out on Sunday left on Saturday to play it safe. Still, it was a beautiful day. Kobae is hiking around his fence trying to find a way out. I look up at the sky, probably time for a couple hour hike. Don't see anything menacing. We're over in the dead end canyon at the bottom of the sand hill so Kobae can try to exercise the demons in his head by climbing his own sand hill and Johnny from Caveman Ranch calls on the walkie talkie. "I don't know where you are but ugly is coming over the Anti Cline and you probably can't see it from where you are." I look up and it's not just ugly, ugly brought the stick along that makes more uglies. Not to be confused with bumping uglies. Time to turn Kobae around and try and get through the creeks before they flood. Five minutes later it's clear we're not going to make it and the lightning is too intense to be anywhere but low in a creek. I try and get Kobae to pull over and take shelter and he thinks about it a couple times but keeps going. I've brought lots of rain gear so as long as I can stay up against a creek bank I'm probably clear of lightning. Probably. Right there is where the camera battery went dead. The rain came hard. As we walk around a bend in the pouring rain there are three vehicles pulled over and the people taking shelter. With everyone else in shelter Kobae and I are walking down the road getting buried. They want to know where there is better shelter. I ask to borrow one of the ATVs and for them to watch Kobae. I'll be back in ten minutes with the truck, pick up Kobae, and they can follow me back to the lodge. When we get to the lodge there are two side by sides there already with four more people under the porches. For the next hour the Base Camp driveway is flooded again and everybody is briefly stuck here. In time as the creek goes down I drive to the front gate to see if it's passable. Come back and get everyone and then follow them out to make sure no one gets stuck. Then I found the spare battery for the camera so this is well after the drive way has gone down. During the night it has rained very hard and I'm guessing the bottom of the hill is gone and the driveway going up to where the sign was is probably gone also.

We Are Gathered Here (It's In His Head)

Comfortable

On today's hike, Kobae found shade but at an angle and he couldn't quite find the position to get comfortable.

Friday Morning

Preparing to climb Jackson Ladder. The view from the Indian village on top of Amasa Back. The painted pottery collection at the village is growing.

Kobae Visits the Hogans

Kobae hikes around the hogans.

Always on the Edge

While Kobae goes along the ledges of the creek bed on soft overhangs I'm stuck fighting the mosquitoes. Spray last about ten minutes and then they are on me. After that it's slapping them with the gloves I'm carrying. Kobae eventually finds his way into the creek bed and back to the lodge. The creek bed you see in the first couple videos I used to walk across with the dogs, Bishop and Chewey, and Kobae. Six years ago or so they were two or three feet across and a couple feet deep. Now they are 10 to 15 feet deep and 20 feet across. It's not so bad closer to the bottom of our driveway where our gate used to be as in the last video but still 10 times what it was when I got here.

Learning

His fifth time at the beach Kobae has figured out where to go back up the stairs. Before he would try and go up three or four places before he would by accident come across the stairs. Today he sorted it out. There has been an absence of mosquitoes for the last two months but with the last two rains they are back with a vengeance and once you get close to the tamarisk you're fighting them off.

Hiking Hurrah

Kobae and I hiked about 60% of the way up Hurrah today with lots of shade breaks. He did about four miles and had lots of vehicles stop and visit him.

Comes the Rain (Again)

What Kobae Likes Most

It's in the high 90s again and it's hot, hot, and hot. Kobae is not anywhere close to coming out of his house. Then a vehicle pulls up to ask a few questions and let their dogs out.

Good Day for Kobae

Kobae and I visited the beach. There's no video because I spent all my time and both hands trying to keep Kobae out of deep mud or deep water. Oh and Kobae, if you're reading this, here's a tip for the future, you're a tortoise, not a turtle, you can't swim. However on our return to the lodge some dogs showed up and chasing dogs is what Kobae likes most. After all the dogs have been chased off, there's the celebratory victory dance on the front stairs, or something like that.

Things Have Changed

Kobae and I went on our first walk down the dead end canyon I have to pick him up since the rains. My hope was that it had dumped a bunch more dirt in there and I wouldn't have to pick him up so high. The opposite happened. There was so much water it left a muddy sinkhole and I now have to pick him up about a foot and a half or so higher than I used to have to. Reading while Kobae rests in the shade.

Tuesday

The helicopters are back so apparently BLM has re-given permission for oil/gas surveying. Little noisy here also as the solar batteries are being replaced with Kobae supervision of course.

Kobae Visits the Beach

Breakfast at Tiffanys

It's been a long time since we've visited the early morning feeding ground of the critters. Still a few territorial disputes and lot of camera curiosity.

Saturday

It's been four days since the flood and the ground is packed hard. These are spooky times hiking with Kobae as he leaves almost no track so you have to stay with him all the time. This is the red tee to hole 11 on the disc golf course. Last time we hiked through here I straightened the turf on the tee out. Now, after the flood, it is all folded on top of itself and the blue tee is gone. We're hiking maybe an hour when it starts to heat up and Kobae goes right for shade finding a little ledge where just his head is in the shade. I know I'm stuck for the next five or so hours until the heat breaks so when two guys come by on atvs I have one take me to the lodge while the other watches Kobae. I pick up the truck, bring back a chair with a hat, and find a wet towel still in the back of the truck while I'm cleaning it out and use that to put over Kobae. When the heat breaks we're hiking home when a bicycle touring supply truck gets a flat right next to us.

A Quiet Evening

Kobae rests in the shade. The beach is all jacked up. It was 150 feet of sand. Now it's 100 feet of shallow water and 50 feet of mud. The Anti-Cline takes the last rays of the day.

Helicopter Up

24 hours after the crash, it's gone. There were lots of people up there cleaning up and it's like it never happened.

Kobae, Turnaround Artist

Helicopter Down 3

Helicopter Down 2

Good as New

Hosed it off for an hour or so and good as new. Ok, not quite yet. Probably should do something with that bumper. So, good as....wait, maybe get the duct tape out of the picture. Ok, there we go. Like I said, good as new.

Helicopter Down

Was out with Kobae when they went down on the side of the Anti-Cline. Huge crash sound and then silence. They had a couple crews working there when it happened. Both guys got stretchered out but are going to make it.